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The Great Gatsby: Book to Film

Nick Carraway watches Jay Gatsby try to recover Daisy Buchanan through wealth and performance, until the dream collapses into Myrtle's death, Gatsby's murder, and Tom and Daisy's retreat.

Last reviewed: 2026-06-22

Verified facts

Relationship
Direct adaptation
Source book
The Great Gatsby (1925)
Screen work
The Great Gatsby (2013)
Story family
The Great Gatsby on screen

Adaptation family

The Great Gatsby on screen

See all related screen works

F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel has repeatedly been filmed, with each version finding a different balance between Nick's narration, Gatsby's spectacle, and the story's disillusionment.

This map covers the related screen works currently supported by PlotGeeks, rather than every adaptation ever made.

  1. Source book | 1925The Great GatsbyView book explainer →
  2. 1949 | Feature filmThe Great GatsbyAdapted from | Elliott Nugent

    The postwar film frames Gatsby's rise and fall as a more direct cautionary crime drama.

  3. 1974 | Feature filmThe Great GatsbyAdapted from | Jack Clayton

    The period production foregrounds wealth and decorum while retaining Nick as observer of Gatsby and Daisy.

  4. 2000 | Television filmThe Great GatsbyAdapted from | Robert Markowitz

    The television version gives the novel a compact, dialogue-led treatment built around Nick's recollection.

  5. 2013 | Feature filmThe Great GatsbyAdapted from | Baz Luhrmann

    The film uses heightened music and spectacle while making Nick's written account an explicit framing device.

    View film explainer →You’re viewing this comparison

Why read this explainer

Read the parties alongside Nick's judgment rather than treating spectacle as the whole story. The visible memory frame also makes his sympathy and damage more explicit.

PlotGeeks note

The visible memory frame makes Nick's damage and sympathy more explicit than his narrated ambiguity. Expanded parties remain connected to his judgment of Daisy's distance and Gatsby's collapse.

Connected knowledge

Connected in PlotGeeks

Related explainers and browse pages for The Great Gatsby: Book to Film.

  • Part of The Great Gatsby on screen

    Browse the screen versions grouped with The Great Gatsby.

  • Explore Memory

    Remembering and forgetting affect what characters accept as evidence, how they experience loss, and the versions of the past they can live with.

At a glance

Book and film, fast

Same coreWhat both versions keep

Nick Carraway watches Jay Gatsby try to recover Daisy Buchanan through wealth and performance, until the dream collapses into Myrtle's death, Gatsby's murder, and Tom and Daisy's retreat.

Biggest changeNick's memory gets a stronger frame

The film makes the act of remembering more explicit, turning Nick's narration into a visible attempt to process Gatsby's story.

CompressionWhat the film has to condense

The film simplifies some of the novel's social observation so the Gatsby-Daisy-Tom conflict is easier to follow on screen.

Ending shiftThe moral shape stays the same

The film keeps that ending: Gatsby takes the blame, Daisy disappears, and Nick is left with admiration and disgust at once.

Start hereRead first, then watch the film

The novel gives Nick's judgment and irony more room. The film is useful afterward because it makes Gatsby's self-invention, parties, and collapse visually immediate.

Closer comparison

Book and film side by side

Nick's memory gets a stronger frame

In the book

The novel is already Nick looking back, but it keeps the frame inside his voice and moral unease.

In the film

The film makes the act of remembering more explicit, turning Nick's narration into a visible attempt to process Gatsby's story.

The parties move to the foreground

In the book

Fitzgerald's parties are glittering but also uneasy, a sign of wealth, rumor, and loneliness.

In the film

The film pushes spectacle harder, so Gatsby's parties feel like the performance he hopes will pull Daisy back to him.

The moral shape stays the same

In the book

Gatsby dies still attached to the dream, while Nick rejects the careless world that survives him.

In the film

The film keeps that ending: Gatsby takes the blame, Daisy disappears, and Nick is left with admiration and disgust at once.

Source to screen

From The Great Gatsby to The Great Gatsby

Nick's memory gets a stronger frame

The novel is already Nick looking back, but it keeps the frame inside his voice and moral unease. The film makes the act of remembering more explicit, turning Nick's narration into a visible attempt to process Gatsby's story.[1][2]

The moral shape stays the same

Gatsby dies still attached to the dream, while Nick rejects the careless world that survives him. The film keeps that ending: Gatsby takes the blame, Daisy disappears, and Nick is left with admiration and disgust at once.[1][2]

Sources

Source trail

Sources for the book, film, and adaptation relationship are listed below. The comparison notes are original PlotGeeks prose.