The Great Gatsby Quotes

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Source: The Great Gatsby

Author: F. Scott Fitzgerald

"My own house was an eyesore, but it was a small eyesore"

I lived at West Egg, the – well, the least fashionable of the two, though this is a most superficial tag to express the bizarre and not a little sinister contrast between them. My house was at the very tip of the egg, only fifty yards from the Sound, and squeezed between two huge places that rented for twelve or fifteen thousand a season. The one on my right was a colossal affair by any standard … My own house was an eyesore, but it was a small eyesore, and it had been overlooked, so I had a view of the water, a partial view of my neighbor's lawn, and the consoling proximity of millionaires—all for eighty dollars a month.

Context


Nick Carraway, narrator extraordinaire of The Great Gatsby, isn't shy about describing the two Eggs, where all the action goes down. He feels a bit out of place in his neighborhood (even if it is the "least fashionable of the two"), it seems.

P.S. That $80/month was back in the early 20th century. Don't get too jealous.

Where you've heard it

From anyone living in West Hollywood...

Zing.

Pretentious Factor

If you were to drop this quote at a dinner party, would you get an in-unison "awww" or would everyone roll their eyes and never invite you back? Here it is, on a scale of 1-10.

Calling your own house an eyesore isn't pretentious. Living somewhere called "West Egg," on the other hand...yeah.