Великий Гэтсби / The Great Gatsby

I graduated from New Haven[8 - New Haven – имеется в виду Йельский университет (который находится в городе Нью-Хейвен)] in 1915, then I decided to go east and learn the bond business[9 - bond business – кредитное дело]. Father agreed to finance me for a year and after various delays I came east, permanently, I thought, in the spring of twenty-two[10 - in the spring of twenty-two – весной 1922 года].

I had an old Dodge[11 - Dodge – «додж», марка автомобиля] and a Finnish woman who made my bed and cooked breakfast.

I bought a dozen volumes on banking and credit and investment securities and they stood on my shelf in red and gold.

I lived at West Egg[12 - West Egg – Уэст-Эгг]. My house was between two huge places that rented for twelve or fifteen thousand a season. The one on my right was Gatsby’s mansion.

Across the bay the white palaces of fashionable East Egg glittered along the water, and the history of the summer really begins on the evening I drove over there to have dinner with the Buchanans[13 - Buchanan – Бьюкенен].

Daisy[14 - Daisy – Дэзи] was my second cousin[15 - second cousin – троюродная сестра]. Her husband’s family was enormously wealthy – even in college his freedom with money was a matter for reproach[16 - was a matter for reproach – вызывала нарекания]. Why they came east I don’t know. They had spent a year in France, for no particular reason, and then drifted here and there.

Their house was even more elaborate than I expected. The lawn started at the beach and ran toward the front door for a quarter of a mile.

Tom had changed since his New Haven years. Now he was a sturdy, straw haired man of thirty with a rather hard mouth[17 - a rather hard mouth – твёрдо очерченный рот] and a supercilious manner.

It was a body capable of enormous leverage[18 - enormous leverage – сокрушительная сила] – a cruel body.

“Now, don’t think my opinion on these matters is final,” he seemed to say, “just because I’m stronger and more of a man than you are.

” We were in the same Senior Society[19 - Senior Society – студенческое общество], and while we were never intimate I always had the impression that he wanted me to like him.

“I’ve got a nice place here,” he said. He turned me around again, politely and abruptly. “We’ll go inside.”

We walked through a high hallway into a bright rosy-colored space. The only completely stationary object in the room was an enormous couch on which two young women were lying.