Read the book: «The Great Gatsby / Великий Гэтсби. B1-B2»

© Алешина П. Д., адаптация текста, словарь, 2026

© ООО «Издательство АСТ», 2026

Chapter I / Глава 1

В юношеские годы, when a person особенно восприимчив, my father gave me some advice, надолго запавший мне в память.

– Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone, – he told me, – just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had.

He didn't say any more, but we have always been communicative, и мне было clear, что думал он гораздо больше, чем сказал. Вот откуда взялась у меня habit к сдержанности в all judgements – a habit that has opened up many curious natures to me и еще чаще делала меня victim матерых надоед. Нездоровый mind is quick to detech всегда сразу чует эту сдержанность, when it appears in a normal person, и спешит за нее уцепиться; еще в колледже меня незаслуженно обвиняли в политиканстве, because самые нелюдимые и замкнутые students поверяли мне свои тайные горе ста. Я вовсе не искал подобного trust – сколько раз, заметив некоторые symptoms, предвещающие очередное интимное признание, я принимался сонно зевать, спешил уткнуться в book или напускал на себя задорно-легкомысленный тон; the intimate revelations of young men, по крайней мере та словесная форма, в которую они облечены, представляют собой, как правило, are usually plagiaristic и к тому же страдают явными недомолвками. Сдержанность в judgements is a matter of infinite hope. I am still a little afraid of missing something if I forget, что (as my father snobbishly suggested) чутье к основным нравственным ценностям отпущено природой не всем в одинаковой мере.

А теперь, похвалившись своей my tolerance, я должен сознаться, что эта терпимость имеет пределы. When I came back from the East last autumn I felt that I wanted the world был морально затянут в мундир и держался по стойке «смирно». Я больше не стремился к увлекательным вылазкам с привилегией заглядывать в человеческие души. Only Gatsby, the man who gives his name to this book, was the exemption, – Gatsby, казалось, воплощавшего собой все, что я искренне презирал и презираю. Если мерить personality ее умением себя проявлять, there was something gorgeous about him, какая-то повышенная sensitivity ко всем посулам жизни. Эта способность к мгновенному отклику не имела ничего общего с дряблой впечатлительностью, пышно именуемой “creative temperament”, – it was a gift for hope, романтический запал, which it is not likely I will ever find again. No – Gatsby turned out all right at the end; не он, а то, что над ним тяготело, та ядовитая пыль, что вздымалась вокруг его мечты, – вот что заставило меня на время утратить всякий интерес к людским скоротечным sorrows и радостям впопыхах.

My family have been prominent, well-to-do people in this Middle Western city for three generations. The Carraways are something of a clan, и, по семейному преданию, он ведет свою родословную от the Dukes of Buccleuch, but the actual founder of my line was my grandfather's brother, who came here in fifty-one, sent a substitute to the Civil War, and started the wholesale hardware business that my father carries on today.

I never saw this great-uncle, but I'm supposed to look like him. I graduated from New Haven in 1915, just a quarter of a century after my father, and a little later I participated in the Great War. I enjoyed the контрнаступление that I came back restless. The Middle West now seemed like обтрепанным подолом вселенной; so I decided to go East and learn кредитное дело. Everybody I knew was in the bond business, so I supposed it could support one more single man. All my aunts and uncles talked it over as if they were choosing a prep school for me, and finally said:

– Why – ye-es.

Father agreed to finance me for a year, у, и вот, после долгих проволочек, I came East, forever, I thought, in the spring of twenty-two.

The practical thing was to find rooms in the city, но дело шло к summer, а я еще не успел отвыкнуть от a country of wide lawns и ласковой тени trees, и потому, when a young man at the office suggested that we take a house together где-нибудь в пригороде, it sounded like a great idea. He found the house – крытую толем хибарку at eighty a month, but at the last minute the firm ordered him to Washington, и мне пришлось устраиваться alone. I had a dog – at least I had him for a few days until he ran away – and an old Dodge and a Finnish woman, who made my bed and cooked breakfast and muttered Finnish wisdom to herself over the electric stove.

It was lonely for a day or so until one morning some man, stopped me on the road.

– How do you get to West Egg village? – he asked.

I told him. And as I walked on I was lonely no longer. I was a guide, a pathfinder, an original settler¹.

Солнце с каждым днем пригревало сильней, и во мне уже крепла знакомая, приходившая каждое summer уверенность, что life was beginning over again with the summer.

It was a matter of chance that I had to rent a house in one of the strangest communities in North America. Twenty miles from the city, на задворках Long Island Sound, самого обжитого куска водного пространства во всем Западном полушарии, вдаются в воду два совершенно одинаковых мыса, разделенных лишь неширокой бухточкой.

I lived at West Egg, the well, the less fashionable of the two. My house was at the very tip of the egg, only fifty yards from the Sound, and сжатый between two huge places that rented for twelve or fifteen thousand a season. Особенно великолепна была вилла справа – it was a factual imitation of some Hôtel de Ville in Normandy with a tower on one side, and a мраморный swimming pool, and more than forty acres of lawn and garden. It was Gatsby's особняк. My house was so tiny that nobody noticed it, so I had a view of the water, a partial view of my neighbour's lawn и приятным сознанием непосредственного соседства миллионеров – в all for eighty dollars a month.

Across the courtesy 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 Tom Buchanans. Daisy was my second cousin once removed, and I knew Tom in college. And just after the war I spent two days with them in Chicago.

Her husband was one of those men who reach success at twenty-one. His family were enormously wealthy but now he left Chicago and come East in a fashion that rather took your breath away: for instance, he'd brought целую конюшню of polo ponies from Lake Forest.

Why they came East I don't know. Теперь они решили прочно осесть на одном месте, said Daisy over the telephone, but I didn't believe it – I had no sight into Daisy's heart. I had no sight into Daisy's heart, but Tom would drift on forever seeking for the dramatic turbulence.

And so it happened that on a warm windy evening I drove over to East Egg to see two old friends whom I scarcely knew at all. Their house was even more вычурный than I expected. Ряд высоких French windows прорезал фасад по всей длине; сейчас они были распахнуты навстречу теплому вечернему ветру, и стекла пламенели отблесками золота, а в дверях, широко расставив ноги, and Tom Buchanan in riding clothes was standing on the front porch.

He changed since his New Haven years. Now he was a man of thirty с твердо очерченным ртом и довольно надменными манерами. Но в лице главным были глаза: от их блестящего дерзкого взгляда всегда казалось, будто он с угрозой подается вперед. Это было тело, полное сокрушительной силы, – a cruel body.

His speaking voice had хриплый tenor. И даже в разговоре с приятными ему людьми в голосе у него всегда слышалась нотка презрительной отеческой снисходительности, and there were men at New Haven who hated his нрав.

– I've got a nice place here, – he said. – It belonged to Demaine, the oil man. We'll go inside.

We walked through a high hallway into a bright rosy-coloured space, едва закрепленное в стенах дома высокими окнами at either end. The windows were open.

The only completely неподвижным object in the room was an enormous couch on which there were two young women.

The younger of the two was a stranger to me. She was extended full length at her end of the divan, completely motionless. The other girl, Daisy, made an attempt to rise, then she laughed, an absurd, charming little laugh, and I laughed too and came forward into the room.

– I'm p-paralysed with happiness, – she said.

She laughed again and held my hand for a moment. She murmured that the surname of the balancing girl was Baker.

At any rate, Miss Baker nodded at me and then quickly tipped her head back again.

I looked back at my cousin, who began to ask me questions. I told her how I stopped off in Chicago for a day on my way East, and how a dozen people sent their love through me.

– Do they miss me? – she cried.

– The city безутешен.

– How gorgeous! Let's go back, Tom. Tomorrow! You ought to see the baby.

– I'd like to.

– She's asleep. She's three years old. Haven't you ever seen her?

– Never.

– Well, you ought to see her. She's —

Tom Buchanan, беспокойно бродивший из угла в угол, остановился и положил мне руку на плечо.

– What are you doing, Nick?

– I'm a bond man.

– Who with?

I told him.

– Never heard of them, – высокомерно уронил он.

Меня задело.

– You will, – коротко возразил я. – You will if you stay in the East.

– Oh, I'll stay in the East, don't you worry, – сказал он, глянул at Daisy и тотчас же снова перевел глаза на меня, будто готовясь к отпору. – I'd be a God damned fool to live anywhere else.

At this point Miss Baker said:

– Absolutely!

– Я вся как деревяшка, – she complained. – Невозможно столько времени валяться на диване.

– Don't look at me, – Daisy said. – I've been trying to get you to New York all afternoon.

– No, thanks, – said Miss Baker to the four cocktails. – Никогда не пью накануне.

Her host looked at her с недоверием.

– You are!

I looked at Miss Baker, wondering, что такое ей «удается». I enjoyed looking at her. She was a худая, с малыми грудями girl с очень прямой спиной. It occurred to me now that I saw her, or a picture of her, somewhere before.

– You live in West Egg, – she remarked. – I know somebody there.

– I don't know a single.

– You must know Gatsby.

– Gatsby? – Daisy said. – What Gatsby?

I wanted to say that he was my neighbour but dinner was announced.

– We ought to plan something, – зевнула Miss Baker, усаживаясь за стол с таким видом, словно она укладывалась в постель.

– All right, – said Daisy. – What will we plan? – she turned to me. – What do people plan?

Не дожидаясь answer, она вдруг с ужасом уставилась на свой мизинец.

– Look! – she complained. – I hurt it.

– You did it, Tom, – she said обиженно. – I know you didn't mean to², but you did do it. That's what I get for marrying такую громадину.

– I hate that word громадину, – сердито перебил Tom. – Even in kidding.

– Громадина, – insisted Daisy.

– I hate that word «громадина», – Tom said.

– Громадина! – упрямо повторила Daisy.

Sometimes she and Miss Baker talked at once, но в их насмешливой, бессодержательной болтовне не было легкости. They were here, and they accepted Tom and me, лишь из светской любезности, стараясь нас занимать или помогая нам занимать их. They knew that dinner would be over and a little later the evening too would be over. Все это было different from the West, где всегда с волнением торопишь вечер, час за часом подгоняя его к концу, которого и ждешь, и боишься.

– You make me feel uncivilized, Daisy. Can't you talk about crops or something?

Я сказал это не думая, просто так, but my words произвели неожиданный эффект.

– Civilization's going to pieces³, – Tom said angrily. – Have you read The Rise of the Coloured Empires by this man Goddard?

– No, – I answered.

– It's a fine book, and everybody ought to read it. Там проводится такая идея, если мы не будем настороже, white race… ну, словом, ее поглотят цветные.

– Tom's getting мыслителем, – Daisy said. – He reads deep books with long words in them.

– Well, these books are all scientific, – возразил раздраженно Том. – This fellow has worked out the whole thing. It's up to us, от главенствующей расы, зависит не допустить, will have control of things.

– We've got to beat them down. – whispered Daisy.

– You ought to live in California… – began Miss Baker, but Tom interrupted her.

– This idea is that we're Nordics. I am, and you are, and you are, and…

После мгновенного колебания он кивком головы включил и Daisy, и она тотчас же снова подмигнула мне.

– И все то, что составляет цивилизацию, создано нами – oh, science and art, and all that. Do you see?

The telephone rang inside and the butler left the крыльцо, Daisy наклонилась ко мне.

– I'll tell you a family secret, – she whispered. – It's about the butler's nose. Do you want to hear about the butler's nose?

– That's why I came over tonight.

– Well, he wasn't always a butler, он служил в одном доме in New York, где имелось a silver service for two hundred people, – так вот, он заведовал этим серебром. С утра до вечера он его чистил и чистил, и в конце концов у него от этого сделался насморк…

– Things went from bad to worse, – suggested Miss Baker.

– Yes. Things went from bad to worse, until finally he had to give up his position.

The butler came back and murmured something close to Tom's ear. Tom нахмурился, отодвинул свой стул и, не произнеся ни слова, and without a word went inside. Daisy said then:

– I love to see you at my table, Nick. You remind me of a – of a rose, an absolute rose. Doesn't he? – обратилась она к Miss Baker за подтверждением.

– An absolute rose?

This was untrue. Suddenly she threw her салфетку on the table and went into the house.

Miss Baker and I exchanged a short glance. I was about to speak, но она вся подобралась на стуле и предостерегающе цыкнула в мою сторону. Из-за двери глухо доносился чей-то взволнованный голос, Miss Baker беззастенчиво вслушивалась.

– This Mr. Gatsby you spoke of is my neighbour, – I began.

– Don't talk. I want to hear what happens.

– Is something happening? – I asked.

– You mean to say you don't know? – said Miss Baker, honestly surprised. – I thought everybody knew.

– I don't.

– Why? Tom's got some woman in New York.

– Got some woman?

Miss Baker nodded.

– She might have the decency⁴ not to telephone him at dinner time. Don't you think?

Tom and Daisy came back.

– Неотложное дело! – Daisy exclaimed.

Then she kept on talking как ни в чем не бывало. But the phone rang again. Daisy shook her head, and all subjects, disappeared into air.

Tom and Miss Baker strolled back into the library, а я, притворяясь светски оживленным и слегка тугим на ухо, I followed Daisy цепью сообщающихся балконов вокруг дома, пока эта прогулка не привела нас к центральной веранде, где было уже совсем темно. We sat down there side by side на плетеном диванчике. I saw her волнение, с которым она не в силах была совладать, и попытался отвлечь ее расспросами about her little girl.

– We don't know each other very well, Nick, – she said. – Even if we are cousins. You didn't come to my wedding.

– I wasn't back from the war.

– That's true, – she hesitated. – Well, I've had a very bad time, Nick, и я теперь как-то ни во что не верю.

Судя по всему, she had reasons for this. I waited but she didn't say any more, и тогда я довольно беспомощно ухватился опять за спасительную тему about her daughter.

– I suppose she talks, and… eats, and everything.

– Of course. Listen, Nick; let me tell you what I said when she was born. Would you like to hear?

– Very much.

– It'll show you a lot. Еще и часу не прошло, как она появилась на свет, Tom was God knows where. I woke up после наркоза, чувствуя себя всеми брошенной и забытой, и сразу же спросила акушерку: “A boy or a girl?” И когда услышала, что a girl, отвернулась и заплакала. Then I said:

– All right, – I said. – I'm glad it's a girl. And I hope she'll be a fool – that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.

– You see I think everything's terrible, – продолжала она убежденно. – Everybody thinks so – даже самые умные, самые передовые люди. And I know. Ведь я везде побывала, все видела, все попробовала, – она вызывающе сверкнула глазами, совсем как Том, и рассмеялась звенящим, презрительным смехом. – Разочарованная, вот я какая.

Tom and Miss Baker sat at either end of the long couch. She читала ему вслух «Сатердей ивнинг пост».

When we came, she предостерегающе подняла руку.

– To be continued, – дочитала она.

Then she got up.

– Ten o'clock. Time for this good girl to go to bed.

– Jordan's going to play in the турнире tomorrow, – пояснила Дейзи. – Ей нужно ехать туда с самого утра.

– Oh – you're Jordan Baker!

I knew now why her face was familiar. Her капризная гримаска достаточно часто мелькала на фотографиях, иллюстрирующих спортивную хронику Asheville, Hot Springs and Palm Beach.

– Good night, – she said softly. – Wake me at eight, won't you.

– If you'll get up.

– I will. Good night, Mr. Carraway. See you.

– Of course you will, – Daisy said. – In fact, I think I'll arrange a marriage.

– Good night, – called Miss Baker from the stairs. – I haven't heard a word.

– She's a nice girl, – said Tom after a moment. – Напрасно только ей разрешают вести такую бродячую life.

– Who oughtn't to? – Daisy asked coldly.

– Her family.

– Her family is one aunt about a thousand years old. Besides, Nick's going to look after her, aren't you, Nick? She's going to spend lots of weekends out here this summer. I think the home influence will be very good for her.

Daisy and Tom looked at each other for a moment in silence.

– Is she from New York? – I asked quickly.

– From Louisville.

– Ты что, вела с Ником на веранде задушевные разговоры? – asked Tom suddenly.

– Did I? – she looked at me. – I can't remember, but I think we talked about the Nordic race.

– Don't believe everything you hear, Nick, – he advised me.

A few minutes later I got up to go home. As I started my motor Daisy called:

– Wait!

– Я забыла спросить одну важную вещь. Мы слышали, что у тебя там, дома, есть bride.

– Клевета. Я слишком poor, чтобы жениться.

– But we heard, – настаивала Дейзи; к моему удивлению, она опять словно вся расцвела. – Мы слышали от трех разных людей, so it must be true.

Я отлично knew, о чем идет речь, но дело в том, что у меня в самом деле не было никакой bride.

Я был тронут радушным приемом Daisy and Tom, даже их богатство теперь как будто меньше отдаляло их от меня, – nevertheless, по дороге домой I was confused.

When I reached my estate at West Egg, я поставил car под навес и присел на заржавленную газонокосилку, валявшуюся за домом. Мимо черным силуэтом в голубизне прокралась cat, я повернул голову ей вслед and I saw that I was not alone – fifty feet away a figure was standing and смотрел на серебряные перчинки звезд. Непринужденное спокойствие его позы, уверенность, с которой его ноги приминали траву на газоне, подсказали мне, что Mr. Gatsby вышел прикинуть, какая часть нашего уэст-эггского неба по праву причитается ему.

I decided to call to him. Miss Baker mentioned him at dinner, это послужит мне рекомендацией. Но я так его и не окликнул, потому что он вдруг ясно показал, насколько неуместно было бы нарушить его loneliness. Невольно я посмотрел по направлению его взгляда, but ничего не увидел; только где-то далеко светился green огонек, должно быть, сигнальный фонарь на краю причала. When I looked once more for Gatsby he disappeared, and I was alone again.

DICTIONARY

person – человек

advantages (Pl.) – преимущества

habit – привычка

tolerance – терпимость

personality – личность

generations – поколения

graduated (Inf. graduate) – окончил (учебное заведение)

wisdom – мудрость

sight – вид

cruel – жестокий

laughed (Inf. laugh) – смеялся

fool – дурак

announced (Inf. announce) – объявил

accepted (Inf. accept) – принял

deep – глубокий

whispered (Inf. whisper) – прошептал

remind – напоминать

followed (Inf. follow) – следовал

terrible – ужасный

influence – влияние

advised (Inf. advise) – посоветовал

bride – невеста

reached (Inf. reach) – достиг

alone – один / одна

Chapter II / Глава 2

About halfway between West Egg and New York the motor road подбегает к железной дороге и с четверть мили бежит с нею рядом, словно хочет обогнуть стороной угрюмый пустырь.

After a moment вы различаете the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg. The eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg are blue and gigantic. Они смотрят на вас не с человеческого лица from a pair of enormous yellow spectacles.

С одной стороны Долина Шлака упирается в сильно загаженную речонку, и, когда мост на ней разведен для пропуска барж, the passengers on waiting trains can stare унылым пейзажем. Задержка бывает здесь всегда, хотя бы a minute, и благодаря этому я познакомился с Tom Buchanan's mistress.

The fact that he had a mistress, говорили с уверенностью всюду. Возмущенно рассказывали, he turned up in popular cafés with her, оставив ее за столиком, расхаживает по всему залу, chatting with his acquaintances. Мне было любопытно на нее посмотреть, но знакомиться с нею я вовсе не хотел – однако пришлось.

– We're getting off, – he insisted. – I want you to meet my girl.

I think he изрядно хватил за завтраком и, вздумав провести день в моем обществе, готов был осуществить свое намерение on violence. Ему даже в голову не приходило, что у меня могут быть другие планы on Sunday.

I followed him. Кругом не было видно никаких признаков жилья, кроме трех кирпичных строений. One was for rent and another was an all-night restaurant, the third was a garage – “Repairs. George B. Wilson. Cars bought and sold.” – and I followed Tom inside.

Внутри было bare. Тут из бокового закутка, the proprietor himself appeared in the door of an office. He was a blond, spiritless man and довольно handsome.

– Hello, Wilson, old man, – said Tom. – How's business?

– I can't complain, – answered Wilson.

– When are you going to sell me that car?

– Next week. I've got my man working on it now.

– Works pretty slow, don't he?

– No, he doesn't, – said Tom. – I'd better sell it somewhere else after all.

– Нет, нет, что вы, – explained Wilson. – I just meant —

Then I heard footsteps on a stairs, и через минуту плотная figure of a woman загородила свет. She was in the middle thirties, с наклонностью к полноте, но она несла свое тело с той чувственной повадкой as some women can. She smiled, пройдя мимо husband, точно это был не человек, if he were a ghost, shook hands with Tom, looking him flush in the eye. Then she wet her lips, and without turning around spoke to her husband:

– Get some chairs.

– Oh, sure, – agreed Wilson.

– I want to see you, – said Tom. – Get on the next train.

– All right.

She nodded.

– We waited for her down the road and out of sight.

– Terrible place, isn't it, – said Tom.

– Awful.

– It does her good to get away.

– Doesn't her husband object?

– Wilson? He thinks she goes to see her sister in New York.

Так случилось, Tom Buchanan and his girl and I went up together to New York – or not quite together: приличия ради мисс Уилсон ехала в другом вагоне.

She changed her dress to a brown в разводах муслина. At the newsstand she bought a copy of Town Tattle and a moving-picture magazine, а у аптекарского прилавка – кольдкрем и флакончик духов. Не успели мы отъехать, как она, резко откинувшись от окна, tapped on the front glass.

– I want to get one of those dogs, – she said. – I want to get one for the apartment. They're nice to have – a dog.

Шофер дал задний ход, и мы поравнялись a grey old man. He had a basket, в которой копошилось с десяток новорожденных щенков неопределенной масти.

– What kind are they? – asked Mrs. Wilson.

– All kinds. What kind do you want, lady?

– I'd like to get one of those police dogs. I don't suppose you got that kind?

The old man с сомнением глянул in his basket.

– That's no police dog, – said Tom.

– No, it's not exactly a police dog, – said the man. – It's more of эрдельтерьер. Look at эту шерсть.

– I think it's cute, – said Mrs. Wilson. – How much is it?

– That dog? – he looked at it. – That dog will cost you ten dollars.

– Is it a boy or a girl? – she asked.

– That dog? That dog's a boy.

– It's a bitch, – said Tom. – Here's your money. Go and buy ten more dogs with it.

We drove over to Fifth Avenue, warm and soft.

– Hold on, – I said. – I have to leave you here.

– No you don't, – interrupted Tom quickly. – Myrtle will be hurt if you don't come up to the apartment. Won't you, Myrtle?

– Come on, – she said. – I'll telephone my sister Catherine. She's said to be very beautiful.

– Well, I'd like to, but…

The flat находилась под самой крышей – a small living-room, a small dining-room, a small bedroom, and a bath. Several old copies of Town Tattle lay on the table together with a copy of “Simon Called Peter”, и несколько журнальчиков из тех, что питаются скандальной хроникой Бродвея. Миссис Уилсон, войдя, прежде всего занялась щенком. Meanwhile Tom brought out a bottle of whisky.

I was drunk just twice in my life, and the second time was that afternoon; so everything happened сквозь мутную дымку. Sitting on Tom's lap Mrs. Wilson called up several people on the telephone; then there were no cigarettes, and I went out to buy some at the drugstore on the corner. When I came back they both disappeared. Just Tom and Myrtle (мы с миссис Уилсон после первой рюмки стали звать друг друга запросто по имени) reappeared. Вскоре появились guests.

The sister, Catherine, was a худая, видавшей виды girl лет тридцати. She came in таким быстрым, уверенным шагом и так по-хозяйски оглядела всю мебель that I wondered if she lived here. But when I asked her she laughed and told me she lived with a girl friend at a hotel.

Mr. McKee was a pale, feminine man. When he came in, he was долго и изысканно greeting everyone. He informed me that he was in the “artistic game”, and I gathered later that he was a photographer. His wife was shrill, languid, handsome, and horrible⁵.

Mrs. Wilson changed her costume some time, на ней теперь был очень нарядный туалет of cream-coloured chiffon. Та кипучая энергия жизни that was so remarkable in the garage превратилась в назойливую спесь.

– My dear, – she told her sister in a high voice, – вся эта публика will cheat (обобрать) you every time. All they think of is money. I had a woman up here last week to look at my feet – так ты бы видела ее счет!

– What was the name of the woman? – asked Mrs. McKee.

– Mrs. Eberhardt. She goes around looking at people's feet in their own homes.

– I like your dress, – remarked Mrs. McKee. – I think it's adorable.

Mrs. Wilson rejected the compliment.

– It's just a crazy old thing, – she said. – I just slip it on sometimes when I don't care what I look like.

– But it looks wonderful on you, – не уступала Mrs. McKee.

Suddenly Tom Buchanan yawned шумно, got to his feet and said:

– You McKees have something to drink, – he said. – Get some more ice and mineral water, Myrtle, before everybody goes to sleep.

– I told that boy about the ice. These people! You have to keep after them all the time.

She looked at me and laughed. Then she восторженно чмокнула the dog и вышла into the kitchen с таким видом, словно дюжина поваров ожидала там ее распоряжений.

The sister Catherine sat down beside me on the couch.

– Do you live down on Long Island, too? – she inquired.

– I live at West Egg.

– Really? I was down there at a party about a month ago. At a man named Gatsby's. Do you know him?

– I live next door to him.

– Well, they say he's a nephew or a cousin of Kaiser Wilhelm's. That's where all his money comes from.

– Really?

She nodded.

– I'm scared of him.

Этим увлекательным information about my neighbour помешала Mrs. McKee's, которая воскликнула, pointing suddenly at Catherine:

– Chester, I think you could do something with her.

– I'd like to do more work on Long Island, if I could get the entry. All I ask is that they should give me a start.

– Ask Myrtle, – said Tom. – She'll give you a letter of introduction, won't you, Myrtle?

– Do what? – she asked.

– You'll give McKee a letter of introduction to your husband, so he can do some studies of him.

Catherine придвинулась ближе and whispered in my ear:

– Neither of them can stand the person they're married to.

– Can't they?

– Can't stand them, – she looked at Myrtle and then at Tom. – What I say is, get a divorce and get married to each other right away. Я бы, по крайней мере, так поступила на их месте.

– Doesn't she like Wilson either?

The answer to this was unexpected. Ответила сама Myrtle, услыхавшая мой вопрос.

– You see, – cried Catherine. – It's really his wife. She's a Catholic, and they don't believe in divorce.

Daisy was not a Catholic.

– When they do get married, – continued Catherine, – they're going West to live for a while пока уляжется шум.

– It'd be better to go to Europe.

– Oh, do you like Europe? – she exclaimed. – I just got back from Monte Carlo.

– Really.

– Just last year. I went there with another girl.

– Stay long?

– No, we just went to Monte Carlo and back. We went by way of Marseilles. We had over twelve hundred dollars when we started, но за два дня в частных игорных залах нас обчистили до нитки. We had an awful time getting back. God, how I hated that town!

The late afternoon sky распустился in the window for a moment – но пронзительный голос of Mrs. McKee тут же возвратил меня в тесную гостиную.

– I almost made a mistake too, – she said. – I almost married ничтожного человечка, который несколько лет ходил за мной как тень. А ведь знала, что он меня не стоит.

– Yes, but listen, – said Myrtle Wilson, – at least you didn't marry him.

– I know I didn't.

– Well, I married him, – said Myrtle. – And that's the difference between your case and mine.

– Why did you, Myrtle? – said Catherine. – Nobody forced you to.

Myrtle thought.

– I married him because I thought he was a gentleman, – she said finally.

– You were crazy about him for a while, – said Catherine.

– Crazy about him! – cried Myrtle. – Who said I was crazy about him? I never was any more crazy about him than I was about that man there.

– The only crazy I was when I married him. Но я сразу поняла my mistake. Он взял у приятеля костюм, чтобы надеть on the wedding, а мне про это и не заикнулся. Через несколько дней – его как раз не было дома – приятель приходит и просит вернуть костюм. I gave it back and then was crying до самой ночи.

– She really ought to get away from him, – resumed Catherine.

The bottle of whisky – a second one – переходила из рук в руки, excepting Catherine. Tom rang швейцара и послал его за какими-то знаменитыми сандвичами. I wanted to get out.

Myrtle поставила себе кресло рядом со мной, и вместе с теплым дыханием на меня вдруг полился the story of her first meeting with Tom.

– It was on the two little seats facing each other. I was going up to New York to see my sister and spend the night. He was во фраке, в лаковых туфлях, and I couldn't keep my eyes off him⁶. When we came into the station, он очутился рядом со мной и так прижался крахмальной грудью к моему плечу, so I told him I'd have to call a policeman. Я была сама не своя when I got into a taxi with him. А в голове одна мысль: “You can't live forever; you can't live forever.”

She turned to Mrs. McKee.

– My dear, – she cried, – I'm going to give you this dress. I've got to get another one tomorrow.

It was nine o'clock, но почти сейчас же я снова посмотрел на часы, и оказалось it was ten. Mr. McKee was asleep on a chair.

The little dog was sitting on the table, моргал слепыми глазами в табачном дыму и время от времени принимался тихонько скулить. People disappeared, reappeared, made plans to go somewhere.

Уже около полуночи Tom Buchanan and Mrs. Wilson stood face to face and запальчиво спорили о том, whether Mrs. Wilson had any right to mention Daisy's name.

– Daisy! Daisy! Daisy! – shouted Mrs. Wilson. – I'll say it whenever I want to! Daisy! Dai —

Tom Buchanan broke her nose as he made короткое, точно рассчитанное движение ребром ладони. Then there were bloody towels on the bathroom floor.

Mr. McKee awoke and went to the door. Схватив свою шляпу с канделябра, я вышел вслед за ним.

– Come to lunch some day, – he suggested.

– Where?

– Anywhere.

– All right, – I agreed. – I'll be glad to.

DICTIONARY

passengers (Pl.) – пассажиры

complain – жаловаться

sell – продавать

get away – скрыться

suppose – полагать

interrupted (Inf. interrupt) – прервал

drunk – пьяный

remarkable – замечательный, выдающийся

adorable – очаровательный

yawned (Inf. yawn) – зевнул

can't stand – терпеть

divorce – развод

awful – ужасный

difference – разница

forced (Inf. force) – заставил

get out – выходить

mention – упоминать

broke (Inf. break) – сломал

Chapter III / Глава 3

There was music from my neighbour's house летними вечерами. On weekends his Rolls-Royce превращался в рейсовый автобус between nine in the morning and long past midnight возил гостей из города или в город. And on Mondays eight servants брали mops and scrubbing-brushes and hammers and garden-shears и трудились весь день, repairing буйства of the night before.

Every Friday five crates of oranges and lemons arrived from a fruiterer in New York – every Monday these same oranges and lemons покидали дом с черного хода в виде горы полузасохших корок. There was a machine in the kitchen, которая in half an hour выжимала сок из двухсот oranges.

At least once a fortnight на виллу являлась целая армия поставщиков. Привозили несколько сот ярдов брезента и enough coloured lights to make a Christmas tree of Gatsby's enormous garden. На столах выстраивались spiced baked hams, salads, pastry pigs and turkeys. In the main hall a bar, даже с медной приступкой, как в настоящем баре, и чего там только не было – gins, liquors, и какие-то старомодные напитки.

By seven o'clock the orchestra has arrived – не какие-нибудь жалкие полдюжины музыкантов, but a whole pitful of oboes and trombones and saxophones and viols and cornets and piccolos, and low and high drums. The last swimmers have come in from the beach now and are dressing upstairs. The bar работает вовсю, and in the garden там и сям проплывают подносы с коктейлями, air is alive with chatter and laughter, сплетен, завязывающихся знакомств.

I believe that on the first night I went to Gatsby's house I was one of the few guests who were invited. People were not invited – they went there. Туда не ждали invitation – туда просто приезжали, и все. Бывало, что the gusets came and went back, так и не познакомившись с хозяином.

I was invited по всей форме. Early in the morning передо мной предстал a chauffeur in a uniform цвета яйца малиновки and gave me a formal note from his employer, удивившее меня своей церемонностью. В нем говорилось, что Gatsby почтет для себя величайшей честью, if I would attend his “little party” that night. He saw me several times and wanted to pay me a visit, но досадное стечение обстоятельств помешало ему осуществить это намерение.

Dressed up in white flannels I went over to his lawn a little after seven, and бродил around и felt довольно неуютно среди множества strangers. I was immediately struck by the number of young Englishmen; all well dressed, all looking a little hungry, and all talking in low, earnest voices убеждали в чем-то солидных, излучающих благополучие Americans.

As soon as I arrived, I made an attempt to find my host, but the two or three people of whom I asked посмотрели на меня так удивленно и с таким пылом поспешили убедить меня в своей полной неосведомленности на этот счет, что я уныло поплелся in the direction of the cocktail table – the only place in the garden where a single man можно было приткнуться without looking purposeless and alone.

I was on my way to get roaring drunk от смущения, when Jordan Baker came out of the house. Welcome or not, I found it necessary to attach myself to someone пока я еще не начал приставать к посторонним.

– Hello! – I roared.

– I thought you might be here, – she responded. – I remembered you lived next door to —

She held my hand в знак того that she would take care of me in a minute, а сама вопросительно повернулась к two girls in совершенно одинаковых yellow dresses.

– Hello! – they cried together. – Sorry you didn't win.

That was for the golf турнир. She lost in the finals.

– You don't know who we are, – said one of the girls in yellow, – but we met you here about a month ago.

– You've dyed your hair, – remarked Jordan.

Продев свою руку под Jordan's slender golden arm, я свел его с лестницы, and we went through the garden.

– Do you come to these parties often? – asked Jordan у ближайшей девицы.

– The last one was the one I met you, – she said. – Wasn't it for you, Lucille?

It was for Lucille, too.

– I like to come, – Lucille said. – I never care what I do, so I always have a good time. When I was here last, я зацепилась за стул and tore my dress. He asked my name and address. Then I got a package from Croirier's with a new evening gown in it.

– Did you keep it? – asked Jordan.

– Sure I did. Two hundred and sixty-five dollars.

– Все-таки a simple man так поступать не станет, – said the first girl.

– There's something funny about a fellow, – said the other girl eagerly. – He doesn't want any trouble with anybody.

– Who doesn't? – I asked.

– Gatsby. Somebody told me.

The two girls and Jordan заговорщически сдвинули головы.

– Somebody told me that he killed a man.

– I don't think it's so much that, – скептически возразила Lucille. – It's more that he was a German spy during the war.

One of the men nodded.

– I heard that from a man who grew up with him in Germany, – he assured us positively.

– Oh, no, – said the first girl, – it couldn't be that, because he was in the American army during the war. – И наше доверие опять переметнулось к ней, а она торжествующе продолжала: – You look at him sometimes when he thinks nobody's looking at him. Можете не сомневаться, он убийца.

Стали подавать the first supper – there would be another one after midnight, – and Jordan invited me to join her own party. Then she whispered me in an hour:

– Let's get out.

We got up. She explained that we were going to find the host: I never met him, she said. But it was making me uneasy, что я ему до сих пор не представлен.

The bar, where we glanced first, was crowded, but Gatsby was not there. На брезенте, натянутом поверх газона, there was dancing. I was still with Jordan Baker. We were sitting at a table with a man of about my age and a шумливая little girl, от каждого пустяка готовая хохотать до упаду. I was enjoying myself now. I drank two glasses of champagne.

Во время короткого затишья the man looked at me and smiled.

– Your face is familiar, – he said. – Weren't you in the First Division during the war?

– Why yes. I was in the Twenty-eighth Infantry.

– I was in the Sixteenth until June nineteen-eighteen. I knew I saw you somewhere.

We talked for a moment about some wet, grey little villages in France. Evidently he lived in this vicinity, for he told me that he bought a hydroplane, и собирается испытать его in the morning.

– Want to go with me? Just near the shore along the Sound.

– What time?

– Any time that suits you best.

It was on the tip of my tongue⁷ to ask his name when Jordan looked around and smiled.

– Having fun now? – she asked.

– Much better. This is an unusual party for me. I haven't even seen the host. I live over there… and this man Gatsby sent over his chauffeur with an invitation.

For a moment he looked at me растерянно.

– I'm Gatsby, – he said suddenly.

– What! – I exclaimed. – Oh, I beg your pardon.

– I thought you knew. I'm afraid I'm not a very good host.

He smiled ласково – much more than understandingly. But then his smile disappeared – and I was looking at an elegant young хлыщ, a year or two over thirty, отличающийся почти смехотворным пристрастием к изысканным оборотам речи.

Almost at the moment when Mr. Gatsby introduced himself, a butler came and with the information that Chicago was calling him on the wire.

– If you want anything just ask for it, old sport, – he said to me. – Excuse me. I will join you later.

Как только он отошел, I turned immediately to Jordan: I was surprised. Почему-то я представлял себе Mr. Gatsby солидным мужчиной в летах, с брюшком и румяной физиономией.

– Who is he? – I asked. – Do you know?

– He's just a man named Gatsby.

– Where is he from, I mean? And what does he do?

– Now you're started on the subject, – she answered. – Well, he told me once he was an Oxford man.

В глубине картины начал смутно вырисовываться какой-то фон, but at her next remark it faded away.

– However, I don't believe it.

– Why not?

– Anyhow, he gives large parties, – said Jordan. – And I like large parties. They're so intimate. At small parties there isn't any privacy.

В оркестре бухнул bass drum, и the orchestra leader вдруг звонко выкрикнул:

– Ladies and gentlemen! At the request of Mr. Gatsby, we are going to play for you Mr. Vladmir Tostoff's latest work, которая в мае произвела такое большое впечатление в Карнеги-холл. If you read the papers, you know there was a big sensation. Some sensation!

Everybody laughed.

– The piece is known as Vladmir Tostoff's “Jazz History of the World”!

Но мне не суждено было оценить Mr. Tostoff's composition, because I saw Mr. Gatsby. He was standing alone on the мраморные steps and looking from one group to another с довольным видом. I wondered if the fact that he was not drinking выделял его from his guests – ведь чем шумней становилось общее веселье, тем он, казалось, больше замыкался в своей корректной сдержанности. When the “Jazz History of the World” was over, girls were putting their heads on men's shoulders с кокетливой фамильярностью, others were swooning into men's arms; but no one swooned backward on Gatsby, and no остриженная головка touched Gatsby's shoulder, и ни один импровизированный вокальный квартет не составлялся с его участием.