Hello there. Welcome back for another episode of Down to Sleep, the podcast of softly spoken stories to help you relax and fall asleep.

Today I'm going to be reading The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

This is the free version of Down to Sleep. And if you would like to support the podcast, you can do so on Patreon at patreon.

At patreon.com slash down to sleep. In return, you will get

episodes that are twice as long and bonus episodes at least once a week. That is also the way

to hear continued story readings on the Patreon. You can hear an extra three episodes currently

of Alice in Wonderland as I continue to read that book through to completion on the Patreon.

But otherwise, thank you so much for being here and letting me read to you tonight.

Go ahead and get yourself comfortable.

And let's begin with the great Gatsby.

Chapter 1

In my younger and more vulnerable years, my father gave me some advice that I've been

turning over in my mind ever since. 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 anymore, but we've always been unusually communicative in a reserved way, and I understood that he meant a great deal more than

that. In consequence, I'm inclined to reserve all judgments, a habit that has opened up many

curious natures to me, and also made me the victim

of not a few veteran bores. The abnormal mind is quick to detect and attach itself to this quality

when it appears in a normal person, and so it came about that in college I was unjustly accused

of being a politician, because I was privy to the secret griefs of wild

unknown men. Most of the confidences were unsought. Frequently I have feigned sleep, preoccupation,

or a hostile levity when I realized by some unmistakable sign that an intimate revelation was

...