James Joyce's "The Dead" or F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby, which one and why?

I think I prefer "Gatsby" but only by the narrowest of margins. As for the Joyce, I'm uming you read all of the "Dubliners" story cycle and not just "The Dead" as a separate entity. All of the stories are wonderful, the writing simply beautiful, not perhaps with the inventiveness of "Ulysses" but still lyric masterworks. I think that perhaps the reason both of these works stood out for you is because of the masterful conclusions; both are celebrated. That being said, I prefer "Gatsby" somewhat more because it reaches out in so many directions and touches so many other things: Jazz Age America (it is a reasonably realistic portrayal); the mythological cycle of Isis and Osiris; Frazer's "Golden Bough"; and perhaps most importantly, Eliot's great poem "The Wasteland", whose imagery of desolation is mirrored in "Gatsby" and its "valley of ashes", etc. As a doent of an age, but also of the advent of literary modernism, it is awarded the palm, and the lyricism of its final two pages certainly holds its own against Joyce's short story "The Dead." Both were marvelous writers. I think I can make a couple more suggestions for you. Read "Hadji Murad" by Tolstoy, or perhaps his "Death of Ivan Ilyich." And if you can get one of the better translations, by all means read von Hofmannsthal's "Letter of Lord Chandos." The genius of that piece has occupied my soul for years. Excuse me for rambling so, but my enthusiasm has gotten the better of me... Happy reading, and thanks for reuring me that I've found another person with wonderful tastes. LOL Take care.