This article is about the book series. For the first book, see Gossip Girl (novel). For the television series, see Gossip Girl (TV series).
Gossip Girl is a series of novels by Cecily von Ziegesar written for teenagers. Gossip Girl is also the nom de plume of the narrator, and the title of the first novel of the series. It has also been adapted into a TV series airing on The CW. It spawned two spin-off book series, The It Girl and Gossip Girl: The Carlyles.
Plot summary
Gossip Girl is about a group of six teenagers who live in the scandalous and old money world in the Upper East Side of New York City. Two main characters are Serena Van Der Woodsen and Blair Waldorf. They gossip, do drugs, and drink. But they also live with sex and relationship problems. Gossip Girl also includes these teenagers\' goals and schooling at their single-sex private schools. The narrator is an unseen character who runs a blog about the lives of these teenagers, and is always on the lookout for the scoop on everything and everyone.
The character private girls school, Constance Billard School for Girls, is based on the author\'s alma matter, the Nightingale-Bamford School. "The school is completely based on Nightingale," von Ziegesar told ABC News. "But I exaggerated to make it more entertaining."[1]
Books
The books are published by Alloy Entertainment, New York, and distributed by Little, Brown, and Company and Bloomsbury Publishing. The complete series has been published in paperback with the last book, a prequel It Had To Be You published in hardcover. From Only in Your Dreams, book number nine, onward, with the exception of the prequel, the book series is ghost written. [2][3][4]
- Gossip Girl
- You Know You Love Me
- All I Want Is Everything
- Because I\'m Worth It
- I Like It Like That
- You\'re the One That I Want
- Nobody Does It Better
- Nothing Can Keep Us Together
- Only in Your Dreams
- Would I Lie to You?
- Don\'t You Forget About Me
Prequel: It Had To Be You
Spin-offs:
- The It Girl
- Gossip Girl: The Carlyles (novel)
Primary Characters
- Serena van der Woodsen
- Serena van der Woodsen is described as a 5\'7", with pale, long, blonde hair and big, dark-blue eyes, slim, and ethereally beautiful. She is described as "Perfect", although people make her come across as a slut because they\'re jealous. She is very smart, but is constantly being told she is not working to her full potential. She may be physically perfect, but not quite so in personality. Like her sometimes best-friend Blair Waldorf, she and her family are prominent in New York society. Serena dabbled in modeling before landing a starring role in Breakfast at Fred\'s, a remake of Breakfast at Tiffany\'s. Serena keeps a steady string of admirers, including Dan Humphrey, Nate Archibald, Aaron Rose, and an entire a capella group at Yale, the Whiffenpoofs. Despite the copious attention she receives from the opposite sex, Serena constantly longs for true romance. Serena is much less demanding and uptight than Blair; however, she shares with Blair the tendency to be self-centered. Her brother, Erik, attends Brown; her parents rarely appear in the series. Serena and Blair shared an intimate kiss on the lips during Blair\'s graduation party, with both of them murmuring "You know you love me" as a final goodbye. At the end of the book series, Serena decided to stay behind in New York City, instead of choosing to go to one of the many Ivy Leagues schools she got into, because she wanted to discover her life for herself. She is portrayed by Blake Lively in the TV series.
- Blair Waldorf
- Blair Cornelia Waldorf is described as a 5\'4" and slender, with brilliant blue eyes and a fox-like face. She is very intelligent, is always involved in extracurricular activities, and is very determined. During the first three books, her hair was long, but she chopped it into a pixie cut in Because I\'m Worth It. A hopeless romantic who idolizes Audrey Hepburn, Blair\'s sensitive side contrasts with her tendency to be bitchy and controlling. She loves to pretend her life is a movie, and watches Breakfast at Tiffany\'s as often as possible. She is rather vain, though her friendship with uber-girl Serena van der Woodsen causes her to be insecure at times. Blair uses her charm, money, and social clout to get whatever she wants. Her father, once an uptight lawyer, now lives in a French chateau with his boyfriend, Giles, and their adopted Cambodian twins, Ping and Pong. He shares a love of shoes with Blair. Her mother is flaky, society-hostess Eleanor Waldorf Rose, who married Cyrus Rose, a pompous ass. She has a younger brother, Tyler; a stepbrother, Aaron; and a baby half-sister, Yale (whom Blair named after the college she hoped to get into, making her half-sister a good luck charm). She has a turbulent relationship with Nate Archibald throughout the series, losing him to other girls several times, including Jenny Humphrey and her sometime best-friend Serena van der Woodsen. Blair and Serena shared an intimate kiss on the lips during Blair\'s graduation party, with both of them murmuring "You know you love me" as a final goodbye. Blair now attends Yale University, the school of her dreams. She is portrayed by Leighton Meester in the TV series.
- Dan Humphrey
- A thin, sensitive, chain-smoking, caffeine-addicted poet who often sees the darker side of things and has said his favorite word is "death". Dan is a romantic whose imagination runs off wildly at the worst times. He over-analyzes and is easily frustrated. He is romantically linked to Vanessa Abrams, who appears to be the love of his life, but he hasn\'t always been the best boyfriend. Prior to his relationship with Vanessa, he spent two years in love with Serena van der Woodsen. He has had several writing-related jobs, including a poem called "Sluts" published in the The New Yorker; an internship at Red Letter, a prominent literary magazine; and a short stint as songwriter/lead singer for indie-rock sensation The Raves. He has a close relationship with his sister, Jenny and his father Rufus. For a while, Dan was confused about his sexuality and experimented with a guy named Greg, but he then realized he loved Vanessa. His absentee mother returns in the final book, only because she believes that he is gay. Dan is now attending The Evergreen State College in Washington State. He is portrayed by Penn Badgley in the TV series.
- Nate Archibald
- Nate is a wealthy, good-looking lacrosse player at St. Jude\'s school. He is described as having wavy golden hair and sparkling, emerald-green eyes. His mother is a French socialite/princess and his father is a Navy captain. He smokes lots of marijuana, and was once caught and sent to rehab for buying a dimebag in the park. He has dated a number of girls, including Serena, Georgina Spark, Lexie from L\'Ecole, and Tawnie from the Hamptons, but his only serious relationship has been with his on-again/off-again girlfriend, Blair. Due to his stealing his lacrosse coach\'s Viagra, he received his diploma only with the help of Blair and her alumnus-father\'s connections. Although he was originally planning to attend Yale University for his lacrosse skills, he eventually left to sail across the world with his father\'s Navy mentor, Captain Chips White, and to figure his life out. He is portrayed by Chace Crawford in the TV series.
- Jenny Humphrey
- The younger sister of Dan Humphrey, Jenny is at age fourteen the youngest of the Gossip Girl characters. She is 5\' 0" and has dazzling brown eyes, is an aspiring artist, and holds a secret desire to be a model like Serena van der Woodsen, whom she eventually befriends. She often tries to fit in with the rich girls at her school, even though she does not hold a place in their social sphere. She often goes on wild and embarrassing escapades to set up an image for herself, once accidentally starring in a photo shoot for an article entitled "Does Breast Size Matter?". She also allowed a scandalous video of her and Nate Archibald to circulate on the Internet, and spent a little too much time with a popular indie rock band called the Raves. After Jenny gets kicked out of Constance Billard School for Girls, she ends up going to boarding school, Waverly Academy, to reinvent herself as the "It Girl", a la Serena. She is now the main character in a spin-off series of books called "The It Girl." She is portrayed by Taylor Momsen in the TV series.
- Vanessa Abrams
- Vanessa is a budding filmmaker. With her shaved head and all black attire, she is the polar opposite of her Constance Billard classmates. Her parents are hippie artists who live in Vermont, while her sister Ruby is bassist for the band SugarDaddy. She has a shaky relationship with Dan Humphrey. After Ruby comes back from a world tour with her new fiance, Piotr, Vanessa moves in with the Humphreys, further complicating the relationship. Her life\'s ambition is to be a filmmaker, as she is now attending NYU at the end of the book series. She is portrayed by Jessica Szohr as a secondary character in the TV series.
Secondary Characters
- Chuck Bass
- A rich, darkly handsome, lust-driven, phone sex fanatic, perverted antagonist whose list of the finer things in life is short: sex,alcohol and rock and roll. He once came close to taking advantage of a vulnerable Jenny Humphrey in a bathroom, and on roof top, and tried to sleep with an inebriated Serena van der Woodsen. Nobody is certain about his sexual orientation. Chuck has an obnoxious pet monkey named Sweetie, who can often be found perching on his shoulder and wearing coordinated outfits. Everyone, quite frankly, despises him most of the time, but because their families have been friends for generations, and because of his bank account and good looks have just always been part of the latest party, they just shrug off his egotistical antics and accept him for what he is: a rich party animal. He ends up going to military college, because he didn\'t get into any of the normal ones he applied to. He is portrayed by Ed Westwick as a primary character in the TV series.
- Kati Farkas and Isabel Coates
- Blair\'s former clique before Serena returned to New York City and they became friends again. They are two alumna socialites of Constance Billard School for Girls who Isabel were accepted into Princeton University, except she turned the Ivy down for a California liberal arts college, because she wanted to have the college experience with her best friend, Kati.
- Aaron Rose
- A vegan, cute, dreadlocked boy who also happens to be Blair\'s stepbrother. He smokes "herbal cigarettes," has a dog, Mookie, and listens to rock. However, he is also rich and smart. He got early admission to Harvard University and drives a red Saab. He had a crush on Blair for a while and has dated Serena and Vanessa, but is now rumored to be with a belly-dancer from Austin, Texas at the end of the series.
- Lord Marcus
- As a recent addition to the Gossip Girl cast of characters starting in Nothing Can Keep Us Together, Lord Marcus is a taller, handsomer, British version of Nate Archibald. He has close ties with Oscar de la Renta (whom he refers to as "Uncle Oscar"), who tailored and created Blair\'s graduation suit, and even attended the funeral of Princess Diana. Lord Marcus has been nothing but a perfect gentleman. He has become Blair\'s new boyfriend, although he had to leave her graduation party and return to England unexpectedly. Blair joins him in London that summer, only to realize he was linked romantically to his "cousin". Blair then leaves London early, ignoring his calls.
- Carlyle Triplets
- Due to the main characters all going off to college or embarking on various adventures (starring in sequels, sailing around the world, going to boarding school, etc), the Carlyle triplets, currently known to Gossip Girl readers as A (Avery), O (Owen), and B (Baby), will be replacing them. Their mother, Edie Carlyle, is an old friend of Eleanor Waldorf-Rose\'s, and the family will be moving into the Waldorf-Rose apartment when they move to New York. They will be the main characters of the Gossip Girl spin-off series, Gossip Girl: The Carlyles, coming out May 2008.
TV series
Main article: Gossip Girl (TV series)
The TV adaptation, also titled Gossip Girl, was picked up by The CW.[CW Gives Go-Ahead to \'Gossip Girl\' Pilot. TVWeek.com.] Josh Schwartz, the creator of The O.C., is executive producer for the project.[Michael Schneider; Josef Adalian. CW gives Schwartz some good news: 2nd pilot picked up for show creator. Variety.] Blake Lively plays Serena in the show and Leighton Meester plays Blair. Serena\'s love interest, Dan Humphrey, is played by Penn Badgley. Blair\'s love interest, Nate Archibald, is played by Chace Crawford. Taylor Momsen plays Jenny Humphrey, although there are a few physical attributes that differ between the TV character and the book character, such as the book character\'s DD bust size, curly brown hair, and 5 foot tall frame, in contrast with the TV character\'s smaller bust size, straight blonde hair, and taller frame. Penn Badgley plays Jenny\'s brother Dan Humphrey, and their father, Rufus Humphrey, is played by Matthew Settle. Ed Westwick plays the character Chuck. Kelly Rutherford plays Serena and Eric\'s mother, Lillian van der Woodsen. Blair\'s mother, Eleanor Waldorf, is played by Margaret Colin. It has not yet been determined if Blair\'s stepfather, Cyrus Rose, will be a character in the TV series or not. Nan Zhang plays Kati Farkas and her friend Isabel Coates is played by Nicole Fiscella. Kristen Bell, star of Veronica Mars, narrates the show as the "Gossip Girl" herself. Vanessa Abrams, a main character in the books, will be included in the television series and played by Jessica Szohr (What About Brian?). Elise, Jenny\'s friend, is played by noone by emma
On September 192007 Gossip Girl was picked up for a full season of twenty-two episodes. The show will be returning with five new episodes on April 21.
Criticism
The criticism of this series primarily revolves around whether the events depicted in the story are appropriate for the teenage audience the books attract.[Teen-Targeted XXX Books. WorldNetDaily.com. Retrieved on January 9, 2008.] American author and feminist Naomi Wolf calls the books "corruption with a cute overlay," and goes on to claim that "sexy saturates the Gossip Girl books...sexy via Juicy Couture, blasé and entirely commodified."[Young Adult Fiction: Wild Things. NYTimes.com.]
Pam Spencer Holley of the American Library Association [ALA] presents a different point of view, claiming simply to be "happy to see teen girls reading." Confident that young girls will move onto more well viewed literature, she points out, "Unless you read stuff that\'s perhaps not the most literary, you\'ll never understand what good works are." Holley went on to encourage teens to read through the creation of a list to recommend to "both avid and reluctant readers", who are looking for books like Cecily von Ziegesar\'s Gossip Girl series: "The books on this list are perfect for when your readers have finished with every Gossip Girl title in your library and are clamoring for another book like the Gossip Girl," said YALSA President Pam Spencer Holley.[YALSA Recommends Books For Young Adults Who Enjoy \'Gossip Girl\' Series. Ala.org.]
References
External links
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from Wikipedia
HOME WEB NEWS IMAGES CLASSIFIEDS YELLOW PAGESPOLLS - SURVEYS WIKI COUNTRIES PHOTOS US UK INDIA
Cities Stocks Weather Movies Coupons Travel Blogs Health Horoscope Maps ASIA EUROPE Classifieds Yellow Pages
1
Cecily von Ziegesar
