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    The Beautiful and Damned
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    The Beautiful and Damned
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    The Beautiful and Damned
    Ebook485 pages7 hours

    The Beautiful and Damned

    By F. Scott Fitzgerald

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    Introduction by Hortense Calisher
    Commentary by Edmund Wilson, Henry Seidel Canby, and Arthur Mizener
     
    Fitzgerald’s second novel, a devastating portrait of the excesses of the Jazz Age, is a largely autobiographical depiction of a glamorous, reckless Manhattan couple and their spectacular spiral into tragedy. Published on the heels of This Side of Paradise, the story of the Harvard-educated aesthete Anthony Patch and his willful wife, Gloria, is propelled by Fitzgerald’s intense romantic imagination and demonstrates an increased technical and emotional maturity. The Beautiful and Damned is at once a gripping morality tale, a rueful meditation on love, marriage, and money, and an acute social document. As Hortense Calisher observes in her Introduction, “Though Fitzgerald can entrance with stories so joyfully youthful they appear to be safe—when he cuts himself, you will bleed.”

    Includes a Modern Library Reading Group Guide 

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRandom House Publishing Group
    Release dateFeb 23, 2011
    ISBN9780307779212
    Author

    F. Scott Fitzgerald

    F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940) is regarded as one of the greatest American authors of the 20th century. His short stories and novels are set in the American ‘Jazz Age’ of the Roaring Twenties and include This Side of Paradise, The Beautiful and Damned, Tender Is the Night, The Great Gatsby, The Last Tycoon, and Tales of the Jazz Age.

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    Reviews for The Beautiful and Damned

    3.5/5

    23 ratings28 reviews

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    • 3/5
      Beautifully written but story left me a little cold.
    • 4/5
      Nobody crafts simultaneously sympathetic and contemptible drunks quite like Fitzgerald. One of those books where you love the writing and hate the story because you have to watch characters who have been born with so much piss it all away through booze and lethargy. I'm happy Fitzgerald turned out to be a writer but, if he hadn't been, he would have made one heck of a psychologist. He has no trouble pinpointing the frailities of human character and he's not afraid to detail them.
    • 5/5
      Definitely a fine example of an artist maturing. I loved this book. Throughout the novel, Anthony Patch is a fucking douchebag, but it's something where finally the douchebag gets what he deserves. Certainly Great Expectations doesn't end with Pip gettin his just desserts. Anthony and Gloria are unlikeable but fully realized characters and the book shows examples of the thought process that lead to the Great Depression, although at 450 pages, it's not as tight as the masterful Great Gatsby (which was under 200).
    • 2/5
      Tedious, although enjoyable at times.
    • 4/5
      I found this book to be a bit rambling at times, but overall an excellent portrayal of what happens to us when we are greedy, self indulgent and expect others to solve our problems.Set in the wonderful Jazz Age in New York, The Beautiful and Damned is the story of Anthony Patch, a Havard educated aspiring writer, and loafer and his wife Gloria,a petulant party girl's downward spiral after their brief courtship and marriage. Basically Anthony and Gloria are waiting patiently for his grandfather Adam Patch to die, so that they will inherit his multimillion dollar estate. Neither one feels as though they should work and instead live on a small trust income and sell bonds to pay their bills and afford liquor, cigarettes, and domestic help.What happens next is an important lesson about reality, becoming a responsible adult and what brings true happiness. A great read although it is perhaps a little lenghty.
    • 3/5
      F. Scott Fitzgerald is an interesting and problematic writer for me. The Great Gatsby (which FSF wanted to call "Under the Red, White and Blue") is a great book, that not only features stellar writing and compelling characters, but that managed to capture the ethos of an entire age. All of the glitz, glamour, and greed of roaring 20s New York is encapsulated in that work, and it's one of my favorites. In contrast, This Side of Paradise was so juvenile in both writing and sentiment that I had to drop it before I was half-way through. The Beautiful and Damned falls in between these two other works, without being remarkably good or remarkably bad. In fact, that's a good way to sum how I felt about The Beautiful and Damned: it was rather unremarkable.

      Like This Side of Paradise, the writing here doesn't come off as fully matured. There are nice turns of phrase and descriptions sprinkled (rather conservatively) throughout the work, but oftentimes the writing struck me as something FSF thought was terribly clever, despite not being very substantive. An example is that at various points the book shifts form to that of a closet drama, with all the characters becoming parts in a play. The thing is, though, that FSF doesn't use this shift in form to do anything that he couldn't already do in the style of the rest of the book: FSF's dialogue is already very reminiscent of play dialogue, so making the format more play-like isn't at all memorable. There's a reason why we remember FSF today in connection with his books, and not in connection to his Hollywood writing career.

      The subject matter of the book is likewise very immature. The two main characters, Anthony and Gloria, both unlikable for different reasons, putter about New York. They lounge away their days and they party through their nights, with both lamenting their (rather desirable) financial situation but with neither doing anything about it. Eventually something happens that's the equivalent of them not winning the lottery due to their own incompetence, and this turn is interpreted by them both as a tragedy that becomes the main factor driving the plot going forward. Anthony at one point goes to train for deployment in World War I, but the story makes that development all about him and fails to communicate what that experience was actually like. Not much happens in this book, and what does happen doesn't feel symbolic of society in the 20s like the action in The Great Gatsby did. When the book satirizes something, like the dating process in the 20s, it feels more like FSF did it by accident. The end of the story tries to recast this tale as one about the harmful nature of pride and stubbornness, but the problems of Anthony and Gloria are clearly stem from laziness and a mental inability to do anything but lounge and party- the story is more tied to the sins of sloth and avarice, so the ending pretending that it's about something else felt strange. Also abrupt. Finally, toward the end, FSF gives a shout out to his own book This Side of Paradise, an action that always makes me cringe.

      It sounds terrible to say, but I think The Beautiful and Damned stands for the proposition that FSF had to go through some real pain and tragedy in order to evolve as a writer, with this work predating that occurrence. Like This Side of Paradise, this book felt immature in writing and subject matter, though not quite to the same degree. Once FSF experienced some actual hardship, I'm betting he was better able to craft an effective text, and because of this I'm adding Tender is the Night to my to-read pile. Unfortunately Fitzgerald's work predating Gatsby has all proven lackluster to me, but I'm hopeful that is last work realizes his potential as a writer- otherwise I'll be forced to consider Gatsby a fluke.
    • 4/5
      In 1913, a 25-year-old man, Anthony Patch, falls in love with a socialite named Gloria. The pair is ill-suited, neither one practical or hardworking, but their passionate love is based more on momentary infatuation than a long-lasting partnership. What follows is their marriage and then their inevitable disillusionment with each other and their lives. Fitzgerald’s gift for language is clear in every description. His novel paints a poetic picture, even though the characters themselves fill you with disdain. “Things are sweeter when they're lost. I know—because once I wanted something and got it. It was the only thing I ever wanted badly, Dot. And when I got it it turned to dust in my hands.""I've often thought that if I hadn't got what I wanted things might have been different with me. I might have found something in my mind and enjoyed putting it in circulation. I might have been content with the work of it, and had some sweet vanity out of the success."The progression of their marriage is all too familiar. They’re delighted with each new thing they discover about each other. Every new behavior is endearing instead of infuriating, but soon the delightful revelations turn to irritating quirks and then to soul-crushing habits. As you learn who your spouse truly is, flaws and all, it can be incredibly painful to come to terms with the marriage if you’ve chosen badly. “It was, at first, a keen disappointment; later, it was one of the times when she controlled her temper." Their downfall is so tragic because it’s so inevitable, yet it still comes as a surprise to them. They are trapped in a state of arrested development, perpetual partiers who are shocked when they begin to grow older and realize the life they love requires money that they don’t have. Anthony is a pitiful character. He expects his family to give him money and has never had to work for a living. Because of this he has a view of self-importance but a lack of self-respect. As the story progresses he loses himself more and more in drink. Gloria reminded me of Estella from Great Expectations. She’s so admired that most men bore her. She flits from one to another with no real attachment. It’s not until she’s unhappily married for years that she begins to grow up. Her downfall feels all the more tragic because she doesn’t really become aware of what she values and desires until she is saddle with an alcoholic husband and those dreams are even farther out of reach.BOTTOM LINE: For me it’s Fitzgerald’s writing and not his characters or plot that make him great. Tender is the Night is still my favorite of his books, but this one captures that unique moment in time when an entire generation glittered with hope before reality set in. That oft repeated pattern still rings true today when bright-eyed millennials realize the party finally has to stop. “In a panic of despair and terror Anthony was brought back to America, wedded to a vague melancholy that was to stay beside him through the rest of his life.”"A classic," suggested Anthony, "is a successful book that has survived the reaction of the next period or generation.” “Surely the freshness of her cheeks was a gossamer projection from a land of delicate and undiscovered shades; her hand gleaming on the stained table-cloth was a shell from some far and wildly virginal sea…." 
    • 3/5
      I hereby give notice that I think F. Scott Fitzgerald is one of the most overrated writers of the twentieth century. The more I read of his works, the less I like him. Sure, he knows how to turn a phrase but he lacks what is essential to all truly good writers - how to make characters who appeal to the common man. This seems to me to be his major problem and will ultimately lead to his downfall from the pedestal upon which his friends in the New York publishing world had placed him. Who cares about the spoiled wealthy and their angst over empty lives? Every one of his books are similar in this respect.
    • 3/5
      This was an intriguing read, but overall a very uneven novel; the three books feel very different in tone and theme, almost as if Fitzgerald were juggling so many issues without the ability to bring them fully into a narrative cohesion. There's a lot going on here: evocations of Freud and how the modern complexes are at variance with classical philosophy and aesthetic values; a fascinating portrayal of love and pain in Anthony and Gloria's relationship which plays out Fitzgerald's preoccupation with Hegel and Freud both; there is even some interesting dialogue that is very unique for blending different genres (e.g. screenplay, interior monologues, Greek tragedy, etc.).

      What is perhaps most compelling in the novel is Fitzgerald's very overt pacifism, as well as his condemnation of the bourgeois class and the values associated with capital, money, and status -- values that run counter to art. Indeed, there is a nice tension between Anthony and his writer friend, Dick, about different kinds of art, how an artist can be bought and sold, how art can be catered to fit the needs of the masses and turn a profit instead of for the sake of art in and of itself. But all of these aspects, while compelling and beautifully drawn out, fail to speak to one another in a nice dialogue; the result is a very fragmented and scattered novel where many of the main characters aren't fleshed out enough, forcing the reader to view them as "types" and nothing more.

      One brilliantly written chapter toward the end of book two, the longest one which takes place in the middle of the night and begins with Gloria's perspective and meanders through much of the philosophical and aesthetic debates above is Fitzgerald at his finest in this novel, I though, and the section might well stand on its own to illustrate his central concerns in the text and in his work more generally.
    • 4/5
      This book interested me, but at the same time bored me. The characters were not at all likeable in anyway. The book was slow and lacked an intriging plot line. However, I would recommend it. I think this book is almost dead on alot of upper class lives back then and now. I was personally able to relate the characters to people in my own life.
    • 4/5
      Cautionary tale about depravity and decadence. Very flowery writing style which is hit-or-miss. Still pretty good, though.
    • 4/5
      This book is a marvel of styles: it can sometimes be very classically descriptive, even poetic in its romantic passages, or it can be quick witted dialogue and read like a play. The pace of the novel, as well, brilliantly changes as events precipitate: the first books set the stage: a fun-loving, party-going couple with no cares; the reader can predict tragedy, an inexorable end, until the war arrives and the whole dynamic changes. All of a sudden, the pace quickens, the characters, instead of seizing a chance for change, sink further into their habits until Anthony's alcoholism becomes pitiable and Gloria's vanity ridiculous. I did wonder how it would all end, and the ending is predictably dramatic - it was the irony that threw me off.Fitzgerald's characters are not likable, nor are they meant to be, but they are intensely human and real, both puppets and makers of their lives. Although there are some lengthy passages, ultimately, the reader will become attached to these touching figures.
    • 4/5
      As I was reading this book I said of it, on Feb 27,1952: "Erratic, at times thestory has real morbid power--very uneven." I finished the book on Mar 1, 1952, but made no further note in regard to it.
    • 5/5
      Fitzgerald's brilliance lied in his ability to explain human emotions and motivations to us as readers that we can recognize in ourselves but would otherwise find it difficult to put into words. The Beautiful and the Damned is a perfect example of this. Most people struggle when they reach young adulthood to figure out where true happiness lies for them. Many go so far as to refuse to turn away from youthful idealism and become pragmatic rather than admit their own mediocrity and live a humdrum life like the rest of us. Fitzgerald's protagonist, Anthony Patch, is a perfect example of this.Anthony Patch is set to inherit millions of dollars once his grandfather, Adam Patch, dies. As such, he is bound and determined to never have to work for a living like his friend, Richard Caramel, who, after writing one good novel, has become a mediocre author who writes novels quickly and carelessly in order to make a quick buck. Anthony would much rather prove that he is not as mediocre as Richard by refusing to ever work at anything and hope that he can get by until his money runs out. This trait is exacerbated when Anthony falls in love with Richard's cousin, Gloria, who is even more impractical than he is. She only cares about being rich and beautiful and is not willing to do anything to attain that state.Fitzgerald brings these characters to life for us in such a way that we see some of them in ourselves even though we may not be New York socialites waiting to inherit millions. The reader can relate to the crises of youth faced by the two characters, provided that the reader has lived through his twenties and their awkwardness. This is the brilliance of Fitzgerald. He can make us relate to people that would be otherwise unrelateable.
    • 3/5
      It took me forever to finish The Beautiful and the Damned. Not only because it drags on (a lot) and I have low boredom threshold, but because I didn't enjoy spending time with Anthony and Gloria Patch. Reading TBATD – at least in the beginning - felt like going from one party to the next and always ending up with a crowd you don’t like – which turns the whole night out into a bit of a disappointment.

      However, there is also something quite gripping about the book.

      For a start there is some wonderful writing. This is just one that stuck with me - it describes the routine of Gloria’s lunch appointments at around the time when she meets Anthony:

      “With her fork she would tantalize the heart of an adoring artichoke, while her escort served himself up in the thick, dripping sentences of an enraptured man.”

      And then there is that FSF injected some his personal experiences into the story. The obvious parallels are that couple live in an apartment in New York, Anthony joining the Army, and the importance of alcohol. Although, FSF may not have been able to predict in 1922 that similar to Anthony, his own life would be unraveled by alcoholism.

      But what clinched the decision to not give up on the story for me was the very aspect that made it so hard to finish. The protagonists are unlikable (I could not even warm to Gloria’s sass). They have no aspirations, and the description of their wasted lives made reading about them at times seem like a waste of time, too. And then it occurred to me that I didn't dislike the story, only the characters, and then I very much wanted to see them fail.
    • 3/5
      A very well-written book by Fitzgerald where the plot meanders quite a lot. Offers fascinating insight into the Scott and Zelda lifestyle.
    • 4/5
      Dismal DeadbeatsThe Beautiful and Damned is Fitzgerald's second book and is set in pre Jazz Age NYC. It is a dark and depressing story of the American aristocracy and nouveau-riche. The author writes a scathing commentary on society life and his tone is cynical and critical of nearly every character he introduces us to.There is nothing redeeming about our two selfish and shallow protagonists, Anthony and Gloria. It's all about greed, manipulation, pettiness and depravity. If, as is thought, Gloria is based on Fitzgerald's wife, Zelda, it's not a very flattering portrayal. Gloria is trading on her beauty and Anthony on his promised inheritance. I felt no sympathy for these two, who find themselves in dire straits due mostly to their hedonism and stupidity. Both are pathetic.While there are very many well written passages, some parts of the novel seemed over long. The story did keep me guessing as it unfolded, but I anticipated a bad end to this well-matched couple: well-matched in their extreme narcissism and lack of morale ethic. Fitzgerald thoroughly convinced me there was nothing glamorous about the endless partying, resulting alcoholism and broken, useless lives of the Beautiful and Damned.
    • 3/5
      The only other books I've read by F. Scott Fitzgerald, prior to this one, are The Great Gatsby and Tender Is the Night. Both are wonderful, especially The Great Gatsby.The Beautiful and Damned has many pointers to the greatness that was to follow just three years later with the publication of The Great Gatsby Unlike The Great Gatsby, this is long and sprawling novel and that is its great weakness. Some judicious editing might have resulted in another masterpiece. The Beautiful and Damned explores luxury's disappointment, and the corrupting and corrosive power of money. The couple at the heart of the story have it all and yet conspire to end the story as utterly broken and tragic.As anyone who has already F. Scott Fitzgerald would expect, there is some stunning writing here and the book beautifully evokes the monied social milieu of the East Coast of the 1920s. The Beautiful and Damned is worth reading - but read The Great Gatsby first. 3/5
    • 3/5
      This book contains the summary phrase: “It was a triumph of Lethargy”. This phrase could form part of an alternative title, like those of many Victorian novels: “The Beautiful and the Damned, Or, the Triumph of Lethargy”.

      In 1913 Anthony Patch is a rich young man in New York, newly graduated, with undefined ambitions for some form of accomplishment. He has a millionaire grandfather, now an ageing bore, from whom he hopes one day to inherit. He meets and becomes infatuated with Gloria, the beautiful daughter of rich mid-westerners, and after some minor difficulties they marry and become rich idle young things together. Somewhere in the background of their unengaged lives, World War 1 starts. They continue their social rounds and enjoy their place in the country along with their New York apartment. Adam occasionally thinks of employment, but he has plenty of money even though he is slowly working through his capital - perhaps it's an unconscious attempt destroy his life. Slowly, as their money slides away, Anthony and Gloria are drifting apart. Antony falls out with his grandfather and is disinherited. His lifebelt has vanished.

      There's a lot of talk about the meaning of it all. At one point, Gloria says, “There's no lesson to be learnt from life”: maybe she'd been reading Chekov.

      America eventually enters the war, Anthony is called up, has a sad affair in a southern town near his training camp, but as he is about to be shipped off to war, peace is declared. He returns to his wife in New York, they grow poorer, become alcoholics. The ending has little surprise.

      Hmmm … obviously there is a lot more to the book than this bland summary, and it's worth reading because of it. But the repulsive lives of Antony and Gloria overwhelmed me, and drowned out the sensitively elucidated explanations. I don't consider myself to be a left-wing ideologue; but the lapsed protestant in me revolts. Even Gatsby actually did something. Living off a great pile of money seeping interest payments like sour honey, to no purpose, is a horrid thing.
    • 3/5
      Though I had a little trouble getting into it (couldn't quite tell whether Fitzgerald's tone was detached, sarcastic, ironic, or sympathetic), I ended up being quite taken with this look at a different sort of "beat" generation. I appreciated that Fitzgerald did not attempt to romanticize his subjects; made me trust him more. It sometimes felt aimless as a novel, but that's kind of the point. Sad, often bleak, ultimately tragic, I think this is generally overlooked in descriptions of his canon, but I'm glad to have read it, if only because I was always intrigued by the title. And I'm sometimes a sucker for sad, bleak, tragic...
    • 2/5
      It's just no Great Gatsby. The descriptive power and fluid prose that I expect from Fitzgerald are still there, as is the commentary on the meaninglessness of daily existence, but the work lacks staying power. It just isn't a compelling read, and it doesn't leave you with a strong impression of its beauty the way that Gatsby does.
    • 4/5
      Good Lord, Fitzgerald, you can write depression like nobody’s business. While I could never call The Beautiful and the Damned an enjoyable read, per se, I can definitely say that Fitzgerald is a master of character study. His portrayal of the downward spiral of Anthony and Gloria is just as wrenching today as it must have been in the twenties. How often do we see the mighty socialites fall; the tabloids are covered with such stories. Difference is, Fitzgerald writes about them beautifully. If you’ve ever known someone in the throes of alcoholism, you’ll recognize them in Anthony Patch. If you’ve ever known a woman (or man, I guess) who cannot let go of their youth, who has only one strength in the world — their beauty — and who loses it as they age, you know Gloria. You’ll even recognize others in the secondary characters — the suicidal Dot who can’t be without her man, the once-great author who starts to write shtick for cash, the groups of friends who party themselves into oblivion. It’s all here. And Fitzgerald’s beautiful, light, honest writing does it all justice. Nearly a hundred years later, The Beautiful and the Damned is just as relevant.
    • 2/5
      Tedious in the extreme with a profoundly unsatisfying resolution. The characters are boring, the social criticism is not particularly sharp or interesting, and absolutely nothing changes from one end of the novel to the other. In Edith Wharton's hands, this story would have been a funny, biting social commentary; in Fitzgerald's, it's not even a half-hearted indictment of the upper classes but rather a limping, uneven chronicle of the boy who never grew up. It's not clear to me whether the story wants to be perceived as tragic, but it fails through the sheer hatefulness of the protagonists. Not one of Fitzgerald's better efforts, to say the least.
    • 3/5
      9/20. Good, not great. I love The Great Gatsby, and I think Fitzgerald is a brilliant author at the worst of times...and this is one of his less good books. Possibly because I've been reading too much about marriages falling apart. I do recommend it - I think there are some incandescant moments in here, some great character portraits, and the ending is absolutely spectacular. By any other author this would be a major work, by Fitzgerald...not so much. He is the opposite of his author character in the novel Carmel, who writes one great book and then is terrible.
    • 4/5
      I bought this when it was republished in 1973 to tie-in with the release of THE GREAT GATSBY and remember being enthralled by it's central story of a rich young couple's marriage breaking down while being slightly annoyed at the book's length. As with THIS SIDE OF PARADISE it's probably time to re-read it.
    • 3/5
      Marvellous title and powerful description of the marriage of the rich, young and beautiful is damned to unhappiness. Too long though.
    • 4/5
      An excellent tale of dissipation and the perils of moral groundlessness, however not, in my opinion, as brilliant as Tender is the Night or the Great Gatsby. At times a tad rambling, including Fitzgerald's annoying habit of lapsing into thinly disguised social commentary or litcrit. However, he remains in my opinion one of the most gifted writers ever to put pen to paper. His lyricism is breathtaking, and at his best no one can compare with him.
    • 3/5
      Though there is a lot of useless "bla bla" that goes on in this book, dialogue that one would only understand in the time and place, the overall story is gripping. One of the best ending I've read.