Audiobook14 hours
The Beautiful and Damned
Written by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Narrated by Mark Nelson
Rating: 0 out of 5 stars
()
About this audiobook
The Beautiful and Damned is a 1922 novel by American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald. Set in New York City, the novel's plot follows a young artist Anthony Patch and his flapper wife Gloria Gilbert who become "wrecked on the shoals of dissipation" while excessively partying at the dawn of the hedonistic Jazz Age. As Fitzgerald's second novel, the work focuses upon the swinish behavior and glittering excesses of the American social elite in the heyday of New York's café society.
Fitzgerald modeled the characters of Anthony Patch on himself and Gloria Gilbert on his newlywed spouse Zelda Fitzgerald. The novel draws circumstantially upon the early years of Fitzgeralds' tempestuous marriage following the unexpected success of the author's first novel This Side of Paradise. At the time of their wedding in 1920, Fitzgerald claimed neither he nor Zelda loved each other, and the early years of their marriage in New York City were more akin to a friendship.
Having reflected upon the criticisms of his debut novel This Side of Paradise, Fitzgerald sought to improve upon the form and construction of his prose in The Beautiful and Damned and to venture into a new genre of fiction altogether. Consequently, he revised his second novel based on editorial suggestions from his friend Edmund Wilson and his editor Max Perkins. When reviewing the manuscript, Perkins commended the conspicuous evolution of Fitzgerald's literary craftsmanship.
Metropolitan Magazine serialized the manuscript in late 1921, and Charles Scribner's Sons published the book in March 1922. Scribner's prepared an initial print run of 20,000 copies. It sold well enough to warrant additional print runs reaching 50,000 copies. Despite the considerable sales, many critics typically consider the work to be among Fitzgerald's weaker novels. During the final decade of his life, Fitzgerald remarked upon the novel's lack of quality in a letter to his wife: "I wish The Beautiful and Damned had been a maturely written book because it was all true. We ruined ourselves - I have never honestly thought that we ruined each other."
Fitzgerald modeled the characters of Anthony Patch on himself and Gloria Gilbert on his newlywed spouse Zelda Fitzgerald. The novel draws circumstantially upon the early years of Fitzgeralds' tempestuous marriage following the unexpected success of the author's first novel This Side of Paradise. At the time of their wedding in 1920, Fitzgerald claimed neither he nor Zelda loved each other, and the early years of their marriage in New York City were more akin to a friendship.
Having reflected upon the criticisms of his debut novel This Side of Paradise, Fitzgerald sought to improve upon the form and construction of his prose in The Beautiful and Damned and to venture into a new genre of fiction altogether. Consequently, he revised his second novel based on editorial suggestions from his friend Edmund Wilson and his editor Max Perkins. When reviewing the manuscript, Perkins commended the conspicuous evolution of Fitzgerald's literary craftsmanship.
Metropolitan Magazine serialized the manuscript in late 1921, and Charles Scribner's Sons published the book in March 1922. Scribner's prepared an initial print run of 20,000 copies. It sold well enough to warrant additional print runs reaching 50,000 copies. Despite the considerable sales, many critics typically consider the work to be among Fitzgerald's weaker novels. During the final decade of his life, Fitzgerald remarked upon the novel's lack of quality in a letter to his wife: "I wish The Beautiful and Damned had been a maturely written book because it was all true. We ruined ourselves - I have never honestly thought that we ruined each other."
Author
F. Scott Fitzgerald
F. Scott Fitzgerald was born in Saint Paul, Minnesota, in 1896, attended Princeton University in 1913, and published his first novel, This Side of Paradise, in 1920. That same year he married Zelda Sayre, and he quickly became a central figure in the American expatriate circle in Paris that included Gertrude Stein and Ernest Hemingway. He died of a heart attack in 1940 at the age of forty-four.
More audiobooks from F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Great Gatsby Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tender is the Night (Unabridged) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Other Jazz Age Tales Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related to The Beautiful and Damned
Related audiobooks
This Side of Paradise Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Canterville Ghost Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Greatest Novels: This Side of Paradise, The Beautiful and Damned, Tales of the Jazz Age, and The Great Gatsby Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOther Voices, Other Rooms Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Age of Innocence Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Tales of the Jazz Age Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe House of Mirth Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Vanity Fair Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dubliners Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mrs Dalloway Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Madame Bovary Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Vanity Fair (Unabridged) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Importance of Being Earnest: A Trivial Comedy for Serious People Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Portrait Of A Lady Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Scarlet Letter Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Horse Dealer's Daughter Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Confessions of an English Opium-Eater Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Curious Case of Benjamin Button Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Beautiful and Damned Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Lady Chatterley's Lover Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Painted Veil Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Roxana Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Manhattan Transfer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tess of the d'Urbervilles Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ethan Frome Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Importance of Being Earnest: Classic Tales Edition Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Well-Beloved: A Sketch of a Temperament Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Professor Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5
Classics For You
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Their Eyes Were Watching God Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Bell Jar Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Picture of Dorian Gray: Classic Tales Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5To Kill a Mockingbird Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Complete Sherlock Holmes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5War & Peace - Volume I Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Silmarillion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Iliad: A New Translation by Caroline Alexander Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Perks of Being a Wallflower Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Old Man and the Sea Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Series of Unfortunate Events #1 Multi-Voice, A: The Bad Beginning Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Fountainhead Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Clockwork Orange Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Crucible Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Frankenstein Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Schindler's List Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Atlas Shrugged Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Gone With The Wind Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sense and Sensibility Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Legend of Sleepy Hollow: Classic Tales Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Tale of Two Cities Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Pride and Prejudice: Classic Tales Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Great Gatsby Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Thousand Ships: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/520,000 Leagues Under the Sea: Classic Tales Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Farewell to Arms Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Around the World in 80 Days: Classic Tales Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Flowers in the Attic: 40th Anniversary Edition Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Reviews for The Beautiful and Damned
Rating: 0 out of 5 stars
0 ratings
0 ratings0 reviews