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The Beautiful and Damned

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The Beautiful and Damned

By: F. Scott Fitzgerald
Narrated by: William Dufris
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F. Scott Fitzgerald's second novel, The Beautiful and Damned, "marks an advance over This Side of Paradise," Edmund Wilson wrote. "The style is more nearly mature and the subject more nearly unified, and there are scenes that are more convincing than any in his previous fiction."

Published in 1922, it chronicles the relationship of Anthony Patch, Harvard-educated aspiring aesthete, and his beautiful wife, Gloria, as they wait to inherit his grandfather's fortune. A devastating satire of the nouveaux rich and New York's nightlife, of reckless ambition and squandered talent, it is also a shattering portrait of a marriage fueled by alcohol and wasted by wealth. The Beautiful and Damned, Fitzgerald wrote to Zelda in 1930, "was all true."

Lyrical, romantic, yet cruelly incisive, it signaled a new stage in Fitzgerald's career. With The Beautiful and Damned, H.L. Mencken commented in The Smart Set, "Fitzgerald ceases to be a wunderkind, and begins to come into his maturity.

(P)2000 Blackstone Audiobooks, All Rights Reserved Classics Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Marriage Witty
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The characters created are brilliantly realised and although narrated a bit fast, you are drawn in. The life of society people in New York is portrayed in its wit and pseudo profundity. Then it all goes wrong.

The Decline and Fall of Anthony Patch

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Ignoring the period-typical attitudes, this was a very enjoyable read. It was the most misogynistic thing I have ever read though. Also the most racist. I get that the 1920s were, but the other classics I've read written or set in that time period are nowhere near as bad, maybe it's an American thing.

I like how this flicks into script style during group conversations. It really helps keep track of who's talking. That can sometimes be lost in regular prose.

The descriptions were vivid. I felt like I was in 1920s New York.

The pacing of this was strange especially with how some events (like Anthony and Gloria making up at the end if book one) were just glossed over when they seem rather important. The same with the reappearance of Dot in book three. I struggled with how long the chapters are. 50 pages, even with the titled scenes within was too much.

I completely lost interest in this for a couple of months then got it on audiobook and got back into it.

I love the colour pallette my edition let me use for annotations.

Rich people's lives falling apart around them is one of my favourite genres of book.

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With 100 years gone by since published first, this novel hasn’t lost its grip. Without little effort to be transferred to the 21st century.

Worth every moment listening to

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Wonderful story, wonderfully read and performed, Absolutely gripping towards the end. A great comment on wealthy socialites and a thoughtful description of the ofttimes shallowness of the wealthy.

Authentic and convincing performance

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An exquisitely sad, precise and wistful evocation of a bygone age, both elegant and ugly at the same time in its depiction of the damage human beings can do to each other (and themselves) in the pursuit of their feelings of entitlement to love, wealth and happiness.

Jazz Age Classic

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