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The Beautiful and Damned
First published in 1922, The Beautiful and the Damned followed Fitzgerald's impeccable debut, This Side of Paradise, thus securing his place in the tradition of great American novelists. Embellished with the author's lyrical prose, here is the story of Harvard-educated, aspiring aesthete Anthony Patch and his beautiful wife, Gloria. As they await the inheritance of his grandfather's fortune, their reckless marriage sways under the influence of alcohol and avarice. A devastating look at the nouveau riche, and the New York nightlife, as well as the ruinous effects of wild ambition, The Beautiful and the Damned achieved stature as one of Fitzgerald's most accomplished novels. Its distinction as a classic endures to this day. Pocket Book's Enriched Classics present the great works of world literature enhanced for the contemporary reader. Special features include critical perspectives, suggestions for further read, and a unique visual essay composed of period photographs that help bring every word to life.
422 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 1922
About the author
F. Scott Fitzgerald
1,849 books23.8k followersFrancis Scott Key Fitzgerald was an American writer of novels and short stories, whose works have been seen as evocative of the Jazz Age, a term he himself allegedly coined. He is regarded as one of the greatest twentieth century writers. Fitzgerald was of the self-styled "Lost Generation," Americans born in the 1890s who came of age during World War I. He finished four novels, left a fifth unfinished, and wrote dozens of short stories that treat themes of youth, despair, and age. He was married to Zelda Fitzgerald.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 4,088 reviews
April 12, 2024
F. Scott Fitzgerald is a brilliant stylist… He is full of wicked irony and he depicts his hero or his fictional alter ego as an ironic young man…
The hero is filled with ambitions, ideas and ideals… But actually he is absolutely idle and self-indulgent…
The world is a vanity fair… And then he meets her – the woman of his destiny…
The radiant hour of their wedding… First happy months of marriage… Slow evaporation of magic…
The novel reads as a revenge on the years of the author’s lost youth…
First disappointments… Quarrels… Hiding from the world in drunkenness… Gradually they were growing more and more distant from each other… The war… Wretched service in the army… Coming back… Their marriage becomes something like a bad habit…
Love is blind and love blinds those who fall victim to it.
As you first see him he wonders frequently whether he is not without honor and slightly mad, a shameful and obscene thinness glistening on the surface of the world like oil on a clean pond, these occasions being varied, of course, with those in which he thinks himself rather an exceptional young man, thoroughly sophisticated, well adjusted to his environment, and somewhat more significant than any one else he knows.
The hero is filled with ambitions, ideas and ideals… But actually he is absolutely idle and self-indulgent…
Oh, he was a pretentious fool, making careers out of cocktails and meanwhile regretting, weakly and secretly, the collapse of an insufficient and wretched idealism. He had garnished his soul in the subtlest taste and now he longed for the old rubbish. He was empty, it seemed, empty as an old bottle…
The world is a vanity fair… And then he meets her – the woman of his destiny…
…the exquisite regularity of nose and upper lip, the chin, faintly decided, balanced beautifully on a rather short neck. On a photograph she must have been completely classical, almost cold – but the glow of her hair and cheeks, at once flushed and fragile, made her the most living person he had ever seen.
The radiant hour of their wedding… First happy months of marriage… Slow evaporation of magic…
Anthony found that he was living with a girl of tremendous nervous tension and of the most high-handed selfishness. Gloria knew within a month that her husband was an utter coward toward any one of a million phantasms created by his imagination.
The novel reads as a revenge on the years of the author’s lost youth…
First disappointments… Quarrels… Hiding from the world in drunkenness… Gradually they were growing more and more distant from each other… The war… Wretched service in the army… Coming back… Their marriage becomes something like a bad habit…
After that reflowering of tenderness and passion each of them had returned into some solitary dream unshared by the other and what endearments passed between them passed, it seemed, from empty heart to empty heart, echoing hollowly the departure of what they knew at last was gone.
Love is blind and love blinds those who fall victim to it.
October 29, 2017
I can't think of any writer other F. Scott Fitzgerald that has had such of a yo-yo effect on me. I thought 'Gatsby' was the real deal, 'This Side of Paradise' I gave up on, some of his short stories left a big impression on me, whereas, 'Tender Is the Night' felt like a bit of a mess. I put this down to his personal life, which wasn't exactly plain sailing. 'The Beautiful and Damned' sits comfortably in-between this lot, lounged in the Ritz-carlton to be precise. With a cigarette in one hand, and a cocktail glass in the other, not worrying about the tab, at least for now.
Regardless of how I perceived much of his work, one thing about him does stands out, he WAS the voice of a generation. My first experience with Fitzgerald was something completely new, like tasting champagne for the first time, or putting on an expensive suit. The whole experience was plush, sensuous and dazzling. Although I didn't think the story here was that great, his writing at least felt less floppy and more tightly focused, not too far off Gatsby standard. Written during the golden age of jazz, his second novel looks at the rise and fall of young couple Anthony Patch and Gloria Gilbert, through their first meeting, courtship, and marriage. Like with all Fitzgerald's characters they are complex when it comes to relationships, and draws comparisons to the problems of himself and wife Zelda.
At the core of it's story along with the couple, is money, and the problems of overspending, or living beyond ones means. Antony & Gloria live the high life, spending well at every opportunity, but eventually realizing their funds are dwindling. This is where Antony's ever so rich grandfather comes into play, he hopes to get his hands on a large fortune as Inheritance, but to his dismay is not written into the will, the couple start to feel the strain. With their bank balances and each other.
It is a novel not of disillusion but of decay. What happens to the kind of people that Anthony and Gloria are has happened to the same kind of people over and over again. In our foolish optimism, our pride and certainty in progress, we like to forget that disintegration is a competing and often victorious force. And so, when we see signs of something uncommonly like it in the young generation, we think it has never happened before, the setting changes, of course, but since Fitzgerald has described our modern setting with its prohibition parties, socialites and promiscuous kissing in such magnanimous detail, we are apt to think that, because the scenery is startling, the scenario is a new one.
Anthony Patch is built up in pages which, while blazing with clever irony, do not give us a picture of him in three dimensions. Later we find him using that mixture of standing aside and telling us what he says and does and acting as his intimate psychological confidant, which often betrays. Within rather large limits Anthony is clear, but clear as a type rather than a person. The most telling accounts of him, while real, could also seem real of other persons quite different from him in other ways. Gloria, admirably sharp and witty at first, deliquesces and loses her personality as Fitzgerald grows intimate with her, until toward the end we find her speaking very little as problems start to mount. She too, broadens into a person with too many characteristics which other characters could share with her and still be differential. The treatment of the two of them leaves the curious impression that Fitzgerald was at first inside Anthony's head before gradually exchanging positions. Also minor characters written about actually felt sharper than that of Antony and Gloria, even though in the novel they are limited to scenes here and there.
There is the very small allowance for tenderness and proper love here, and even less of pity, contained within there is a lot of hatred and boiled over arguments that I guess goes with the territory. It's lively with epigrams, so many that one half suspects that their origin is less in a perpetually ironic state of mind than in a facility and joy in turning them out. He did get the fine line of using enough energy and weariness spot on in all the right places, and I really liked the last 30 or so pages, but the couple I seemed to love one minute and semi-despised the next. Had they lived in the 21st century, they would have racked up huge debts on twenty credit cards, whilst both having about five on-line affairs apiece.
Well written, with some great moments, but over all it just lacked that something extra.
3.5/5 - minus the tip.
Regardless of how I perceived much of his work, one thing about him does stands out, he WAS the voice of a generation. My first experience with Fitzgerald was something completely new, like tasting champagne for the first time, or putting on an expensive suit. The whole experience was plush, sensuous and dazzling. Although I didn't think the story here was that great, his writing at least felt less floppy and more tightly focused, not too far off Gatsby standard. Written during the golden age of jazz, his second novel looks at the rise and fall of young couple Anthony Patch and Gloria Gilbert, through their first meeting, courtship, and marriage. Like with all Fitzgerald's characters they are complex when it comes to relationships, and draws comparisons to the problems of himself and wife Zelda.
At the core of it's story along with the couple, is money, and the problems of overspending, or living beyond ones means. Antony & Gloria live the high life, spending well at every opportunity, but eventually realizing their funds are dwindling. This is where Antony's ever so rich grandfather comes into play, he hopes to get his hands on a large fortune as Inheritance, but to his dismay is not written into the will, the couple start to feel the strain. With their bank balances and each other.
It is a novel not of disillusion but of decay. What happens to the kind of people that Anthony and Gloria are has happened to the same kind of people over and over again. In our foolish optimism, our pride and certainty in progress, we like to forget that disintegration is a competing and often victorious force. And so, when we see signs of something uncommonly like it in the young generation, we think it has never happened before, the setting changes, of course, but since Fitzgerald has described our modern setting with its prohibition parties, socialites and promiscuous kissing in such magnanimous detail, we are apt to think that, because the scenery is startling, the scenario is a new one.
Anthony Patch is built up in pages which, while blazing with clever irony, do not give us a picture of him in three dimensions. Later we find him using that mixture of standing aside and telling us what he says and does and acting as his intimate psychological confidant, which often betrays. Within rather large limits Anthony is clear, but clear as a type rather than a person. The most telling accounts of him, while real, could also seem real of other persons quite different from him in other ways. Gloria, admirably sharp and witty at first, deliquesces and loses her personality as Fitzgerald grows intimate with her, until toward the end we find her speaking very little as problems start to mount. She too, broadens into a person with too many characteristics which other characters could share with her and still be differential. The treatment of the two of them leaves the curious impression that Fitzgerald was at first inside Anthony's head before gradually exchanging positions. Also minor characters written about actually felt sharper than that of Antony and Gloria, even though in the novel they are limited to scenes here and there.
There is the very small allowance for tenderness and proper love here, and even less of pity, contained within there is a lot of hatred and boiled over arguments that I guess goes with the territory. It's lively with epigrams, so many that one half suspects that their origin is less in a perpetually ironic state of mind than in a facility and joy in turning them out. He did get the fine line of using enough energy and weariness spot on in all the right places, and I really liked the last 30 or so pages, but the couple I seemed to love one minute and semi-despised the next. Had they lived in the 21st century, they would have racked up huge debts on twenty credit cards, whilst both having about five on-line affairs apiece.
Well written, with some great moments, but over all it just lacked that something extra.
3.5/5 - minus the tip.
November 26, 2021
The Beautiful and Damned, F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Beautiful and Damned, first published in 1922, is F. Scott Fitzgerald's second novel.
It explores and portrays New York cafe society and the American Eastern elite during the Jazz Age before and after "The Great War" and in the early 1920's.
As in his other novels, Fitzgerald's characters in this novel are complex, especially with respect to marriage and intimacy. The work is generally considered to have drawn upon and be based on Fitzgerald's relationship and marriage with his wife Zelda Fitzgerald.
تاریخ نخستین خوانش: بیست و دوم ماه نوامبر سال2012میلادی
عنوان: زیبا و ملعون؛ اثر: فرانسیس اسکات فیتزجرالد؛ مترجم: سهیل سمی؛ مشخصات نشر تهران، ققنوس، سال1390، در496ص، ادبیات جهان104، رمان89، شابک9789643119348، موضوع: داستانهای نویسندگان ایالات متحده آمریکا - سده20م
رمان «زیبا و ملعون»، همانند دیگر نگاره های «فیتزجرالد»، شیوه ی پخته شدن جوانهای رمانتیک، و خام را، در بستر جامعه ی آمریکایی، بیان میکند، و نشان میدهد که چگونه از آنها توهم زدایی شده، و به واقعیتهای زندگی «آمریکا» وارد میشوند؛ این اثر و دیگر آثار «فیتزجرالد»، در واقع سوگنامه هایی، برای پایان دوران «رمانتیک» هستند؛ «زیبا و ملعون»، سه بخش اصلی دارد، که با عنوانهای: «کتاب اول»، «کتاب دوم» و «کتاب سوم» نامگذاری شده اند؛ هر بخش نیز خود به سه بخش دیگر تقسیم میشود؛ «آنتونی پَچ»، «تصویر زن افسونگر» و «خُبره احساسات» بخشهای کتاب نخست هستند؛ در کتاب دوم هم، خوانشگر بخشهای: «ساعت درخشان»، «سمپوزیوم»، و «عود شکسته» را میخواند؛ «مسئله تمدن»، «مسئله زیبایی شناسی»، و «مهم نیست!» هم، بخشهای کتاب سوم همین رمان هستند
تاریخ بهنگام رسانس 05/09/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ 04/09/1400هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی
The Beautiful and Damned, first published in 1922, is F. Scott Fitzgerald's second novel.
It explores and portrays New York cafe society and the American Eastern elite during the Jazz Age before and after "The Great War" and in the early 1920's.
As in his other novels, Fitzgerald's characters in this novel are complex, especially with respect to marriage and intimacy. The work is generally considered to have drawn upon and be based on Fitzgerald's relationship and marriage with his wife Zelda Fitzgerald.
تاریخ نخستین خوانش: بیست و دوم ماه نوامبر سال2012میلادی
عنوان: زیبا و ملعون؛ اثر: فرانسیس اسکات فیتزجرالد؛ مترجم: سهیل سمی؛ مشخصات نشر تهران، ققنوس، سال1390، در496ص، ادبیات جهان104، رمان89، شابک9789643119348، موضوع: داستانهای نویسندگان ایالات متحده آمریکا - سده20م
رمان «زیبا و ملعون»، همانند دیگر نگاره های «فیتزجرالد»، شیوه ی پخته شدن جوانهای رمانتیک، و خام را، در بستر جامعه ی آمریکایی، بیان میکند، و نشان میدهد که چگونه از آنها توهم زدایی شده، و به واقعیتهای زندگی «آمریکا» وارد میشوند؛ این اثر و دیگر آثار «فیتزجرالد»، در واقع سوگنامه هایی، برای پایان دوران «رمانتیک» هستند؛ «زیبا و ملعون»، سه بخش اصلی دارد، که با عنوانهای: «کتاب اول»، «کتاب دوم» و «کتاب سوم» نامگذاری شده اند؛ هر بخش نیز خود به سه بخش دیگر تقسیم میشود؛ «آنتونی پَچ»، «تصویر زن افسونگر» و «خُبره احساسات» بخشهای کتاب نخست هستند؛ در کتاب دوم هم، خوانشگر بخشهای: «ساعت درخشان»، «سمپوزیوم»، و «عود شکسته» را میخواند؛ «مسئله تمدن»، «مسئله زیبایی شناسی»، و «مهم نیست!» هم، بخشهای کتاب سوم همین رمان هستند
تاریخ بهنگام رسانس 05/09/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ 04/09/1400هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی
June 1, 2011
A deeply flawed book. A good amount of editing would've greatly improved this book. However, Fitzgerald was coming off his huge success with "This Side of Paradise", so the publisher allowed him to publish this very uneven piece of work. This was the final Fitzgerald novel that I have read, and by far the worst.
Yes, Fitzgerald writes beautiful prose. Eloquence for its own sake doesn't make a novel. Indulgent eloquence, uneven pacing, unsympathetic characters, a generally poor plot, and a terrible ending made it difficult for me to even finish this book. We are first introduced to Anthony and Gloria, our "protagonists". Then, a seemingly endless array of vignettes aim to portray them as examples of the moral bankruptcy of the Jazz Age. Are Anthony and Gloria products of their environment, their upbringing, etc? I don't care, because I hated both of them 100 pages in and didn't want to read any more about them.
Then, the book just keeps going, and going… It finally gets interesting when Anthony goes off to military boot camp (i.e. the first time anything actually happens in the plot other than Anthony and Gloria partying). Once he reunites the Gloria, the same tired plot starts up again. The pacing and tone has improved and tightened considerably at this point, and shows Fitzgerald's promise in later novels. This book is a bridge between "This Side of Paradise" and "The Great Gatsby" and is interesting in this aspect, but taken alone, not at all.
Yes, Fitzgerald writes beautiful prose. Eloquence for its own sake doesn't make a novel. Indulgent eloquence, uneven pacing, unsympathetic characters, a generally poor plot, and a terrible ending made it difficult for me to even finish this book. We are first introduced to Anthony and Gloria, our "protagonists". Then, a seemingly endless array of vignettes aim to portray them as examples of the moral bankruptcy of the Jazz Age. Are Anthony and Gloria products of their environment, their upbringing, etc? I don't care, because I hated both of them 100 pages in and didn't want to read any more about them.
Then, the book just keeps going, and going… It finally gets interesting when Anthony goes off to military boot camp (i.e. the first time anything actually happens in the plot other than Anthony and Gloria partying). Once he reunites the Gloria, the same tired plot starts up again. The pacing and tone has improved and tightened considerably at this point, and shows Fitzgerald's promise in later novels. This book is a bridge between "This Side of Paradise" and "The Great Gatsby" and is interesting in this aspect, but taken alone, not at all.
February 17, 2018
I know I said I wouldn't bother writing a review for this piece of trash but I couldn't resist to compile some of Scottie's 'greatest hits' just to give context for my dislike of this novel.
Some of the lovely descriptions (from men) about our main protagonist Gloria:
The emotional manipulation is also quite real with these two. After Anthony hits his wife at a train station (classy, I know), this happens:
Oh, and at one point suicide is used as a form of blackmail and Anthony says some pretty anti-semitic things. I won't even begin to fully cover the blatant racism in this novel. It made my skin crawl. The skin colour of a character was only mentioned to showcase that POC were subservient to whites. We encounter 'a coloured doorman', 'a glib Martinique Negro, with an incongruous British accent and a tendency to be surly, whom Anthony detested' and sidewalks peopled 'by an intermittent procession of ragged, shuffling, subservient Negroes'. None of these characters are given a voice (speech part) in the book.
Dot considered working for the Red Cross,
In conclusion, the book is way too fucking long and needed some serious editing. Its exploration of themes is hella messy and the story isn't coherent at all. The ending was such a clusterfuck and made me want to throw the book across the room. I have nothing against narratives featuring unlikeable characters (heck, I usually find them fascinating) but you somehow have to make me care. The Beautiful and Damned is painfully unnecessary. Nothing happens except rich kids whining about the hardships of life. Sorry, can't relate.
There's nothing left to say except BITCH, THE DOOR. Also, where is my award for finishing this piece of trash?
Some of the lovely descriptions (from men) about our main protagonist Gloria:
'Gloria's darn nice – not a brain in her head.'Gloria about herself (brace yourself since the internalized misogyny is real with that one):
'A sense of responsibility would spoil her. She's too pretty.'
'She's so utterly stupid.'
'Remarkable that a person [Gloria] can comprehend so little and yet live in such a complex civilization. A woman like that …'
'I value my body because you [her husband Anthony] think it's beautiful. And this body of mine – of yours – to have it grow ugly and shapeless? It's simply intolerable.' (BITCH WHAT?)Some of the lovely descriptions about other women in the novel:
'Women soil easily,' she said, 'far more easily than men.'
She had no sense of humour, but, to take its place, a happy disposition that made her laugh at the proper times when she was with men.Scottie also had a wilde sense of 'healthy' relationships:
Her bosom is still a pavement that she offers to the hoofs of many passing stallions, hoping that their iron shoes may strike even a spark of romance in the darkness. (This is honestly one of my favorites like what kind of crack was Fitzgerald smoking?)
Then Anthony knew what he wanted – to assert his will against this cool and impervious girl, to obtain with one magnificent effort a mastery that seemed infinitely desirable.Don't get me wrong, I'm aware that Fitzgerald knew that he was writing about fucked up relationships. However, he constantly propagates the notion that Gloria (and later Dot) want Anthony to seize the power and control their bodies and actions.
'Hit me!' she implored him – wildly, stupidly. 'Oh, hit me, and I'll kiss the hand you hit me with.' (the fuck outta here)
The emotional manipulation is also quite real with these two. After Anthony hits his wife at a train station (classy, I know), this happens:
Yet in the morning, coming early into her room, he knelt down by her bed and cried like a little boy, as though it was his heart that had been broken.Anthony is also the one cheating in the relationship. However, when he suspects that Gloria cheated on him as well (which she didn't) he gets super aggressive and accusatory and makes her feel like a whore for pleasing men etc. It was truly sickening to read. In general, Fitzgerald portrayed the women in his story as the properties of men, rather feeding than questioning that fucked up trope.
Oh, and at one point suicide is used as a form of blackmail and Anthony says some pretty anti-semitic things. I won't even begin to fully cover the blatant racism in this novel. It made my skin crawl. The skin colour of a character was only mentioned to showcase that POC were subservient to whites. We encounter 'a coloured doorman', 'a glib Martinique Negro, with an incongruous British accent and a tendency to be surly, whom Anthony detested' and sidewalks peopled 'by an intermittent procession of ragged, shuffling, subservient Negroes'. None of these characters are given a voice (speech part) in the book.
Dot considered working for the Red Cross,
Trouble was she had heard that she might have to bathe Negroes in alcohol, and after that she hadn't felt so patriotic. (I hope you burn in hell)And when she and Anthony went out to dance, they saw
a tragic Negro made yearning, aching music on a saxophone until the garish hall became an enchanted jungle of barbaric rhythms.Barbaric rhythms? Dude was playing the saxophone, so can ya'll chill.
In conclusion, the book is way too fucking long and needed some serious editing. Its exploration of themes is hella messy and the story isn't coherent at all. The ending was such a clusterfuck and made me want to throw the book across the room. I have nothing against narratives featuring unlikeable characters (heck, I usually find them fascinating) but you somehow have to make me care. The Beautiful and Damned is painfully unnecessary. Nothing happens except rich kids whining about the hardships of life. Sorry, can't relate.
There's nothing left to say except BITCH, THE DOOR. Also, where is my award for finishing this piece of trash?
January 22, 2009
Fitzgerald wasn't joking with that title. These people were completely screwed from the moment they hit the page, and it was fascinating to watch it all disintegrate. As I mentioned in the review I just finished for
Tender is the Night
, I found Anthony and Gloria to be some of the more unsympathetic characters I've encountered lately. They are both vain and shallow and utterly useless people in terms of anything practical. I can't imagine being friends with these people. This book worked for me primarily on the level that Fitzgerald managed to keep me hoping that they'd finally get their act together. Of course they don't, but that's not really the point. I kept caring about them even though I didn't particularly like them. I wanted to plead with the judge to give them the money, even though my better sense told me the money really wasn't as much of the problem as they were.
I really enjoyed this book - also, an excellent cautionary tale on how not to handle your personal finances.
I really enjoyed this book - also, an excellent cautionary tale on how not to handle your personal finances.
June 25, 2021
“I shall go on shining as a brilliantly meaningless figure in a meaningless world.”
The Beautiful and the Damned follows the story of Anthony Patch, and his beautiful wife Gloria, living in the New York elite café society during the “Jazz Age“ before and after the Great War in the early 1920s. So much of Beautiful and Damned reminds me of Belle du Seigneur, which in my opinion is a deeper and stronger dive into the subject of existential dread of upper-class beautiful and rich people. In the autobiographical tone Fitzgerald tears down the idealized American dream of youth, beauty and wealth, and shows it is not a promised land of perfect life nor an anesthetic for despair and psychological suffering. Indeed life is hard no matter what cards you have been dealt with.
“Life is so damned hard, so damned hard... It just hurts people and hurts people, until finally it hurts them so that they can't be hurt ever any more. That's the last and worst thing it does.”
There is no escape from being human, alive, and therefore succumbed to suffering and bearing one's cross. Anthony grows up in all the worldly riches but loses both of his parents in early childhood, and his only parental figure is cold and distant tycoon grandfather, who demands that he takes on adult responsibilities in a very strict way, with a threat of punishment in disinheriting him . Fitzgerald's writing is beautifully crafted, at the same time emotional and controlled. The characters are juvenile, immature, fixated in the state of inaction, unable to cope with the reality of life, the world, and their own relationships. The circumstance of being well-off enables them to stay in prolongated adolescence of drinking, partying and resting on expensive holidays. Following Fitzgerald's favorite theme of the influence of money on a young person, they are damned by their fortune, in not being forced by circumstances to get a job, make something of their life, to achieve financial freedom. In a state of permanent adolescence, they remind self-absorbed and selfish, each in their own specific way, living in their illusions, a fantasy of eternal beauty or great influence and wealth, while being unambitious and unmotivated. Both Anthony and Gloria have a complicated relationship with wealth, class and status, placing in them the meaning and value of their life, and Gloria also places a lot of her personal value on beauty, renowned for her good looks and flirtatious behavior, and is ultimately confronted with the transience of physical looks.
Her obsession with appearance even draws her away from being a mother, an idea that briefly crossed her mind while feeling lonely.
“She wanted to exist only as a conscious flower, prolonging and preserving herself”
In the limbo of having ”everything”, in a very superficial sense, they lose a sense of life's purpose and meaning and a chance to create something of authentic value. And for a person stripped of personal meaning and formed identity reflecting in the ways a person is contributing to the world, it is hard to have a meaningful and thriving relationship with real substance, so Anthony and Gloria are stuck in the limbo of miserable dysfunctional marriage. , in the end, there is nothing of value left in Anthony and Gloria's world and relationships
Despite having everything physical and material both Anthony and Gloria are two tragic characters with heartbreaking endings, drawing the parallel between the real lives of Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda. I assume that Fitzgerald's writing is so striking and convincing because it represents his inner psychological world and the world of his relationships, the weight of the unhappiness, despair, decadence and dread he carried that no amount and fortune and beauty could lift.
“Tired, tired with nothing, tired with everything, tired with the world’s weight he had never chosen to bear.”
The Beautiful and the Damned follows the story of Anthony Patch, and his beautiful wife Gloria, living in the New York elite café society during the “Jazz Age“ before and after the Great War in the early 1920s. So much of Beautiful and Damned reminds me of Belle du Seigneur, which in my opinion is a deeper and stronger dive into the subject of existential dread of upper-class beautiful and rich people. In the autobiographical tone Fitzgerald tears down the idealized American dream of youth, beauty and wealth, and shows it is not a promised land of perfect life nor an anesthetic for despair and psychological suffering. Indeed life is hard no matter what cards you have been dealt with.
“Life is so damned hard, so damned hard... It just hurts people and hurts people, until finally it hurts them so that they can't be hurt ever any more. That's the last and worst thing it does.”
There is no escape from being human, alive, and therefore succumbed to suffering and bearing one's cross. Anthony grows up in all the worldly riches but loses both of his parents in early childhood, and his only parental figure is cold and distant tycoon grandfather, who demands that he takes on adult responsibilities in a very strict way, with a threat of punishment in disinheriting him . Fitzgerald's writing is beautifully crafted, at the same time emotional and controlled. The characters are juvenile, immature, fixated in the state of inaction, unable to cope with the reality of life, the world, and their own relationships. The circumstance of being well-off enables them to stay in prolongated adolescence of drinking, partying and resting on expensive holidays. Following Fitzgerald's favorite theme of the influence of money on a young person, they are damned by their fortune, in not being forced by circumstances to get a job, make something of their life, to achieve financial freedom. In a state of permanent adolescence, they remind self-absorbed and selfish, each in their own specific way, living in their illusions, a fantasy of eternal beauty or great influence and wealth, while being unambitious and unmotivated. Both Anthony and Gloria have a complicated relationship with wealth, class and status, placing in them the meaning and value of their life, and Gloria also places a lot of her personal value on beauty, renowned for her good looks and flirtatious behavior, and is ultimately confronted with the transience of physical looks.
Her obsession with appearance even draws her away from being a mother, an idea that briefly crossed her mind while feeling lonely.
“She wanted to exist only as a conscious flower, prolonging and preserving herself”
In the limbo of having ”everything”, in a very superficial sense, they lose a sense of life's purpose and meaning and a chance to create something of authentic value. And for a person stripped of personal meaning and formed identity reflecting in the ways a person is contributing to the world, it is hard to have a meaningful and thriving relationship with real substance, so Anthony and Gloria are stuck in the limbo of miserable dysfunctional marriage. , in the end, there is nothing of value left in Anthony and Gloria's world and relationships
Despite having everything physical and material both Anthony and Gloria are two tragic characters with heartbreaking endings, drawing the parallel between the real lives of Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda. I assume that Fitzgerald's writing is so striking and convincing because it represents his inner psychological world and the world of his relationships, the weight of the unhappiness, despair, decadence and dread he carried that no amount and fortune and beauty could lift.
“Tired, tired with nothing, tired with everything, tired with the world’s weight he had never chosen to bear.”
August 14, 2018
"E questo mi ha insegnato che non si può avere niente, non si può avere assolutamente niente. Perché il desiderio inganna. È come un raggio di sole che guizza qua e là in una stanza. Si ferma e illumina un oggetto insignificante, e noi poveri sciocchi cerchiamo di afferrarlo: ma quando lo afferriamo il sole si sposta su qualcos'altro e la parte insignificante resta, ma lo splendore che l'ha resa desiderabile è scomparso.."
March 6, 2012
"The Beautiful and Damned" is the perfect title for this novel, as well as for the author's life with his wife Zelda.
This is Fitzgerald's second novel, and he had become wealthy and famous. His protagonist and his wife--Anthony and Gloria Patch--move in a circle of rich, hard-drinking sybarites, who seem to move glibly from party to party. (On the first edition dust jacket, Anthony and Gloria are painted as Scott & Zelda)
Anthony doesn't want to work. After graduating from Harvard, he wanders around Europe for a few years, before moving to New York City to live. He finds a nice apartment, and lives well on his allowance, while waiting for his industrialist grandfather to die, at which point he'll be a bazillionaire.
He meets Gloria, the young, beautiful cousin of his Harvard chum, Dick, and is smitten. As is she: the couple marry, enjoy a protracted honeymoon, and settle back into NYC's pre-War party scene.
Gradually, their life together crumbles. The only consistent motifs are A) that they don't want to work, and B) that their investments are not producing enough income to cover their lifestyle.
When Anthony's grandfather finally does die, he leaves not a dime to Anthony.
All-too-soon, World War One looms, and Anthony applies, with his friends Maury and Dick, to go to officer training school. Anthony fails the medical.
This doesn't prevent him from being drafted later, and he's shipped south for basic training.
Far from home, Anthony finds affection in the arms of Dot, a local girl.
The war ends before Anthony's unit can be shipped overseas, and he and Gloria are reunited. They quarrel over money, and find any excuse to drink, which seems the only way they can tolerate life and each other. They wait for Anthony's lawsuit against his grandfather's estate to settle.
Their apartments get smaller, their clothes less-trendy and more frayed, and the need for alcoholic oblivion even stronger.
What is disturbing about "The Beautiful and Damned" is how loathsome Fitzgerald obviously finds this society, especially himself.
At one point, Anthony is talking to Dick--an author of great success--and Dick talks of how vapid modern fiction is, and how everyone asks him whether he's read "This Side of Paradise." Dick decries how detestible the characters in "Paradise" are.
"This Side of Paradise," of course, was F. Scott Fitzgerald's first novel.
It's obvious that Fitzgerald and Anthony are both alcoholic, and that Gloria--like Zelda--is both a big drinker, and suffering from early stages of mental illness.
Things hit rock-bottom: Anthony has bounced checks, and been thrown out of a club where he and his friends once held court. They're at the absolute bottom. Then he wins his lawsuit. He's rich again, but we sense--as the book concludes with Anthony and Gloria aboardship for Italy--that he really didn't "win" anything at all.
This is not an easy book to read. Its tale of the bon vivant who loses everything reminded me of "The Magnificent Ambersons," but this was just so much sadder. Maybe part of it is knowing how similar is the author's life, that just three years later, he would publish "The Great Gatsby," which made it impossible for him ever to turn back.
F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote beautifully; he lived too fast, and died too young. Maybe that tragic darkness makes his sentences shine that much brighter.
This is Fitzgerald's second novel, and he had become wealthy and famous. His protagonist and his wife--Anthony and Gloria Patch--move in a circle of rich, hard-drinking sybarites, who seem to move glibly from party to party. (On the first edition dust jacket, Anthony and Gloria are painted as Scott & Zelda)
Anthony doesn't want to work. After graduating from Harvard, he wanders around Europe for a few years, before moving to New York City to live. He finds a nice apartment, and lives well on his allowance, while waiting for his industrialist grandfather to die, at which point he'll be a bazillionaire.
He meets Gloria, the young, beautiful cousin of his Harvard chum, Dick, and is smitten. As is she: the couple marry, enjoy a protracted honeymoon, and settle back into NYC's pre-War party scene.
Gradually, their life together crumbles. The only consistent motifs are A) that they don't want to work, and B) that their investments are not producing enough income to cover their lifestyle.
When Anthony's grandfather finally does die, he leaves not a dime to Anthony.
All-too-soon, World War One looms, and Anthony applies, with his friends Maury and Dick, to go to officer training school. Anthony fails the medical.
This doesn't prevent him from being drafted later, and he's shipped south for basic training.
Far from home, Anthony finds affection in the arms of Dot, a local girl.
The war ends before Anthony's unit can be shipped overseas, and he and Gloria are reunited. They quarrel over money, and find any excuse to drink, which seems the only way they can tolerate life and each other. They wait for Anthony's lawsuit against his grandfather's estate to settle.
Their apartments get smaller, their clothes less-trendy and more frayed, and the need for alcoholic oblivion even stronger.
What is disturbing about "The Beautiful and Damned" is how loathsome Fitzgerald obviously finds this society, especially himself.
At one point, Anthony is talking to Dick--an author of great success--and Dick talks of how vapid modern fiction is, and how everyone asks him whether he's read "This Side of Paradise." Dick decries how detestible the characters in "Paradise" are.
"This Side of Paradise," of course, was F. Scott Fitzgerald's first novel.
It's obvious that Fitzgerald and Anthony are both alcoholic, and that Gloria--like Zelda--is both a big drinker, and suffering from early stages of mental illness.
Things hit rock-bottom: Anthony has bounced checks, and been thrown out of a club where he and his friends once held court. They're at the absolute bottom. Then he wins his lawsuit. He's rich again, but we sense--as the book concludes with Anthony and Gloria aboardship for Italy--that he really didn't "win" anything at all.
This is not an easy book to read. Its tale of the bon vivant who loses everything reminded me of "The Magnificent Ambersons," but this was just so much sadder. Maybe part of it is knowing how similar is the author's life, that just three years later, he would publish "The Great Gatsby," which made it impossible for him ever to turn back.
F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote beautifully; he lived too fast, and died too young. Maybe that tragic darkness makes his sentences shine that much brighter.
July 22, 2016
This book was... heavy. I read it in a couple days, but it's so emotionally and mentally exhausting it was just painful most of the time. Fitzgerald almost viciously pulls the rug out any time there's a slight chance of things getting better for Gloria and Anthony who, rather than confronting their flaws and getting their shit together, seem to alternate between wallowing and reveling in their self-destructive boredom and self-pity. It's a study in absolute misery. It reminded me more than a little of Dickens' Bleak House, watching Richard and Ada's downward spiral as the lawsuit eats up any ambition or practicality they ever had. Unlike Richard and Ada, however, Gloria and Anthony aren't particularly deserving or likable, and that's probably one of the bigger flaws for many of this book's detractors. For a lot of people it must be like watching a car crash which also happens to make you late for work...frustrating and a bit tragic. But I actually found them quite sympathetic (if not the most well-defined characters) and even relatable at times, which made their decline all the more real, disturbing, and frightening to me. There are a lot of horrible aspects of their personalities and thoughts that I can't imagine would be easy to relate to, or to admit relating to, for most people, but I certainly could and can't be the only one. Ultimately I found it moving, yet somewhat raw and hollow, and though I didn't like it as much as This Side of Paradise or Gatsby it didn't do anything to lessen my admiration of Fitzgerald and his beautiful prose. "Say things to the world that are true": though I don't know much about its author, that quote has been stuck in my mind since I first saw it, but never so much as when I was reading this book.
January 22, 2024
The Beautiful and the Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald is a 1922 publication.
"Gatsby" was a school assignment for me- and although it was rare for me to enjoy assigned reading, I liked it. But, for some reason, I have never read another book by Fitzgerald. I have, though, been quite curious about him and his wife in their private life- which has been the subject of books and movies for years. I have several books on my Kindle about Zelda, which I had planned to work into my reading schedule sometime this year. But, in the meantime, I thought it would be a good idea to read another book by this author. I chose this one for two reasons- the simplest one was that I already had it on my Kindle, and because allegedly Fitzgerald had modeled the characters after himself and Zelda.
Unfortunately, the book fell flat for me. To begin with the characters are not at all likeable. They are too empty, shallow, lazy… and BORING- with no redeeming qualities whatsoever. I kept thinking things would pick up- but they just kept getting worse with the characters circling the drain, even after they finally get what they thought would bring them happiness.
My experience with this book has given me second thoughts about reading anything about the Fitzgeralds- but because so much has been made about that marriage- and Zelda in particular, I’ll still probably delve into their lives at some point- but I’m not in a big hurry to tackle those books anytime soon, if they were anything like the couple in this book. Oy!
Overall, this book isn’t terribly long- but I felt like it took ages to read it and that’s never a good sign. I’m not sure I’ll ever tackle another novel by this author- but if I do, I’ll approach it with caution.
2 stars
"Gatsby" was a school assignment for me- and although it was rare for me to enjoy assigned reading, I liked it. But, for some reason, I have never read another book by Fitzgerald. I have, though, been quite curious about him and his wife in their private life- which has been the subject of books and movies for years. I have several books on my Kindle about Zelda, which I had planned to work into my reading schedule sometime this year. But, in the meantime, I thought it would be a good idea to read another book by this author. I chose this one for two reasons- the simplest one was that I already had it on my Kindle, and because allegedly Fitzgerald had modeled the characters after himself and Zelda.
Unfortunately, the book fell flat for me. To begin with the characters are not at all likeable. They are too empty, shallow, lazy… and BORING- with no redeeming qualities whatsoever. I kept thinking things would pick up- but they just kept getting worse with the characters circling the drain, even after they finally get what they thought would bring them happiness.
My experience with this book has given me second thoughts about reading anything about the Fitzgeralds- but because so much has been made about that marriage- and Zelda in particular, I’ll still probably delve into their lives at some point- but I’m not in a big hurry to tackle those books anytime soon, if they were anything like the couple in this book. Oy!
Overall, this book isn’t terribly long- but I felt like it took ages to read it and that’s never a good sign. I’m not sure I’ll ever tackle another novel by this author- but if I do, I’ll approach it with caution.
2 stars
July 7, 2017
Aside from the Great Gatsby this is the only other novel I've read by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Years ago when living on a small Caribbean island, with limited things to do, I read a large collection of books that I had had the foresight to bring with me (it got dark at 6pm every evening after which it wasn't safe to leave my apartment). One book was a collection of Fitzgerald's short stories and I enjoyed them immensely. This book I also enjoyed.
The Beautiful and the Damned starts like most of his short stories. Young man falls hopelessly in love with young, beautiful, charming, highly intelligent yet distant girl. Her beauty, her charm draw the young man in like a siren's call. Her smile, which is no more than a mask of aloofness, lets no one in and drives him mad, almost to despair.
Fitzgerald invented the prototype of the Manic Pixie Girl that is so popular in Romantic movies of today. You know the type, she's sweet, sexy, devil-may carish. She dances in the rain, sings along in movie theaters and other behavior that would be considered irresponsible and weird in real life but comes across as funny and sexy in the movies.
The man is mesmerized and the fact that she's just out of reach emotionally keeps him reaching for her. Today's aggressively eager woman might learn a thing or two from these girls. Don't chase the boy, run away and have him chase you.
Ah, but I'm hopelessly old-fashioned. I'm also happily married, but that's a topic for another time.
Most of Fitzgerald's short stories end with the boy finally catching the girl. I don't say they all end happily, they're more complicated than that, but they don't continue into married life.
The Beautiful and the Damned does. The boy in this story, Anthony Patch, does finally catch the girl he passionately pursues but that is half the story. The rest of their story is about their married life. It is not a pretty tale, it is a tragic, but fascinating one.
The interest does not lie in the storyline per se. I suppose lots of authors have written about drunk people racing toward destruction, but Fitzgerald's writing simply bubbles and flows like an icy, clear water brook down a mountain side. His insight into the human soul, his ability to lucidly display its depraved nature, its desperate longing for greater things and its inability to save itself both repels while it simultaneously draws the reader in.
Anthony and Gloria get married. They soon discover that what, on Anthony's part at least, manically attracted them to the other person was not enough to sustain a marriage.
Gloria is still lovely to look at, but her impulsive behavior,self-absorption and strong will have lost some of their allure.
We are not entirely sure why Gloria married Anthony. He perhaps bored her less than the other men who sought her attention. She doesn't seem to have much of a conscience or reason to do anything except have a good time.
And what is a good time to Anthony and Gloria? Getting pleasantly inebriated with friends. This naturally costs money and neither of them have much. Anthony is counting on an inheritance he will receive at his grandfather's death.
Anthony is both contemptuous of his grandfather and also fears him because a wrong move could cost him millions of dollars. His grandfather points out Anthony's lack of ambition and also employment. He offers to provide Anthony employment. Anthony is a writer. His grandfather can get him a job as a war correspondent. (WWI has just started).
Anthony immediately protests. He could never desert Gloria! At the same time he imagines himself in uniform and the glamour this kind of work would give him.
Gloria would also like to work. A friend who produces Hollywood movies would like to give her a screen test. But Anthony absolutely refuses to permit it. His wife will never degrade herself like that.
So what do they do? Live on what little stipend and savings they have, but mostly they spend it on alcohol and parties with friends. They also make very foolish decisions such as renting both a country house and apartment in New York City.
They see that they are acting foolish but cannot seem to stop themselves. They know they must stop holding and attending parties, but when the evening rolls around, the empty life they see around them impels them to the social amusements. Life isn't worth living until after the fifth or sixth drink.
This cannot last and it doesn't. The grandfather dies, but unfortunately he dies shortly after walking in on a typical gathering of Gloria and Anthony's and everyone there is quite sloshed. The grandfather, a strong prohibitionist, goes home, cuts Anthony from his will and dies.
Anthony retains an expensive (and I mean very expensive) lawyer to contest the will. The court case drags on for years in Bleak House-ian style. In the meantime, Anthony is drafted, travels south for training but luckily avoids actual service since the war ends before he finishes boot camp.
He returns to Gloria and they carry on.
The two slide steadily toward the abyss. A few unexpected things happen toward the end and I won't deprive you of a good read by spoiling it.
Anyone familiar with Fitzgerad's real life can see obvious autobiographical connections. I was constantly reminded of Ernest Hemingway's "A Moveable Feast" where Hemingway describes Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda in a way not very different from Anthony and Gloria.
Because they were close friends who spent a lot of time together in Paris, I found myself comparing Hemingway's writing to Fitzgerald's. I can only describe Hemingway's writing as a large, heavy, aggressive predator and Fitzgerald's as a lightweight boxer who rapidly and gracefully dances around his opponent getting jabs in that are only painful to himself. Hemingway enjoyed slaughtering his perceived enemies.
Hemingway's stories may pack a punch, but Fitzgerald's go down as smoothly as one of the alcoholic beverages his characters are forever imbibing.
The Beautiful and the Damned starts like most of his short stories. Young man falls hopelessly in love with young, beautiful, charming, highly intelligent yet distant girl. Her beauty, her charm draw the young man in like a siren's call. Her smile, which is no more than a mask of aloofness, lets no one in and drives him mad, almost to despair.
Fitzgerald invented the prototype of the Manic Pixie Girl that is so popular in Romantic movies of today. You know the type, she's sweet, sexy, devil-may carish. She dances in the rain, sings along in movie theaters and other behavior that would be considered irresponsible and weird in real life but comes across as funny and sexy in the movies.
The man is mesmerized and the fact that she's just out of reach emotionally keeps him reaching for her. Today's aggressively eager woman might learn a thing or two from these girls. Don't chase the boy, run away and have him chase you.
Ah, but I'm hopelessly old-fashioned. I'm also happily married, but that's a topic for another time.
Most of Fitzgerald's short stories end with the boy finally catching the girl. I don't say they all end happily, they're more complicated than that, but they don't continue into married life.
The Beautiful and the Damned does. The boy in this story, Anthony Patch, does finally catch the girl he passionately pursues but that is half the story. The rest of their story is about their married life. It is not a pretty tale, it is a tragic, but fascinating one.
The interest does not lie in the storyline per se. I suppose lots of authors have written about drunk people racing toward destruction, but Fitzgerald's writing simply bubbles and flows like an icy, clear water brook down a mountain side. His insight into the human soul, his ability to lucidly display its depraved nature, its desperate longing for greater things and its inability to save itself both repels while it simultaneously draws the reader in.
Anthony and Gloria get married. They soon discover that what, on Anthony's part at least, manically attracted them to the other person was not enough to sustain a marriage.
Gloria is still lovely to look at, but her impulsive behavior,self-absorption and strong will have lost some of their allure.
We are not entirely sure why Gloria married Anthony. He perhaps bored her less than the other men who sought her attention. She doesn't seem to have much of a conscience or reason to do anything except have a good time.
And what is a good time to Anthony and Gloria? Getting pleasantly inebriated with friends. This naturally costs money and neither of them have much. Anthony is counting on an inheritance he will receive at his grandfather's death.
Anthony is both contemptuous of his grandfather and also fears him because a wrong move could cost him millions of dollars. His grandfather points out Anthony's lack of ambition and also employment. He offers to provide Anthony employment. Anthony is a writer. His grandfather can get him a job as a war correspondent. (WWI has just started).
Anthony immediately protests. He could never desert Gloria! At the same time he imagines himself in uniform and the glamour this kind of work would give him.
Gloria would also like to work. A friend who produces Hollywood movies would like to give her a screen test. But Anthony absolutely refuses to permit it. His wife will never degrade herself like that.
So what do they do? Live on what little stipend and savings they have, but mostly they spend it on alcohol and parties with friends. They also make very foolish decisions such as renting both a country house and apartment in New York City.
They see that they are acting foolish but cannot seem to stop themselves. They know they must stop holding and attending parties, but when the evening rolls around, the empty life they see around them impels them to the social amusements. Life isn't worth living until after the fifth or sixth drink.
This cannot last and it doesn't. The grandfather dies, but unfortunately he dies shortly after walking in on a typical gathering of Gloria and Anthony's and everyone there is quite sloshed. The grandfather, a strong prohibitionist, goes home, cuts Anthony from his will and dies.
Anthony retains an expensive (and I mean very expensive) lawyer to contest the will. The court case drags on for years in Bleak House-ian style. In the meantime, Anthony is drafted, travels south for training but luckily avoids actual service since the war ends before he finishes boot camp.
He returns to Gloria and they carry on.
The two slide steadily toward the abyss. A few unexpected things happen toward the end and I won't deprive you of a good read by spoiling it.
Anyone familiar with Fitzgerad's real life can see obvious autobiographical connections. I was constantly reminded of Ernest Hemingway's "A Moveable Feast" where Hemingway describes Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda in a way not very different from Anthony and Gloria.
Because they were close friends who spent a lot of time together in Paris, I found myself comparing Hemingway's writing to Fitzgerald's. I can only describe Hemingway's writing as a large, heavy, aggressive predator and Fitzgerald's as a lightweight boxer who rapidly and gracefully dances around his opponent getting jabs in that are only painful to himself. Hemingway enjoyed slaughtering his perceived enemies.
Hemingway's stories may pack a punch, but Fitzgerald's go down as smoothly as one of the alcoholic beverages his characters are forever imbibing.
September 18, 2017
I'll Be Damned
How could the same F. Scott Fitzgerald who composed such a brilliant novel in The Great Gatsby have preceded it with such a lifeless moral tale?
A bantam-cock and his haughty hussy, Anthony and Gloria Patch, squander their days for more than a decade of their lives anticipating an inheritance of a large part of the estate of Anthony's grandfather, a Rockefeller-type magnate, who excludes them from his Last Will and Testament because of their debauched style of living.
It's just hard to be captivated by two despicable anti-heroes.
The gritty sand before the pearl.
How could the same F. Scott Fitzgerald who composed such a brilliant novel in The Great Gatsby have preceded it with such a lifeless moral tale?
A bantam-cock and his haughty hussy, Anthony and Gloria Patch, squander their days for more than a decade of their lives anticipating an inheritance of a large part of the estate of Anthony's grandfather, a Rockefeller-type magnate, who excludes them from his Last Will and Testament because of their debauched style of living.
It's just hard to be captivated by two despicable anti-heroes.
The gritty sand before the pearl.
December 26, 2023
I was initially skeptical about this story – I chose it nearly randomly when presented with the list of titles, as I hadn’t looked up any of them to see what they were. However, after the first chapter, I was engrossed in the story and read it intently through the end. I was slightly disappointed when it ended! I would recommend it, but only to specific audiences mature enough to grasp the concepts, as the story would not carry the same weight. At least to me, had I not had the emotional maturity/experience to understand some more profound meanings.
July 23, 2018
' La fiera delle vanità '
Fitzgerald pubblicò questo libro nel 1922, quando aveva appena 26 anni.
Un giovane, alienato dal benessere, e una donna che si crede emancipata, ma priva di quell'emancipazione da se stessi che è condizione basilare per una vita serenamente consapevole.
"Avevamo scoperto di avere in comune molte idee fisse e stranezze e bizzarrie mentali". Senza progetti, se non quello di 'essere felici'. Con l'egocentrismo del 'tutto e subito', "pareva che nulla diventasse rancido in fretta quanto il piacere".
Una coppia del genere offre un impietoso ritratto di quella gioventù in perenne girotorndo intorno al vuoto che deve aver caratterizzato l'America 'da bere' , da cui la letteratura ha potuto trarre vari spunti.
Tema centrale: la dissipazione, che è innanzitutto dissipazione di se stessi.
Il primo sintomo che individui come loro sono in grado di percepire è la noia. Feste, balli, ubriacature : e poi? Cominciano ad avvertire che "lo stare a casa era noioso" ; "preferivano invece andarsi ad annoiare a una commedia musicale stupida o recarsi a cena con i conoscenti più insignificanti, purché ci fossero abbastanza coppie da impedire che la conversazione diventasse del tutto insopportabile".
Dalla passione allo smarrimento di due personaggi senza spessore. Ma la vicenda ci riserva ancora ben altro ; anche i sentimenti sono soggetti a trasformazione. Poi un finale di svolta, rappresentato con una punta di sarcasmo e una pennellata di pittoresco.
Il libro può facilmente coinvolgere il lettore, e anche farlo riflettere (buona l'analisi relazionale). La lettura è agevole. Ma come pare ancora lontano "Il grande Gatsby" con la sua meravigliosa scrittura!
Fitzgerald pubblicò questo libro nel 1922, quando aveva appena 26 anni.
Un giovane, alienato dal benessere, e una donna che si crede emancipata, ma priva di quell'emancipazione da se stessi che è condizione basilare per una vita serenamente consapevole.
"Avevamo scoperto di avere in comune molte idee fisse e stranezze e bizzarrie mentali". Senza progetti, se non quello di 'essere felici'. Con l'egocentrismo del 'tutto e subito', "pareva che nulla diventasse rancido in fretta quanto il piacere".
Una coppia del genere offre un impietoso ritratto di quella gioventù in perenne girotorndo intorno al vuoto che deve aver caratterizzato l'America 'da bere' , da cui la letteratura ha potuto trarre vari spunti.
Tema centrale: la dissipazione, che è innanzitutto dissipazione di se stessi.
Il primo sintomo che individui come loro sono in grado di percepire è la noia. Feste, balli, ubriacature : e poi? Cominciano ad avvertire che "lo stare a casa era noioso" ; "preferivano invece andarsi ad annoiare a una commedia musicale stupida o recarsi a cena con i conoscenti più insignificanti, purché ci fossero abbastanza coppie da impedire che la conversazione diventasse del tutto insopportabile".
Dalla passione allo smarrimento di due personaggi senza spessore. Ma la vicenda ci riserva ancora ben altro ; anche i sentimenti sono soggetti a trasformazione. Poi un finale di svolta, rappresentato con una punta di sarcasmo e una pennellata di pittoresco.
Il libro può facilmente coinvolgere il lettore, e anche farlo riflettere (buona l'analisi relazionale). La lettura è agevole. Ma come pare ancora lontano "Il grande Gatsby" con la sua meravigliosa scrittura!
April 2, 2021
The Beautiful and the Damned was the second book by F. Scott Fitzgerald and published in 1922 when he was twenty-six years old. It is said to be very much autobiographical and based on the unpredictable and volatile marriage of Fitzgerald and the very willful Zelda Sayre. The Beautiful and the Damned, coming out on the cusp of the Jazz Age, the aftermath of the Great War, and the declining economy, with the predominant theme in this book as to how wealth and power affect people. It has been described as a morality tale, a meditation on love, money, power, decadence and social commentary. The book explores the courting relationship and subsequent marriage of the fictional Anthony and Gloria Patch in the early twentieth century. Anthony Patch, while initially interested in writing, pursuing that course but relying mostly on the anticipated inheritance from his extremely wealthy grandfather, Adam Patch. However, when he was disinherited, multiple lawsuits were filed as the will was contested over a long period of years. It is within this backdrop that we watch the undoing and unraveling of Anthony Patch as he descends deeper and deeper into despair and alcoholism. It is a disturbing book on many levels as a lot of social themes are explored. It is a book that I will read again.
"The sheath that held her soul had assumed significance--that was all. She was a sun, radiant, growing, gathering light and storing it--then after an eternity pouring it forth in a glance, the fragment of a sentence, to that part of him that cherished all beauty and all illusion."
The Introduction to The Beautiful and the Damned was a very enlightening and intuitive piece written by Pagan Harleman, studying literature at Columbia College and obtaining an MFA from NYU. I would like to end with her words about the book as follows:
"The sheath that held her soul had assumed significance--that was all. She was a sun, radiant, growing, gathering light and storing it--then after an eternity pouring it forth in a glance, the fragment of a sentence, to that part of him that cherished all beauty and all illusion."
The Introduction to The Beautiful and the Damned was a very enlightening and intuitive piece written by Pagan Harleman, studying literature at Columbia College and obtaining an MFA from NYU. I would like to end with her words about the book as follows:
"'The Beautiful and the Dammed' is Fitzgerald's least known novel, yet it provides fascinating insight into his development as a writer and his evolution as a person. Stylistically, it functions as the intermediate step between the unfocused but exuberant vitality of his debut novel, 'This Side of Paradise,' and the superb craftmanship of his third and in many ways, his greatest book, 'The Great Gatsby.'"
May 11, 2012
I really enjoyed The Great Gatsby so I was looking forward to this, being especially lured in by the fabulous title. Sadly, this turned out to be the only good thing about the book as it turns out that reading about bored, boring people tooling about being bored is incredibly boring. So boring, in fact, that I've even bored myself writing this, so I won't bother with any more.
April 14, 2018
There is no doubt that F. Scott Fitzgerald can handle language. He writes in such a delicious manner that he can keep you going for a long time on that alone, no substance required. That is exactly what he does for the first half of The Beautiful and the Damned. I fully admit that I became weary of this novel by the halfway point, then, in that manner that is also so very Fitzgerald, he began to focus the story and I was lured to go forward to the end.
If any author can invent characters that are unappealing in themselves, Fitzgerald is the guy. I found absolutely nothing redeeming in either Anthony Patch or his wife, Gloria. The two of them are pretty much the epitome of spoiled, selfish, wasteful lives, people who contribute nothing and suck up everything around them. If we are meant at any point to feel sorry for them, it was a miss for me. We watch them deteriorate from a point that might have seemed itself to be rock bottom.
Gloria is a woman who depends 100% on her looks, her beauty, to carry her through life. Anthony is a man who feels no need to accomplish anything in life because he believes he is going to inherit millions from his grandfather. As a result, they live lives devoid of any meaning or purpose. Gloria is too selfish to want children, Anthony is too self-centered to stoop to work. You can’t help thinking that society and their families have set these two up for failure, and failure in a worse form than mere financial failure.
I read this too quickly on the heels of Tender is the Night. I have Fitzgerald burnout. I’m glad he wrote Gatsby, otherwise I think I would not be able to regard him as a great writer, but only a sufficient one. I always hate closing a book and saying to myself, “glad that is behind me.”
If any author can invent characters that are unappealing in themselves, Fitzgerald is the guy. I found absolutely nothing redeeming in either Anthony Patch or his wife, Gloria. The two of them are pretty much the epitome of spoiled, selfish, wasteful lives, people who contribute nothing and suck up everything around them. If we are meant at any point to feel sorry for them, it was a miss for me. We watch them deteriorate from a point that might have seemed itself to be rock bottom.
Gloria is a woman who depends 100% on her looks, her beauty, to carry her through life. Anthony is a man who feels no need to accomplish anything in life because he believes he is going to inherit millions from his grandfather. As a result, they live lives devoid of any meaning or purpose. Gloria is too selfish to want children, Anthony is too self-centered to stoop to work. You can’t help thinking that society and their families have set these two up for failure, and failure in a worse form than mere financial failure.
I read this too quickly on the heels of Tender is the Night. I have Fitzgerald burnout. I’m glad he wrote Gatsby, otherwise I think I would not be able to regard him as a great writer, but only a sufficient one. I always hate closing a book and saying to myself, “glad that is behind me.”
October 1, 2018
A thousand taxis would yawn at a thousand corners, and only to him was that kiss forever lost and done. In a thousand guises Thais would hail a cab and turn up her face for loving. And her pallor would be virginal and lovely, and her kiss chaste as the moon...
Can anyone write as gorgeously as Fitzgerald about illusion and the ephemeral nature of beauty, loss of love and failure, toxic marriages and breakdowns?
The first time I started this book, it didn't work for me. But it's been nagging at the margins of my consciousness and so I went back to it via an audiobook and this time we clicked. So much so, in fact, that I had to get the book out again as there are passages that really deserve to be read - slowly - rather than just listened to.
In lots of ways, FSF is writing the same book over and over again: this one has elements of This Side of Paradise and looks forward to Tender is the Night, the latter my favourite book of his. This still feels young and a bit uneven in its craft: the 'play scenes' don't really work and feel somewhat awkward; the shifting emphases on Gloria and Anthony, especially the long stretch during which he's in the army, can make the storyline feel a bit ragged - but there are places where the mature Fitzgerald comes startlingly into focus: Gloria's flight to the station at night, her moments of transcendence, the slow breakdown at the end.
And this is funny! FSF's irony makes a fine showing here, and there are places that had me sniggering out loud (Richard Caramel and 'The Demon Lover'!) But the mood overall shifts between glamorous optimism and an kind of aching melancholy. This is no morality tale and is probably not for readers who need to like characters to enjoy a book.
I find it fascinating that for all the constrictions on women at the time, in Fitzgerald's books they somehow survive better than the male protagonists - a biased (and self-pitying?) commentary on Fitzgerald's own marriage? Not quite the story Zelda tells in her 'Save Me the Waltz'.
In any case, I loved this book: it sets up its characters as wealthy, beautiful, privileged, educated (the men, at least), imbued with imagination and lovely dreams only to have them squander everything from money to love, illusions overturned, harsh reality crushing them. Gorgeous, glorious writing from Fitzgerald.
May 24, 2021
Maybe 2.5. I didn't love this one. It felt messy and poorly structured in comparison with The Great Gatsby, and the characters really didn't grab me.
June 7, 2013
Anthony is young, lazy, handsome, and bored with the world. He spends his days having meals with his companions, Maury and Richard, and participating in the art of 'doing nothing'. When Richard introduces Anthony to his cousin Gloria, the world is suddenly a bit less boring.
Gloria is beautiful, with childish features and, like Anthony, bored easily. But Anthony is the first man in a long string of dull romances that she does not tire of. The two marry and are at the height of their lives.
But Anthony and Gloria are almost too much of alike to be compatible. Both are incessantly bored and restless, neither wanting to get a job but continuing to spend money lavishly.
The Beautiful and Damned is accurately named, as it follows the slow but steady decline of a middle-upper class 1920's couple.
I've said it before and I'll say it again; I love F. Scott Fitzgerald. I will read anything he writes and am unable to dislike it. His stories seem rather pointless at first but become something more as the novel goes on. (Sort of. I don't really have a reason for loving the guy so much. Other people might think differently.)
He writes a tale almost frighteningly similar to his own sad life to come; a failing marriage, a secret affair, Anthony's addiction to alcohol, Gloria's growing mental unstability, etc. Scott heavily takes his own life experiences out and into the book. It's as if he's foreshadowing his own demise.
Anyway, Fitzgerald makes unlikeable characters surprisingly likeable. I'm mostly talking about the defiant, sassy as hell Gloria. Anthony can go jump off a building for all I care. Gloria's such a naive, unsympathetic character that I can't help but adore her simply for her moments of weird outbursts and occasional sass. She's spoiled and at times unreasonable but there's just something about her that I like.
Anthony had a problem with not being able to say 'no' or to stand up for himself. I sympathized with him at first but he grew to be a real dick (Caramel -snickers-).
Once again, Fitzgerald has written an enjoyable novel of the 1920's, proving that boredom and laziness can be a dangerous habit with unpleasant consequences.
May 12, 2017
What is special about this novel is the author’s ability to make the most despicable of characters interesting. The reader is jogged into another world. There are two central characters – Anthony and Gloria. I never came close to feeling even the slightest pinch of empathy for either. Their values are opposite to my own. I sat and watched, fixated, glued to the end, but not for a second thinking that either my views or theirs would change. It is like watching a train crash.
So why did I watch? I watched because Fitzgerald, through his words, has the ability to capture an era, a group of people and places as through a movie camera. We observe millions of small thing each perfectly portrayed - light slanting through blinds, nasty arguments, NYC on a hot summer night, cocktail parties with insipid, meaningless chatter. The reader recognizes a world that does exist. I liked this realism and it is this that drew me to the book. It is the author’s writing that I like.
At the same time, the writing is definitely patchy. There are sections that are a total bore. The beginning is horrible. It took me quite a while before I knew I would not abandon the book.
Anthony is lazy, self-centered and shallow. Gloria she is lazy, self-centered and shallow too. Anthony does not want a vocation; he can’t possibly think of anything he wants to do. No goals and no aspirations, except maybe having a beautiful wife by his side, alcohol in unlimited quantity and being entertained by others. Gloria, for her beauty is everything. Her guiding principle is to never do anything for another. You don’t give a damn about me and I don’t give a damn about you – that is her life philosophy in a nutshell. The two are married. They are waiting for an inheritance from Anthony’s grandfather. An inheritance that will give them millions and insure that they need never work or do anything that doesn’t please them. And if that dream comes true, what then?
There is humor to be found in the lines. It is cynical. It is full of irony. Intellectualism is scoffed at. Here follow some examples:
-They were in love with generalities.
-Happiness is only the first seconds after the alleviation of misery.
-I don’t care about truth; I want happiness.
-I don’t want to spend money in driblets.
-His imagination was almost incapable of sustaining a dialog.
-Everyone had something to talk about and they all enjoyed it. (This was about war.)
Not all of the humor is serious though. Try this:
-10 o’clock bumped stuffily into 11.
What I am saying again, in just another way, is that the writing has a style of its own and it is special.
Just so you are warned - the book is a product of its own time. It was published in 1922 and draws the era before and after the First World War. It has racist lines. What is assumed and taken for granted then does not represent how we think today. Well, for most of us.
The audiobook is narrated by William Dufris. He turns this into a theatre production. I would have preferred a simple reading of the lines. He dramatizes; he interprets the text for you. I’d rather think for myself. (My trick for getting around this is to repeat the lines in my head, thereby squashing the narrator’s exasperating intonations.) I have to admit though, that at times he did have me laughing. I kind of got used to the narration; while at the beginning it drove me nuts, by the end I was desensitized.
So what am I thinking as I complete the book? You simply cannot change people! Is that what Fitzgerald wanted to say? I have read that the book is based on his life with Zelda. Is he observing and recording? The book certainly has something to say about work and life goals, but this message is so obvious there has to be more.
So why did I watch? I watched because Fitzgerald, through his words, has the ability to capture an era, a group of people and places as through a movie camera. We observe millions of small thing each perfectly portrayed - light slanting through blinds, nasty arguments, NYC on a hot summer night, cocktail parties with insipid, meaningless chatter. The reader recognizes a world that does exist. I liked this realism and it is this that drew me to the book. It is the author’s writing that I like.
At the same time, the writing is definitely patchy. There are sections that are a total bore. The beginning is horrible. It took me quite a while before I knew I would not abandon the book.
Anthony is lazy, self-centered and shallow. Gloria she is lazy, self-centered and shallow too. Anthony does not want a vocation; he can’t possibly think of anything he wants to do. No goals and no aspirations, except maybe having a beautiful wife by his side, alcohol in unlimited quantity and being entertained by others. Gloria, for her beauty is everything. Her guiding principle is to never do anything for another. You don’t give a damn about me and I don’t give a damn about you – that is her life philosophy in a nutshell. The two are married. They are waiting for an inheritance from Anthony’s grandfather. An inheritance that will give them millions and insure that they need never work or do anything that doesn’t please them. And if that dream comes true, what then?
There is humor to be found in the lines. It is cynical. It is full of irony. Intellectualism is scoffed at. Here follow some examples:
-They were in love with generalities.
-Happiness is only the first seconds after the alleviation of misery.
-I don’t care about truth; I want happiness.
-I don’t want to spend money in driblets.
-His imagination was almost incapable of sustaining a dialog.
-Everyone had something to talk about and they all enjoyed it. (This was about war.)
Not all of the humor is serious though. Try this:
-10 o’clock bumped stuffily into 11.
What I am saying again, in just another way, is that the writing has a style of its own and it is special.
Just so you are warned - the book is a product of its own time. It was published in 1922 and draws the era before and after the First World War. It has racist lines. What is assumed and taken for granted then does not represent how we think today. Well, for most of us.
The audiobook is narrated by William Dufris. He turns this into a theatre production. I would have preferred a simple reading of the lines. He dramatizes; he interprets the text for you. I’d rather think for myself. (My trick for getting around this is to repeat the lines in my head, thereby squashing the narrator’s exasperating intonations.) I have to admit though, that at times he did have me laughing. I kind of got used to the narration; while at the beginning it drove me nuts, by the end I was desensitized.
So what am I thinking as I complete the book? You simply cannot change people! Is that what Fitzgerald wanted to say? I have read that the book is based on his life with Zelda. Is he observing and recording? The book certainly has something to say about work and life goals, but this message is so obvious there has to be more.
February 20, 2008
I found this book fascinating and also really problematic. Fitzgerald's class prejudices and racism are on parade, and it's a horrifying parade. It's much less censored than in *Gatsby*, and in that sense it's more interesting. Fitzgerald surveys and mocks different "types," social and racial, and in that catalog we glimpse what moves and terrifies *his* kind. So when his hero and heroine start to come apart, we understand that it's bigger than Anthony's alcoholism or Gloria's spending . . . there is something rotten at the core of their world.
It's really interesting to note how Anthony's troubles presage Fitzgerald's own. These are the best and most convincing parts of the book, too. Actually, the degeneracy is a bit harrowing at times, but sometimes I enjoy a good harrowing.
Fitzgerald really understands both privilege and failure, and so if you're interested in this combination, The Beautiful and Damned is an excellent exploration of the two.
It's really interesting to note how Anthony's troubles presage Fitzgerald's own. These are the best and most convincing parts of the book, too. Actually, the degeneracy is a bit harrowing at times, but sometimes I enjoy a good harrowing.
Fitzgerald really understands both privilege and failure, and so if you're interested in this combination, The Beautiful and Damned is an excellent exploration of the two.
May 27, 2007
Fitzgerald left me gasping for breath, depressed at the end of the novel. The demise of Gloria and Anthony Patch and their ill-fated relationship incredibly drawn out. But the intricacies of each character is highly developed. I thought I was actually friends with these characters. It's an excellent read though it's not the most action-packed. I loved the dense descriptives, and the way he portrays Gloria's vanity: "Beauty is only to be admired, only to be loved -- to be harvested carefully and then flung at a chosen lover like a gift of roses. It seems to me, so far as I can judge clearly at all, that my beauty should be used like that... " (329).
October 24, 2022
“Everything always gets mussed.”
I find I’m firmly in the camp that enjoys reading characters I don’t admire; characters who as people in real life, I wouldn’t touch with a ten-foot pole. We all have flaws and foibles, even a dark side, and it’s fun to explore that in fiction.
The beautiful and damned are Anthony and Gloria, born into not just privilege, but the absolute conviction that privilege was their destiny. This is their story; their life of love, leisure and an abundance of liquor.
Of course bad things happen to them, as they are wont to do, regardless of our money and beauty. We watch these two ride the ups and downs, stubbornly focused on their own north star. You feel a little conflict in them: is it really okay to be so selfish? Still it’s a state they continuously return to.
“They rejoiced happily, gay again with reborn irresponsibility.”
What keeps the reader going is Fitzgerald’s sparkling prose. Once in a while, someone has an epiphany, and when they do, the words can shine with clarity:
“He was wondering at the unreality of ideas, at the fading radiance of existence, and at the little absorptions that were creeping avidly into his life, like rats into a ruined house.”
And even tender beauty:
"Her voice seemed as much a part of the night as the drowsy breeze stirring the wide brim of her hat.”
In that this is a story of the messed-up lives of the truly objectionable, it reminds me of Fitzgerald’s Tender Is the Night. But I liked this better. Maybe by the time he wrote that one, he had honed the shallowness of his characters to such a point that it wasn’t interesting anymore. Here, they aren’t quite as jaded, quite as unpleasant. They struggle, and your heart goes out to them, a little anyway, when you don’t want to slap them upside the head.
“Why do they make spring a young girl, why does that illusion dance and yodel its way for three months through the world’s preposterous barrenness. Spring is a lean old plough horse with its ribs showing--it’s a pile of refuse in a field, parched by the sun and the rain to an ominous cleanliness.”
I find I’m firmly in the camp that enjoys reading characters I don’t admire; characters who as people in real life, I wouldn’t touch with a ten-foot pole. We all have flaws and foibles, even a dark side, and it’s fun to explore that in fiction.
The beautiful and damned are Anthony and Gloria, born into not just privilege, but the absolute conviction that privilege was their destiny. This is their story; their life of love, leisure and an abundance of liquor.
Of course bad things happen to them, as they are wont to do, regardless of our money and beauty. We watch these two ride the ups and downs, stubbornly focused on their own north star. You feel a little conflict in them: is it really okay to be so selfish? Still it’s a state they continuously return to.
“They rejoiced happily, gay again with reborn irresponsibility.”
What keeps the reader going is Fitzgerald’s sparkling prose. Once in a while, someone has an epiphany, and when they do, the words can shine with clarity:
“He was wondering at the unreality of ideas, at the fading radiance of existence, and at the little absorptions that were creeping avidly into his life, like rats into a ruined house.”
And even tender beauty:
"Her voice seemed as much a part of the night as the drowsy breeze stirring the wide brim of her hat.”
In that this is a story of the messed-up lives of the truly objectionable, it reminds me of Fitzgerald’s Tender Is the Night. But I liked this better. Maybe by the time he wrote that one, he had honed the shallowness of his characters to such a point that it wasn’t interesting anymore. Here, they aren’t quite as jaded, quite as unpleasant. They struggle, and your heart goes out to them, a little anyway, when you don’t want to slap them upside the head.
“Why do they make spring a young girl, why does that illusion dance and yodel its way for three months through the world’s preposterous barrenness. Spring is a lean old plough horse with its ribs showing--it’s a pile of refuse in a field, parched by the sun and the rain to an ominous cleanliness.”
October 2, 2018
picked up and read when i went through a 'i want to read all the classics!' phase. also, the writing in this just cemented my fangirl feelings for fitzgerald.
Want to read
February 4, 2021Accidentally deleted my pre-review but I thought this book was called "The Beautiful and The Damned" until like two days ago-
December 9, 2012
Mi domando se Fitzgerald scrivendo Belli e Dannati non stesse delineando con largo anticipo il crollo della sua esistenza. Mi domando se Fitzgerald, guardandosi allo specchio, non vedesse riflesso lo sguardo sanguinante di Anthony Patch. Mi domando se, rileggendo le parti dedicate alle descrizioni di Gloria, non riscoprisse ogni volta tutto quello che amava e odiava di Zelda.
Se dovessimo rispondere a questi quesiti basandoci sul flusso incalzante, perfetto, naturale della scrittura e sull'evidente e destabilizzante sfogo riversato in ogni pagina, allora dovremmo indubbiamente arrenderci al fatto che questo romanzo non è altro che l'auto-indagine turbolenta di un uomo perfettamente consapevole della propria fragilità.
Nonostante questo, però, riesce ad essere squallidamente sincero: non c'è nulla che non dica, non c'è un solo dettaglio scabroso della pigra esistenza di Anthony e Gloria che lui ometta. Anzi, preferisce denudarli entrambi, mostrandoli come vittime impotenti dei loro sentimenti e vizi, perfettamente curvati sotto il peso soffocante della noia, così giovani eppure soggetti ad un'inevitabile caducità.
Belli e Dannati è una storia che non vorremmo leggere, è una storia che infrange le speranze, è una storia che illude e disillude con tempestività crudele. In Belli e Dannati è descritto un amore che non sa durare e che lotta debolmente finendo col soccombere all'ebrezza e all'incapacità di aggirare guerre, povertà e ricchezza; in Belli e Dannati è descritto un uomo che vorrebbe tante di quelle cose e le ottiene tutte, per poi perderle in tanti piccoli e atroci modi; in Belli e Dannati è descritta una donna bellissima che vorrebbe rimanere tale per sempre, oltre il tempo e i tormenti, una donna bellissima e volubile che preferirebbe non amare mai davvero, anche quando finisce col farlo sfrenatamente raggiungendo un punto di non ritorno.
E' un romanzo limpido sotto ogni punto di vista, tranne che in uno: l'intenzione.
Qual è la vera intenzione dell'autore? Condannare l'inettitudine o giustificarla? Slanciare l'amore verso vette spesso taciute o denigrarlo?
L'epilogo vuole stare ad indicare una punizione o un sollievo?
Per questo capolavoro, quindi, dovremmo condannare o perdonare Francis Scott Fitzgerald?
Non so voi, ma io sento che potrei perdonargli tutto.
February 6, 2023
Every once in a while I will see a 2-star review for Hamlet, or Pride & Prejudice, or some such, and I will laugh at the hubris. That fact alone may explain why this is a 3 rather than a 2-star review. I fear people scoffing at me the way I scoff at those ridiculous 2-stars-for-Hamlet fools. So my fragile ego, and the fact that Scott could write the hell out of sentence, make this a 3-star. There were sentences so perfect that I sighed with something approaching arousal. (Yes, great writing turns me on. Go ahead and judge me, but as a fetish advanced literary craftsmanship is rather tame.) The structure and storyline in The Beautiful and Damned, on the other hand, made me sigh only with vexation. Gloria and Anthony are horrible characters. I don't say that because they are bad people or because I did not like them. They are bad people, and I did not like them, but often I enjoy reading about bad people I don't like. No, Gloria and Anthony are bad characters because they are one-note, charmless, vapid and half-formed. They are, simply, not interesting. This is a couple that makes Vanessa and Nick Lachey seem like Simone de Beauvoir and Jean Paul Sartre. What happens to them does not matter and I did not have the backstory (or the story) to vest me in their outcomes. Was I rooting for them to die in ditches covered with suppurating sores? Yeah, maybe. But I wasn't rooting with real gusto because I just did not care enough to bring any gusto to the party. The reading of this book brought on feelings of impatience and lethargy. I am no literary critic, but I am pretty sure those are bad reader reactions. Things improved in the last 75ish pages, but the improvement did not significantly redeem the whole. One good thing about the end of the book, the introduction of Dot made me realize there could be a character with less appeal than Gloria.
Also, it is worth noting that Scott really toned down his racism and antisemitism in Gatsby and This Side of Paradise. Both were on regular and appalling display here. It is physically uncomfortable to read parts of this book even when you go in knowing that Fitzgerald was a White Power kinda guy.
Also, it is worth noting that Scott really toned down his racism and antisemitism in Gatsby and This Side of Paradise. Both were on regular and appalling display here. It is physically uncomfortable to read parts of this book even when you go in knowing that Fitzgerald was a White Power kinda guy.
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