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May 31, 2011

Brian rated it:

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 po More...

0 comments like (7 people liked it)

Jan 21, 2009

Briynne rated it:

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 fo More...

1 comment like (8 people liked it)

Aug 16, 2007

Ashley rated it:

I didn't like this novel as well as the other Fitzgerald works I've read, though that's not to say that I didn't like it at all. It just seems too preachy and predictable at times. And as a warning, it's kind of heavy. You feel as though you're part of the downward spiral of the main character.

The novel begins by briefly describing Anthony Patch's childhood and youth. As it moves into his time at college, it becomes more elaborate. Interestingly, Anthony does not seem like a cha More...

1 comment like (4 people liked it)

Jan 17, 2012

Also, Safety Math rated it:

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 proverbial 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 More...

0 comments like (7 people liked it)

Mar 19, 2008

Jill rated it:

I still think that Fitzgerald is one of the most fantastic writers of the 20th century. His books are romantic and introspective in a way that has been almost completely lost to the contemporary moment. He writes of two people in this book who are almost synonymous with the age they lived in whose story is summed up in the title in a way that is not revealed to the reader until the book's end - The Beautiful and the Damned, a metaphor for the US in the '20s and '30s - a culture at its highest, More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Feb 20, 2008

Elena rated it:

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 More...

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May 27, 2007

Julia rated it:

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 care More...

1 comment like (4 people liked it)

Jun 27, 2007

Afshi rated it:

It’s easy to dismiss this book as one of Fitzgerald’s lesser novels, but it’s actually a gem and I like it much more than The Great Gatsby. This follows the lives of two characters as they come together in a time filled with drinking and dancing, and fall apart when vanity and alcoholism take over in later years. The story is extremely descriptive written with meticulous attention to detail, and often moves between being manic; brilliant and exciting, to being depressive with illustrations of ch More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 04, 2012

Melinda rated it:

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Sep 11, 2011

Max rated it:

The Beautiful and Damned was written by F. Scott Fitzgerald before he wrote The Great Gatsby. The book gives very good in site into Fitzgerald's personal life through the main characters Anthony Patch and his wife Gloria. Anthony's and Gloria's relationship is very trying on both of them, although they both come from rich families and are accustomed to lavished life styles, they have very little money as inheritance and Anthony has to struggle as a writer (a job he loathes) to make ends meet. An More...

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Aug 24, 2011

Sophia rated it:

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Jul 01, 2011

Steve rated it:

I gave it a fair chance, a hundred pages, before deciding this was not a book for me. The good part, main character Anthony is convincingly and well made. The problems? As a person, I find Anthony so superficial, as intended, that I not only feel no connection to him, but extraordinarily rarely for me, I find him so thoroughly unlikeable that I haven’t the smallest desire to find out what happens to him. Which brings me to another complaint. I’m not an action fanatic, but in a hundred pages More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 30, 2011

Kimberly added it

So... The Beautiful and Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald. I thought I needed something "easy" after War and Peace. It is certainly an uncomplicated story and unfolds as most in a series of predictable and regular problems. It's deeply American from the "Now that you're here you ought to do something... accomplish something." To the, "She would be twnety-nine in February. The month assumed an ominous and inescapale significance-making her wonder, through these nebulous half- More...

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Jun 27, 2011

Marigold rated it:

I love, love, love Fitzgerald - it's official - even though I almost always loathe his characters! Also, I'm often fascinated by books set in times of transition, such as this novel, set at the end of World War I. There was a time before, and a time after. Anthony & Gloria are of the time before. They are beautiful, idle, useless people who believe they will live forever off their family investments & an expected inheritance from Anthony's grandfather. Between the two of them, they dabble in the More...

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Apr 12, 2011

Rory rated it:

I love love love Fitzgerald... I feel compelled to put that out there before writing any sort of review. Just being honest about where the love lies here. And with that out of the way--

I loved this book.

One of the things I really do love about his work is the way Fitzgerald pokes fun at the idea of entitlement even as he shows how entitlement is an end result of success. The characters in this novel each struggle with the idea of what to do with one's self when there is no " More...

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Feb 18, 2011

Starry rated it:

This is my equal favourite book of all time (tied with Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray) these are excellent companion books based on theme, and offer the most pertinent moral lessons for myself, as I am prone to be like the characters, alas!
Unfortunately I am too much like Becky Sharp of Vanity Fair, and a little too like Anthony Patch from the Beautiful and Damned.

One of my great disappointments in life is that Fitzgerald's other novels, especially The Great Gatsby, More...

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Jan 06, 2011

Richard rated it:

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0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 05, 2011

jenn rated it:

What a freakin' trainwreck! Reading Fitzgerald always makes me want to pick up a bunch of highly sensational Fitzgerald biographies. Ultimately, I don't, so as not to spoil the plots of the novels.

Anyway, this book. I can see why people hate it. The main characters are hateable in the extreme, though - and feel free to mock me for this - I really thought Gloria was ultimately the more sympathetic of the two. Ironic, because I love a good cocktail? Speaking of which, Fitzgerald su More...

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Jul 10, 2010

Laura rated it:

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Oct 13, 2009

Karen rated it:

As with all of Fitzgerald's books, I'm amazed at how timeless the characters are. Any of these people could be living today. It is also fun to read about an old New York that seems very familiar. My favorite passage, about fully jaded, hard drinking 30 something year olds:

As the conversation continued in stilted commas, Anthony wondered that to him and Bloeckman both this girl had once been the most stimulating, the most tonic personality they had ever known - and now the three sat More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 31, 2011

Lis rated it:

it didn't start with a bang. in fact, i started liking it when a conversation suddenly became a script. it was cute, in a way.

he's an heir to a fortune, he just doesn't have it quite yet, but his grandfather's old. she's beautiful, and she knows it. she's never met anyone as beautiful as herself. they're a couple many people would dream of being or at least would envy, even if secretly. he doesn't want to work. ever. she is selfish. they both admit it. when you're rich and beautiful More...

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Feb 25, 2011

A. rated it:

This book could have been at least 150 pages shorter and I think I might have given it a better rating.

I've always preferred Fitzgerald to Hemingway, mostly because Hemingway adds a turd frosting of misogyny to Fitzgerald's cake of racial and class prejudices, and because while they both write some condemnable characters, only Fitzgerald actually takes the time to y'know, condemn them. It is no different in The Beautiful and the Damned. Anthony and Gloria Patch are spoiled, lazy, a More...

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Aug 21, 2010

Beth Anne rated it:

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Dec 21, 2011

Andrada rated it:

The Beautiful and Damned is a novel laced with irony and cynicism. Its characters are not admirable or easy to relate to. They do have a few occasional moments of weakness which makes them not completely despicable. The style reminded me to a certain extent of Thackeray and the cynical British writers of the 19th century and I felt that it captured perfectly the way of thinking of young American intellectuals who suffer from the same ironic affectations to this day. It is remarkable how little t More...

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Nov 20, 2009

Kelly rated it:

This is the third novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald that I am embarking on and I hope it is a charm! I absolutely LOVED The Great Gatsby but was somewhat disappointed with Tender is the Night, so I cross my fingers and hope...

I am done and I am pleasently surprised. Although Gatsby still remains on top as far as my favorite Fitzgerald novel, I was able to obtain interest in this book from start to finish.
The most pleasurable element in this work is not the story itself or the chara More...

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Jun 28, 2007

Krista rated it:

I can't help but compare a bit to Gatsby - TB&D certainly paints a darker picture of the times. The characters here are less naive, more deliberate, making them less likeable. Nonetheless I loved the progression (or regression) of this disdainful pair and how their story unfolded. Gloria and Anthony are so blinded by the idea of themselves, they end up with nothing but false hope and lots of champagne, which makes for a fantastically fabulous tragedy.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 05, 2010

Ryan rated it:

I keep going back and forth with what I think of this book – do I give it 2 stars because it was a slog, it was boring, and nothing ever happens; or do I give it 3 because he does technically develop his theme, it has its place in history, and it’s psychological literature and not Twilight?

You can tell from the first page that Fitzgerald’s style with this novel is different than his others. With Gatsby he demonstrates total economy of language: tight, accurate, slightly ambiguous, a More...

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Oct 16, 2010

Daveski rated it:

A portrait of a young couple living in the Jazz Age, from their initial meeting to their inevitable downward spiral brought on by their years of excess and luxury. Fitzgerald pulls a neat trick in that he makes his characters likeable, even sympathetic, even though they are shallow and weak and petty. I often felt bad for Gloria and Anthony, even though they brought all of their problems on themselves.

Beautifully written, and full of great little asides and witticisms, this was a rea More...

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Aug 10, 2010

Terri rated it:

I love the Roaring 20s!!
I took a small break from this book and finally finished it today!

I cannot believe they plan to create a Hollywood movie on this book - but based on Fitzgerald's real wife, Zelda (keira Knightley!) Yet the book isn't about Zelda at all.. weird!

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People invariably chose inimitable people to imitate. (page 71)

Considered one of Fitzgerald's least known novels - I would still consider this More...

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Jul 01, 2010

Madeline rated it:

As you may know, Reader, I struggled to get through George Eliot's masterpiece (cue massive eyeroll) Middlemarch. Refer to my review for a detailed explanation, or just read the next sentence of this one. It was boring, basically. There isn't really a plot, it's just a description of some people going about their daily lives with nothing very dramatic ever happening. The same can be said of the plot (term is used loosely here) of The Beautiful and Damned: rich people are miserable, make poor mar More...

5 comments like (6 people liked it)

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