Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

read book* *Different edition

The Beautiful and Damned

by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Pagan Harleman (Introduction)

3.76 of 5 stars 3.76 · rating details · 13,129 ratings · 975 reviews

The Beautiful and Damned, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is part of the Barnes & Noble Classicsseries, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of Barnes & Noble Classics:
All editions are beautifully...more The Beautiful and Damned, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is part of the Barnes & Noble Classics series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of Barnes & Noble Classics:
All editions are beautifully designed and are printed to superior specifications; some include illustrations of historical interest. Barnes & Noble Classics pulls together a constellation of influences—biographical, historical, and literary—to enrich each reader's understanding of these enduring works.
In 1921 F. Scott Fitzgerald was twenty-five and heralded as the most promising writer of his generation, owing to the success of his first novel This Side of Paradise. Recently married to the girl of his dreams, the former Zelda Sayre, Fitzgerald built upon his sudden prosperity with The Beautiful and the Damned, a cautionary tale of reckless ambition and squandered talent set amid the glitter of Jazz Age New York.

The novel chronicles the relationship of Anthony Patch, a Harvard-educated, aspiring writer, and his beautiful young wife, Gloria. While they wait for Anthony’s grandfather to die and pass his millions on to them, the young couple enjoys an endless string of parties, traveling, and extravagance. Beginning with the pop and fizz of life itself, The Beautiful and the Damned quickly evolves into a scathing chronicle of a dying marriage and a hedonistic society in which beauty is all too fleeting.

A fierce parable about the illusory quality of dreams, the intractable nature of reality, and the ruin wrought by time, The Beautiful and the Damned eerily anticipates the dissipation and decline that would come to the Fitzgeralds themselves before the decade had run its course.

Pagan Harleman studied literature at Columbia College, then traveled extensively in the Middle East and West Africa before receiving an MFA from New York University’s graduate film program. While at NYU she made several award-winning shorts and received the Dean’s Fellowship, the Steven Tisch Fellowship, and a Director’s Craft Award.(less)

Paperback, 416 pages

Published January 1st 2006 by Barnes & Noble Classics (first published 1922)

more details... edit details

Get a copy:

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

This book is not yet featured on Listopia. Add this book to your favorite list »

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 3,000)

filter | sort: default (?) | rating details

Dec 09, 2012 Jennifer Messina rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: acquisti-ottobre-2012, americani, génération-perdue

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'eviden...more
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.
(less)

8 likes · like · see review

Sep 19, 2012 Chiara Pagliochini rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: letteratura-americana, classici-americani

« In questa calamità furono come due pesciolini rossi in una boccia dalla quale fosse stata tolta tutta l’acqua; non riuscivano neanche a nuotare l’uno verso l’altro ».

Non posso dire – ed è bene precisarlo nella prima riga – che questo romanzo si sia fatto leggere con grande simpatia. E non è colpa di Fitzgerald né, tanto meno, della sua penna. La colpa sta, semmai, nell’esser riuscito a comunicare in pieno il suo messaggio: un messaggio di decadenza, di sfacelo morale che lascia il lettore fia...more « In questa calamità furono come due pesciolini rossi in una boccia dalla quale fosse stata tolta tutta l’acqua; non riuscivano neanche a nuotare l’uno verso l’altro ».

Non posso dire – ed è bene precisarlo nella prima riga – che questo romanzo si sia fatto leggere con grande simpatia. E non è colpa di Fitzgerald né, tanto meno, della sua penna. La colpa sta, semmai, nell’esser riuscito a comunicare in pieno il suo messaggio: un messaggio di decadenza, di sfacelo morale che lascia il lettore fiaccato e insoddisfatto. Tentiamo di spiegare il perché.
In ‘Belli e dannati’ Fitzgerald racconta l’avventura matrimoniale di Adam Patch, giovane ereditiere e parassita sociale, e di Gloria Gilbert, bellissima e piena di spirito. Attraverso la descrizione del loro primo incontro e dei successivi, dei primi anni di matrimonio, di festini e case in affitto, cause, poi la guerra, e ancora feste, soldi scialacquati, abbruttimento, la penna di Fitzgerald ci conduce dalle vette della felicità possibile all’abisso della possibile infelicità.
E il lettore non avrebbe nessun problema ad accettare tutto ciò – quando mai un lettore si trova a disagio nello spiare l’abisso di un altro? – se non fosse per la sensazione che, tutto sommato, questo abisso assomiglia più a una giusta punizione che a un accanimento del fato. Sì, perché Adam e Gloria sono belli, sono intelligenti, sono ricchi. La loro vita, per giunta coronata dal reciproco amore, non manca di nulla. Di nulla. Eppure questa somma di virtù e di beni si trasforma, in appena una manciata d’anni e qualche ruga in più, in un covo di vizi e di livore. E perché tutto questo? Per il senso dell’assoluta inutilità della propria esistenza. Adam e Gloria sembrano voler dirci che, poiché la vita non ha un senso, poiché cercare un senso è faticoso e non conduce a nulla, allora tanto vale auto-distruggersi, sprofondare nell’alcool, in feste di cui non si ricorda nulla, tradire l’amore che si porta per l’altro. Non c’è un significato? Bene, allora è legittimo buttare tutto all’aria.
Ecco, io questa posizione non posso e non voglio condividerla. E non sono riuscita a capire se Fitzgerald la condividesse, se la sua rappresentazione di Adam e Gloria fosse parziale oppure oggettiva, fredda descrizione di uno sfacelo esecrabile. Non sono in genere una moralista, ma questo libro mi ha fatto scoprire di avere una morale, che si esprime perlopiù nell’assunto: ‘vuoi auto-distruggerti senza un motivo? Fallo pure, ma non aspettarti la mia compassione’.
Ecco, non c’è compassione – o almeno non ce n’è stata da parte mia – nell’osservare Gloria e Adam navigare spensieratamente verso il nulla. Anzi, più di una volta, soffocando un mezzo sbadiglio, li ho incoraggiati a spicciarsi e farla finita.

Tutto questo, voglio ripeterlo ancora una volta, non ha nulla a che fare con Fitzgerald. Il mio problema è con la storia, non con lui. Della sua penna poco si può dire senza scadere nello sviolinamento, tanto i suoi guizzi, le sue pennellate incantano e deliziano il lettore dal palato sensibile. Di lui mi piacciono soprattutto due cose: la capacità di penetrare la psicologia femminile e la dolcezza con cui sa parlare d’amore. Frasi tenere, frasi spezza-cuore, frasi che fanno fremere e spalancare gli occhioni e sorridere di tanta delicatezza. Il problema – ed è questo uno dei tristi messaggi che Fitz sembra voler comunicarci – è che a volte l’amore non basta. Nemmeno l’amore basta, quando siamo determinati ad affrettare il nostro declino. E questo è un peccato, un peccato, un peccato.

So solo, Fitz, che la prossima volta che ci vedremo, tu starai brandendo contro di me Il grande Gatsby. Ti aspetto al varco. Ti aspetto trepidante.
(less)

9 likes · like · see review

Mar 06, 2012 Tom rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, fiction

"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 wander...more

10 likes · like · see review

May 31, 2011 Brian rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 terribl...more

20 likes · like · see review

Jan 21, 2009 Briynne rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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...more

18 likes · like · see review

Aug 16, 2007 Ashley rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 character that will...more

4 likes · like · see review

Mar 04, 2012 Rick rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

Decades before the Who sang, “Hope I die before I get old” there was Fitzgerald and The Beautiful and Damned. For its two main characters 25 is middle aged and the curtain of old age drops rudely and irrevocably at 30. Fitzgerald, still in his mid-twenties when he wrote this novel of a young couple who burn the candle too brightly at one end, thinking romantically that it is both ends, knew, as Townsend did, that “getting old” was a mental state, not a chronological one. Anthony Patch and Gloria...more Decades before the Who sang, “Hope I die before I get old” there was Fitzgerald and The Beautiful and Damned. For its two main characters 25 is middle aged and the curtain of old age drops rudely and irrevocably at 30. Fitzgerald, still in his mid-twenties when he wrote this novel of a young couple who burn the candle too brightly at one end, thinking romantically that it is both ends, knew, as Townsend did, that “getting old” was a mental state, not a chronological one. Anthony Patch and Gloria Gilbert aren’t so metaphorical in their thinking. Youth is beauty and beauty is all and being rich greases the wheels of decline by allowing life to be a party as long as one can afford it. The one end they light is the alcoholic end of fast movement, talk, and drink, intended to brush back Death’s herald to the young, rich and spoiled: Boredom. They are easily bored not because the world is so, though they stand by its meaninglessness quite determinedly as a reasonable substitute for boredom, but because they are. In the end they are without ideas or argument. They have youth and a tragically ticking clock.

The time of the novel is the second decade of the 20th century, which begins with them students, and continues into the years of the Great War, which they miss, and then on into the first years of the 20s, by which time they are in full decline, Anthony actually 30 and through almost all of his wealth, and Gloria approaching 30 and offended beyond words at being mistaken for 30. The Jazz Age is about to dawn, the Roaring Twenties about to roar, but these two are already washed up, desperately hoping for a contested will to deliver Anthony’s grandfather’s millions their way. Fitzgerald is not as polished or as succinctly brilliant as he will be in The Great Gatsby, but he impressively makes you care at least a little about two selfish people with little to recommend them beside their own sense of entitlement.

His description of Manhattan is vivid, often poetic. The dialogue mostly sparkles. If you never quite develop full tragic empathy for the two main characters you do for Fitzgerald. It is a shockingly prescient description of his own descent into alcoholism, bankruptcy, and a mental breakdown. Anthony is always re-drawing the line of reform, when he will cut back on his drinking, their reckless spending and partying, their delayed consideration of meaningful employment. They and others recognize their self-destructiveness but they ignore each other’s warnings and feel betrayed by those of their friends. They fall from drinking for pleasure to drinking for escape to drinking for numbness, from parties at the Plaza to anonymous O’Neillian bars to their own empty apartment. It is a sad, glittery tale of two wasted lives but a tragic preview of a great novelist’s end.(less)

2 likes · like · see review

Jan 17, 2012 Also, Safety Math rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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

13 likes · like · see review

Mar 19, 2008 Jill rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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, d...more

5 likes · like · see review

Feb 20, 2008 Elena rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 . . . the...more

12 likes · like · see review

May 27, 2007 Julia rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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...more

5 likes · like · see review

Jun 27, 2007 Afshi rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: amazing

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

5 likes · like · see review

May 18, 2013 Ali rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I always find Fitzgerald's books a bit slow to get into, but a well-timed beach trip meant that I was able to get through this one pretty quickly. I feel like his writing is very gossipy, which is part of the appeal but also part of what makes it hard for me to get into the story straight away. his characters often have such a large social circle that it takes awhile for me to figure out who each person is and whether I'm actually supposed to care about them.
In this book the social circle gradu...more

like · see review

May 14, 2013 Sofia rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The plot of The Beautiful and Damned is all in the title. It’s about the depressing and pitiful lives of the 1920’s upper class. More specifically, Anthony Patch and Gloria Gilbert: a newlywed couple who refuse to perform proper work and instead just wait for the death of an elderly relative so that they can inherit his vast fortune.
The whole book is pretty much a downward spiral; it's like a car accident that you can't look away from. It shared some similar themes to This Side of Paradise and...more

like · see review

May 03, 2013 Diletta rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Quello che uno si aspetta, ma forse anche di più. È un'immersione completa nella New York degli anno '20, nei suoi piaceri, nelle sue classi sociali, nel suo boom di novità. Ma non passano mai per cliché. Non vi ritroverete mai a pensare "sì, va bene, lo sappiamo". E non perché siano grandissime novità quelle offerte, ma perché sarete troppo immersi nella lettura, troppo al fianco di Anthony per pensarlo. Ma aldilà del realismo, dell'ironia, della meraviglia sintattica anche, è affascinante osse...more

like · see review

Apr 12, 2013 RC and Moon Pie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classic-lit

I simultaneously want to applaud and groan at Fitzgerald for his ending. I could see part of it coming a mile off. Not all of it, but the general idea of it.

The book works best when it mirrors the theme of Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth. You get the best scenes out of it and while they are quite good in their own right, they didn't strike me as being as good as The House of Mirth. There's an Ethan Frome reference in it, so I don't think it's much of a stretch to think Fitzgerald knew his Wha...more

like · see review

Apr 02, 2013 Matthew Lippart rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorite-classics

This is a great book. I haven't read anything by Mr. Fitzgerald before, but this has compelled me to check out his other works. This reminds me a lot of Sister Carrie and Jude the Obscure because it has the same unrelenting bleakness.

This is the story about two people who fall in love together (or at least in need with each other) while they are young and filled with dreams (although not actually happy) and it follows them over the course of the decade as their lives and hopes fall apart. Even a...more

like · see review

Mar 29, 2013 Leah rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I'm glad I read this after Tender is the Night, because if I'd gone from The Great Gatsby to The Beautiful and Damned, I'd have given up on Fitzgerald without having read his best and most redeeming novel.

FSF tells the same story over and over: the horrors of being rich, white, and bored in fin de siècle America. Boredom + money -> alcohol + other addictions -> ruin.

Fitzgerald wrote in this order:

- The Beautiful and Damned - 1922
- The Great Gatsby - 1925
- Tender is the Night - 1934

And I th...more

2 likes · like · see review

Mar 23, 2013 Rachael rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classics-i-like, meh

The problem I have with reading "classic" novels is that I feel compelled to rate them higher than I feel they should be because they're "classic". I'm going to be honest here. I read The Great Gatsby and found it brilliant and entertaining as well as thought provoking. I just found The Beautiful and the Damned depressing, and not in a deep, philosophical way either.

The problem was that the characters were wholly un-likeable. But I'm not sure if that was the point. Anthony and Gloria neithe...more

like · see review

Feb 20, 2013 Karen Laird rated it 3 of 5 stars

Could there be more any more vapid heroines than those painted for us by F. Scott Fitzgerald? Rereading _The Beautiful and the Damned_ fifteen years after college, I am reminded why my Fitzgerald-heavy American literature course sent me running headlong into a British literature specialty. Give me the intelligent heroines of George Eliot over these moronic trophy wives any day. It’s a shame that Fitzgerald didn’t incorporate any of the monumental strides that were advancing women’s lives in the...more Could there be more any more vapid heroines than those painted for us by F. Scott Fitzgerald? Rereading _The Beautiful and the Damned_ fifteen years after college, I am reminded why my Fitzgerald-heavy American literature course sent me running headlong into a British literature specialty. Give me the intelligent heroines of George Eliot over these moronic trophy wives any day. It’s a shame that Fitzgerald didn’t incorporate any of the monumental strides that were advancing women’s lives in the World War I era into this novel. Instead, he gives us a tired morality play about the transience of beauty (here, literally mythologized in Gloria, whose celestial inception destines her to be a fairy tale heroine) and the hollowness of wealth.

There are moments of insight and interest, mainly dazzling settings of New York high society. Anthony’s drunken self-loathing and impotence gets so tiresome by the end, that it is almost a relief when he finally cracks. Anthony's characterization may be the weakest part of the novel, as he proves not only unsympathetic, but also unbelievable. (When he spouts obtuse theories of poetry and aestheticism late in the work, readers must doubt that these theories are his own; after all, the only thing that Anthony has done to demonstrate literary interest throughout has been to reread his old books while drunk and fail miserably at writing a mass-market short fiction.)

At times, Fitzgerald makes what we could see as interesting experiments with the genre of the novel ¬–one chapter lapses into the form of the drama, for instance, and even his use of unheroic characters could be considered a new gesture towards realism—but overall it seems more that he was rushing and did not take the time to revise to consider the overall balance or shape of his work. We might consider _The Beautiful and the Damned_ to be a working draft of _The Great Gatsby_, as that later novel's great themes are practiced here. Nevertheless, this will remain an important book as it provides historical insight into a very narrow slice of the uppermost crust of American high society in the 1910s and early 1920s. It falls short, however, of illustrating American realist fiction at its best.
(less)

2 likes · like · see review

Jul 09, 2012 Palak rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Vain, unaccountable, and recklessly opulent, the characters in The Beautiful and Damned mirror many of the other upper class figures detailed in Fitzgerald’s other works, most notably in one of my ultimate favorites, The Great Gatsby. However, rather than simply lambasting them, Fitzgerald also unshields their more likeable qualities as well; I just couldn’t find them as easily in Anthony and Gloria. The union of these two lovers was like a meeting of lazy meets lazier. Their of love of flashy e...more

1 like · like · see review

Jun 28, 2012 N.C. rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classic-american-literature

I read this straight after reading Tender is the Night by Fitzgerald which affected me greatly. However I was very disappointed.

I confess that I genuinely didn't find this book exceptional in any way. Several times I found great chunks of the novel unnecessary and I think that this book would have benefited greatly from some editing. I found myself thinking this quite frequently in all honesty.

The plot moves very slowly but I understand that this is to make the reader feel the way the couple do...more

like · see review

Jun 25, 2012 Kyle rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I found 'The Beautiful and the Damned" to be an overall very good novel. Densely filled with whimsically lyrical prose and chock full of clever metaphors and quotable ramblings. The story chronicles the disinterested bachelordom of an American 'Aristocratic' youth and heir to his grandfather robber-baron turned reformer's fortune. He becomes infatuated with the sought-after young jazz-baby Gloria and they finally become involved and finally married, a marriage which brings no lasting fulfillment...more

like · see review

Jun 19, 2012 Alex Klimkewicz rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: drama, classics

White people bitching about their money problems pre-Great Depression. This is an interesting and (to me) engaging look at the privileged upper class of America in the 1920s, particularly a grandson heir set to inherit his grandfather's riches. He struggles with love, greed, and alcoholism as he fights for and grows embittered over the money that he is rightly due.

Funny story about this book: I started a book club with a few friends in South Korea, and the first book we chose was this one. The o...more

like · see review

Jun 18, 2012 Autumn Brady rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: my-reviewed-books

The Great Gatsby by

F. Scott Fitzgerald has gorgeous words in perfect paragraphs. It has moments of true genius and even if the story is flawed, some paragraphs are so impeccable one can't deny that the man can write. He can create characters that you want to know about. Gatsby is lovable and tragic.

In this however he created people I could care less about. I really tried but they don't have a lick of Gatsby magic.

The atmosphere is smooth and classy. After all it takes place in the jazz age. This is Fitzgerald and his wife possibly. I fell in love with the atmosphere but the characters not so much. I get it too. Life is hard even for pretty people and sometimes even harder because it's not that hard. If that makes sense? People drowned in their own greatness or potential greatness and sometimes beautiful individuals are swallowed whole because they really are quite ordinary underneath or have nothing to motivate them, and life spits them back out because they are boring. Or no one takes the time to really love them for them. Or they are selfish imbeciles. Or the thoughts of money have ruined them. They sound interesting but they are not. Bottom line: they lack authenticity. Summary: I didn't like the characters at all. So I didn't finish it.

I didn't finish it because no matter their horrible experiences or how pretty they are (or ugly. It doesn't matter), the feeling of boredom never left me. The characters were bored and it showed and I really didn't care about their first world problems or their attempts at real affection. Maybe the point is to not like them, but why spend time with people you don't like? I feel badly because I feel guilty when I can't sympathize with people even fictional characters.

I gave up, more than half way through it and I skimmed the rest. There is part of me that says I can't even rate this because I didn't finish it, but I really think it's a problem when I choose not to and potential readers should be warned.

Gatsby made me expect too much, it's Fitzgerald's work after all, and I never finished, so 3 stars.

(less)

like · see review

May 04, 2012 Alethea rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: fans of Fitzgerald, flappers, philosophers

I love Fitzgerald's writing. Love.

This book got off to a slow start for me. I actually started it a few years ago, got bored and set it down. But I picked it up again and started back at the beginning and the same thing happened again, but I kept with it and at some point it absorbed me. It was shortly after Anthony and Gloria get married and they're looking for a house. I started becoming aware of the narrator's cynical perspective on the two main characters and I began paying attention to the...more

like · see review

Jan 04, 2012 Melinda rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I'm going to be honest, I was kind of hoping this was a book about vampires... ;) No such luck there, and really by the end of this thing every question I had was unresolved, so many plot holes, so many characters to hate, so much...ugh. So I read The Great Gatsby a couple weeks ago, and I was slightly disappointed. It wasn't as mind blowing as I remember it to be in high school. This book, while flowery and pretty, made my mind hurt. Maybe I'm just not deep enough, maybe I'm expecting too much...more I'm going to be honest, I was kind of hoping this was a book about vampires... ;) No such luck there, and really by the end of this thing every question I had was unresolved, so many plot holes, so many characters to hate, so much...ugh. So I read The Great Gatsby a couple weeks ago, and I was slightly disappointed. It wasn't as mind blowing as I remember it to be in high school. This book, while flowery and pretty, made my mind hurt. Maybe I'm just not deep enough, maybe I'm expecting too much (you know, for a story to make sense, have a moral, anything!), maybe I don't understand the writing from back then.

Here's where my spoiler starts: questions I had about the story that made absolutely no sense whatsoever:

1-what the crap was the thing about Beauty and the Voice? Why did he bring that up and never go back to it? Why would you introduce that and then not end it with her death? Why did they say she would get 15 years, but in the story Gloria is at least 31? Isn't Gloria supposed to be Beauty? p.s. They said that beauty was both with looks and how beautiful her soul was, Gloria did NOT have a beautiful soul.

2-Why did she act all mad and irritated with Anthony when he kissed her, saying she never wanted to get married, and then all of a sudden they're madly in love? There's no explanation, theres no reason for her to love him any differently than the HUNDREDS of other men she's had at her fingers. Its so dumb.

3- If his grandfather is all about reforming people, why doesn't he want to help Anthony? And I don't mean with money, I mean he doesn't try to really help him at all, just judges him. And if you had ONE grandson and NO other family, and 40 MILLION dollars, don't you think you would leave him a little TINY something? I kept hoping that if Gloria and Anthony would change their ways there would be some stipulation in the will and they would get some money (of course we would never know that, since they never changed...).

4- Why did y=he talk about the problems Anthony was having with Maury and never explain WHY they weren't friend anymore, why hint at it and not explain?

5- Was Gloria pregnant or not? Why say she's sick in bed, and hint at it, and not tell?!

6- Why did he say that her cousin Dick was upset with her about Gloria saying she had no intention of reading his book and then leave it at that, he made it sound like Dick was going to take Gloria for a drive before the trial to talk about his issue (actually he made it sound like Dick was going to murder Gloria...), but no, just stick something in there for no reason once again.

7-Why would he take these seemingly lively, full of life characters, drag them through the mud, break their spirits, and NEVER have them learn their lesson? Why in the end, when he's taken everything away from them, would he all of a sudden give them 30 million dollars? WHY? Is the reader supposed to learn anything? Was the story supposed to have any purpose at all? I just don't get it!!

Okay, I think thats it. :)(less)

2 likes · like · see review

Marie 1. Gloria was to be beautiful for a period of 15 years--from age 15 to age 30. Fitzgerald wrote about this in a mock-mythological tone in order to sat...more 1. Gloria was to be beautiful for a period of 15 years--from age 15 to age 30. Fitzgerald wrote about this in a mock-mythological tone in order to satirize the importance that people place on physical beauty.

As for Gloria's soul, does a soul need to be kind or moral in order to be beautiful? You may think so, but not everybody does.

2. It's implied in a diary entry of Gloria's that she has been looking for a wealthy husband, and Anthony was expected to inherit hugely from his grandfather. It's also implied that she's getting a little too old (for the time) to stay a debutante--she needs to get married before her reputation is ruined. So, you can say Gloria is attracted to Anthony because he meets certain specifications; they also have a great deal in common, such as being "clean." As for why she rejects him, that is the easiest way to make a man desperate for your company.

3. Anthony's grandfather does make multiple attempts to help him--getting him a job interview at a stockbroking firm; offering to send him abroad as a war correspondant for any newspaper he chooses. He also sends Anthony to college and supports Anthony financially throughout his life (through the bonds (stock) that Anthony is always selling. But Anthony squanders these opportunities.

It is intended to be ironic that Anthony's grandfather is focused on helping the mass of poor people, rather than looking after his grandson's specific moral welfare.

Likely, he disinherits Anthony in order to force him to get a job and become a stronger person. But Anthony is too weak to live up to this challenge.

4. We can assume Anthony and Maury weren't friends anymore because of the incident where Anthony picked a fight with him and ran out on the restaurant bill (as well as opera tickets.) We can also assume that because Maury was dedicated to becoming more responsible, they'd drifted apart. When close friends drift apart like this in real life, they often don't discuss it, because it's too painful. Fitzgerald was adding realism to the split by describing it as he did (hinting at it, rather than laying it all out.)

5. Gloria may have been pregnant or she may have been having a mood spell. Women of that class sometimes took to their beds because they were moody, and doctors allowed them to do so because doctors gotta get paid, son.

6. Fitzgerald wanted to demonstrate that Dick took a certain grudging pleasure in driving Gloria around and taking care of her while Anthony was in the throes of late stage alcoholism. Dick had never forgiven Gloria because she hurt his pride by not reading his book; therefore, it gratified his pride to help her in various condescending ways in her time of need--it put him in a power position.

Fitzgerald adds this in as a way of completing his portrait of Dick Caramel, a man who was once a promising author but whom, through greed and vanity, became sort of a sanctimonious prig. That's why there's the scene where Anthony sees Dick has bound all his pathetic novels in leather, as if they were classics of American literature, when only one of them is any good. It makes Anthony feel cheerful and superior, even though he is a huge fucking mess, because Dick is just that pathetic and vain.

7. In real life, many interesting and worthwhile people never quite get their shit together. In this way, the novel is quite realistic. When the characters finally get their inheritance after losing everything, it's fantastically ironic, because they can never enjoy it. The point of all that (really, there are many points, it's a complicated novel) is that it's dangerous to set your heart on fantasy, and that endless pleasure can easily morph into endless boredom and dissipation if you don't have a code of conduct for living life. If you only care about yourself, you'll never be happy, because life is very transitory.(less)
Feb 21, 2013 01:06am

Melinda Hey thanks for your comments! Its been about a year since I read this, so its good to go back and remember it. :)

1. I'm guessing you must have read t...more Hey thanks for your comments! Its been about a year since I read this, so its good to go back and remember it. :)

1. I'm guessing you must have read this in an English class or something, and discussed the book because how would you know it was written as a mock-mythological satire? It just come off as weird to me, as it was a total disconnect from the rest of the book and was never referenced again. So thats why I was confused about it.

I had to laugh at "does a soul need to be kind or moral to be beautiful" comment...what then *does* constitute a beautiful soul? I don't know a single person that would look at Gloria, a selfish, mean, irresponsible, frivolous, useless person and say she was beautiful on the inside. Please, tell me what you think makes a soul beautiful?

2. Maybe for the time period, that was a way to act toward men, I don't know? When I read it though, it didn't make any sense to me. I guess I wanted to feel like she actually loved Anthony, and it didn't come off that she did (to me).

3. It definitely DID seem ironic that the grandfather reforms people and doesn't look after Anthony, that was my point. It didn't make much sense to me. His grandfather doesn't seem caring or kind, (as you would assume he would be if he wants to help people) but I can't blame him for looking at Anthony with disgust.

4. You have to "assume" thats whats going on. Thats why I didn't like it, I don't need everything laid out and told to me moment by moment, the problem was the author had led you down a path, made it out like there was more to something and then never tells you. If you were reading a mystery and the author made clues towards something like it was a big deal, you're trying to figure out what it is, that this was touched on, made you wonder and but then left. It could have been written in a totally different way then to make you have to just guess as to why he put it in there.

5. Yes, but why make you wonder? Why not clear it up so you just know if she were sick or pregnant? Its kind of a big deal if she's pregnant, so why lead you on and leave you hanging? I don't personally enjoy that, thats why I put it in the review.

6. I was more annoyed that once again he introduces something and then leaves it hanging. If he wasn't going to tell why they went for a drive (like Dick was going to talk to her about something) then don't introduce it at all.

7. Yes, in real life people usually don't have it together. But who cares to read about it?! If someone wrote a book today about how they did nothing with their life but squander it and have no redeeming qualities, you'd be like: this is garbage. Most of the best stories have a hero and a villain, some sort of conflict and overcoming, resolution and not necessarily a happy ending but you feel like you took something away from it. A lesson at least. I felt like all I learned was that Anthony and Gloria were selfish idiots. It was frustrating to not see them finally LEARN something. I wanted a point. I like what you said:
"The point of all that (really, there are many points, it's a complicated novel) is that it's dangerous to set your heart on fantasy, and that endless pleasure can easily morph into endless boredom and dissipation if you don't have a code of conduct for living life. If you only care about yourself, you'll never be happy, because life is very transitory."
I agree with you! YOU learned it, but I wanted the characters to learn it. It would have made the book a hundred times better for me if they had learned SOMETHING. So thats why it was a letdown for me.

Thanks for the discussion, I appreciated your thoughts and I'm always up for seeing a different side of things! :)(less)
Feb 21, 2013 08:48am

Sep 11, 2011 Max rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 12th-grade

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

like · see review

Aug 24, 2011 Sophia rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I decided to try another Fitzgerald novel after feeling disappointed with The Great Gatsby. I found The Beautiful and Damned much more profound and compelling because of its portrayal of two incredibly flawed protagonists: Anthony and Gloria Patch. It's a love story punctuated by obsessions with money and decadence. Anthony Patch is lazy and complacent, merely waiting for his inheritance to fly in. His redeeming quality was his love for Gloria; a beautiful lady affected with vanity and selfishne...more

2 likes · like · see review

Jul 01, 2011 Steve rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 almo...more

3 likes · like · see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … 99 100 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

topics	posts	views	last activity
Character Development and Detail in Fitzgerald's "The Beautiful and Damned"	5	46	May 21, 2013 08:33am
The Bookhouse Boys: The Beautiful & Damned - March bonus book	36	16	Apr 06, 2013 06:59pm
The Beautiful and Damned	2	19	Jan 18, 2013 07:41pm
The Beautiful and Damned	1	7	Aug 30, 2012 03:46pm
Challenge: 50 Books: Group Read: The Beautiful and Damned	43	67	Aug 05, 2012 09:54pm

combine
Other Editions (39)

More editions...

Videos About This Book

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button: Movie Trailer

Add a comment

Genres

Classics

562 users

Literature

69 users

Literature > American

47 users

Novels

34 users

Literature > 20th Century

33 users

Literary Fiction

20 users

Romance

19 users

Book Club

16 users

Classics > Classic Literature

15 users

Historical Fiction

12 users

See top shelves...

Readers also enjoyed similar books

About F. Scott Fitzgerald

Francis 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 unfini...more

More about F. Scott Fitzgerald...

Books by F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Short Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald

More…

Share This Book

Facebook Twitter Your website

Trivia About The Beautiful and...

4 trivia questions

More quizzes & trivia...

Quotes from The Beautiful and Damned

“Here's to alcohol, the rose colored glasses of life.” — 729 people liked it

“Things are sweeter when they're lost. I know--because once I wanted something and got it. It was the only thing I ever wanted badly, Dot, and when I got it it turned to dust in my hand.” — 624 people liked it

More quotes…

title link	preview: The Beautiful and Damned
avg rating	preview: The Beautiful and Damned Goodreads rating: 3.76 (13129 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/762103.The_Beautiful_and_Damned?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1328753168l/762103.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/762103.The_Beautiful_and_Damned?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]The Beautiful and Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald[/url]

The Beautiful and Damned

Friend Reviews

Community Reviews

Share This Book

Share This Book on Your Website