The Beautiful and Damned: F. Scott Fitzgerald

[Sruthi]

a. I chose this book because I wanted to read another Fitzgerald book to compare it with Gatsby and I thought the title was interesting.

b. I'm on page 3. The year is 1913 and Anthony Patch, presumably the main character, has been introduced. So far it seems a little funny but I think the book is going to get pretty tragic soon.

[Keren]

Tell me what you think of this book as you read it, I love Fitzgerald! I read his other 2 books on the lost (Tender is the Night and This Side of Paradise)

[Jeffrey]

What makes the book funny? Is it because of a unique writing style or because of a familiar storyline? The Great Gatsby was pretty tragic. Do you see any similarities already? Maybe in writing style?

[Sruthi]

Jeffrey wrote: "What makes the book funny? Is it because of a unique writing style or because of a familiar storyline? The Great Gatsby was pretty tragic. Do you see any similarities already? Maybe in writing style?"

I think the personality of the main character is just so strange and because of this, it's slightly humorous. He spends an entire page talking about the qualities of his bathroom and how he wants to have a picture of his bathroom hanging near his bathtub so he can admire it while he's in the bath. I still haven't gotten deep enough into the book to see an actual plot unfold, but Anthony has, at this point, been pretty fleshed out. I found it interesting that he felt such reverence toward the bathtub, and this feeling was almost directly contrasted a few pages later to the feelings he felt toward a women he could see from his window. He is absolutely in love with the woman for a few minutes, but when he looks back at her again a little later, he thinks she's ugly and loses all feelings for her. Anthony says the reason for his adoration was the distance between them, which I think shows his love for things that he probably won't be able to possess. This might be a reoccurring theme as well.

The thing I like most about Fitzgerald is his ability to articulate certain feelings in such an accurate way. I saw this in Gatsby and I see it again in The Beautiful and Damned.