The Beautiful and Damned book summary and review

 Check out my The Beautiful and Damned book summary and review that I created to help you understand the basics of this great book. The Beautiful and Damned is by American author F. A 1922 novel by Scott Fitzgerald. Set in New York City, the plot of the novel follows Anthony Patch, a young artist, and his flapper wife, Gloria Gilbert, who "perished in the shock of disaster" while partying in the early hours of the hedonistic jazz era.

 As Fitzgerald's second novel, the work sheds light on the cunning behavior and brilliant exaggeration of the American social elite in the exciting days of the Cafe Society of New York. Fitzgerald modeled the characters of Anthony Patch himself and Gloria Gilbert as his bride Zelda Fitzgerald.

The novel traces the early events of Fitzgerald's tumultuous marriage, following the unexpected success of the author's first novel, This Side of Paradise. During their marriage in 1920, Fitzgerald claimed that he or Zelda did not love each other, and the first years of their marriage in New York City were like a friendship.

Reflecting criticism of his first novel, This Side of Paradise, Fitzgerald sought to improve the form and construction of his prose in The Beautiful and the Damned, and to enter into a whole new genre of fiction.

As a result, he revised his second novel on the editorial advice of his friend Edmund Wilson and his editor Max Perkins. While reviewing the manuscript, Perkins praised Fitzgerald's apparent evolution of literary craftsmanship.

The Beautiful and Damned book summary :

In 1913, Anthony Patch, a 25-year-old Harvard University alumnus, recently returned from Rome and now lives in New York City. He is the probable heir to the great fortune of his late grandfather.

Through his friend Richard "Dick" Caramel, Anthony meets Gloria Gilbert, a beautiful flapper and "Jazz Baby" who is Dick's cousin. Anthony begins his romance. The couple goes crazy in love, Gloria says happily: "Mother said that two souls are sometimes created together - and they fall in love before they are born."

For the first three years of their married life together, Anthony and Gloria vowed to abide by the "no-curse" attitude ... what they chose to do and what the consequences were. To live by the clear code, and to seek the happiness of the moment as eagerly and endlessly as possible. "

The selfish attitude of others. Once the couple's fascination with each other fades, they begin to see that their differences do more harm than good, as well as leave each other with unfulfilled hopes. Over time, the frustrated couple turned into hedonistic and cynical libertine.

When Anthony's grandfather finds out about Anthony's waste, he deprives him. During World War I, Anthony served briefly in the American expeditionary forces while Gloria stayed home alone until he returned. While in Army training, Anthony had an extramarital affair with DotRecroft, a lower class southern woman.

 After the Allies signed an armistice with Imperial Germany in November 1918, Anthony returned to New York City and reunited with Gloria. When the fight over his grandfather's inheritance finally came to an end, Anthony won his inheritance. However, he has now become a hopeless alcoholic and his wife has lost her beauty. The couple is now rich but morally and physically ruined.

In the end, Anthony Patch - echoing his grandfather - described his inherited wealth as the consequence of his character rather than mere circumstance: "Just a few months ago people asked him to surrender, to submit to moderation ... but he knew that The method was fair-and he held it firmly ... 'I showed them ... it was a tough fight, but I didn't give up and I got through!

The Beautiful and Damned book review :

Only his second novel, The Beautiful and Damned (1922) is subtly F. To the tune of Scott Fitzgerald - The Jazz Era is populated by wealthy, void members who derive their value from money or beauty (or both), the novel is party, drunk, and life is usually located in a world of over-living. In less than ten years with Harvard graduate Anthony Patch, inheriting a huge fortune from his prohibitive grandfather, the novel follows his privileged protagonist when he marries the beautiful socialite Gloria Gilbert and two fine young men.

The luxuries of the world that live in their thrills while they wait for death to see what Anthony will inherit his destiny. The reader is invited to the numerous parties and petty quarrels that make such a lucky animal marriage, and it is not until war (so that he is recruited) and the threat of losing his legacy that life becomes more intensely focused. Anthony Patch and he and Gloria have come down from their inertia.

There are a range of friends around the patch, many of whom will be writers, actresses or otherwise aspiring careers. The main thing is that many of the novels remain ‘wills’ and choose to fill their lives with alcohol and frippery instead of exploiting their potential and achieving meaningful goals.

Patches just need to be tempted to give way to temptation but look for it as a distraction from the almost empty life they lead. As Gloria notes, if I wanted something, I would accept it ... I can't be bothered to resist what I want. " Can do much worse than that.

Fitzgerald is in his element when the life of the leisure class unfolds in all their unimaginable richness and yet the portrait seems to be true, the story seems as hollow and incoherent as the life of his own character. The novel's original title was The Flight of the Rocket - presumably predicting the Icarus-like trajectory of Anthony's young life - and, to put it mildly,

The plot is a warning against the absurdity and futility of this trajectory; The call to work harder and happier than the joys of life. This is not an unusual plot and the inevitable death of the patches is so strongly predicted that the creeping inevitability of the story turns into fatigue instead of despair.

As soon as it is unveiled, it is perhaps even more interesting how much the patches are aware of their death. Of course Gloria seems to be protecting herself from knowledge of the couple's financial position but Anthony is very much aware of their dwindling wealth as he is selling one bond after another to maintain their luxurious lifestyle.

Fitzgerald apparently thought Anthony possessed the artist's temperament but without the spark of creativity needed for such a career. This suggests a rather conflicted person, whose personality suffers a serious inconsistency. However, Anthony seems to have not only shamelessness, but also a kind of nihilistic slander at times. Speaking of his own talents, Anthony declared that "there was nothing to waste, because all efforts and achievements were equally worthless."

That kind of nihilism can sit next to the shamelessness that allows Anthony to run his life on the ground. Gives a different idea about his seemingly ignorance of the difficult aspects of life. This juxtaposition may have existed due to a tonal inconsistency on the part of Fitzgerald, or it may indicate something more interesting to Anthony.

Gloria and Anthony always seem to be running away from something - their feelings, the world around them, the quiet world - and the life from which they participate in escaping is what makes them feel oppressive. However, towards the end of the novel there are frequent lamentations as the characters move towards their thirtieth birthday and there is general appreciation of youth and mourning of lost time.

The fact that the characters feel this loss, the passage of time without meaning, indicates that there is more to the play than screenless nihilism. Gloria's beauty fades and she is no longer sought after by men or filmmakers. Anthony's fate is in jeopardy and he cannot support his family as he chooses. The novel becomes painfully fixed in the real world, and Fitzgerald's familiar concerns - the rapid movement of time and its sands - come to the fore.