Sacred Reads: The Beautiful and Damned, F. Scott Fitzgerald

Sacred Reads: The Beautiful and Damned, F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Beautiful and Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald is Fitzgerald's second novel, the precursor to the brilliant The Great Gatsby.  Set in the 1920s (the book was published in 1922), the first part of the book relates the initial meeting and courtship of Anthony Patch and Gloria Gilbert, who are beautiful but chronically narcissistic. As heir to his grandfather's considerable fortune, Anthony doesn't have the inconvenience of having to get up to go to work and he spends much of his time pursuing Gloria, which culminates in their marriage. Initially this appears to be deliriously happy as both Anthony and Gloria live for the moment and are united in their quest to fill the empty hours with constant partying. However, inevitably (but of course!), they discover that this lifestyle is physically and emotionally unsustainable - it might be worth mentioning at this point that Anthony likes to add absinthe to his Martinis - and eventually costs Anthony his independent means. Said to be based on Fitzgerald's marriage to Zelda, The Beautiful and Damned is a brittle but absorbing account of the rich and self-entitled in Manhattan during the Jazz Age and is the source of the classic Fitzgerald quote, “Here’s to alcohol, the rose coloured glasses of life.”
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