The beautiful and the damned

Rich, beautiful and free to do as they please, Anthony Patch and Gloria Gilbert seem made for one another and the carefree world of Jazz Age America. But if the good times, the money and even the love run out, what remains?First published in 1922, The Beautiful and Damned was Fitzgerald’s follow-up to his breakout bestselling debut, This Side of Paradise. Focused on the passionate and complicated relationship of Anthony Patch and Gloria Gilbert, the novel follows their seemingly charmed lives as exemplars of the wild, hedonistic lifestyle of the Jazz Age. Fueled by alcohol, an inheritance and an increasingly desperate pursuit of pleasure, the couple find themselves at odds and unsatisfied in ways they never anticipated, and their way of life, their understanding of themselves, called into question. The author’s sharp, insightful prose consistently invests individual scenes with memorable clarity and depth, and his depiction of the gradual transformation of the main characters relationship is masterful. Fitzgerald would follow this novel with The Great Gatsby, inarguably one of the finest American novels of the 20th century. The author did not arrive at that level of skill overnight and The Beautiful and Damned shows him evolving into an American master. With an eye-catching new cover, and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of The Beautiful and Damned is both modern and readable.