F. Scott Fitzgerald's second novel presents a haunting portrayal of New York's wealthy but rootless generation emerging out of the First World War. Anthony Patch, the grandson of tycoon millionaire Adam Patch, lives only in the pursuit of wealth and pleasure. On one of his many social events, he meets the selfish and supremely beautiful Gloria Gilbert, the cousin of a close friend. Gloria is simultaneously wise and naive; at times she exhibits almost child-like behaviour, but her string of previous relationships hints at a girl with a jaded outlook on the world.
As the years turn, so beauty fades and so the incompatibilities in Anthony and Gloria's relationship become more and more exposed. Only when under the influence of liquor, at their increasingly common parties, are Anthony and Gloria happy, but even this emotion can only be sustained for so long, as finances dry up, friendships fade, and marriage reaches breaking-point. Then, when old Adam Patch dies, his fortune becomes the sole ambition of their sordid and empty marriage.
The Beautiful and Damned is a moody and atmospheric portrayal of early Twentieth Century New York and a nation awakening from its slumber to find its place as an emerging superpower. Said to be influenced by Fitzgerald's own torrid marriage, the novel charts the destructive obsession with wealth and decadence that gripped a unique class of people - a class with no direction, no identity, no ambition and, ultimately, no hope.
The Beautiful and Damned
F. Scott Fitzgerald.
First published in March 1922 by Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, USA.
Sounds brilliant..please can I borrow it?;-)
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