Publisher's Synopsis
The Beautiful and Damned, first published by Scribner's in 1922, is F. Scott Fitzgerald's second novel. It explores and portrays New York café society and the American Eastern elite during the Jazz Age before and after "the Great War" and in the early 1920s. As in his other novels, Fitzgerald's characters in this novel are complex, especially with respect to marriage and intimacy. The work is generally considered to have drawn upon and be based on Fitzgerald's relationship and marriage with his wife Zelda Fitzgerald The Beautiful and Damned tells the story of Anthony Patch, a 1910s socialite and presumptive heir to a tycoon's fortune, and his courtship and relationship with his wife Gloria Gilbert. It describes his brief service in the Army during World War I, and the couple's post-war partying life in New York, and his later alcoholism. Gloria and Anthony's love story is much more than just a couple falling in love. Their story deals with the hardships of a relationship, especially when each character has a tendency to be selfish. The way Gloria and Anthony are portrayed seems to draw on Fitzgerald's personal life with his wife. Zelda was a firecracker of a woman, and Scott was quite the party guy himself. As Joanna Stolarek suggests, Fitzgerald draws on "Zelda, the object of the writer's literary passion" (Stolarek et al 53). Considering that Fitzgerald uses his life with Zelda as a template for this novel, The Beautiful and Damned can be very telling of his personal life.Anthony Patch: He is an heir to his grandfather's large fortune, and is unmotivated to work. He is entranced by Gloria and falls hopelessly in love with her, completely taken aback by her beauty. He eventually serves in WWI and has an affair, leading to the eventual downfall of his marriage to Gloria and decline of his mental health Gloria Gilbert: A beauty who takes Anthony's heart, breaking a heart or two along the way. She is a dancer but strives to be an actress, and loves to party. She also enjoys to fight with Anthony. She is happy most when things go her way and has tantrums when things go sideways from what she wants. Gloria talks a lot about herself and does not talk much about anything else.
