The Beautiful And The Damned

Name: The Beautiful And The Damned
Brand: Author's Republic
Availability: InStock
Author: F. Scott Fitzgerald
ISBN: 9781998487646

Author: F. Scott Fitzgerald

Narrator: Geoffrey Giuliano, The Bell

Unabridged: 14 hr 22 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Independently Published

Published: 07/02/2024

Categories: Fiction, Classic, Women

Synopsis

F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Beautiful and Damned" delves into the tumultuous relationship of Anthony Patch, a charming but indolent heir, and his stunning, self-absorbed wife, Gloria Gilbert. Set against the backdrop of the Roaring Twenties, their lives epitomize the excess and disillusionment of the Jazz Age. As they await Anthony's inheritance, the couple indulges in a life of luxury, pleasure, and social climbing, only to find their dreams unraveling. Anthony's gradual descent into alcoholism and indolence, coupled with Gloria's fading beauty and increasing dissatisfaction, paints a poignant picture of the corrosive effects of wealth and vanity.
The novel explores themes of decadence, ambition, and the fleeting nature of youth and beauty. Fitzgerald's keen insight into the human condition is evident as he dissects the characters' motivations and flaws with a sharp, unflinching gaze. The glamorous yet ultimately hollow world of Anthony and Gloria serves as a microcosm of a society chasing superficial dreams, only to be confronted with the harsh reality of their emptiness. Fitzgerald's lyrical prose and complex characterizations make "The Beautiful and Damned" a compelling study of the moral and emotional decay that can accompany the pursuit of the American Dream.

About F. Scott Fitzgerald

F. Scott Fitzgerald was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1896. He attended Princeton University, joined the United States Army during World War I, and published his first novel, This Side of Paradise, in 1920. That same year he married Zelda Sayre and for the next decade the couple lived in New York, Paris, and on the Riviera. Fitzgerald's masterpieces include The Beautiful and the Damned, The Great Gatsby, and Tender Is the Night. He died at the age of forty-four while working on The Last Tycoon. Fitzgerald's fiction has secured his reputation as one of the most important American writers of the twentieth century.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Vit on April 12, 2024

F. Scott Fitzgerald is a brilliant stylist… He is full of wicked irony and he depicts his hero or his fictional alter ego as an ironic young man… As you first see him he wonders frequently whether he is not without honor and slightly mad, a shameful and obscene thinness glistening on the surface of t......more

Goodreads review by Brian on May 31, 2011

A deeply flawed book. A good amount of editing would've greatly improved this book. However, Fitzgerald was coming off his huge success with "This Side of Paradise", so the publisher allowed him to publish this very uneven piece of work. This was the final Fitzgerald novel that I have read, and by f......more

Goodreads review by Lisa of Troy on December 22, 2024

Listen carefully. Lean in. The title is “The Beautiful and Damned.” It is not “The Beautiful and The Damned.” The distinction is subtle but meaningful. Fitzgerald’s second novel, The Beautiful and Damned, obsessively haunts, infiltrating thoughts when least suspected. Ironically, Fitzgerald hated this......more

Goodreads review by Briynne on January 21, 2009

Fitzgerald wasn't joking with that title. These people were completely screwed from the moment they hit the page, and it was fascinating to watch it all disintegrate. As I mentioned in the review I just finished for Tender is the Night, I found Anthony and Gloria to be some of the more unsympath......more

Goodreads review by Ilenia on August 14, 2018

"E questo mi ha insegnato che non si può avere niente, non si può avere assolutamente niente. Perché il desiderio inganna. È come un raggio di sole che guizza qua e là in una stanza. Si ferma e illumina un oggetto insignificante, e noi poveri sciocchi cerchiamo di afferrarlo: ma quando lo afferriamo......more