The Beautiful and Damned, by F. Scott Fitzgerald

 

Anthony Patch — a New York upperclassman in his twenties — lives a comfortable and wasteful life fueled by the allowance money sent to him by his wealthy grandfather. Longing for love, he meets flapper Gloria Gilbert, and the two spark a romantic relationship that moves rather quickly into a marriage. While the couple's friends settle into the successes of their adulthoods, Anthony and Gloria navigate a risky road in which taking care of their finances, their relationship, and themselves are ignored; instead, they drink, party, and spend money lavishly, believing that Anthony will eventually inherit his sickly grandfather's fortune once the latter dies.

The plot of The Beautiful and Damned, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, can best be described as consciously intricate — Fitzgerald sets out not to sketch for a reader what an excessive life the Jazz Age upper class lived, but to paint an entire landscape of that scene that never neglects even the finest of details. From the early parts of the novel, one understands how Fitzgerald contemporary socialites wasted about by themselves and with their friends; from the midsection of the novel, one understands how they wasted about with equally wasteful lovers; from the end of the novel, one understands how they wasted about in desperation and crisis, isolated and meeting repercussions with more self-destruction. Yet, Fitzgerald familiarizes one so much with the Patch couple, that — despite their blaring recklessness — one sympathizes with them. It is this ability of Fitzgerald's — to turn these simple, nonexistent characters into true people that evoke a emotional response — that cements the book's place as, not only my favorite from the author, but my favorite novel.

Reviewed by Markus, Grade 12

Chevy Chase Library