The Beautiful and the Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald is a 1922 publication.

"Gatsby" was a school assignment for me- and although it was rare for me to enjoy assigned reading, I liked it. But, for some reason, I have never read another book by Fitzgerald. I have, though, been quite curious about him and his wife in their private life- which has been the subject of books and movies for years. I have several books on my Kindle about Zelda, which I had planned to work into my reading schedule sometime this year. But, in the meantime, I thought it would be a good idea to read another book by this author. I chose this one for two reasons- the simplest one was that I already had it on my Kindle, and because allegedly Fitzgerald had modeled the characters after himself and Zelda.

Unfortunately, the book fell flat for me. To begin with the characters are not at all likeable. They are too empty, shallow, lazy… and BORING- with no redeeming qualities whatsoever. I kept thinking things would pick up- but they just kept getting worse with the characters circling the drain, even after they finally get what they thought would bring them happiness.

My experience with this book has given me second thoughts about reading anything about the Fitzgeralds- but because so much has been made about that marriage- and Zelda in particular, I’ll still probably delve into their lives at some point- but I’m not in a big hurry to tackle those books anytime soon, if they were anything like the couple in this book. Oy!

Overall, this book isn’t terribly long- but I felt like it took ages to read it and that’s never a good sign. I’m not sure I’ll ever tackle another novel by this author- but if I do, I’ll approach it with caution.

2 stars

"Os artistas melhoram, se puderem, o que imitam como estilo e escolhendo, segundo a sua própria interpretação do que os rodeia, o que consideram ser bom material. Porém, todos os escritores escrevem porque é esse o seu modo de vida."
37

Ao contrário do que aconteceu com o Grande Gatsby, em que a empatia com os personagens foi nula, em Belos e Malditos a coisa correu um pouquinho melhor.
Neste, que é o segundo romance do autor, e anterior ao Gatsby, há um claro esforço para criar personagens cujo retrato psicológico é crível, e há uma evolução coerente na sua construção ao longo da narrativa. Porém o seu ritmo é muito lento e até ao último terço do livro tudo se passa em cafés da moda, clubes, hotéis, passeios e festas luxuosas... Felizmente, às páginas tantas o dinheiro acaba e começa a haver verdadeira tensão narrativa.

Resumindo:
Anthony e Gloria, dois ociosos de profissão, casam-se com o fito na herança que hão de receber do avô deste primeiro. Até lá gastam o que têm e o que não têm em festas caras e álcool, que também não era barato (ou permitido). À morte do avô, já sem dinheiro e sem herdar o que seja impõe-se um dilema existencial para estes dois: viver como o comum dos mortais e lutar pela vida, ou viver como deuses, confiar no destino e defender o hedonismo que os preenche?

Fitzgerald tem uma tendência, aparentemente muito atrativa aos nossos olhos, para fazer uma apologia do seu modo de vida, e dos seus ideais, ao longo das suas obras: não há como escapar ao cansaço dos loucos anos 20, não há como fugir à corrupção do álcool, ou à blasé do estilo de vida novaiorquino. E tudo isso pode ser enriquecedor ou repetitivo... Neste caso, achei muito mais apropriado associar estes elementos a uma narrativa de degeneração e corrupção em vez de a uma "tragédia" fait divers. Belos e Malditos é também uma obra de caráter experimental muito interessante: trabalhada enquanto romance e enquanto drama é uma tentativa legítima por parte de Fitzgerald para criar algo de disruptor e novo, algo próprio do seu tempo. Teria gostado de ver mais deste seu esforço criativo (quem sabe se, mais do que recordado como o escritor da era perdida do jazz, não era recordado como um escritor avant-garde).
Fitzgerald trabalha bastante bem com os poucos elementos de que dispõe neste livro, e não brinca quando apelida as suas criações de belos e malditos. Eles são jovens inconscientes, egoístas, hedonistas em busca de emoções fortes, de "viver a vida" por oposição a sobreviver na vida. E quando dois destes idealistas se encontram e resolvem fazer vida em comum, o resultado só pode ser qualquer coisa de muito semelhante àquilo que a vida do próprio escritor foi...

"Não o amando, sentiu pena dele e beijou-o sentimentalmente certa noite, por ele ser tão encantador, uma relíquia de uma geração que se extinguia e que vivera uma ilusão presumida e graciosa e era agora substituída por outros idiotas menos galantes. Mais tarde sentiu-se contente por o ter beijado, pois no dia seguinte, quando o seu avião se despenhou em Mineola, um pedaço do motor a gasolina trespassou-lhe o coração."
317

Belos e Malditos é um livro de caráter melancólico e misantropo, que irradia o cansaço e a frustração de chegar aos trinta sem ter conseguido produzir qualquer obra que se veja, qualquer justificação para a existência de duas criaturas que se recusam a levantar um dedo a não ser para chamar a criada com a bandeja do chá - ou antes do uísque -, qualquer pequenino projeto para o futuro (também tenho desses momentos desde há um ano para cá

I just could not get into this book ... sacrilege I know

Every once in a while I will see a 2-star review for Hamlet, or Pride & Prejudice, or some such, and I will laugh at the hubris. That fact alone may explain why this is a 3 rather than a 2-star review. I fear people scoffing at me the way I scoff at those ridiculous 2-stars-for-Hamlet fools. So my fragile ego, and the fact that Scott could write the hell out of sentence, make this a 3-star. There were sentences so perfect that I sighed with something approaching arousal. (Yes, great writing turns me on. Go ahead and judge me, but as a fetish advanced literary craftsmanship is rather tame.) The structure and storyline in The Beautiful and Damned, on the other hand, made me sigh only with vexation. Gloria and Anthony are horrible characters. I don't say that because they are bad people or because I did not like them. They are bad people, and I did not like them, but often I enjoy reading about bad people I don't like. No, Gloria and Anthony are bad characters because they are one-note, charmless, vapid and half-formed. They are, simply, not interesting. This is a couple that makes Vanessa and Nick Lachey seem like Simone de Beauvoir and Jean Paul Sartre. What happens to them does not matter and I did not have the backstory (or the story) to vest me in their outcomes. Was I rooting for them to die in ditches covered with suppurating sores? Yeah, maybe. But I wasn't rooting with real gusto because I just did not care enough to bring any gusto to the party. The reading of this book brought on feelings of impatience and lethargy. I am no literary critic, but I am pretty sure those are bad reader reactions. Things improved in the last 75ish pages, but the improvement did not significantly redeem the whole. One good thing about the end of the book, the introduction of Dot made me realize there could be a character with less appeal than Gloria.

Also, it is worth noting that Scott really toned down his racism and antisemitism in Gatsby and This Side of Paradise. Both were on regular and appalling display here. It is physically uncomfortable to read parts of this book even when you go in knowing that Fitzgerald was a White Power kinda guy.

This one really stayed with me in a way that even The Great Gatsby didn't after my first read-through. I will say that the first half required a bit of investment to get through, as I found Anthony and Gloria to be positively insufferable characters to follow. It's all in service of an enlightening second half, however, and one that really sticks the landing.

Fitzgerald uses these lazy, overeducated and overindulgent characters to run screaming through the themes of immaturity, beauty and self-sabotage and, though he is indisputably the signature voice of 1920s literature, the symbolism here is timeless to the point of being just as accessible to a modern audience. Fitzgerald lays out a perfectly constructed maze for these characters, each torturous turn the product of their own misguided actions, and the cheese at the end symbolizing wasted youth, and the irony that the wisdom gained through their myriad foibles would have been useful at a younger age in preventing their present misfortunes.

A brilliant piece of writing, executed with the technical brilliance Fitzgerald will forever be known for, and boasting an ending that will surely take ponderous residence in the back of my mind for some time to come.

Published in 1922, this book seems to eerily mirror Fitzgerald’s own descent into alcoholism and destruction 18 years later.

Anthony Patch and his wife Gloria represent the moneyed class in America, at the turn of the last century, living hedonistic lives funded by inherited wealth, or expectations of future inheritances. They do not work for a living and are good at absolutely nothing, other than their good looks and elegant tastes. They abhor the middle classes, who are considered the enemy, and who are depicted as “perspiring, tearful, struggling, greedy, ambitious, bearing hope more sordid than despair.” Anthony and Gloria stagger from one drunken party to another, idolizing beauty, and pouting poetry, philosophy, Existentialism, Bilphism and other idle speculations of the day, and continue to run through their friends and fast- depreciating capital in post WWI New York, while living in hope that Anthony will inherit the millions of his grandfather, another one of those middle class types who ended up a wealthy industrialist and a right wing philanthropist.

But Grandfather Patch is not impressed with his grandson’s lifestyle, disinherits him, and dies, leaving Anthony to wade through the courts to recapture his lifeline. Too late, Anthony’s and Gloria’s attempts at employment, driven by desperate economic need, end in total failure: Anthony tries to become a bond salesman and winds up drunk in a bar after a day of rejections, while Gloria auditions for the movies only to be told that her fading beauty (the single thing she values) is only good for a “minor mature role.” Their tragedy is heightened because in their case it is the rich trying to enter the world of the poor and failing at it.

The prose is mellifluous although dated. Sex is limited to kissing and therefore no one gets pregnant, as most romances predictably do, thank God! Dialogue is not Fitzgerald’s strong suit, for some of the lines seem to come out of a P.G. Wodehouse world of upper crust England of the same period. I thought New Yorkers spoke differently! Some scenes are even written as script out of a stage play and I wondered whether this was an acquired style of the time, or a Joycean emulation that subsequently went out of fashion.

Following a slow start, in which the author takes his time to set up scene, character and setting (I’m not sure that publishers will have patience for this kind of pacing today), the novel marches on, gathering momentum, to a tragic conclusion with a twist that surprised me.

Despite his own alcoholism, Fitzgerald probably intended this novel as a cautionary tale to those contemplating the idle life of leisure. Basically he was saying, “If you don’t work, you don’t eat.” Or another way of looking at it, as Gloria would say, “Let’s burn through all our money in three years, and then let’s die.”

Фицджералд пише красиво и мъдро. Той не се прокрадва в душата, а влиза с гръм и трясък. Настанява се и край - ето ти любов завинаги. Толкова беше вълнуващо да чета Красиви и прокълнати (повече ми харесва от Гетсби), че препрочитах по няколко пъти много страници, виждах героите му и мисля за тях. Чудя се как може да е бил толкова мъдър, талантлив, чувствителен и толкова млад и прокълнат. Искам да познавам този човек, искам да ми приятел. Искам да му звъня вечер и да му споделям, да плача точно на неговото и да знам, че ме разбира. Това прави Фицджералд - оживява всеки път като го четеш и ти обещава, че не си сам. И ти дава надежда, че все пак някои хора са с красив ум и дълбока душа за толкова много хиляди други, които трябва да търпиш. Огромно благодаря на Фицджералд. Казвам му наздраве с цялата ми любов.

Being bulky compared to Scott's other gems, may arouse faint hopes of an epic. The Beautiful and the Damned isn't quite that, but it does plumb the entrails of a relationship. The novel isn't about seltzer and sernades, nor invitations and the celebrity pages. It is about the sweet insomnia of expectations and the early chafing where discord gulps heavily. FSF gnaws within these pages. This isn't Homeric like Tender Is The Night. This is a novel of tingles and unexplained bruises. It is worth most people's time.

The Beautiful and the Damned was the second book by F. Scott Fitzgerald and published in 1922 when he was twenty-six years old. It is said to be very much autobiographical and based on the unpredictable and volatile marriage of Fitzgerald and the very willful Zelda Sayre. The Beautiful and the Damned, coming out on the cusp of the Jazz Age, the aftermath of the Great War, and the declining economy, with the predominant theme in this book as to how wealth and power affect people. It has been described as a morality tale, a meditation on love, money, power, decadence and social commentary. The book explores the courting relationship and subsequent marriage of the fictional Anthony and Gloria Patch in the early twentieth century. Anthony Patch, while initially interested in writing, pursuing that course but relying mostly on the anticipated inheritance from his extremely wealthy grandfather, Adam Patch. However, when he was disinherited, multiple lawsuits were filed as the will was contested over a long period of years. It is within this backdrop that we watch the undoing and unraveling of Anthony Patch as he descends deeper and deeper into despair and alcoholism. It is a disturbing book on many levels as a lot of social themes are explored. It is a book that I will read again.

"The sheath that held her soul had assumed significance--that was all. She was a sun, radiant, growing, gathering light and storing it--then after an eternity pouring it forth in a glance, the fragment of a sentence, to that part of him that cherished all beauty and all illusion."

The Introduction to The Beautiful and the Damned was a very enlightening and intuitive piece written by Pagan Harleman, studying literature at Columbia College and obtaining an MFA from NYU. I would like to end with her words about the book as follows:

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"'The Beautiful and the Dammed' is Fitzgerald's least known novel, yet it provides fascinating insight into his development as a writer and his evolution as a person. Stylistically, it functions as the intermediate step between the unfocused but exuberant vitality of his debut novel, 'This Side of Paradise,' and the superb craftmanship of his third and in many ways, his greatest book, 'The Great Gatsby.'"

n

Când te gândești la America anilor 1920 ce îți vine prima data în minte?

Asa-i ca petrecerile, rochiile scurte si sclipitoare, Charlestonul?

Dar ce este în spatele petrecerilor? Cu ce se ocupa ziua cei care petrec toată noaptea?

Aflam ca nu se ocupa cu nimic, doar cheltuie în neștire încercând sa acopere golurile din propria viata, așteptând la nesfârșit o moștenire, ruinandu-se, distrugandu-si viata, tinerețea și sănătatea, petrecerile devenind doar un mod de a evita adevărul, de a ascunde eșecul, de a fugi de ei înșiși.

Și descoperă ca cei cu care petreceau nu ii mai saluta când pierd moștenirea, ca e greu sa trăiești, greu sa-ti câștigi existenta, mult mai ușor este refugiul în bautura, alcoolismul fiind o scăpare ușoară din viata de neadaptat trăită de personajul principal.

Relația lui Anthony Patch cu soția, Gloria, a fost asemanata de critici cu relația autorului cu propria soție, Zelda Fitzgerald, între cele doua fiind multe asemănări, dar spre deosebire de Zelda,  Gloria este doar o frumusețe care își găsește împlinirea în admirația celorlalți,  superficiala, imatura și neadaptata la viata ca și Anthony, dar mai puțin de condamnat decât el, fiind un produs al vremurilor și clasei sociale din care făcea parte.

Când în sfârșit moștenirea mult așteptată vine, ei sunt deja distruși trupește și sufletește, prețul plătit fiind mult prea scump.

Mi-a plăcut mult cartea, stilul autorului este fluid și antrenant, personajele foarte bine conturate, problemele morale și sociale sincer tratate,  o carte pe care o consider ca fiind o fresca in tuse vii a unei epoci apuse și regretate.

With this I’ve read all of Fitzgerald’s (completed) novels and most of his short stories - this is my least favorite. The love story gone wrong is more heartbreaking and psychologically captivating in Tender is the Night, the portrayal of the young man of the era is more compelling in This Side of Paradise, and the carelessness and wealth is more poignantly displayed in Gatsby. Maybe the autobiographical component is its most redeeming factor, but I prefer Hemingway’s depiction of Zelda and Fitzgerald in A Moveable Feast to Fitzgerald’s own self-reflection. A depressing work. But, as always, beautifully written.

Maury’s exposition in the chapter ‘Symposium’ was undoubtedly the highlight - I knew while reading it (at around the halfway point of the novel) that it would be the jewel of the novel. The ambience itself is as good as the content, which is a bit all over - but that’s undoubtedly what it was going for anyway. Maury ontop of the railroad shed, soliloquizing as his audience is too drunk to count, is an unforgettable image. Gloria’s quick interjection reminded me of Quine’s naturalized epistemology in its own self-defeat.

“‘I think I shall tell you the story of my education,’ continued Maury, ‘under these sardonic constellations.’” (274)
(This sentence is my favorite in the book and one of the best I’ve read in a long while. I love it).

“‘I learned a little of beauty - enough to know that it had nothing to do with truth - and I found, moreover, that there was no great literary tradition; there was only the tradition of the eventual death of every literary tradition…Then I grew up, and the beauty of succulent illusions fell away from me. The fiber of my mind coarsened and my eyes grew miserably keen. Life rose around my island like a sea, and presently I was swimming.’ (275)
(Last sentence is another favorite)

“‘I grew up then, into this land of jazz, and fell immediately into a state of almost audible confusion’” (276) (Fitzgerald invented the term The Jazz Age - and Hemingway the term The Lost Generation. Pretty sick)

“‘There’s only one lesson to be learned from life, anyway,’ interrupted Gloria, not in contradiction but in a sort of melancholy agreement. ‘What’s that?’ demanded Maury sharply. ‘That there’s no lesson to be learned from life.’” (278)

“‘Trying to take a piece of actuality and give it a glamour from your own soul to make up for the inexpressible quality it possessed in life and lost in transit to paper or canvas?’” (278)

“‘Once upon a time all the men of mind and genius in the world became of one belief - that is to say, of no belief. But it wearied them to think that within a few years after their death many cults and systems and prognostications would be ascribed to them which they had never meditated nor intended. So they said to one another: ‘let’s join together and make a great book that will last for ever to mock the credulity of man. Let’s persuade our more erotic poets to write about the delights of the flesh, and induce some of our robust journalists to contribute stories of famous amours. We’ll include all the most preposterous old wives’ tales now current. We’ll choose the keenest satirist alive to compile a deity from all the deities worshipped by mankind, a deity who will be more magnificent than any of them, and yet so weakly human that he’ll become a byword for laughter the world over - and well ascribe to him all sorts of jokes and vanities and rages, in which he’ll be supposed to indulge for his own diversion, so that the people will read our book and ponder it, and they’ll be no more nonsense in the world. Finally, let us take care that the book possesses all the virtues of style, so that it may last for ever as a witness to our profound skepticism and our universal irony.’ So the men did, and they died. But the book lived always, so beautifully had it been written, and so astounding the quality of imagination with which these men of mind and genius had endowed it. They had neglected to give it a name, but after they were dead it became known as the Bible.’
(Maury’s speech ends shortly after that. This is really impressive for the time at which it was written - I’m sure it scandalized many readers).

“‘Because desire just cheats you. It’s like a sunbeam skipping here and there about a room. It stops and holds some inconsequential object, and we poor fools try to grasp it - but when we do the sunbeam moves on to something else, and you’ve got the inconsequential part, but the glitter that made you want it is gone -‘“ (367)

“It seemed that the only lover she had ever wanted was a lover in a dream” (425)

“‘Or what becomes of everybody you used to know and have so much in common with?’ … ‘they change,’ said Gloria. ‘All the qualities that they don’t use in their daily lives get cobwebbed up.’” (442)

F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby" is a novel Im sure everyone is familiar with from high school, and in my case was the only book I ever picked up from the author until I came across "The Beautiful and Damned". Unlike other books that were recommended by friends and acquaintances, reading Fitzgerald's second novel derived from my curiosity for a rarely mentioned era of American history; one encompassing the age of wild jazz, speakeasies, and the notorious flappers. As an author, Fitzgerald is most well-known today for his literary depiction of urban life in the early 19th century, while vividly defining the vanity, recklessness, and materialism engulfing its youth. "The Beautiful and the Damned" is no exception along these lines, but nonetheless remains a truly memorable work for it's universal morals on money, marriage, intimacy, and self-worth.

Fitzgerald focuses his story on the frivolous and apathetic Anthony Patch, who happily enjoys his bachelorhood in Manhattan while awaiting the prospects of inheriting his grandfather's $30 million estate. Though a Harvard graduate with doors of opportunity, Anthony frequents his evenings at nightclubs and theaters, enjoying a few drinks with his ne'er-do-well friend, Maury, and Dick, the aspiring novelist writing a romance. In the mornings, he describes his immaculately decorated and tasteful apartment, and the attendance of his own private valet. Because of his family stock, Anthony earns a good sum of income every year and finds no reason to spend his youth climbing the corporate ladder as his grandfather advises him to. Soon, he becomes enraptured by Dick's beautiful cousin, Gloria Gilbert. Her seamless perfection and rebellious, free-spirited attitude enflames Anthony's obsession for her and he eventually decides to marry her off. Their honeymoon across the states and first year together in a summer home outside of New York is a perfect match to their desires for ease and comfort. However, when Anthony's grandfather passes away leaving him destitute by his will, their anticipated future of privilege slowly deteriorates between time-consuming court appeals and insurmountable debts. Their lives descend into indolence and alcoholism, and Anthony's attempts to reprieve himself of his slovenly past yield nothing but a disgraced military venture and his pitiless failure as a door-to-door salesman.

"The Beautiful and Damned" can be a difficult novel to enjoy considering the selfish nature of it's protagonists and their wasteful, degrading lifestyles. Though we feel inclined to sympathize for Anthony's dying self-esteem, and Gloria's squandered attempts in becoming an actress, while trying to maintain her crumbling relationship with her husband, "The Beautiful and Damned" is not meant to be a novel of romantic or sentimental values. Fitzgerald's book serves as a commentary on the repercussions of excess and the hypocrisy of entitlement and social ranking in a world less deserving of such prestige. Amidst this gloomy and daunting tale of fading passions, domestic struggles, and mental decadence comes a complex story of illusory hopes and dreams.