The Beautiful and Damned

'Things are sweeter when they're lost. I know – because once I wanted something and got it. It was the only thing I ever wanted badly, Dot, and when I got it, it turned to dust in my hand.' One of F. Scott Fitzgerald's earlier novels, The Beautiful and the Damned was first published in 1922 to much commercial success. Modelled on the early years of Fitzgerald's own marriage to Zelda Fitzgerald, the reader is given an acute insight into the ups and downs of a mismatched love affair. Anthony Patch, a young yet unambitious graduate from Harvard University, moves to New York and soon meets fellow socialite and flapper, Gloria Gilbert. Infatuated by her beauty, Anthony soon proposes to Gloria, and the pair embark on a doomed whirlwind romance. Their marriage is combative and tense; Anthony expects Gloria to be more domesticated while Gloria expects Anthony to fund her extravagant lifestyle. They both commit to ignoring their issues, attending glamorous social events and drinking in excess. But, of course, this arrangement can only last so long… F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896 – 1940) was an American essayist and novelist. Renowned for his colourful and lively depictions of the 1920s and 1930s Jazz Age, his works were also deeply concerned with love, class and materialism. He published four novels and over one hundred short stories in his lifetime.