The Beautiful and Damned is a 1922 novel by American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald. Set in New York City, the novel's plot follows a young artist Anthony Comstock Patch and his flapper wife, Gloria Gilbert, who wreck themselves "on the shoals of dissipation" while partying to excess at the dawn of the Jazz Age. As Fitzgerald's sophomore novel, the work focuses on the swinish behavior and glittering excesses of the American idle rich in the mid-1910s heyday of New York's café society.
Fitzgerald loosely modeled the young libertine characters of Anthony Comstock Patch on himself and Gloria Gilbert on his newlywed spouse Zelda Fitzgerald. The novel draws on the early years of Fitzgerald's disappointing marriage in New York City after the meteoric success of the author's first novel, This Side of Paradise. At the time of their wedding in 1920, Fitzgerald claimed neither he nor Zelda loved each other, and the early years of their marriage resembled a friendship.
Mindful of the criticisms leveled at his debut novel This Side of Paradise, Fitzgerald sought in The Beautiful and Damned to improve on the form and structure of his writing and to venture into the different fictional genre of literary realism. His work traces the Hogarthian descent of "lovely young creatures" and "millionaires" into ruin amid the death throes of an old America and the turbulent birth of a new one. In Fitzgerald's view, the "beautiful and damned" of New York's café society were no less fated to destruction than the peasants in Thomas Hardy's bleak novels. He revised his second novel based on suggestions from his friend Edmund Wilson and his editor Max Perkins. When reviewing the revised manuscript, Perkins commended the conspicuous evolution of Fitzgerald's literary craftsmanship.
The novel sold well but received mixed reviews. Metropolitan serialized the work in late 1921, and Scribner's published it in March 1922 in an initial printing of 20,000 copies. Although it did not become a top-ten best-seller, its strong sales led to a second printing of 50,000 copies. Many critics expected more of the carefree gaiety of This Side of Paradise, and the novel's bleak pessimism surprised them. While certain critics lamented that Fitzgerald had traded the bubbly giddiness of This Side of Paradise for "the bitter dregs of reality", others such as John V. A. Weaver and H. L. Mencken praised Fitzgerald's improved craftsmanship and believed he would achieve greatness with his third work. Weaver predicted that, as Fitzgerald matured as a writer, he would come to be regarded as one of the greatest authors in American literature. Later scholars deem the work to be among Fitzgerald's lesser novels.
One month after The Beautiful and Damneds publication, humorist Burton Rascoe suggested that Scott's wife, Zelda, write a satirical newspaper review containing sensational claims as a publicity stunt to boost sales. Although Zelda proofread drafts of her husband's novel and consented to the quotation of her letters in the work, she pretended in her tongue-in-cheek review to read the novel for the first time and jested about plagiarism. As a consequence of Rascoe's mischievous publicity stunt, speculation emerged decades later that Zelda co-authored the novel and collaborated on Fitzgerald's other works. The consensus among Fitzgerald scholars is that no evidence supports these claims.
Plot summary
In 1913, Anthony Comstock Patch, a 25-year-old Harvard University alumnus, lives in New York City and spends his days imagining himself as a writer while doing little of substance. Living off an allowance from his dying grandfather while awaiting an inheritance, Anthony drifts through life, encouraged in his idleness by two former Harvard classmates, novelist Richard "Dick" Caramel and aesthete Maury Noble. Dick introduces him to his vivacious cousin, Gloria Gilbert, a beautiful flapper and jazz baby. After a whirlwind courtship, Anthony and Gloria wed, but constant quarrels undermine their marital bliss.
Following a honeymoon in California, Anthony and Gloria settle into a pattern of seasonal retreats between a New York apartment and a country home in Marietta. Pursuing an extravagant lifestyle while dreaming of greater wealth upon his grandfather's death, the couple squanders their money on frivolous luxuries. Their relationship strains as Gloria demands constant acknowledgment of her beauty and Anthony's insecurities lead to a growing dependence on alcohol. They become cynical libertines and, witnessing drunken revelries at their home, Anthony's grandfather visits and leaves in disgust.
After Anthony's grandfather disinherits him for his hedonistic and amoral way of life, the dissolute couple sinks further into financial trouble. Determined to win his full inheritance, Anthony retains a lawyer and embarks on a protracted legal battle to contest his grandfather's new will. As the legal fight drags on for many years, Anthony's employment attempts end in failure, and his drinking spirals out of control. Frustrated by Anthony's irresponsibility and persistent lack of success, Gloria chases the vain dream of becoming the next Mary Pickford and pursues a film career, only to be rejected as too old. As their once-glamorous lifestyle crumbles, Gloria resigns herself to the downward spiral of their marriage.
After the United States enters World War I, Anthony joins the American Expeditionary Force, while Gloria remains home alone until his return. Despising the regimentation of military life, Anthony begins an extramarital liaison with Dot Raycroft, a lower-class Southern woman. Following the Allied Powers' armistice with Imperial Germany in November 1918, Anthony returns to New York City and reunites with Gloria. As the inheritance case continues to drag on, Anthony sinks into hopeless alcoholism, and Gloria's beauty fades.
By 1921, Anthony, Gloria, Richard, and Maury have abandoned their youthful idealism and instead pursue materialistic comforts. After years of legal battles, Anthony wins his inheritance, now worth $30 million dollars (), but, with his health ruined and his once-vibrant spirit lost, the long-awaited victory proves hollow. Sailing to Europe with an estranged Gloria, Anthony echoes the prejudices of his despised grandfather and views his inherited wealth as a consequence of his character rather than circumstance.
Major characters
Anthony Comstock Patcha Harvard alumnus and incorrigible loafer who is an heir to his grandfather's fortune. Unambitious and unmotivated to work, he pursues various careers without success. Upon meeting Gloria Gilbert, he immediately falls in love with her beauty. He is drafted into the United States Army, but the war ends before his overseas deployment. Throughout the novel, he compensates for a lack of vocation with riotous parties and worsening alcoholism. His expectations of future wealth make him powerless to act in the present, leaving him with empty relationships in the end. Gloria Patch (née Gilbert)a beautiful flapper and "jazz baby" from Kansas City whom Anthony marries.: "Gloria, we learn, is to be born on earth where she will be known as a 'ragtime kid,' a 'flapper', a 'jazz-baby', and a 'baby vamp'." She contributes to Anthony's decline through her extravagant spending.: "Another pleasure for Zelda was spending her husband's money, at which she became adept with his encouragement." Vacuous and self-absorbed, she believes that her beauty makes her more important than everyone else. Fitzgerald loosely based aspects of the character on his wife Zelda. Fitzgerald wrote in a letter that "Gloria was a much more trivial and vulgar person than [Zelda]. I can't really say there was any resemblance except in the beauty and certain terms of expression she used, and also I naturally used many circumstantial events of our early married life." Richard "Dick" Caramelan ambitious author of meager talent who is one of Anthony's best friends and Gloria's cousin. He introduces Anthony to Gloria. After publishing his novel The Demon Lover, he becomes famous. By the novel's end, Caramel believes art to be meaningless, and he becomes an artistic hack whose name is "a byword of contempt." Maury NobleAnthony's cynical best friend and brilliant Harvard classmate whom Fitzgerald describes as possessing "an absurdly catlike face." He snubs Anthony once he becomes impoverished. Fitzgerald primarily based the character on George Jean Nathan, an influential drama critic. From 1914 to 1923, Nathan coedited The Smart Set with H.L. Mencken and, together, they founded The American Mercury in 1924. The Fitzgeralds befriended Nathan as newlyweds while living in New York, and he visited them at their home in Westport, Connecticut, during the summer of 1920. Much to Fitzgerald's irritation, Nathan openly flirted with Zelda and pursued her sexually in front of her husband. Joseph Bloeckmana Jewish film producer who is in love with Gloria and hopes she will leave Anthony for him. Gloria and Bloeckman had a budding relationship when Gloria met Anthony. He continues to be friends with Gloria, giving Anthony some suspicion of an extramarital affair. Dorothy "Dot" Raycrofta lower-class Southern woman with whom Anthony has an affair during his army training. She is a lost soul looking for someone to share her life with. She falls in love with Anthony despite learning that he is married, causing problems between Gloria and Anthony, and spurring the decline of Anthony's mental health. Adam Patch'''Anthony's wealthy and convalescent grandfather who is a staunch Prohibitionist and moral reformer. A deeply religious man, he despises any form of self-indulgence. He disinherits his profligate grandson after intruding on a bacchanalian party at Anthony's country house in Marietta. Anthony dislikes his grandfather as the old man "represents the old American tradition of hard work and moral righteousness".
Writing and production Background