The Beautiful and Damned (Penguin Modern Classics) [Paperback]

Though Fitzgerald can entrance with stories so joyfully youthful they appear to be safe when he cuts himself you will bleed --As Hortense Calisher observes in her Introduction --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

A captivating and glamorous tale of squandered talent that defined 'The Lost Generation' of 1920s New York --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Anthony and Gloria are the essence of Jazz Age glamour. A brilliant and magnetic couple, they fling themselves at life with an energy that is thrilling. New York is a playground where they dance and drink for days on end. Their marriage is a passionate theatrical performance; they are young, rich, alive and lovely and they intend to inherit the earth.

But as money becomes tight, their marriage becomes impossible. And with their inheritance still distant, Anthony ang Gloria must grow up and face reality; they may be beautiful but they are also damned.

This edition includes a detailed account of the composition of the novel, a textual apparatus, a chronology of composition, and, uniquely, three versions of the ending. Explanatory notes situate The Beautiful and Damned in its times and deepen the reader's understanding of Fitzgerald's sources for the novel. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

A vivid depiction of life amid the glitter of Jazz Age New York.

Few writers have been as successful as F. Scott Fitzgerald in conveying autobiographical materials into literary art. The Beautiful and Damned transforms the now-familiar stories about F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald’s early marriage--the scandalous public behaviour, the nights of drunken revelry and days darkened by the ever-present shadow of insurmountable debt - into a captivating work of fiction.

Anthony Patch ‘one of those many with tastes and weaknesses of an artist but with no actual creative inspiration’ and the beautiful, flirtatious Gloria, are newly married. Anticipating an inheritance from Anthony’s family, they embrace a style of life far beyond their means. In chronicling their decline--moral, physical, and financial--and offering a grimly ironic twist at the end, Fitzgerald created a satirical yet poignant portrait of the generation he and his work would define, not only for his contemporaries, but for all future readers.

For more titles in the Penguin Classics range, visit Amazon.co.uk's Penguin Classics Bookstore. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

'If Fitzgerald had not existed, it would have been necessary to invent him. Seldom has there been a character who personified, as well as chronicled, an age with such dexterity and verisimilitude' Sunday Times

Anthony Patch and Gloria Gibson are the golden children of the Jazz Age. They marry and embark on a life of glittering parties, lavish expenditure and scandalous revelry. When the money dries up their marriage founders. In this wistful novel Fitzgerald portrays the decline of youthful promise with devastating clarity.

See also: Tender is the Night

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

F. Scott Fizgerald was born in 1896 in St Paul, Minnesota, and went to Princeton University, which he left in 1917 to join the army. He was said to have epitomized the Jazz Age, which he himself defined as 'a generation grown up to find all Gods dead, all wars fought, all faiths in man shaken'. In 1920 he married Zelda Sayre. Their traumatic marriage and her subsequent breakdowns became the leading influence on his writing. Among his publications were five novels, This Side of Paradise, The Great Gatsby, The Beautiful and Damned, Tender is the Night and The Last Tycoon (his last and unfinished work). Fitzgerald died suddenly in 1940.