Quick Review: The Beautiful and Damned

Not my picture, but this edition is the one I own.

Note: This is a spoiler-free post!

The Beautiful and Damned is a book I bought years ago but never got around to read. I’m sorry, Mr. Fitzgerald. But at last, in the year of 2026, I decided to finally give the yellowing book a try. Surprisingly, I think I rather like this book.

A Brief Blurb

Anthony Patch is a 25-year-old man living a life of leisure - euphemism for unemployed. Sustained by inherited wealth, Anthony spends his days chasing excitement in parties and liquor while anticipating the death of his rich grandfather. Enter Gloria Gilbert. Gloria, beauty personified, approaches life with the same pleasure-seeking spirit as Anthony. The two fall in love, and together they begin a married life full of excess. But sooner or later they will have to face the consequences.

A Classics thing…

Honestly I thought I, as a modern non-native-English speaker, was not going to like it. The pacing is slow and I had no idea where the story was going. I went in blind, by the way. I didn’t read a synopsis or anything before starting the book. A philosophical conversation at around twenty pages in was also rather intimidating.

Nevertheless I told myself that I was going to finish the book. Even if I don’t find the story palatable, at least this would be a good exercise for my reading skills and a good safeguard for my attention span. But somehow…things got better. I grew accustomed to Fitzgerald’s language and found myself quite engrossed in the story. At some points I was reminded of Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray since beauty is also a major subject in the book.

‘Where are you from?’ enquired Anthony. He knew, but beauty had rendered him thoughtless.

Leisure or Work?

A short foreword in my copy tells me that The Beautiful and Damned is semi-autobiographical. Parts of Anthony and Gloria’s glamorous life is based on Fitzgerald’s and his wife Zelda’s marriage. Having that information from the very beginning makes it feel like the book is Fitzgerald’s attempt at evaluating and grappling with his own situation.

Us readers can learn a thing or two from it. I like how the book portrays the effects of an idle, materialistic life. What’s equally interesting is the “problem” of work. The story suggests that it is not the absence of work that improves our well-being and happiness. Feels like a very relevant message at a time where tech giants are justifying the proliferation of AI by claiming that their takeover of human work is making things better.

“…I think that if I hadn’t met you I would have done something. But you make leisure so subtly attractive…”

Language

As expected of a classic, the language is challenging. I am now mega best buddies with online dictionaries and language forums. My main struggle isn’t with the words so much as the unfamiliar slash complex sentence structures. I still don’t get many of them - hey, an incentive for a slow reread in the future. Nonetheless, there’s still a sense of reward because many of the sentences are thought-provoking, funny, and beautiful. I’m particularly drawn to how Fitzgerald manages to use a wide variety of imagery in his sentences. (There might be an official term for this kind of thing, but it is unknown to me.) For example:

Emulating the magnificent efforts of Anthony Comstock, after whom his grandson was named, he levelled a varied assortment of uppercuts and body-blows at liquor, literature, vice, art, patent medicines and Sunday theatres.

Long after the questionable days of his youth, Grandpa Patch transforms into a Reformer. Fitzgerald paints Grandpa Patch’s efforts against all things vile as boxing attacks through the words “uppercuts” and “body-blows”. He could’ve said something like, “Grandpa Patch opposed…” or “Grandpa Patch ran campaigns against...” but creative metaphors certainly make the reading experience more fun.

More Fitzgerald

Despite the difficulties, I can say I quite enjoyed The Beautiful and Damned - my first Fitzgerald story. Yes, I have not read The Great Gatsby, though I know that’s the one Fitzgerald is most well-known for. And yes, I know Gatsby is portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio in the movie. It’s that famous.

Looking forward to what The Great Gatsby has in store for me :)