The Beautiful and Damned
Author | : F. Scott Fitzgerald |
Publisher | : Oxford Paperbacks |
Total Pages | : 402 |
Release | : 1998-05-07 |
ISBN-10 | : 9780192832641 |
ISBN-13 | : 0192832646 |
Rating | : 4/5 (41 Downloads) |
Book excerpt: `The victor belongs to the spoils.' Fitzgerald's ironic epigraph to The Beautiful and Damned exemplifies his attitude toward the young rootless post-World War One generation who believed life to be meaningless and who pursued wealth despite its corrosive effect. Gloria and Anthony Patch party until money runs out; then their goal becomes Adam Patch's fortune. Gloria's beauty fades and Anthony's drinking takes its horrible toll. Fitzgerald here once again displays a wariness of the upper classes, `an abiding distrust, an animosity, toward the leisure class - not the conviction of a revolutionist but the smouldering hatred of a peasant'.