Audiobook · read by volunteers
Beautiful and Damned
F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940)
Read by E. Tavano · 19 chapters · 12 h 56
About the book
Anthony Patch is young, charming, well educated and convinced that he will one day inherit a vast fortune, which makes it very easy to postpone the business of living. When he falls in love with the beautiful and spirited Gloria, the couple throw themselves into a glittering round of parties, travel and extravagance, certain that the money will arrive in time. But the years pass, the war intervenes, and drink and idleness begin to take their toll. F. Scott Fitzgerald's second novel is a brilliant, dazzling and unsparing portrait of the Jazz Age and of two people who mistake pleasure for happiness. E. Tavano reads the nineteen files in about thirteen hours. It is a rich and poignant story that sits easily beside The Great Gatsby, and a fine choice for lovers of American fiction.
Introduction
F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940) was an American novelist and short-story writer who became the voice of the Jazz Age. The Beautiful and Damned, published in 1922, was his second novel, following the success of This Side of Paradise, and it appeared three years before The Great Gatsby. Together these books made him one of the most celebrated young writers in America.
The novel tells the story of Anthony Patch, a young New York socialite who is the presumptive heir to a tycoon's fortune, and of his relationship with his wife Gloria, his service in the army and his struggle with alcoholism. Fitzgerald uses the couple to explore a world of leisure and appearances in which the expectation of money leads to a kind of paralysis. The book is notable for its ironic narration, its detailed portrait of a particular milieu and its refusal to offer easy consolations.
Critics at the time and since have noted the autobiographical elements in the story, for Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda lived a similarly lavish and turbulent life in the same years. The novel is also a document of its period, capturing the restlessness and glamour of the postwar generation. Its structure is divided into books, and the chapters often carry titles, such as Portrait of a Siren and The Connoisseur of Kisses.
This LibriVox recording is read by E. Tavano. It lasts about twelve hours and fifty-four minutes and is divided into nineteen files. The long running time suits the unhurried unfolding of the narrative, and the reading brings out both the glitter and the sadness of the story.
Public domain
F. Scott Fitzgerald died in 1940: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text