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As depressing as it is dazzling, The Beautiful and Damned is a melancholy yet hilarious look into the lives of privileged, miserable people. Dripping with irony and introspection, this classic novel was written following the success of Fitzgerald’s debut novel, This Side of Paradise (which actually gets a cameo toward the end of the book). It’s not quite as popular as the iconic novel that follows, The Great Gatsby, but it still stands up on its own two legs quite well.
The Beautiful and Damned takes place in New York’s Jazz Age, written and heavily inspired by Fitzgerald’s own experience (he was 25 when he wrote this novel). It chronicles a privileged couple as they whine, they dine, and they ruminate idly as the consequences of their inaction drags them into a downward spiral financially, socially and emotionally.
The characters aren’t likable whatsoever, but in many ways they’re relatable. They’re not the shining star of the story by any means (spoiler, it’s Fitzgerald’s prose) but still keep you entertained enough to be invested in their absolutely ridiculous, frivolous lives.
At it’s core, The Beautiful and Damned is a cautionary tale. Its themes dwell heavily on the risks of an increasingly hedonistic society that values beauty and pleasure above all else, often at the cost of their own relationships and themselves. It begs you to ask many introspective questions while reading that I found to be incredibly interesting and left a substantial impression on me while reading.
Major Themes
- Critiques of the excess of the Jazz Age
- The risks of laziness and disinterest in a life purpose
- Potential for corruption of inherited wealth and privileged lifestyles
- The fear of aging and prioritization of beauty above all else
- Negative results of narcisissm and immaturity
F. Scott Fitzgerald writes in a way I personally love, but I can see how others would find it extremely tedious. He truly has a way with words, and it’s just gorgeous. There were lots of quotes I absolutely adored, many of them existential and drumming on about the meaning of life, growing old, the aversion to work…which are some of my personal favorite things in a book. If that’s not for you, you won’t like it.
It’s no Gatsby, but it was enough for me to want to read everything in Fitzgerald’s collection of works.
The Best Quotes From The Beautiful and Damned
“Tired, tired with nothing, tired with everything, tired with the world’s weight he had never chosen to bear.”
“I shall go on shining as a brilliantly meaningless figure in a meaningless world.”
“There was one of his lonelinesses coming, one of those times when he walked the streets or sat, aimless and depressed, biting a pencil at his desk. It was a self-absorption with no comfort, a demand for expression with no outlet, a sense of time rushing by, ceaselessly and wastefully – assuaged only by that conviction that there was nothing to waste, because all efforts and attainments were equally valueless.”
“Art isn’t meaningless… It is in itself. It isn’t in that it tries to make life less so.”
“I had traded the fight against love for the fight against loneliness, the fight against life for the fight against death.”