Of Decadence and Tragedy

As one journey across the vast world of literature, one will inevitably stumble across the name F. Scott Fitzgerald. His novel The Great Gatsby is a defining work of literature, a popular title that transcended time. The tragic story of Jay Gatsby and his doomed love for Daisy Buchanan captivated readers worldwide. With the vast net it cast, the book has become synonymous with its writer. The Great Gatsby is widely considered a modern-day classic and one of the novels that defined the Roaring Twenties and the Jazz Age, a term that is also attributed to Fitzgerald. The book is often cited by literary pundits as the “Great American Novel.” The passage of time has not dulled the luster of the novel as it continues to influence various aspects of society, from films to radio to video games to the stage.

But there is more to F. Scott Fitzgerald beyond The Great Gatsby. Born Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald on September 24, 1896, in St. Paul, Minnesota, he was named after a distant cousin who is credited for writing the lyrics for the American national anthem. As anyone who reached the heights of success can attest to, Fitzgerald’s path to success and recognition was fraught with failures and challenges. After serving during the First World War, Fitzgerald moved to New York City, with the aspiration of establishing a lucrative literary career. However, no newspaper editor would take him, prompting Fitzgerald to settle for a measly-paying job as a writer for an advertising company. He spent his spare time writing short stories. Neither was paying well and Fitzgerald spent his earlier months in the Big Apple living in poverty.

Just when it couldn’t get any worse, Zelda, his fiance, broke off their engagement. But as Fitzgerald was about to plummet into the abyss of failure and rejection, the proverbial silver linings started to appear. Fitzgerald’s long-awaited breakthrough arrived over a year after being discharged from service. In 1920, he made his literary debut with the publication of This Side of Paradise, a novel he started working on while studying at Princeton University. The novel was warmly received by both the critics and the general reading public alike. Fitzgerald has become a household name. He also gained recognition from prestigious publications. This Side of Paradise was a literary sensation that saw the remarkable rise of a new literary voice. The success that Fitzgerald yearned for has finally come.

“And that taught me you can’t have anything, you can’t have anything at all. Because desire just cheats you. It’s like a sunbeam skipping here and there about a room. It stops and gilds some inconsequential object, and we poor fools try to grasp it – but when we do the sunbeam moves on to something else, and you’ve got the inconsequential part, but the glitter that made you want it is gone.”

~ F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Beautiful and Damned

The success of his debut novel also brought back Zelda into his fold. They got married and with their newfound prosperity, the young couple is finally having a taste of the opulent lifestyle they were equipped for. They became the darlings of the crowd. They were the toast of society. It was what they dreamed of and yet the high-rolling life daunted them. The happiness they derived from their new social status felt ephemeral. It was at this juncture of a new bout of unhappiness that Fitzgerald started working on his sophomore novel. The Beautiful and Damned first appeared in serial form in Metropolitan Magazine in late 1921. In March 1922, the series was published as a single volume by Charles Scribner’s Sons.

Set in New York City, The Beautiful and Damned introduced the readers to Anthony Patch. Anthony was a carefree young man who had no vision of his future. He also thought highly of himself. He saw himself above everyone else. He graduated from the prestigious Harvard University. He is living in an upscale apartment in New York City’s most prestigious address. He is always well-dressed. He was also sitting on a substantial trust fund that has virtually assured his future; the interest it earns is more than enough to fund his decadent lifestyle. Not to be outdone, Anthony is the only surviving direct heir of Adam J. Patch; Anthony was orphaned at a young age. Adam J. Patch is a millionaire who made a fortune on Wall Street.

With no other heirs in sight, it has been presumed by many that the grandson will inherit the grandfather’s fortune. There was, however, a catch. Anthony resented his grandfather. Adam also matched his grandson’s energy. They cannot stand each other. This chasm prompted Anthony to live in Rome for a while before returning to New York City. When he returned to his birthplace, Anthony was under the impression that his grandfather was dying and that he would finally receive his inheritance. But then fate played one of its cruel jokes as Grandfather Patch rallied and was able to recover. Nevertheless, Anthony decided to stay in New York City and be part of its partying scene. Living off of the interest from his hefty trust fund, he lived a decadent lifestyle.

Anthony initially had no plans of settling down. Everything changed when he met Gloria Gilbert. Through his friend Richard Caramel, Anthony was introduced to Gloria, Richard’s cousin. Gloria was a beautiful flapper from Kansas City. Anthony was immediately beguiled by her beauty and with the parallels in their personalities, it didn’t take much for Anthony and Gloria to hit it off. It was a whirlwind romance as the young couple fell deeply in love. Their love affair, however, was not straightforward. What ensued was a story of how their push-and-pull love story developed. But despite the complications, their budding romance ended just like how most love stories do: matrimony. Gloria was quoted saying: “Mother says that two souls are sometimes created together – and in love before they’re born.”

“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.”

~ F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Beautiful and Damned

As expected, the young couple’s wedding was anything short of grand. The young couple did not spare any expense and they held it at Anthony’s grandfather’s mansion. The wedding was ostentatious but it was the toast of high society. It was the talk of the town. Their wedding was followed by an equally lavish honeymoon in California where they hopped from one party to another. Life, after all, is one big party and the young couple is living proof of that. Even when the couple returned to New York, the couple spent their days partying. And they partied hard, spending Anthony’s fortune as though it is never going to run out. This is the crux of the story.

A typical couple would have started building their future by making wise investments and decisions. But the Patches were not your typical couple. They spent the infancy of their marriage insouciant of what others think. The current generation has a term for this. YOLO: You Only Live Once. Indeed, Anthony and Gloria spent money as if there was no tomorrow. They were confident that their decadent lifestyle will be sustained by Anthony’s trust fund. Beyond the trust fund, the Patches were confident that Anthony’s grandfather would, upon his passing, bequeath him the fortune he amassed during his lifetime. Despite the rift between grandfather and grandson, there is no reason to believe that the Patch fortune would be handed over to anyone but Anthony.

Because of the period the novel was set in, it can be easy to infer that it is a period piece. However, what Fitzgerald captured in the novel is universal. It transcends time. The story of Anthony and Gloria is familiar and continues to persist in the contemporary. We read about rich young couples who are, backed up by fortune, unapologetic about their conduct. They live in decadence. They rely on what they believe they will receive rather than working hard to earn their upkeep. But this is not something that happens to the rich as even ordinary young couples exhibit similar tendencies. As time has shown, everything and everyone will be pulled down. The riches we so long yearned for will run out. Beauty will disintegrate as ugly realities start to manifest. The things that we believe will solve our problems will soon decay, fade.

The young couple became obsessed with the idea of getting rich. They are already wealthy but the idea of acquiring more wealth made them more greedy. They believe that their rash decisions, whether in financial aspects or leisure, would be of no consequence because they have money. Society has normalized the thinking that power resides with those who have money. Anthony and Gloria think that they can get away with everything because of the money and influence of Anthony’s power. The best thing about it is that they don’t have to work a day in their life. The novel then transforms into a scathing commentary on those who are born with a silver spoon, particularly those who barely had to lift any finger.

“The growth of intimacy is like that. First one gives off his best picture, the bright and finished product mended with bluff and falsehood and humor. Then more details are required and one paints a second portrait, and a third – before long the best lines cancel out – and the secret is exposed at last; the planes of the picture have intermingled and given us a way, and though we paint and paint, we can longer sell a picture. We must be satisified with hoping that such fatuous accounts of ourselves as we make to our wives and children and business associates are accepted as truth”

~ F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Beautiful and Damned

The story of the young couple also underlined their immaturity and their lack of wisdom. They were too enamored by beauty and opulence. The dream of receiving a fortune obscured their vision. These all run parallel with the novel’s overriding theme of beauty and its opposite, ugliness. Other blueprints of Fitzgerald’s works were also woven into the novel’s lush tapestry. His examination of the Jazz Age society – the decadence of the young and the free-spiritedness of the period in particular – was again a central theme. The newlyweds were creatures of the night and were often found in New York City’s party scenes, reminiscent of The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald is also renowned for popularizing the idea of the flapper look.

The inevitable question then is, will the fortune that Anthony and Gloria are bound to receive usher in greatness or perhaps, even happiness? Fitzgerald’s experience following the success of his debut novel has indicated it does not. In the case of Anthony, the happiness he felt was ephemeral. It all felt superficial, it does not linger. As the story moved forward, readers of Fitzgerald’s works will eventually catch on. The book has parallels to his own life; the novel contained semi-autobiographical elements. The main characters were modeled after Fitzgerald and his young wife, Zelda. The people who moved within the orbit of the Patches were also modeled after people in Fitzgerald’s life. The Beautiful and the Damned is, in a way, a work of Roman-a-clef.

Parts-romance story, parts-social commentary, parts-coming-of-age story, The Beautiful and the Damned is an evocative follow-up to F. Scott Fitzgerald’s blazing debut novel. He conjured two flawed and unapologetic characters imbued with the spirit and the attitude of the period. A master of capturing the spirit of a time and place, Fitzgerald juxtaposed the book’s romantic on an idyllic if not a tumultuous backdrop. The pioneer of the Jazz era literature, Fitzgerald vividly captured the portrait of New York’s elite’s indulgent lifestyle. The story of Anthony and Gloria, however, transcends time as the subjects the novel tackles are universal and timeless, such as wealth, immaturity, romance, and the decadence of youth. The Beautiful and the Damned occupies a seminal part in Fitzgerald’s oeuvre as it showed the growth and development of a young writer’s storytelling and writing. Like Fitzgerald’s other works, The Beautiful and the Damned is a literary classic that transcends time and borders.

“It’s late – I have all the windows open and the air otuside is just as soft as spring, yet somehow, much more young and frail than spring. Why do they make spring a young girl, why does that illusion dance and yodel its way for three months through the world’s preposterous barrenness. Spring is a lean old plough horse with its ribs showing – it’s a pile of refuse in a field, parched by the sun and the rain to at ominous cleanliness.”

~ F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Beautiful and Damned
Book Specs

Author: F. Scott Fitzgerald
Publisher: World Library Classics
Publishing Date: 2010
Number of Pages: 321
Genre: Literary, Bildungsroman

Synopsis

First published in 1922, The Beautiful and the Damned followed Fitzgerald’s impeccable debut, This Side of Paradise, thus securing his place in the tradition of great American novelists. Embellished with the author’s lyrical prose, here is the story of Harvard-educated, aspiring aesthete Anthony Patch and his beautiful wife, Gloria. As they await the inheritance of his grandfather’s fortune, their reckless marriage sways under the influence of alcohol and avarice. A devastating look at the nouveau riche, and the New York nightlife, as well as the ruinous effects of wild ambition, The Beautiful and the Damnedachieved stature as one of Fitzgerald’s most accomplished novels. Its distinction as a classic endures to this day. Pocket Book’s Enriched Classics present the great works of world literature enhanced for the contemporary reader. Special features include critical perspectives, suggestions for further read, and a unique visual essay composed of period photographs that help bring every word to life. (Source: Goodreads

About the Author

To learn more about the popular American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald, click here.