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Liked It1 of 1 members found this review helpful “F. Scott Fitzgerald's novels have a timeless quality. The story is compelling and well written. Both main characters are highly unlikable - normally a turn off for me - but still manage to draw you into their tale, whether you're rooting for them or not.” see full review » see other reviews » |
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“I'm sure a lot of people have read "The Great Gatsby" ( wonderful, wonderful book) and many of the same themes are revisited in "The Beautiful and Damned". What stuck with me most was the sense of entitlement of the main characters, Gloria and Anthony Patch. They both harbor a resilient, resolute sense of entitlement that they refuse to abandoned, even during the most dire of circumstances. The book does a great job of highlighting its characters very human vanities and made me ask myself, even while I was dismissing Anthony's destructive and selfish behavior, if I would really act any differently were I in his position.
Nancy S wrote this review Friday, October 2 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
Written between "This Side of Paradise" and "The Great Gatsby" it shows the shift in Fitzgerald's tone regarding his generation. ”
“Never got around to this one.”
Tabitha S wrote this review Saturday, September 5 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“This is probably Fitzgerald's weakest novel. I like it, but the characters aren't as strong and the story isn't as engaging. ”
Matthew wrote this review Thursday, August 27 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Fantastic book, not quite as good as Tender ist the Night, but beautifully describing the Jazz Age. Anthony Patch's reluctance to perform proper work and waiting instead for the fortune he was to inherit one day in order to keep his extravagant lifestyle, could be compared to todays society's craving for perpetual fun and entertainment at low cost. One doubtless discovers a part of Anthony Patch in oneself, though the extremeties to which he goes in terms of drinking and squandering money should be limited to the author himself and his fiction.”
Norbert P wrote this review Friday, October 30 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“The joys of spending your family trust fund.”
Selina C wrote this review Saturday, August 15 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No“This book does a really good job of showing the reader what the life was like during the swinging 20's. Fitzgerald is an amazing author and once into the book, I was unable to stop reading it.”
Heather D wrote this review Friday, June 19 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Beautifully written, and surprisingly engaging. But I would have liked to see some positive change in the characters. I'm not saying he shouldn't have written the way he did. I'm just choosing not to like because I don't like the end result. Definitely worth reading once, but not a second time.”
Aaron B wrote this review Sunday, May 24 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No1 of 1 members found this review helpful“F. Scott Fitzgerald's novels have a timeless quality. The story is compelling and well written. Both main characters are highly unlikable - normally a turn off for me - but still manage to draw you into their tale, whether you're rooting for them or not.”
Kate F wrote this review Thursday, February 12 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No0 of 1 members found this review helpful“this book is good to read simply for the prose. fitzgerald's ability to descripe the environment & the characters in a manner that is somewhat lost to us now. warning: its a lot of build up for one line of payoff. not for the faint of heart (or intelligence).”
Hayley M wrote this review Sunday, September 28 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No1 of 1 members found this review helpful“I love Fitzgerald's other novels (except for The Last Tycoon, which never should have been published), but I found this one to be disappointing. I think it was because the characters were all SO unlikeable. In all his other novels, I identified in some way with at least some aspect of most of the characters, but Anthony and Gloria were too much. They seemed almost like caricatures of Fitzgerald's other characters. It took me months to get through this book, and had it not been for the very last chapter, I would have given it only two stars. I won't give anything away, but the ending was absolutely brilliant - if nothing else but for the fact that it came as such a surprise, but also for the absolute irony of it all.”
Megan P wrote this review Tuesday, July 22 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
