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The Beautiful and Damned
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The Beautiful and Damned (1922) (edit title/settings)

by F. Scott Fitzgerald (Author) (edit contributors)

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Description edit see section history

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... read more

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Quotes edit see section history

  • “Anthony laughed, noiselessly and exultantly, turning his face up and away from her, half in an overpowering rush of triumph, half lest her sight of him should spoil the splendid immobility of her expression.”
  • “Love lingered -- by way of long conversations at night into those stark hours when the mind thins and sharpens and the borrowings from dreams become the stuff of all life, by way of deep and intimate kindnesses they developed toward each other, by way of their laughing at the same absurdities and thinking the same things noble and the same things sad.”
  • “Such a kiss -- it was a flower held against the face, never to be described, scarcely to be remembered; as though her beauty were giving off emanations of itself which settled transiently and already dissolving upon his heart.”
  • “It was, first of all, a time of discovery. The things they found in each other were so diverse, so intermixed and, moreover, so sugared with love as to seem at the time not so much discoveries as isolated phenomena -- to be allowed for, and to be forgotten.”
  • “As he stood in front of Delmonico's lighting a cigarette one might he saw two hansoms drawn up close to the curb, waiting for a chance drunken fare. The out-moded cabs were worn and dirty -- the cracked patent leather wrinkled like an old man's face, the cushions faded to a brownish lavender; the very horses were ancient and weary, and so were the white-haired men who sat aloft, cracking their whips with a grotesque affectation of gallantry. A relic of vanished gaiety! Anthony Patch walked away in a sudden fit of depression, pondering the bitterness of such survivals. There was nothing, it seemed, that grew stale so soon as pleasure.”
  • “"Life plays the same lovely and agonizing joke on all of us."”
  • “A classic...is a successful book that has survived the reaction of the next period or generation.”
  • “"This is life! Who cares for the morrow?"”
  • “"Happiness is only the first hour after the alleviation of some especially intense misery."”
  • “"Beautiful things grow to a certain height and then they fail and fade o fbreathing out memories as they decay."”
  • “"Desire just cheats you...its like a sunbeam...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."”
Show all 11 quotes from this book

First Sentence edit see section history

IN 1913, when Anthony Patch was twenty-five, two years were already gone since irony, the Holy Ghost of this later day, had, theoretically at least, descended upon him.

Table of Contents edit see section history

Book One
I. Anthony Patch
II. Portrait of a Siren
III. The Connoisseur of Kisses

Book Two
I. The Radiant Hour
II. Symposium
III. The Broken Lute

Book Three
I. A Matter of Civilization
II. A Matter of Aesthetics
III. No Matter!

Glossary edit see section history

  • Bilphism: Describe this term.
  • Erewhon: Erewhon: or, Over the Range is a novel by Samuel Butler, published anonymously in 1872. The title is also the name of a country, supposedly discovered by the protagonist. In the novel, it is not revealed in which part of the world Erewhon is, but it is clear that it is a fictional country. Butler meant the title to be read as the word Nowhere backwards, even though the letters "h" and "w" are transposed, therefore Erewhon is anagram of nowhere.
  • Bilphist: Bilphism (noun) : The name used and coined by F. Scott Fitzgerald in his 1922 novel The Beautiful and the Damned, referring to a religious belief concerned with the reincarnation of the human soul.
  • bon mot: good word or witticism
  • reductio ad absurdum: is a form of argument in which a proposition is disproven by following its implications logically to an absurd consequence.
  • brogue: Irish or Scottish accent when speaking English
  • ballyhoo: (1) "publicity, hype," 1908, from circus slang(2) A spotlight cue meaning to sweep the light across the spectators in a figure-8 pattern(3) The "Bally" is the "outside talker's" spiel drawing a crowd (called a "tip") to see a sideshow.
  • stags: men without partners or dates
  • bromides: a trite and unoriginal idea or remark, typically intended to soothe or placate
  • Everything's At Home Except Your Wife: Composed by Ivan Caryll in 1912; lyriucs by CMS McLellan; from 'Oh! Oh! Delphine'; sample can be listened to at www.shazam.com/music.web/track?id=3181840
  • hyacinthine: from Hyacinth: A bulbous Mediterranean plant (Hyacinthus orientalis) having narrow leaves and a terminal raceme of variously colored, usually fragrant flowers, with a funnel-shaped perianth. Also called jacinth.
  • Ganymede: In Greek mythology, the most beautiful of mortals; abducted to serve as a cup bearer in Olympus
  • Nordic: Of or relating to a human physical type exemplified by the tall, narrow-headed, light-skinned, blond-haired peoples of Scandinavia. Not in scientific use.
  • Thaïs: (1) A famous Greek hetaera who lived during the time of Alexander the Great and accompanied him on his campaigns. She is most famous for instigating the burning of Persepolis.(2) St. Thaïs of Roman Alexandria and of the Egyptian desert was a repentant courtesan.
  • chaste as the moon: A reference to Artemis, the virgin goddess of the hunt, represented by the moon
  • supe: a supernumerary (i.e. extra)
Show all 16 glossary entries

Series & Lists edit see section history

This book is in Halcyon Classics. (publisher edition list)
This book is in Penguin's Top 100 Classics. (authoritative list)
This book is in Penguin Modern Classics. (publisher edition list)
This is book 191 of 213 in Best English-Language Fiction of the 20th Century. (authoritative list)

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

  1. F. Scott Fitzgerald (Author)

Other Contributors:

  1. James L. W. West III

First Edition edit see section history

Original Language: English
Publisher: Scribner's
Country: United States
Publication Date: 1922
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 400

Classification edit see section history

  • Library of Congress: PZ3.F5754 Be PS3511.I9
  • Dewey: 813.52

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