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This Side of Paradise / The Beautiful and the Damned
With an Introduction and Notes by Lionel Kelly, University of Reading.
This Side of Paradise tells the story of Amory Blaine, the only child of wealthy parents, whose journey from adolescence to adulthood follows him from prep school through to Princeton University, where his literary talents flourish, in contrast to his academic failure. A sequence of love affairs with beautiful young women are fatally damaged by the collapse of his family's fortune, and the novel ends with him poised to face the challenge of making his own way in the world. Composed in an unconventional narrative mode, the novel is a rich fusion of satiric and romance idioms, and found a captivated audience on its publication in 1920. It made Fitzgerald rich and famous overnight.
The Beautiful and Damned is a bleaker version of the corrosive power of wealth and its privileges, one of Fitzgerald's abiding subjects. Anthony Patch, is heir to a huge fortune, whose marriage to the beautiful and indolent Gloria is increasingly shadowed by Anthony's fall into alcoholism. Though he wins a lawsuit to gain his inheritance of millions of dollars, it is a pyrrhic victory, for he is now a physically and morally broken man.
This Side of Paradise tells the story of Amory Blaine, the only child of wealthy parents, whose journey from adolescence to adulthood follows him from prep school through to Princeton University, where his literary talents flourish, in contrast to his academic failure. A sequence of love affairs with beautiful young women are fatally damaged by the collapse of his family's fortune, and the novel ends with him poised to face the challenge of making his own way in the world. Composed in an unconventional narrative mode, the novel is a rich fusion of satiric and romance idioms, and found a captivated audience on its publication in 1920. It made Fitzgerald rich and famous overnight.
The Beautiful and Damned is a bleaker version of the corrosive power of wealth and its privileges, one of Fitzgerald's abiding subjects. Anthony Patch, is heir to a huge fortune, whose marriage to the beautiful and indolent Gloria is increasingly shadowed by Anthony's fall into alcoholism. Though he wins a lawsuit to gain his inheritance of millions of dollars, it is a pyrrhic victory, for he is now a physically and morally broken man.
606 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1922
82 people are currently reading
1997 people want to read
About the author
F. Scott Fitzgerald
2,326 books25.6k followersFrancis Scott Key Fitzgerald, widely known simply as Scott Fitzgerald, was an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer. He is best known for his novels depicting the flamboyance and excess of the Jazz Age, a term he popularized in his short story collection Tales of the Jazz Age. During his lifetime, he published four novels, four story collections, and 164 short stories. Although he achieved temporary popular success and fortune in the 1920s, Fitzgerald received critical acclaim only after his death and is now widely regarded as one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century.
Born into a middle-class family in Saint Paul, Minnesota, Fitzgerald was raised primarily in New York state. He attended Princeton University where he befriended future literary critic Edmund Wilson. Owing to a failed romantic relationship with Chicago socialite Ginevra King, he dropped out in 1917 to join the United States Army during World War I. While stationed in Alabama, he met Zelda Sayre, a Southern debutante who belonged to Montgomery's exclusive country-club set. Although she initially rejected Fitzgerald's marriage proposal due to his lack of financial prospects, Zelda agreed to marry him after he published the commercially successful This Side of Paradise (1920). The novel became a cultural sensation and cemented his reputation as one of the eminent writers of the decade.
His second novel, The Beautiful and Damned (1922), propelled him further into the cultural elite. To maintain his affluent lifestyle, he wrote numerous stories for popular magazines such as The Saturday Evening Post, Collier's Weekly, and Esquire. During this period, Fitzgerald frequented Europe, where he befriended modernist writers and artists of the "Lost Generation" expatriate community, including Ernest Hemingway. His third novel, The Great Gatsby (1925), received generally favorable reviews but was a commercial failure, selling fewer than 23,000 copies in its first year. Despite its lackluster debut, The Great Gatsby is now hailed by some literary critics as the "Great American Novel". Following the deterioration of his wife's mental health and her placement in a mental institute for schizophrenia, Fitzgerald completed his final novel, Tender Is the Night (1934).
Struggling financially because of the declining popularity of his works during the Great Depression, Fitzgerald moved to Hollywood, where he embarked upon an unsuccessful career as a screenwriter. While living in Hollywood, he cohabited with columnist Sheilah Graham, his final companion before his death. After a long struggle with alcoholism, he attained sobriety only to die of a heart attack in 1940, at 44. His friend Edmund Wilson edited and published an unfinished fifth novel, The Last Tycoon (1941), after Fitzgerald's death. In 1993, a new edition was published as The Love of the Last Tycoon, edited by Matthew J. Bruccoli.
Born into a middle-class family in Saint Paul, Minnesota, Fitzgerald was raised primarily in New York state. He attended Princeton University where he befriended future literary critic Edmund Wilson. Owing to a failed romantic relationship with Chicago socialite Ginevra King, he dropped out in 1917 to join the United States Army during World War I. While stationed in Alabama, he met Zelda Sayre, a Southern debutante who belonged to Montgomery's exclusive country-club set. Although she initially rejected Fitzgerald's marriage proposal due to his lack of financial prospects, Zelda agreed to marry him after he published the commercially successful This Side of Paradise (1920). The novel became a cultural sensation and cemented his reputation as one of the eminent writers of the decade.
His second novel, The Beautiful and Damned (1922), propelled him further into the cultural elite. To maintain his affluent lifestyle, he wrote numerous stories for popular magazines such as The Saturday Evening Post, Collier's Weekly, and Esquire. During this period, Fitzgerald frequented Europe, where he befriended modernist writers and artists of the "Lost Generation" expatriate community, including Ernest Hemingway. His third novel, The Great Gatsby (1925), received generally favorable reviews but was a commercial failure, selling fewer than 23,000 copies in its first year. Despite its lackluster debut, The Great Gatsby is now hailed by some literary critics as the "Great American Novel". Following the deterioration of his wife's mental health and her placement in a mental institute for schizophrenia, Fitzgerald completed his final novel, Tender Is the Night (1934).
Struggling financially because of the declining popularity of his works during the Great Depression, Fitzgerald moved to Hollywood, where he embarked upon an unsuccessful career as a screenwriter. While living in Hollywood, he cohabited with columnist Sheilah Graham, his final companion before his death. After a long struggle with alcoholism, he attained sobriety only to die of a heart attack in 1940, at 44. His friend Edmund Wilson edited and published an unfinished fifth novel, The Last Tycoon (1941), after Fitzgerald's death. In 1993, a new edition was published as The Love of the Last Tycoon, edited by Matthew J. Bruccoli.
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March 17, 2012Not rating because the edition is 2 in one.
I like This Side of Paradise, which may just be the least depressing book that Fitzgerald has ever written.
The Beautiful and the Damned is a very depressing book, but it was fascinating. A very beautiful study of human character in the time. The ending was a tad ambiguous though.
I like This Side of Paradise, which may just be the least depressing book that Fitzgerald has ever written.
The Beautiful and the Damned is a very depressing book, but it was fascinating. A very beautiful study of human character in the time. The ending was a tad ambiguous though.
October 11, 2015
2* for This Side of Paradise
3* for The Beautiful and the Damned
3* for The Beautiful and the Damned
December 3, 2024
"Don't you believe in moderation?'
'You won't listen to the moderates, and it's almost too late. The truth is that the public has done one of those startling and amazing things that they do about once in a hundred years. They've seized an idea.'
'What is it?'
'That however the brains and abilities of men may differ, their stomachs are essentially the same."
...
"Frantically. I get a thing I call sentence-fever that must be like buck-fever - it's a sort of intense literary self-consciousness that comes when I try to force myself. But the really awful days aren't when I think I can't write. They're when I wonder whether any writing is worth while at all - I mean whether I'm not a sort of glorified buffoon."
...
"We produce a Christ who can raise up the leper and presently the breed of the leper is the salt of the earth. If anyone can find any lesson in that, let him stand forth.'
'There's only one lesson to be learned from life, anyway,' interrupted Gloria, not in contradiction but in a sort of melancholy agreement.
'What's that?' demanded Maury sharply.
'That there's no lesson to be learned from life."
...
"What if I do? I've heard you and Maury, and everyone else for whose intellect I have the slightest respect, agree that life as it appears is utterly meaningless. But it's always seemed to me that if I were unconsciously learning something here it might not be so meaningless.'
'You're not learning anything - you're just getting tired."
...
"The failure and the success both believe in their hearts that they have accurately balanced points of view, the success because he's succeeded, and the failure because he's failed. The successful man tells his son to profit by his father's good fortune, and the failure tells his son to profit by his father's mistakes."
'You won't listen to the moderates, and it's almost too late. The truth is that the public has done one of those startling and amazing things that they do about once in a hundred years. They've seized an idea.'
'What is it?'
'That however the brains and abilities of men may differ, their stomachs are essentially the same."
...
"Frantically. I get a thing I call sentence-fever that must be like buck-fever - it's a sort of intense literary self-consciousness that comes when I try to force myself. But the really awful days aren't when I think I can't write. They're when I wonder whether any writing is worth while at all - I mean whether I'm not a sort of glorified buffoon."
...
"We produce a Christ who can raise up the leper and presently the breed of the leper is the salt of the earth. If anyone can find any lesson in that, let him stand forth.'
'There's only one lesson to be learned from life, anyway,' interrupted Gloria, not in contradiction but in a sort of melancholy agreement.
'What's that?' demanded Maury sharply.
'That there's no lesson to be learned from life."
...
"What if I do? I've heard you and Maury, and everyone else for whose intellect I have the slightest respect, agree that life as it appears is utterly meaningless. But it's always seemed to me that if I were unconsciously learning something here it might not be so meaningless.'
'You're not learning anything - you're just getting tired."
...
"The failure and the success both believe in their hearts that they have accurately balanced points of view, the success because he's succeeded, and the failure because he's failed. The successful man tells his son to profit by his father's good fortune, and the failure tells his son to profit by his father's mistakes."
March 7, 2017
This Side of Paradise is quite obvious as a first novel as you read it. The act of following Amory Blaine is an effort that doesn't really pay off, as the plot can only be interesting when he actually has some kind of direction in life, which is seldom. There are moments of brilliance in the writing though, so some definite promise to save it from being a totally wasted effort.
The Beautiful and Damned is a fascinating portrayal of a man's downward spiral into drink and debt, and is thoroughly entertaining. Still a little bloated in places, but nowhere near as meandering as This Side of Paradise.
The Beautiful and Damned is a fascinating portrayal of a man's downward spiral into drink and debt, and is thoroughly entertaining. Still a little bloated in places, but nowhere near as meandering as This Side of Paradise.
December 23, 2009
The Beautiful and the Damned really sucked me into the world of rich and poor alike. It was addictive to see what natural and human mistakes these characters would make next. It was refreshing to see people unhappy in all walks of life, depressing, but refreshing none the less.
October 23, 2023
3.8- slow in the beginning but picks up in the middle
October 8, 2024
It took me a long time to read them. I enjoyed them at times and found them quite boring at times, although they are well written for sure.
This Side of Paradise
War used to be the most individualistic pursuit of man, and yet the popular heroes of the war had neither authority nor responsibility.
لطالما كانت الحرب المسعى الإنساني الأكثر فردانية، ومع ذلك لم يكن لأبطال الحرب الشعبيين أي سلطة أو مسؤولية.
I have sworn not to put pen to paper until my ideas either clarify or depart entirely; I have quite enough sins on my soul without putting dangerous, shallow epigrams into people’s heads; I might cause a poor, inoffensive capitalist to have a vulgar liaison with a bomb, or get some innocent little Bolshevik tangled up with a machine-gun bullet.
لقد أقسمتُ ألا أضع القلم على الورق وأكتب حتى تتضح أفكاري أو تختفي تمامًا؛ لدي ما يكفي من الخطايا دون أن أحشو رؤوس الناس بعبارات خطيرة وضحلة؛ قد أجعل رأسماليًا فقيرًا مسالمًا عرضة لهجوم بقنبلة، أو أتسبب في إصابة بلشفي صغير بريء برصاصة مدفع رشاش.
The idea, you know, is that the sentimental person thinks things will last – the romantic person has a desperate confidence that they won’t.
الفكرة هي أن الشخص العاطفي يعتقد أن الأشياء سوف تدوم - أما الشخص الرومانسي فلديه ثقة يائسة في أنها لن تدوم.
The truth is that sex is right in the middle of our purest abstractions, so close that obscures vision.
Intellect is no protection from sex any more than convention is.
Like most intellectuals who don’t find faith convenient, like Napoleon and Oscar Wilde, and the rest of your type, you’ll yell loudly for a priest on your deathbed.
Very few things matter, and nothing matters very much.
Modern life changes no longer century by century, but year by year, ten times faster than it ever has before-populations doubling, civilizations unified more closely with other civilizations, economic interdependence, racial questions, and-we're dawdling along. My idea is that we've got to go very much faster.
لم تعد الحياة الحديثة تتغير قرنًا بعد قرن، بل سنة بعد سنة، وبسرعة أكبر بعشر مرات من أي وقت مضى ـ حيث يتضاعف عدد السكان، وتتحد الحضارات بشكل أوثق مع الحضارات الأخرى، ويزداد الترابط الاقتصادي، وتثار القضايا العرقية، ونحن نسير ببطء شديد. واقتراحي أننا لابد أن نتحرك بسرعة أكبر بكثير.
The Beautiful and Damned
Anthony (to Maury): On the contrary, I’d feel, it being a meaningless world, why write? The very attempt to give it purpose is purposeless.
Dick: Well, even admitting all that, be a decent pragmatist and grant a poor man the instinct to live. Would you want everyone to accept that sophistic rot?
A classic is a successful book that has survived the reaction of the next period or generation. Then it’s safe, like a style in architecture or furniture. It’s acquired a picturesque dignity to take the place of its fashion.
العمل الأدبي الكلاسيكي هو كتاب ناجح نجا من ردود أفعال الزمن أو الجيل التالي. ثم يصبح آمنًا، مثل أسلوب في العمارة أو الأثاث. لقد اكتسب هيبة وجلالاً ليحل محل الموضة.
The biography of every woman begins with the first kiss that counts, and ends when her last child is laid in her arms.
Unloved women have no biographies – they have histories.
تبدأ سيرة كل امرأة مع أول قبلة ذات معنى في حياتها، وتصل إلى ذروتها عندما تحتضن طفلها الأخير بين ذراعيها.
لا توجد سيرة ذاتية للنساء غير المحبوبات؛ فهن يمتلكن تاريخًا فقط
No one cares about us but ourselves. It’d be ridiculous for me to go about pretending I felt any obligations toward the world, and as for worrying what people think about me. I simply don’t, that’s all. Since I was a little girl in dancing-school I’ve been criticized by the mothers of all little girls who weren’t as popular as I was, and I’ve always looked on criticism as a sort of envious tribute.
Books were unreal; the old magic of being alone had long since vanished.
“Now, some people,” continued Kahler, “think that whether a man gets started early or late depends on whether he’s got a college education. But they’re wrong.”
“I see.”
“I had one; I was Buckleigh, class of nineteen-eleven, but when I came down to the street, I soon found that the things that would help me here weren’t the fancy things I learned in college. In fact, I had to get a lot of fancy things out of my head.”
Experience is not worth the getting. It’s not a thing that happens pleasantly to a passive you – it’s a wall that an active you runs up against. So, I wrapped myself in what I thought was my invulnerable scepticism and decided that my education was complete. But it was too late. Protect myself as I might by making no new ties with tragic and predestined humanity, I was lost with the rest. I had traded the fight against love for the fight against loneliness, the fight against life for the fight against death.
Intelligence is a mere instrument of circumstances. There are people who say that intelligence must have built the universe – why, intelligence never built a steam engine! Circumstances built a steam engine. Intelligence is little more than a short foot-rule by which we measure the infinite achievements of circumstances.
It occurred to him that all strongly accentuated classes, such as the military, divided men into two kinds: their own kind – and those without. To the clergyman there were clergy and laity, to the Catholic there were Catholics and non-Catholics, to the negro there were blacks and whites, to the prisoner there were the imprisoned and the free, and to the sick man there were the sick and the well.. So, without thinking of it once in his lifetime, he had been a civilian, a layman, a non-Catholic, a Gentile, white, free and well.
Things are sweeter when they’re lost. I know – because once I wanted something and got it. It was the only thing I ever wanted badly. And when I got it it turned to dust in my hands.
Very few of the people who accentuate the futility of life remark the futility of themselves. Perhaps they think that in proclaiming the evil of living they somehow salvage their own worth from the ruin – but they don’t.
This Side of Paradise
War used to be the most individualistic pursuit of man, and yet the popular heroes of the war had neither authority nor responsibility.
لطالما كانت الحرب المسعى الإنساني الأكثر فردانية، ومع ذلك لم يكن لأبطال الحرب الشعبيين أي سلطة أو مسؤولية.
I have sworn not to put pen to paper until my ideas either clarify or depart entirely; I have quite enough sins on my soul without putting dangerous, shallow epigrams into people’s heads; I might cause a poor, inoffensive capitalist to have a vulgar liaison with a bomb, or get some innocent little Bolshevik tangled up with a machine-gun bullet.
لقد أقسمتُ ألا أضع القلم على الورق وأكتب حتى تتضح أفكاري أو تختفي تمامًا؛ لدي ما يكفي من الخطايا دون أن أحشو رؤوس الناس بعبارات خطيرة وضحلة؛ قد أجعل رأسماليًا فقيرًا مسالمًا عرضة لهجوم بقنبلة، أو أتسبب في إصابة بلشفي صغير بريء برصاصة مدفع رشاش.
The idea, you know, is that the sentimental person thinks things will last – the romantic person has a desperate confidence that they won’t.
الفكرة هي أن الشخص العاطفي يعتقد أن الأشياء سوف تدوم - أما الشخص الرومانسي فلديه ثقة يائسة في أنها لن تدوم.
The truth is that sex is right in the middle of our purest abstractions, so close that obscures vision.
Intellect is no protection from sex any more than convention is.
Like most intellectuals who don’t find faith convenient, like Napoleon and Oscar Wilde, and the rest of your type, you’ll yell loudly for a priest on your deathbed.
Very few things matter, and nothing matters very much.
Modern life changes no longer century by century, but year by year, ten times faster than it ever has before-populations doubling, civilizations unified more closely with other civilizations, economic interdependence, racial questions, and-we're dawdling along. My idea is that we've got to go very much faster.
لم تعد الحياة الحديثة تتغير قرنًا بعد قرن، بل سنة بعد سنة، وبسرعة أكبر بعشر مرات من أي وقت مضى ـ حيث يتضاعف عدد السكان، وتتحد الحضارات بشكل أوثق مع الحضارات الأخرى، ويزداد الترابط الاقتصادي، وتثار القضايا العرقية، ونحن نسير ببطء شديد. واقتراحي أننا لابد أن نتحرك بسرعة أكبر بكثير.
The Beautiful and Damned
Anthony (to Maury): On the contrary, I’d feel, it being a meaningless world, why write? The very attempt to give it purpose is purposeless.
Dick: Well, even admitting all that, be a decent pragmatist and grant a poor man the instinct to live. Would you want everyone to accept that sophistic rot?
A classic is a successful book that has survived the reaction of the next period or generation. Then it’s safe, like a style in architecture or furniture. It’s acquired a picturesque dignity to take the place of its fashion.
العمل الأدبي الكلاسيكي هو كتاب ناجح نجا من ردود أفعال الزمن أو الجيل التالي. ثم يصبح آمنًا، مثل أسلوب في العمارة أو الأثاث. لقد اكتسب هيبة وجلالاً ليحل محل الموضة.
The biography of every woman begins with the first kiss that counts, and ends when her last child is laid in her arms.
Unloved women have no biographies – they have histories.
تبدأ سيرة كل امرأة مع أول قبلة ذات معنى في حياتها، وتصل إلى ذروتها عندما تحتضن طفلها الأخير بين ذراعيها.
لا توجد سيرة ذاتية للنساء غير المحبوبات؛ فهن يمتلكن تاريخًا فقط
No one cares about us but ourselves. It’d be ridiculous for me to go about pretending I felt any obligations toward the world, and as for worrying what people think about me. I simply don’t, that’s all. Since I was a little girl in dancing-school I’ve been criticized by the mothers of all little girls who weren’t as popular as I was, and I’ve always looked on criticism as a sort of envious tribute.
Books were unreal; the old magic of being alone had long since vanished.
“Now, some people,” continued Kahler, “think that whether a man gets started early or late depends on whether he’s got a college education. But they’re wrong.”
“I see.”
“I had one; I was Buckleigh, class of nineteen-eleven, but when I came down to the street, I soon found that the things that would help me here weren’t the fancy things I learned in college. In fact, I had to get a lot of fancy things out of my head.”
Experience is not worth the getting. It’s not a thing that happens pleasantly to a passive you – it’s a wall that an active you runs up against. So, I wrapped myself in what I thought was my invulnerable scepticism and decided that my education was complete. But it was too late. Protect myself as I might by making no new ties with tragic and predestined humanity, I was lost with the rest. I had traded the fight against love for the fight against loneliness, the fight against life for the fight against death.
Intelligence is a mere instrument of circumstances. There are people who say that intelligence must have built the universe – why, intelligence never built a steam engine! Circumstances built a steam engine. Intelligence is little more than a short foot-rule by which we measure the infinite achievements of circumstances.
It occurred to him that all strongly accentuated classes, such as the military, divided men into two kinds: their own kind – and those without. To the clergyman there were clergy and laity, to the Catholic there were Catholics and non-Catholics, to the negro there were blacks and whites, to the prisoner there were the imprisoned and the free, and to the sick man there were the sick and the well.. So, without thinking of it once in his lifetime, he had been a civilian, a layman, a non-Catholic, a Gentile, white, free and well.
Things are sweeter when they’re lost. I know – because once I wanted something and got it. It was the only thing I ever wanted badly. And when I got it it turned to dust in my hands.
Very few of the people who accentuate the futility of life remark the futility of themselves. Perhaps they think that in proclaiming the evil of living they somehow salvage their own worth from the ruin – but they don’t.
May 4, 2023
I'd never read any Fitzgerald before so starting with his first two novels seemed like a good idea. Read one after the other you can see similar themes being handled in different ways.
Fitzgerald clearly had a lot of thoughts to share on life, philosophy and politics, but most of it is spoken directly by the characters and the plot seems to come second.
There's not a lot of plot in 'This side of paradise', and the main character is deeply unlikable, but oddly enough I enjoyed some of the poetry.
'The Beautiful and Damned has more of a solid plot and good atmosphere, and Anthony Patch is more appealing than Amory Blaine, but it's still hard to feel sorry for characters coming from such a place of privilege and boredom.
Issues of money and alcohol may feature prominently in both books, the excesses of the jazz age, but from my view what did the most damage in these books was aimlessness and indifference. The characters may talk big about plans and moral philosophies but ultimately they don't really want to do anything... And so they don't. Frivolities and vices just fill the gap that's left.
Fitzgerald clearly had a lot of thoughts to share on life, philosophy and politics, but most of it is spoken directly by the characters and the plot seems to come second.
There's not a lot of plot in 'This side of paradise', and the main character is deeply unlikable, but oddly enough I enjoyed some of the poetry.
'The Beautiful and Damned has more of a solid plot and good atmosphere, and Anthony Patch is more appealing than Amory Blaine, but it's still hard to feel sorry for characters coming from such a place of privilege and boredom.
Issues of money and alcohol may feature prominently in both books, the excesses of the jazz age, but from my view what did the most damage in these books was aimlessness and indifference. The characters may talk big about plans and moral philosophies but ultimately they don't really want to do anything... And so they don't. Frivolities and vices just fill the gap that's left.
June 20, 2019
It was rather difficult for me to get through This Side of Paradise. The narrative structure didn't allow to really get into the book and identify with the characters. I just think the flow of the book is to volatile to convey the meaning as good as possible.
Because of this, i wasn't too eager to start with The Beautiful and the Damned, but or is clearly a more structured and mature way of telling a story. Although I think there is too much emphasis on the early living conditions and too little on the downfall, the book was better.
I would strongly recommend to only buy or read the second book.
Because of this, i wasn't too eager to start with The Beautiful and the Damned, but or is clearly a more structured and mature way of telling a story. Although I think there is too much emphasis on the early living conditions and too little on the downfall, the book was better.
I would strongly recommend to only buy or read the second book.
March 18, 2024
I hated this book. I hated this book so much and I REALLY wanted to like it. I got to the point right away: they’re vain people and they live a normal life and feel oppressed, boohoo right? There was little more than that.
There was no one to root for. Maybe that’s why it took me three months to finish it.
The main characters were garbage, the misogyny was palpable, and the central message of classism was lost in the dull and lagging pace of the book.
An English teacher who assigns this is the devil incarnate.
There was no one to root for. Maybe that’s why it took me three months to finish it.
The main characters were garbage, the misogyny was palpable, and the central message of classism was lost in the dull and lagging pace of the book.
An English teacher who assigns this is the devil incarnate.
July 29, 2018
Probably the oddest of Fitzgerald's books I've read so far. It could be attributed to my current mindset and its probable unfriendliness to such a style of writing and story lines but it didn't sit too well with me. That all being said, as is typical with Fitzgerald, his wit and intelligence are visible on almost every page and the ending is absolutely beautiful. I hope to understand it better someday when I've read it again.
January 31, 2025
*This rating is only for The Beautiful and the Damned*
I like reading Fitzgerald for the stylishness and ambiance, but that is the extent of the meaning to me. The book is about bored wealthy people with too much free time on their hands, alcoholism and marital drama. Still enjoyed reading it though hahah
I like reading Fitzgerald for the stylishness and ambiance, but that is the extent of the meaning to me. The book is about bored wealthy people with too much free time on their hands, alcoholism and marital drama. Still enjoyed reading it though hahah
March 5, 2022
I just couldn't get into it so I had to DNF ..... it could be the biography start of the character that's defeating me it may get better but I have so many to be read books I would rather sacrifice this one.
October 23, 2023
I’m a fan of old mates writing and absolutely loved Gatsby so this review should be considered with that bias.
It’s a tale of a rich young man who lives for nothing and I think it was told remarkably well.
It’s a tale of a rich young man who lives for nothing and I think it was told remarkably well.
June 18, 2022
Here is where we first hear the phrase “Entanglement” being used to describe…; )
September 11, 2023
very lovely
February 5, 2025
Only read This Side of Paradise… worst book i have ever read in my life.
The only take I have from this book is that there are still people today that act and behave like Amory Blaine.
The only take I have from this book is that there are still people today that act and behave like Amory Blaine.
March 5, 2020
The Beautiful and Damned is the one to read of these two - a good, often witty and humorous story of the downfall of Anthony and Gloria Patch.
This Side of Paradise is harder to recommend. It’s a tough nut to crack linguistically, and even then much of its impact has been lost to time.
This Side of Paradise is harder to recommend. It’s a tough nut to crack linguistically, and even then much of its impact has been lost to time.
April 21, 2018
Volumul de față s-a citit ușor, m-am relaxat lecturând și imaginându-mi personajele, decorul și modul în care s-a desfășurat acțiunea. Fitzgerald are un stil de a scrie ce te introduce cu ușurință în atmosfera din roman, astfel încât nu îți dai seama când a trecut timpul. Recenzia completă o găsiți pe blog.
April 15, 2016
Thoughts: if you own this exact copy of the book, don't read any of the introductions before having finished the novels!! the introductions are full of spoilers to the point where the whole plot is revealed and disected. That being said, great edition! Great introduction that sums up all you've read and answers any lingering questions you might have had. Good notes at the end of the book that help you better understand the social coordinates of the times depicted. You get to learn quite a lot about American society in the 20s.
This Side of Paradise: This is a slice-of-life novel riddled with sarcasm and irony. It is more than a coming-of-age novel, it's a novel that pursues its character through the difficult task of getting to know himself, of understanding why he believes what he believes, where his self-esteem comes from etc. If you're not interested in this, read it for the way it was written! Beautifully sarcastic down to the smallest details - it caused me one of the extremely rare book hangovers. :)
The Beautiful and Damned: As much as I adored the first novel, the second one I found quite boring, depressingly so. I had to force myself to finish it simply because I couldn't stand seeing it on the 'Currently Reading' list. The sarcasm that made the first one so appealing vanished without a trace to give place to a meandering plot. It felt like an uncomfortable, slow, painful trek through all sorts of human misery. It is bitter and sad and awfully realistic in a way you wish it weren't.
This Side of Paradise: This is a slice-of-life novel riddled with sarcasm and irony. It is more than a coming-of-age novel, it's a novel that pursues its character through the difficult task of getting to know himself, of understanding why he believes what he believes, where his self-esteem comes from etc. If you're not interested in this, read it for the way it was written! Beautifully sarcastic down to the smallest details - it caused me one of the extremely rare book hangovers. :)
The Beautiful and Damned: As much as I adored the first novel, the second one I found quite boring, depressingly so. I had to force myself to finish it simply because I couldn't stand seeing it on the 'Currently Reading' list. The sarcasm that made the first one so appealing vanished without a trace to give place to a meandering plot. It felt like an uncomfortable, slow, painful trek through all sorts of human misery. It is bitter and sad and awfully realistic in a way you wish it weren't.
August 18, 2013
4.5 stars.
This Side of Paradise was a deeply unsettling read, but the train of thought seemed more jumbled and less impactful than The Beautiful and Damned. Amory Blaine in Paradise seemed a little plastic and tacky (as are many characters in Fitzgerald's books) but the tragedy of Anthony Patch and Gloria Gilbert rings a lot more clearly in Beautiful.
Fitzgerald is truly a genius in portraying the glitz and underlying corruption of society in the Jazz Age, but I docked half a star for the inherent repulsiveness of the characters. I know it's part of the effective characterisation, but the only feelings I had for the characters were pity and disgust. That being said it's a great read.
This Side of Paradise was a deeply unsettling read, but the train of thought seemed more jumbled and less impactful than The Beautiful and Damned. Amory Blaine in Paradise seemed a little plastic and tacky (as are many characters in Fitzgerald's books) but the tragedy of Anthony Patch and Gloria Gilbert rings a lot more clearly in Beautiful.
Fitzgerald is truly a genius in portraying the glitz and underlying corruption of society in the Jazz Age, but I docked half a star for the inherent repulsiveness of the characters. I know it's part of the effective characterisation, but the only feelings I had for the characters were pity and disgust. That being said it's a great read.
Read
December 11, 2014I may have left the book on a bench at a train station. I was possibly about a half-dozen pages from finishing This Side of Paradise (at which stage I would've left The Beautiful and Damned for another time), which is a pity. I was honestly rather keen to move on to some Oscar Wilde, so the flip side is that it pushed that time forward.
August 17, 2023
This book was extremely beautiful and thought provoking. I have only read a few classic literatures but this one was very symbolical and extraordinary.
August 14, 2015
I enjoyed "The Beautiful and Damned" much more than "This side of Paradise".
The annotations at the end of the book were really helpful.
The introductions were also really interesting but, as other readers may have written earlier, read them only after you've finished the two stories ;)
The annotations at the end of the book were really helpful.
The introductions were also really interesting but, as other readers may have written earlier, read them only after you've finished the two stories ;)
February 8, 2017
You can read the reviews here: http://embracingmybooks.blogspot.be/2... and here: http://embracingmybooks.blogspot.be/2...
August 29, 2011
Loved college at the dawn of the '20s roar. Advice for beauty and damned. To her: Get over yourself. To him: Get a job.
June 7, 2012
Loved The Beautiful and the Damned.... struggling through This Side of Paradise.
September 10, 2013
The Beautiful and Damned me gustó mucho más que This Side of Paradise. Pero TSP no deprime.
July 10, 2015
One of the most beautifully written pieces of literature I've ever read.
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