What to read after The Beautiful and Damned?

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s second novel, The Beautiful and Damned, is set at the dawn of the hedonistic Jazz Age, and presents the complex characters and lyrical prose the great American novelist is known for.

Anthony Patch is young, handsome, wealthy, and the heir to a large inheritance, but he is bored with life. The lazy youth does nothing but waste away his days with other members of New York City’s elite cafe society. When his friends introduce him to the beautiful flapper, Gloria Gilbert, the two immediately spark a romance and rush into marriage. But it’s not long before the vain couple realise their similarities might be their downfall. As the relationship begins to disintegrate, Anthony struggles to claim his inheritance. Soon he and his wife discover that without their wealth, and with their rapidly diminishing beauty, their lives are tragically shallow.

First published in 1922, The Beautiful and Damned explores the lavish society of Jazz Age America, highlighting F. Scott Fitzgerald’s exceptional skill for disguising social commentary in entertainingly intricate novels. This volume is complete with a specially-commissioned biography of the author alongside an introductory essay on the Lost Generation writers and is not one to be missed by fans of Jazz Age literature.