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The Beautiful and the Damned

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The Beautiful and the Damned

By: F. Scott Fitzgerald
Narrated by: William Dufris
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About this listen

 F. Scott Fitzgerald's second novel, The Beautiful and the Damned, "marks an advance over This Side of Paradise," Edmund Wilson wrote. "The style is more nearly mature and the subject more nearly unified, and there are scenes that are more convincing than any in his previous fiction."

Published in 1922, it chronicles the relationship of Anthony Patch, Harvard-educated aspiring aesthete, and his beautiful wife, Gloria, as they wait to inherit his grandfather's fortune. A devastating satire of the nouveaux rich and New York's nightlife, of reckless ambition and squandered talent, it is also a shattering portrait of a marriage fueled by alcohol and wasted by wealth. The Beautiful and the Damned, Fitzgerald wrote to Zelda in 1930, "was all true."

Lyrical, romantic, yet cruelly incisive, it signaled a new stage in Fitzgerald's career. With The Beautiful and the Damned, H.L. Mencken commented in The Smart Set, "Fitzgerald ceases to be a wunderkind, and begins to come into his maturity.

(P)2000 Blackstone Audiobooks, All Rights Reserved Classics Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Marriage Witty

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All stars
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I really enjoyed revisiting this book. It captured the atmosphere and selfishness of the characters wonderfully well. A classic.

Fantastic

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Takes you to another world, another time and place. Very moving and memorable. Beautifully written.

Wonderful

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Scott Fitzgerald's 'the Great Gatsby' must be one of the greatest books of the 20th century, and if you enjoyed it, then this book is for you. The story is set out in the blurb above, so I wont repeat it. Suffice it to say that it is a gripping if grim tale and quite brilliantly written - I kept winding back, as it were, just to hear bits of Fitzgerald's sublime prose again - I wish I could write half as well as that! Stunning stuff.

The narration by William Dufris is superb just right for the book. He brings it all alive.

Four stars for me as the story is quite depressing and doom-laden, but you cant stop listening.

A depressing but brilliantly written book

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An exquisitely sad, precise and wistful evocation of a bygone age, both elegant and ugly at the same time in its depiction of the damage human beings can do to each other (and themselves) in the pursuit of their feelings of entitlement to love, wealth and happiness.

Jazz Age Classic

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So much in East Coast and contemporary American Literature is owed to F Scott Fitzgerald that it is worth straying beyond the bounds of The Great Gatsby to get his take on Caf? Society and the state of mind of marriage and money and status. A great and underated book that links the chain of great American writers who have placed New York at the centre of literary culture. Essential reading for those in the know.

Wharton, Fitzgerald, Yates, Updike??

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With 100 years gone by since published first, this novel hasn’t lost its grip. Without little effort to be transferred to the 21st century.

Worth every moment listening to

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The characters created are brilliantly realised and although narrated a bit fast, you are drawn in. The life of society people in New York is portrayed in its wit and pseudo profundity. Then it all goes wrong.

The Decline and Fall of Anthony Patch

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What a horrible and annoying way of narrating female parts of the dialogue. Don’t think I can tolerate it enough to finish listening to this book.

Couldn’t finish because of the narrator

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If you could sum up The Beautiful and the Damned in three words, what would they be?

Dufris has the ideal voice for this book with his laidback East Coast USA accent. He does a good job of what is an uneven book, and renders moments like Anthony's singing in the bath with a hint of comic flair. I'm never quite sure about male readers 'doing' female voices, but accepted his version of Gloria. A good performance of one of Fitzgerald 's less polished works.

A laidback East Coast reading

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Wonderful story, wonderfully read and performed, Absolutely gripping towards the end. A great comment on wealthy socialites and a thoughtful description of the ofttimes shallowness of the wealthy.

Authentic and convincing performance

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