"The Beautiful and Damned" (1922) is F. Scott Fitzgerald's second novel, chronicling the tragic decline of Anthony Patch and his wife Gloria. Anthony, a wealthy Harvard graduate, lives idly in New York City awaiting a massive inheritance from his grandfather. He meets and marries the beautiful but shallow Gloria Gilbert, and together they plunge into a life of parties, drinking, and extravagance.

A fitting precursor to Fitzgerald's era-defining novel of the 1920's, "The Great Gatsby" (which Fitzgerald would publish three years later), this novel serves as Fitzgerald's searing critique of the Jazz Age's empty hedonism and the corrosive effects of wealth and idleness.

"The Beautiful and Damned" is presented here in its original and unabridged format.