The Beautiful and Damned (1922), F. Scott Fitzgerald's second novel, chronicles the downward spiral of Anthony Patch, a handsome Harvard graduate and presumptive heir to his grandfather's fortune, and his beautiful wife Gloria. Living lavishly in New York City during the Jazz Age, the couple awaits an inheritance while squandering their youth in parties, excess, and idleness. When the anticipated wealth is threatened, their marriage deteriorates into bitterness and alcoholism. A vivid portrait of the era's moral decay, the novel explores themes of greed, entitlement, and the corrosive effects of wealth, foreshadowing Fitzgerald's later masterpiece, The Great Gatsby.
