The Beautiful and Damned

New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1922. First Edition. Hard Cover. Very Good/No Jacket. 7x5x1. Hill, W.E. First edition, first state (Bruccoli A8.I.a), with 'The Scribner Press' (not seal) on copyright page, no ads following text. Two other printings (both with Scribner seal) followed quickly thereafter (within the same year). Lacks scarce jacket. Endpapers just beginning to split along front and rear hinges, but hinges themselves are holding strongly, minor wear to corners, light 2 inch spot on front board, a few minor blemishes on rear board, spine gilt strong. 1922 Hard Cover. 449, [1] pp. 8vo. Fitzgerald's second novel, published just two years after his debut, This Side of Paradise. "The Beautiful and Damned is the story of Anthony Patch and his wife, Gloria. Harvard-educated and an aspiring aesthete, Patch is waiting for his inheritance upon his grandfather's death. His reckless marriage to Gloria is fueled by alcohol and is destroyed by greed. The Patches race through a series of alcohol-induced fiascoes -- first in hilarity, and then in despair. The Beautiful and Damned, a devastating portrait of the nouveaux riches, New York night life, reckless ambition, and squandered talent, was published in 1922 on the heels of Fitzgerald's first novel. It signaled his maturity as a storyteller and, more important, as a novelist.