The Beautiful and Damned (Illustrated edition)

Fitzgeralds characters in this novel are complex especially with respect to marriage and intimacy. The work is generally considered to have drawn upon and be based on Fitzgeralds relationship and marriage with his wife Zelda Fitzgerald. The Beautiful and Damned tells the story of Anthony Patch a 1910s socialite and presumptive heir to a tycoons fortune and his courtship and relationship with his wife Gloria Gilbert. It describes his brief service in the Army during World War I and the couples post-war partying life in New York and his later alcoholism. Gloria and Anthonys love story is much more than just a couple falling in love. Their story deals with the hardships of a relationship especially when each character has a tendency to be selfish. Joanna Stolarek suggests Fitzgerald draws on Zelda the object of the writers literary passion (Stolarek et al. 53).