About the Author

F. Scott Fitzgerald was born in 1896 in St Paul, Minnesota, and went to Princeton University, which he left in 1917 to join the army. He was said to have epitomized the Jazz Age, which he himself defined as 'a generation grown up to find all Gods dead, all wars fought, all faiths in man shaken'. In 1920 he married Zelda Sayre. Their traumatic marriage and her subsequent breakdowns became the leading influence on his writing. Among his publications were five novels, This Side of Paradise, The Great Gatsby, The Beautiful and the Damned, Tender is the Night and The Last Tycoon (his last and unfinished work); six volumes of short stories and The Crack Up, a selection of autobiographical pieces.

Fitzgerald died suddenly in 1940. After his death The New York Times said of him that 'He was better than he knew, for in fact and in the literary sense he invented a 'generation'. . . he might have interpreted and even guided them, as in their midle years they saw a different and nobler freedom threatened with destruction.'

Reviews

The story of Anthony Patch's pursuit of the beautiful, spoiled Gloria Gilbert and their financial and social decline after marriage seems interminable and rather self-indulgent; the dialog and descriptions, too, are strained. But in this audio edition of Fitzgerald's longest and arguably weakest novel, while actor/narrator Kirby Heyborne initially seems overwhelmed by the overripe verbiage, his understated style ultimately emerges as a perfect match for the callow hero, and he ably conveys the sense of wonder in audiences Fitzgerald surely intended them to feel. For Fitzgerald completists, who will savor this best reading The Beautiful and Damned is likely ever to receive, and for those who might appreciate the work for its portrait of early 20th-century New York. [Includes a full-text PDF ebook.-Ed.]--Michael Adams, CUNY Graduate Ctr. Lib. (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.