The Beautiful and Damned: Annotated Edition (Evergreens)

Fitzgerald's second novel, based on his relationship with Zelda, explores New York café society "The idea that to make a man work you’ve got to hold gold in front of his eyes is a growth, not an axiom. We’ve done that for so long that we've forgotten there's any other way." The heir to his grandfather's considerable fortune, Anthony Patch is led astray from the path to gainful employment by the temptations and distractions of the 1920s Jazz Age. His descent into dissolution and profligacy is accelerated by his marriage to the attractive but turbulent Gloria, and the couple soon discover the dangerous flip side of a life of glamour and debauchery. Containing obvious parallels with F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald's own lives, the novel is a tragic examination of the pitfalls of greed and materialism and the transience of youth and beauty.