I bought ‘The Beautiful and Damned‘ just because I remembered that I enjoyed somewhere in high-school ‘The great Gatsby’. The introduction said that the action happens in the same era, so I said why not. I didn’t have too many expectations from this book, I imagined I would enjoy reading it, but in the end I actually loved it.

The subject of the book is nothing to0 extraordinary. It tells the story of a young couple from the US somewhere in the 20s. Their adventures in trying to have a classy life without working, considering themselves too good for this and waiting for his uncle to die and get the inheritance.

I fell in love a little with the main characters, Anthony and Gloria. Maybe because I believe in a relationship that ends with a marriage in which him and her are best friends, are partners besides being lovers. They weren’t the best example of having a partner in life, but for me it was example enough. Sometimes they didn’t get along well, they had arguments, but they knew that if something went wrong they had who to turn to. I also liked that they had a social life, going out, partying, drinking, entertaining themselves, even if their financial situation wasn’t one of the best.

I really appreciated the way Scott F. Fitzgerald wrote this book. The language is absolutely stunning. It’s something that my teacher from first grades used to call ‘beautiful expressions’. He has a way with words that I haven’t seen in many other authors before. He always finds the right verb, noun and adjective to express perfectly the situations in the book.

Fitzgerald also managed to picture the 20s agitated life of New York, with high class parties, with fashion and wealth, but also with mediocrity flourishing.

A classical book like it is characterized, but with many contemporary behaviors and situations.