內容簡介
費茲傑羅的第二本小說‧《美麗與毀滅》
從神仙眷侶到地獄怨偶，夢幻泡影轉瞬即逝
年輕、英俊的紐約上流社會貴族安東尼‧派屈，即將繼承來自祖父的鉅額遺產，畢業自哈佛大學，前途看似一片光明，這時透過朋友介紹，他認識了葛洛莉亞，一個美麗、狂野、自由奔放的飛來波女郎(flapper)，留著一頭俏麗短髮，濃妝豔抹且裝扮時髦，總是不在乎外人眼光地抽菸，兩人認識不久便陷入熱戀，葛洛莉亞甚至宣稱他們兩個的靈魂「必定是一起被創造出來的」，交往不久後小倆口便立刻結婚。
新婚的前三年，安東尼和葛洛莉亞沉醉於無邊無際的放縱生活，他們倆曾約定唯一的生活信條，就是要盡情地追求快樂與幸福、不問後果且不要後悔，兩人也確實毫無顧忌地滿足自己的慾望，縱容身體與心靈耽溺於溫柔甜蜜的幻境，夜夜流連於各大瘋狂派對、酒會和聲色場所，但這也逐漸讓他們越來越自私，不再體諒對方或為彼此著想。當蜜月期結束，安東尼與葛洛莉亞之間只剩下埋怨與妒忌，當初愛上對方的差異與不同，現在卻痛恨彼此的喜好與個性完全不相配，幾年過去，他們早已成為各玩各的，同床異夢的假面夫婦。
但沒想到，安東尼自己敗壞的名聲早已傳到祖父耳裡，知道孫子放蕩的行為與不檢點的生活，祖父憤而取消他的繼承權；加上第一次世界大戰開打，沒勢又快將財產揮霍殆盡的安東尼只好入伍從軍…
F. Scott Fitzgerald's second novel, which brilliantly satirizes a doomed and glamorous marriage, anticipated the master stroke—The Great Gatsby—that would follow, and marks a key moment in the writer’s career.
Would-be Jazz Age aristocrats Anthony and Gloria Patch embody the corrupt high society of 1920s New York: they are beautiful, shallow, pleasure-seeking, and vain. As presumptive heirs to a large fortune, they begin their married life by living well beyond their means. Their days are marked by endless drinking, dancing, luxury, and play.
But when the expected inheritance is withheld, their lives become consumed with the pursuit of wealth, and their alliance begins to fall apart. Inspired in part by Fitzgerald's own tumultuous union with his wife Zelda, hauntingly rendered and keenly observed, these characters evoke a vivid portrait of a lost world: a city steeped in vice, a society without direction, and the rootless and decadent generation that inhabited it.
作者介紹
Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was born in 1896 in St. Paul, Minnesota. He attended Princeton University, where he began writing what would become his first novel, This Side of Paradise. He left Princeton to join the army during World War I, though the war ended shortly after his enlistment. This Side of Paradise, published in 1920, was a critical and financial success and was followed the same year by his first story collection, Flappers and Philosophers, followed by Tales of the Jazz Age in 1922. Fitzgerald went on to publish three more novels—The Beautiful and Damned, The Great Gatsby, and Tender Is the Night—and many more stories. He died in 1940, leaving his last novel, The Love of the Last Tycoon, unfinished.
