"F. Scott Fitzgerald 's The Beautiful and Damned (1922) was a pivotal hook in his career. It was his second novel, falling between This Side of Paradise (1920), a popular and commercial success, and The Great Gatsby (1925), his masterpiece. The Beautiful and Damned shows Fitzgerald in transition between the overcrowded novel of saturation, typical of Wells and Mackenzie, and the disciplined novel of selection, done in the manner of Conrad and James. It is also very much a novel of its times - a trenchant satire of the Jazz Age, of which Fitzgerald was the self-appointed laureate, and an attempt by him to break free of the spell of naturalism cast by Theodore Dreiser and H.L. Mencken, both of whom influenced him during this period." "This edition of The Beautiful and Damned is based on the surviving textual witnesses - a full manuscript, the serialized version from Metropolitan magazine, the Scribners 1922 first American edition, and the Collins 1922 first British edition. The volume includes a detailed account of the composition of the novel, a textual apparatus, a chronology of composition, and two alternate endings for the novel. Explanatory notes identify Fitzgerald's topical and historical references - to books and authors, Broadway shows and Manhattan cabarets, movie stars and sports heroes, statesmen and criminals, business tycoons and historical figures. These notes situate The Beautiful and Damned in its times and deepen the reader's understanding of Fitzgerald's sources for the novel."--Jacket.