The beautiful and damned - F. Scott Fitzgerald

Fitzgerald's jazz-age novel of squandered youth, destructive love and the glamour of 1920s New York.

'Here's to alcohol, the rose coloured glasses of life.'

Anthony Patch has told his wealthy grandfather that he is writing a medieval history. But he isn't. Instead he's living a life of lazy decadence among the caf society of early 1920s New York, oscillating between boredom and recklessness.

When he meets Gloria, he finds a kindred spirit, and the young couple quickly fall in love. But together, they're more destructive than they were apart. Easily bored, they throw money into a glamorous and lavish lifestyle. One they can't sustain. And as they wait on Anthony's delayed inheritance, their heady world spins out of control. Because life is only a party for as long as you can afford it . . .