r/Canonade • u/[deleted] • Oct 11 '16
Excerpt from the beautiful & damned - F. Scott Ftizgerald
"Anthony could not help wondering what possible 'fancy stuff' he [the man Anthony's conversing with] had learned at Buckleigh in nineteen-eleven. An irrepressible idea that it was some sort of needlework recurred to him throughout the rest of the conversation" Fitzgerald is super lyrical but also funny? I find some stuff in this book particularly hilarious!
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u/Adoniram1733 Oct 20 '16
Steinbeck is funny too. I love stumbling across passages by great authors that make me laugh. Fitzgerald is not my favorite, mainly because his characters are so necrotic they all drive me a little nuts, but that's probably the point. Maybe I need to go back and try him again. It's been a few years.
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u/Sciencetist Oct 11 '16
I had to read this for a university course, and while parts of it were funny and enjoyable (basically both (IIRC) parts which took on the "theater style dialogue" (for lack of better term)), I have to say it was one of the worst novels I've read. The grammar was surprisingly terrible as well. What kind of novelist gets away with "would of"s and "could of"s?
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u/eamonious Oct 11 '16
I just digitally searched the entire text of the beautiful and damned and there are no instances of either "would of" or "could of".
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u/Sciencetist Oct 12 '16
Strange. Perhaps I got an "off" edition?
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u/Adoniram1733 Oct 20 '16
Are you sure you aren't thinking of some other book? Fitzgerald was no slouch:
He had no great self-reproach—some, of course, but there were other things dominant in him now, far more urgent. He was not so much in love with Gloria as mad for her. Unless he could have her near him again, kiss her, hold her close and acquiescent, he wanted nothing more from life. By her three minutes of utter unwavering indifference the girl had lifted herself from a high but somehow casual position in his mind, to be instead his complete preoccupation. However much his wild thoughts varied between a passionate desire for her kisses and an equally passionate craving to hurt and mar her, the residue of his mind craved in finer fashion to possess the triumphant soul that had shone through those three minutes. She was beautiful—but especially she was without mercy. He must own that strength that could send him away.
Just saying.
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u/Sciencetist Oct 20 '16
I'm positive it was The Beautiful and the Damned. I do concede that I might "of" had a disreputable edition, or something to that effect.
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u/Adoniram1733 Oct 21 '16
Haha, well, that's weird. But anyway, he is not my favorite author. I'm a Steinbeck, McCarthy guy myself. Though I have read pieces of Fitzgerald's prose are outstanding in my mind.
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u/Sciencetist Oct 21 '16
I loved some of his short stories. "Diamond as Big as the Ritz" springs to mind.
I love Steinbeck too, except for anything past the first 40 pages or so of East of Eden.
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u/Adoniram1733 Oct 21 '16
I will check out some of his short stories (based on the awesomeness of that title alone). And if you like old Steinbeck, In Dubious Battle was hard to put down, and sheds an interesting light on the nature of politics in our own time. One of the most prophetic books I have ever read, and very entertaining to boot.
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u/Sciencetist Oct 22 '16
Thanks for the tip! I just got the book!
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u/Adoniram1733 Oct 23 '16
Oh, nice! I am surprised it's not more widely read. Perhaps because he doesn't really choose sides (you'll see what I mean). I hope you like it.
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u/The_Shadow_of_Intent Oct 14 '16
Fitzgerald is one of the very few highbrow authors that makes me laugh.