Tender is the Night: A Romance (Classic Fiction) (New Longman Literature)

by F Scott Fitzgerald

This volume is part of a series of novels, plays and stories intended for use at A Level. The complete, original text is accompanied by an introduction, activities for before, during and after study, as well as notes. Set in the 1920s, this is the disturbing story of rich Americans cast adrift in Mediterranean Europe. Dick Diver, a potentially brilliant young psychiatrist, marries a wealthy patient and is gradually corrupted by the opulence and amorality of the society into which they are drawn.

• ISBN10: 0140180753
• ISBN13: 9780140180756
• Publish Date: 26 October 1989 (first published 1 January 1934)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 11 June 1998
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
• Imprint: Penguin Classics
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 352
• Language: English

Reviews

[zarahoffman]

Couldn't stand this book, but had to read it for English class. Even as an English Major, I've never liked The Great Gatsby either.

[celinenyx]

Unsurprisingly, The Great Gatsby was the first book by Fitzgerald that I read. Tightly planned, fantastic writing, interesting themes of obsession, wanting, and the obscenity of the wealthy: I loved it. I picked up Tender is the Night in the hopes of finding more of this.

Set in the 1920s, Tender is the story of a marriage. Dick and Nicole Driver are the sparkling midpoint of their social circle of rich Americans touring the European continent. Their acquaintance with young actress Rosemary puts pressure on the cracks in their marriage, bringing them to a breaking point.

Some of the elements that I admire in Fitzgerald's writing make an appearance in the book. He has a wonderful eye for description, playing with language until it describes not how things look but their essence. His characterisation is of similar quality, and ultimately Tender is the Night is one long exercise in describing people as they go through the motions of life. Sadly, one can have too much of a good thing. Unlike the tight writing of The Great Gatsby, this book meanders and drowns drawn-out sequences. It is the sort of novel that makes one go "what is the point of this all?"; a feeling that isn't helped by the off-hand sexism and racism that both the characters as well as the narrator engage in. I was expecting Fitzgerald's tendency to see women as objects of admiration - Daisy in Gatsby is the prime example of this - but I felt there was an edge of malignancy in Tender is the Night that I hadn't noticed before in Fitzgerald's writing.

Fitzgerald's creations sometimes vary in quality; Tender is the Night is a bit of a dud.

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Trigger warnings: alcoholism, mental hospital, mental illness (schizofrenoid disorder), emotional abuse from partner, racism (including treating racial murder offhandedly).

[Michael @ Knowledge Lost]

Rosemary is a young movie scarlet on vacation in the French Rivera, with her mother. It is there that she meets the handsome psychologist Dick Diver and falls madly in love with him. The only problem is Dick is married and his wife, Nicole, a sophisticated socialite is just as lovable. While this magnetic couple draw in admirers and bask in the social spotlight, things are not as perfect as they seem. Tender is the Night is an exploration into a degenerating marriage and the differences between what people project publicly verses what is really happening under the surface.

In 1932 Zelda Fitzgerald was hospitalised for schizophrenia, although there have been huge debates since as to whether she should have been diagnosed with bi-polar disorder (if it was classified back then) instead. While Zelda was being treated at the Phipps Clinic at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, she had a burst of creativity. Over six weeks she wrote her only novel Save Me the Waltz which was published the same year. The novel was semi-autobiographical and when F. Scott Fitzgerald read it he was furious that she shared so much of their personal life within the book. Even though Scott shares a lot of their lives in his own novels, the anger may have to do with the fact he planned to use the material for his next novel Tender is the Night. It is hard to tell how much of Scott’s novel is based on real life and how much is just written in anger towards his wife, I will have to read Save Me the Waltz to make up my own mind.

While Nicole Diver is heavily based on Zelda Fitzgerald, it is up to the reader to make up their mind about Dick and if F. Scott Fitzgerald based this character on himself. I personally think there is a lot of Scott in this character and he wants to portray himself as the handsome, intelligent husband that is devoted to his wife, looking after her through her mental illness. However this is where it gets a bit passive aggressive; Tender is the Night chronicles the downward spiral of Dick Diver’s life. As the novel progresses you begin to see just how this lifestyle and his marriage effects Dick to the point where he is nothing but a shell of his former self.

There are some interesting themes worth exploring within this novel; for me I was mostly interested in the ideas of appearance and reading about F. Scott Fitzgerald’s thoughts about being married. There is such beauty within the writing, but then there is so much sadness to be found as well. I found this to be a heart-breaking novel and the fact that this is based so much on his own marriage just makes things worse. I’m planning to read Save Me the Waltz very soon, just so I can compare the two novels.

This review originally appeared on my blog; http://literary-exploration.com/2015/01/30/tender-is-the-night-by-f-scott-fitzgerald/