Reader's Companion to F. Scott Fitzgerald's Tender is the Night

by Matthew J. Bruccoli, Judith S. Baughman

Solves the mysteries surrounding the maligned masterpiece

Tender Is the Night, the novel F. Scott Fitzgerald worked longest and hardest on, has not achieved its proper recognition because the text is peppered with errors and chronological inconsistencies. Moreover, the novel has a concentration of references to people, places, and events that most readers no longer recognize. In this guide to the novel, Matthew J. Bruccoli corrects those errors and explains the factual details. He also offers maps, photos, correspondence, and notes that demystify the writing of one of literature's most misunderstood―and underrated―masterpieces.

Bruccoli's substantial introduction reconstructs the composition, publication, and initial reception of the novel Fitzgerald forecast so enthusiastically in 1925. Bruccoli chronicles the novel's varied commencements and Fitzgerald's final approach to the nove. He also addresses key criticisms of the work and refutes the common belief that the novel failed in 1934 because of a critical conspiracy.

Bruccoli takes readers line by line through the text to clarify characters, terms, geography, and chronology and, in making the novel accessible, restores Tender Is the Night to its proper place in the Fitzgerald canon.

263 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Matthew Joseph Bruccoli was an American professor of English at the University of South Carolina. He was the preeminent expert on F. Scott Fitzgerald. He also wrote about writers such as Ernest Hemingway, Thomas Wolfe and John O'Hara, and was editor of the 'Dictionary of Literary Biography'.

Bruccoli's interest in Fitzgerald began in 1947 when he heard a radio broadcast of Fitzgerald's short story 'The Diamond as Big as the Ritz'. That week he tracked down a copy of 'The Great Gatsby', "and I have been reading it ever since," he told interviewers. Bruccoli graduated from the Bronx High School of Science in 1949, and studied at Cornell University where one of his professors was Vladimir Nabokov and at Yale University where he was a founder member of the fledgling Manuscript Society, graduating in 1953. He was awarded a master's degree and doctorate from the University of Virginia in 1960. Bruccoli, who also taught at the University of Virginia and the Ohio State University, spent nearly four decades teaching at the University of South Carolina. He lived in Columbia, South Carolina, where, according to his New York Times obituary, he "cut a dash on campus, instantly recognizable by his vintage red Mercedes convertible, Brooks Brothers suits, Groucho mustache and bristling crew cut that dated to his Yale days. His untamed Bronx accent also set him apart" (Grimes).

Over the course of his career, he authored over 50 books on F. Scott Fitzgerald and other literary figures. His 1981 biography of Fitzgerald, Some 'Sort of Epic Grandeur: The Life of F. Scott Fitzgerald', is considered the standard Fitzgerald biography. He has edited many of Fitzgerald's works, from 'This Side of Paradise' to Fitzgerald's unfinished final novel, 'The Love of the Last Tycoon'. Bruccoli has also edited Scott's wife Zelda Fitzgerald's only novel 'Save Me the Waltz'.

While studying Fitzgerald, Bruccoli and his wife Arlyn began to collect all manner of Fitzgerald memorabilia. Bruccoli owned the artist's copy of Celestial Eyes, the cover art by Francis Cugat which appeared on the first edition, and most modern editions, of The Great Gatsby. In 1969, Bruccoli befriended F. Scott and Zelda's daughter Frances "Scottie" Fitzgerald. In 1976, Bruccoli and the Fitzgeralds' daughter Scottie (as Scottie Fitzgerald Smith) published The Romantic Egoists, from the scrapbooks that F. Scott and Zelda had maintained throughout their lives of photographs and book reviews. Later in life Bruccoli and his wife donated their collection to the Thomas Cooper Library at USC. The collection is valued at nearly $2 million.

Bruccoli was general editor of the 'Pittsburgh Series in Bibliography', published by the University of Pittsburgh Press. As part of this series, he produced 'F. Scott Fitzgerald: A Descriptive Bibliography' and, with Richard Layman, 'Ring W. Lardner: A Descriptive Bibliography' (1976). A working draft of the Lardner book was prepared in the summer of 1973 by Bruccoli.

Along with Richard Layman, a Dashiell Hammett scholar and former graduate assistant, and businessman C. E. Frazer Clark, Jr., Bruccoli launched the 'Dictionary of Literary Biography'. The 400-volume reference work contains biographies of more than 12,000 literary figures from antiquity to modern times.

Bruccoli continued working at the University of South Carolina until being diagnosed with a brain tumor, and died June 4, 2008.

Reviews

[Tiffany · Rating 5 out of 5]

hugely informative; behind-the-scenes look at the writing, history, and structure of Tender Is the Night . Also includes explanatory notes about phrases/people/songs/etc. that Fitzgerald's audience likely would have known but later readers aren't familiar with.

[Ken Wahe · Rating 4 out of 5]

A delightful companion to TITN...very useful to understanding F. Scott.

[Joanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oh the plight of the wealthy...

[Ryan Roberts · Rating 5 out of 5]

Handy as a reference guide for instructors (or for the highly obsessed).

[Carol · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did find some of the book helpful, but over all it was average for me.