Tender Is the Night in Reading the Classics

May 24, 2013 KOMET rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-novels-europe, f-scott-fitzgerald

Fresh from seeing the latest film version of 'The Great Gatsby' last month, I suddenly was filled with an anxious, eager curiosity to learn more about the "flapper era" of the 1920s and to read a book from F. Scott Fitzgerald. Hence I bought this novel.

"Tender is the Night" is divided into 3 books. Book 1 came off as overwrought, mawkish, and disjointed. Most of it, I confess, was rather hard-going because the main characters (e.g., Dick & Nicole Diver, and Rosemary, who developed a instant, lov Fresh from seeing the latest film version of 'The Great Gatsby' last month, I suddenly was filled with an anxious, eager curiosity to learn more about the "flapper era" of the 1920s and to read a book from F. Scott Fitzgerald. Hence I bought this novel.

"Tender is the Night" is divided into 3 books. Book 1 came off as overwrought, mawkish, and disjointed. Most of it, I confess, was rather hard-going because the main characters (e.g., Dick & Nicole Diver, and Rosemary, who developed a instant, lovelorn attraction for Dick) seemed devoid of any real being. They struck me as awkward actors thrown together on a stage --- a beach on the Riviera in 1925 --- to play out their lives together. Their interactions struck me as contrived. Only the following words from Fitzgerald in Book 1 helped to put things more in perspective for me:

"... When the producer went to New York they went too. Thus Rosemary had passed her entrance examinations. With the ensuing success and the promise of comparative stability that followed, Mrs. Speers had felt free to tacitly imply tonight:

" 'You were brought up to work --- not especially to marry. Now you've found your first nut to crack and it's a good nut --- go ahead and put whatever happens down to experience. Wound yourself or him --- whatever happens it can't spoil you because economically you're a boy, not a girl.' "(p. 40)

"It was hard to know where to go. He glanced about the house that Nicole had made, that Nicole's grandfather had paid for. He owned only his work house and the ground on which it stood. Out of three thousand a year and what dribbled in from his publications he paid for his clothes and personal expenses, for cellar charges, and for Lanier's education, so far confined to a nurse's wage. Never had a move been contemplated without Dick's figuring his share. Living rather ascetically, travelling third-class when he was alone, with the cheapest wine, and good care of his clothes, and penalizing himself for any extravagances, he maintained a qualified financial independence..." p. 170

Books 2 & 3 provide the reader with some glimpses into Dick and Nicole's personal histories, how they met in Switzerland in the midst of the First World War (Dick was her psychiatrist, who later agreed to take on her case), and the subsequent disintegration of their marriage. Here Fitzgerald has developed more of a coherent novel, with a few eloquent, and pithy sentences, which he put to good effect:

“… for Nicole the years slipped away by clock and calendar and birthday, with the added poignance of her perishable beauty.”

“… The people she liked, rebels mostly, disturbed her and were bad for her --- she sought in them the vitality that had made them independent or creative or rugged, sought in vain --- for their secrets were buried deep in childhood struggles they had forgotten They were more interested in Nicole’s exterior harmony and charm, the other face of her illness…”

“… She led a lonely life owning Dick who did not want to be owned.” (p. 180)

Yet, notwithstanding all that, taken as a whole, this novel, while not one of the worst I've yet read, is a lightweight. Its value comes from the fact that Fitzgerald largely based it on his own troubled marriage with Zelda (who herself had spent about 15 months in a Swiss sanatorium for schizophrenia). ...more

9 likes · Like · see review

Mar 14, 2018 Cee rated it it was ok

Shelves: adult-fiction

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 ...more

Like · see review

Nov 15, 2014 ~Calyre~ rated it liked it

Shelves: 1001-books, american-literature, movies, read-in-2014

Contrairement aux amants, ils n'avaient pas de passé. Contrairement aux époux, ils n'avaient pas d'avenir. ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Jan 18, 2014 Susan from MD rated it liked it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. The story was non-linear, which is fine, but more than that it was disjointed. The story included the impact of sexual abuse, the methods and ethics of mental health treatment, the rise and fall of a marriage, the class and cultural issues of interaction between people, and the decline of a man from world-class charmer to alcoholic small-town doctor.

Although the book starts with one perspective, it shifts in Book 2 - from young actress Rosemary to middle-age psychiatrist Dick Diver. The shift br ...more

Like · see review