Book Review: Tender is the Night, by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1934)

Original cover of F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel Tender is the Night, 1934.

F. Scott Fitzgerald, probably late 1920's, as he was writing the novel that would become Tender is the Night.

F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, early 1930's.

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1934 novel Tender is the Night is a powerful and beautiful book that stands next to The Great Gatsby as his other masterpiece. Much like Gatsby, Tender is the Night was underrated upon its original publication and has only grown in stature throughout the years. 

Tender is the Night tells the story of Dick and Nicole Diver’s marriage and Dick’s subsequent descent into alcoholism. The novel opens on the beach of the French Riviera. We first see the Divers through the eyes of Rosemary Hoyt, an eighteen year-old actress so young that “the dew was still on her.” (p.4) Rosemary becomes fascinated with the Divers very quickly, especially the charming Dick. Rosemary imagines that the Divers’ glamourous lives are free from worries: “Rosemary envied them their fun, imagining a life of leisure unlike her own. She knew little of leisure but she had the respect for it of those who have never had it. She thought of it as a resting, without realizing that the Divers were as far from relaxing as she was herself.” (p.99) 

Rosemary is absent from the novel during the beginning of part II, as the narration flashes back to flesh out Dick’s backstory. We see him as a young psychologist who meets Nicole Warren, successfully treats her, and falls in love with her. Part III of the novel is set several years after Part I, and we witness Dick’s dissipation.

Because The Great Gatsby, published in April, 1925, had not become the huge success that Fitzgerald thought it would be, he quickly started work on a follow-up, optimistically thinking that he could deliver another novel soon, with his first target date being the fall of 1926. However, Tender is the Night went through an extraordinarily long and painful gestation period, and it was not published until April, 1934, nine years to the month after Gatsby. During those nine long years many things happened to Francis Scott Fitzgerald, and many of the events of his life would help to shape the plot of Tender is the Night. As Fitzgerald biographer and scholar Scott Donaldson wrote in his essay on the composition of Tender is the Night, “The novel could not possibly have achieved the power of its final form without the passage of nine years between inception and completion.” (Fitzgerald and Hemingway: Works and Days, p.126) Fitzgerald himself said to a friend, “The man who started the novel is not the man who finished it.” (Some Sort of Epic Grandeur, by Matthew Bruccoli, p.365) 

Fitzgerald always worked extremely hard at his writing, but his previous novels had come together much quicker than Tender is the Night. It’s telling of Fitzgerald’s struggle with writing the novel that “progress, lack of” is one of the longest categories for Tender is the Night in the index of Matthew Bruccoli’s biography of Fitzgerald, Some Sort of Epic Grandeur. 

Fitzgerald’s alcoholism, which was always problematic, spiraled out of control during the years he was writing Tender is the Night.  During that same period his marriage to Zelda Sayre was rapidly disintegrating, and she also suffered a series of mental breakdowns, in 1930, 1932, and 1934. 

It’s overly simplistic to say that Fitzgerald was Dick Diver, and Zelda was Nicole Warren Diver, but there were certainly similarities. Fitzgerald always mined his own life and his own experiences, and Zelda’s as well, for his fiction, and he did so in Tender is the Night. 

In Arthur Mizener’s 1965 edition of his biography of Fitzgerald, The Far Side of Paradise, Mizener reprints notes that Fitzgerald made about characters in Tender is the Night. Some of these notes further underscore the connection between Fitzgerald and Dick Diver, as Fitzgerald wrote, “For his external qualities, use anything of Gerald, Ernest, Ben Finny, Archie Mcliesh, Charley McArthur or myself.  He looks, though, like me.” (The Far Side of Paradise, p.348) The Ernest in the quotation is Hemingway, and Gerald is Gerald Murphy, another likely model for aspects of Dick Diver. Gerald and Sara Murphy were wealthy American expatriates who lived in France in the 1920’s and were renowned for their parties and the wide social circle of artists they knew. Scott and Zelda were good friends of the Murphys’, although Scott’s bad behavior did get him ejected from several of the Murphys’ parties, and Fitzgerald dedicated Tender is the Night to them. Certainly the bon vivant Dick Diver of Part I of Tender is the Night owes a large debt to Gerald Murphy, although Murphy did not slide into dissipated alcoholism the way Diver did. 

Under notes for Nicole Diver, Fitzgerald wrote: “Portrait of Zelda—that is, a part of Zelda.” (Paradise, p.350) It seems clear that Fitzgerald used some of Zelda’s characteristics in creating Nicole Diver, but even in this note he makes it clear that he used only a part of Zelda, and not her whole personality. 

While I think that Dick Diver is not simply a stand-in for F. Scott Fitzgerald, there are several interesting similarities between author and character. In the beginning of the novel, Diver is described as someone who gives “carnivals of affection” to people. (p.27) Sober, Fitzgerald was an extremely charming man, and there are many stories about the effect his personality had on people. Andrew Turnbull was a biographer of Fitzgerald’s who also knew him. Fitzgerald rented a house on the Turnbull’s property in Maryland in 1932, when Andrew was 11 years old. Turnbull wrote of him: “Fitzgerald focused on you—even riveted on you—and if there was one thing you were sure of, it was that whatever you happened to be talking about was the most important matter in the world.” (Scott Fitzgerald, p.225) Turnbull also wrote of him: “…there was always something of the magician in Fitzgerald. He was the inventor, the creator, the tireless impresario who brightened our days and made other adult company seem dull and profitless. It wasn’t so much any particular skill of his as a quality of caring, of believing, of pouring his whole soul and imagination into whatever he did with us.” (Turnbull, p.229)

In a 1938 letter Fitzgerald wrote about Diver: “Dick’s curiosity and interest in people was real—he didn’t stare at them—he glanced at them and felt them.” (Fool for Love, by Scott Donaldson, p.196) Although this is a subjective judgment, I would bet that Fitzgerald was like that too. He was a highly sensitive man who was fascinated by people and would often pepper them with questions at parties. 

Fitzgerald mined his real life in the passages describing Dick Diver’s father. Fitzgerald’s father Edward died in 1931, and in an unfinished essay, “The Death of My Father,” Fitzgerald reflected on his importance to his own upbringing:

 “I loved my father—always deep in my subconscious I have referred judgements back to him, to what he would have thought or done. He loved me—and felt a deep responsibility for me—I was born several months after the sudden death of my two elder sisters and he felt what the effect of this would be on my mother, that he would be my only moral guide. He became that to the best of his ability. He came from tired old stock with very little left of vitality and mental energy but he managed to raise a little for me.” (A Short Autobiography, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, 2011, p.118)

This passage is repeated almost word for word when Dick learns of his father’s death: 

“Dick loved his father—again and again he referred judgements to what his father would probably have thought or done. Dick was born several months after the death of two young sisters and his father, guessing what would be the effect on Dick’s mother, had saved him from a spoiling by becoming his moral guide. He was of tired stock yet he raised himself to that effort.” (Tender is the Night, p.203) 

When a young Dick Diver is asked about his plans, he replies, “I’ve only got one, Franz, and that’s to be a good psychologist—maybe to be the greatest one that ever lived.” (p.132) This quote mirrors what Fitzgerald said to his friend Edmund Wilson—Wilson recalled Fitzgerald saying to him, after they had attended Princeton together, “I want to be one of the greatest writers who have ever lived, don’t you?” (Fool for Love, p.37) 

Dick Diver is also a habitual flirt, as was Fitzgerald. “He was in love with every pretty woman he saw now, their forms at a distance, their shadows on a wall.” (p.201) Fitzgerald’s infatuations could begin with just a glance as well. The actress Carmel Myers recalled introducing Fitzgerald to a woman at a party in Hollywood. Fitzgerald’s first words to the woman were, “I love you, I love you, I love you.” (Fool for Love, p.53) 

The most obvious parallel between Dick Diver and Fitzgerald is their drinking. During the period he was writing Tender is the Night, Fitzgerald’s drinking became extremely problematic. Fitzgerald had always been a heavy drinker, but now his alcoholism was taking a toll on his friendships and his ability to focus on his writing. One of the most beautiful, sad lines in Tender is the Night is when Nicole says to Dick, “But you used to want to create things—now you seem to want to smash them up.” (p.267) I think this line rings true for Fitzgerald as well. For whatever reason, Fitzgerald behaved in very self-destructive ways and lost many friendships because of this, especially during the period when he was writing Tender is the Night. Fitzgerald biographer Scott Donaldson wrote: “In his papers at Princeton are at least three lists of snubs, with the longest of them naming a total of sixty-six people who had snubbed him during the 1925-29 period. To have been put down by so many in so short a time suggests (1) that some of the snubs were imaginary rather than real, though it was during these years that he and Zelda became personae non gratae because of their drinking and quarreling, and (2) that out of masochism or self-hatred he was actually courting the disapproval of others.” (Fool for Love, p.181)

When he was drunk, Fitzgerald’s personality underwent a radical transformation. The charming and intelligent man disappeared and he became belligerent and mean. Fitzgerald tried the patience of Gerald and Sara Murphy, as he threw ashtrays at one party and deliberately broke wineglasses at another. The incident at the end of Tender is the Night, the nadir of Dick Diver’s descent into drink, where he gets into a fight with an Italian taxi driver, and gets beaten up and taken to jail, actually happened to Fitzgerald himself. (Fool for Love, p.164-5) 

Another subject of Tender is the Night is marital infidelity, which was yet another issue that the Fitzgeralds dealt with. Both Scott and Zelda were attractive people who enjoyed flirting, but a serious threat to their marriage developed during the summer of 1924. As Scott was finishing up The Great Gatsby, Zelda was spending more and more time with French aviator Edouard Jozan. Whether or not Zelda and Jozan actually had a physical affair is a subject of debate among Fitzgerald scholars, but whatever the particulars were, their relationship created a great deal of tension between Scott and Zelda. Scott wrote years later in his notebooks, “That September 1924, I knew something had happened that could never be repaired.” (The Notebooks of F. Scott Fitzgerald, p.113) Scott had a relationship with actress Lois Moran, who was only seventeen when they met in 1927. Moran became the model for Rosemary Hoyt in Tender is the Night, who is in many ways presented as Nicole Diver’s opposite. 

Insanity is another prominent theme in Tender is the Night, and yet another way that Fitzgerald’s turbulent personal life found its way into his fiction. Zelda’s breakdowns prompted Scott to make mental health a theme of the novel. Nicole’s sister Baby Warren asks Dick, “Well, how can anyone tell what’s eccentric and what’s crazy?” (p.151) This quote seems especially apropos of Zelda and Scott’s behavior, both drunken and sober. Is it crazy or eccentric to throw yourself down a flight of stone steps? (Zelda) Is it crazy or eccentric to burn your clothes in a bathtub in a fit of jealousy? (Zelda) Is it crazy or eccentric to jump into the fountain in front of the Plaza Hotel? (Scott) Is it crazy or eccentric to throw ashtrays at a fancy dinner party? (Scott) The list could go on and on.

Zelda actually wrote her own novel during the time Scott was laboring over his long-awaited book. Titled Save Me the Waltz, it was written in only a month or two while Zelda was undergoing treatment at Johns Hopkins. The mere existence of the book deeply angered Scott, as he did not know Zelda was writing a novel, and was probably jealous that Zelda had written her book so quickly while he was laboring through numerous drafts and revisions of his own novel. Save Me the Waltz added considerably to what was now a state of continual tension and resentment between Scott and Zelda. Scott was hopeful that Save Me the Waltz would earn enough money so he could discharge his debt to Scribner’s, who had been advancing him money throughout the writing of Tender is the Night. That did not happen, as Save Me the Waltz was published in October, 1932 to little fanfare and not much interest from the book-buying public. 

As befitting the difficult writing, even the title of Tender is the Night was a long time in coming. The book went through many possible titles. Among the early titles were Our Type, The World’s Fair, The Melarky Case, and The Boy Who Killed His Mother. (Works and Days, p.120) Even as the novel took shape, the title still kept changing, from The Drunkard’s Holiday, to Doctor Diver’s Holiday, to Richard Diver, and then finally, to Tender is the Night, from a line in John Keats’ poem, “Ode to a Nightingale.” (Works and Days, p.135) 

Tender is the Night was published to generally positive reviews, and the book sold respectably, but, as usual, not as well as Fitzgerald had hoped. Fitzgerald scholar Matthew Bruccoli wrote of the reception of Tender is the Night, “As a consequence of Fitzgerald’s commercial magazine work and his playboy image it had become increasingly difficult for critics to appraise the serious novelist…Fitzgerald’s wastrel reputation impeded the recognition of his best work.” (Some Sort of Epic Grandeur, p.366)

Fitzgerald’s disappointment over the sales of Tender is the Night led him to second-guess the novel’s structure, and by late 1938 or early 1939 he was attempting to re-structure the book in chronological order, thinking this might make it more appealing to readers. After Fitzgerald’s death, Malcolm Cowley used Fitzgerald’s notes for his planned re-structuring as the basis for the 1951 revision of Tender is the Night. Today Cowley’s version is out of print, and most scholars and critics prefer Fitzgerald’s original 1934 version of the novel. Fitzgerald’s tinkering with Tender is the Night may show his insecurities, but it is also further proof of his dedication to his craft and his seriousness about writing. He was constantly rewriting and editing, making numerous changes to the novel between the magazine serialization in Scribner’s and the final book publication.

Scott Donaldson wrote of Tender is the Night, “It was a novel undervalued in its own time, one whose reputation has developed over the decades.” (Works and Days, p.138) Now Fitzgerald fans put the novel alongside The Great Gatsby as one of Fitzgerald’s masterpieces. 

Towards the end of the novel, Fitzgerald writes of Nicole: “She felt the nameless fear which precedes all emotions, joyous or sorrowful, inevitable as a hum of thunder precedes a storm.” (p.294) This is just one of the many beautiful, moving sentences from a novel written by an author who felt so deeply the pain and ecstasy of human existence, and described it all so well.