Tender is the Night: a Romance by F. Scott Fitzgerald, with the Author's Final Revision. Preface by Malcolm Cowley
Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1958 (First published 1939)
Having recently re-read The Great Gatsby, I felt the urge to finally tackle Tender is the Night, the novel Fitzgerald regarded as his finest, although when first released (in a version a little different to the one reviewed here) it failed to garner much critical praise. Since then, the book has been recognised as not only Fitzgerald's best novel, but one of the great works of twentieth-century American literature.
It is certainly a more successful novel than Gatsby in it's characterizations, and - in some respects - in evoking the gilded age of American wealth. It's a tragedy of a couple, one of whom is mentally fragile, and the other who doesn't know what he wants from life. Dick Diver, who was beginning his successful career as a psychiatrist, is initially introduced to Nicole Warren as a case, but is so struck by her beauty and fragility he marries her - in his mind he is doing so to not only protect her from herself, but to heal her. Nicole on the other hand, is looking for someone to lean on, to tell her what to do and how to live.
Dick's ability to be the life of any party, and his easy popularity with everyone he engages with, stands in contrast with Nicole's lack of skill with other people. Thus the novel is set up, and we readers travel with Dick and Nicole as the roles are gradually reversed: Dick becomes persona-non-grata in his social set, while Nicole gains in confidence and finally has the strength to break free from Dick.
Dick's downfall starts when he meets Rosemary Hoyt, an ingenue actress, who quickly falls in love with him. He eventually falls for her, which begins his estrangement from his wife, although the affair doesn't blossom until a few years after they first meet. Dick can't take the mental anguish that engulfs him when he realises that, while Rosemary is still in love with him, she has grown up and he is no longer at the centre of her life.
Dick descends into a haze of alcohol as his youthful vigour and charm turns to bitterness, Nicole realises that Dick no longer loves her, and begins her journey out from under his shadow, eventually leaving him for Tommy Barban, a person in the orbit of the Divers who had loved her from afar for some time. Dick returns to America (the novel is set mostly in the Riviera), to move to lesser and lesser roles before finally disappearing from view.
Fitzgerald's description of the American diaspora in France and Europe is a time capsule of an age long gone - the Divers are portrayed as one of the first Americans to summer on the Riviera, near Cannes. By the end of the book - ten years later - the Riviera is crowded. They are the first of the jet-setters, travelling where and when they like, and having the requisite numbers of maids and nannies so that they can live a life of leisure. Such a life leads to inwardness, gossip and inflated self-worth, and those traits are on display in spades in this book, with Fitzgerald's choice of minor characters showing how shallow such living can become. The clash of cultures between old France and new America is also touched on, in a book that in many ways is autumnal in feel - the crash of '29 does not make the timeframe of the novel, but it's floating in the background of the reader's mind with the descriptions of all the wonderful hotels and restaurants, cars and houses that appear throughout the book.
But, as with much of Fitzgerald, I'm left with a feeling that the sum of this novel is less than its parts. I'm not sure the over-arching story is as strong as many of the episodes, sections, and chapters, some of which are excellent. Dick's character is never fully delineated by Fitzgerald, but that is part of Dick's tragedy: while he can help others, he can't help himself for he doesn't really know who he actually is. Nicole begins the novel as a bit of a cypher, but grows in confidence in the last section, as Dick descends - she begins to understand that Dick has not only payed out all he can give to Nicole, but that there is not much depth underneath his charm and wit.
Despite my doubts about the over-arching story, this is a book that is enjoyable to read, as there is much good writing within its covers. Sometimes - and this is the case in all of Fitzgerald's writing - some of the metaphors are clunky, but the nostalgic tone and evocation of a style of life that is lost to us now is wonderful, and the plot's sadness has not lost any power over the nearly 100 years since it was written.
I have recently read A Farewell to Arms, and, in 2021, it seems sure to me that Fitzgerald will outlast Hemingway as a novelist that will last for another 100 years.
Cheers for now, From
A View Over the Bell
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