Tender Is the Night is the fourth and final novel completed by American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald. Set in French Riviera during the twilight of the Jazz Age, the 1934 novel chronicles the rise and fall of Dick Diver, a promising young psychiatrist, and his wife, Nicole, who is one of his patients. The story mirrors events in the lives of the author and his wife Zelda Fitzgerald as Dick starts his descent into alcoholism and Nicole struggles with mental illness.[3]
Fitzgerald began the novel in 1925 after the publication of his third novel The Great Gatsby.[4][5] During the protracted writing process, the mental health of his wife rapidly deteriorated,[6] and she required extended hospitalization due to her suicidal and homicidal tendencies.[7] After her hospitalization in Baltimore, Maryland, the author rented the La Paix estate in the suburb of Towson to be close to his wife, and he continued working on the manuscript.[8]
While working on the book, Fitzgerald was beset with financial difficulties and drank heavily. He kept afloat by borrowing money from both his editor Max Perkins and his agent Harold Ober, as well as writing short stories for commercial magazines. Fitzgerald completed the work in fall 1933, and Scribner's Magazine serialized the novel in four installments between January and April 1934 before its publication on April 12, 1934.[9] Although artist Edward Shenton illustrated the serialization, he did not design the book's jacket.[1] The jacket was by an unknown artist, and Fitzgerald disliked it.[10] The title is taken from the poem "Ode to a Nightingale" by John Keats.[11]
Two versions of the novel are in print.[4] The first version, published in 1934, uses flashbacks; the second, revised version, prepared by Fitzgerald's friend and critic Malcolm Cowley on the basis of notes for a revision left by Fitzgerald, is ordered chronologically and was first published posthumously in 1948.[4] Critics have suggested that Cowley's revision was undertaken due to negative reviews of the temporal structure of the first version of the book.
Fitzgerald considered the novel to be his masterwork.[12] Although it received a tepid response upon release, it has grown in acclaim over the years and is now regarded as among Fitzgerald's best works.[13] In 1998, the Modern Library ranked the novel 28th on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century.[14]
