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Title: TENDER IS THE NIGHT by F. Scott Fitzgerald ISBN: 0-684-80154-X Publisher: Scribner Pub. Date: 01 July, 1995 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.15 (92 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Not what I expected
Comment: While I am glad I read this book, it left me with a nagging feeling of dissatisfaction. What I liked most was the author's ability to convey, usually brilliantly, a sense of the locations where the action took place, of the ex-pat social scene in the 20's, and of certain specific incidents in the plot. However, I had problems accepting much of the dialogue, which struck me throughout the book as being not only thoroughly dated but, I suspect, as having probably rung false even at the time of publication. Nor did I fully buy the portrayal and development of the main characters (except perhaps of Rosemary Hoyt). Nicole's mental illness was impenetrable all the way up to its sudden cure, and Dick Diver's "degeneration" occurs without any understandable impetus. Maybe that is how it is in real life, but it was not inspiring reading. At the end, what did I get from this book? - a vaguely depressing and, finally, rather forgettable story but some lingering pleasure from the beautiful descriptive passages portraying the Riviera and Switzerland during that era. I would suggest that anybody who reads this book also try "The Sun Also Rises" and see which they prefer....
Rating: 4
Summary: Fitzgerald's Autobiography
Comment: Tender Is the Night is uncomfortably autobiographical, written after Fitzgerald's wife, Zelda, was institutionalized. Though it begins with the story of Rosemary, an actress on vacation, hopelessly attracted to Dick Diver, a married man and successful psychiatrist, the story changes, without transtition, to focus on Dick and his wife's unsettling past. Rosemary fades almost completely out of the story while Fitzgerald, vicariously through Dick Diver, explores his coming to (or failure to come to) grips with ageing, his marriage, postwar stress, and the fear that ultimately his promising career would fail. Fitzgerald literally fulfilled his prophecy and never published another novel.
As with most Modern American literature, Tender Is the Night is a depressing story. We witness the dissolution of marriage, man, and find the Lost Generation ultimately just that--lost.
It's been several years since I read The Great Gatsby, but if memory still serves, Tender Is the Night is more captivating and, in my opinion, the better of the two.
Rating: 5
Summary: A great ape
Comment: North America escaped the wave of Nihilism that beleaguered Europe after the Great War. Although escaping the horrendous casualty lists of the European nations, Americans aped Continental disillusionment with their own, anaemic version, of it. Retaining greater resources, America's wealthy survivors returned to Europe, filled with cynicism and indifference. Few books have caught the attitudes of interwar Americans as vividly as this one. It is a Judas kiss in depicting America's social values of the time. Few could enjoy the life he describes, yet all aspired to it. Fitzgerald caught and portrayed the segment of that society most people seem to remember. It's a limited view, but tightly focussed.
Richard Diver, married to what was then termed a "neurotic" woman, encounters a young movie star. Films were still silent and actresses were chosen for their physical appeal. Rosemary, although still a teen-ager, fills the image perfectly. Immature, notorious and vivacious, she sets her sights on Diver. Encouraged by her mother, although the motivation for this remains unclear, Rosemary applies her wiles on a man twice her age.
As the two encounter, separate and meet again, they interact with members of the expatriate community in France. Fitzgerald portrays most of them through the couple's viewpoint. The depictions are compelling and evocative, but there isn't an appealling one in the lot. Diver's role in the new [then] Freudian psychology gives Fitzgerald a mechanism for exploring the human psyche. The dismemberment of Freud's analysis by modern studies doesn't detract from Fitzgerald's descriptive prowess. Even from this distance in time he's remains a writer to turn to and reflect on. He's deservedly acclaimed as one of the "greats" of the twenties.
[stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]
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Title: This Side Of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald, James L. W. West ISBN: 0684843781 Publisher: Scribner Pub. Date: 14 July, 1998 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: BEAUTIFUL AND DAMNED by F. Scott Fitzgerald ISBN: 0684801558 Publisher: Scribner Pub. Date: 04 May, 1995 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway ISBN: 0684800713 Publisher: Scribner Pub. Date: 01 March, 1995 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald ISBN: 0684801523 Publisher: Scribner Pub. Date: 01 June, 1995 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: LOVE OF THE LAST TYCOON by F. Scott Fitzgerald ISBN: 0020199856 Publisher: Scribner Pub. Date: 14 April, 1995 List Price(USD): $11.00 |
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