This Side of Paradise (Webster's Spanish Thesaurus Edition)

Very Fine novel by one of the great American writers of 20th century. Wonderfully crafted wriiting which flows beautifully. One of Scott Firgerald's 2 major works the other being the Great Gatsby which I preferred.

Very well written but that virtue does not overcome the fact that it's all about self-centered and entitled elitists, and immature ones at that, going to Princeton in the second decade of the 20th century. I wanted to read it because it was the first success of the guy who wrote "The Great Gatsby," which was indeed great, but I could not bring myself to care about these characters and did not finish the book. I might assign this book in an American literature or creative writing class so students could compare an early work to the same author's more mature one, but I would never recommend it to be read for pleasure.

Had never read Fitzgerald before--found the book a little boring--having seen The Great Gatsby(movie) I expected more !
Knowing about the author's rocky life makes me want to read more of what he wrote--will look forward to his other writings

It is a very contemplative look at the life of youth in early 20th century America, however the struggles that Amory contends with throughout can easily be applied to life today...especially as Americans deal with a great financial recession and the longest war in American History.

Very Fine novel by one of the great American writers of 20th century. Wonderfully crafted wriiting which flows beautifully. One of Scott Firgerald's 2 major works the other being the Great Gatsby which I preferred.

Very well written but that virtue does not overcome the fact that it's all about self-centered and entitled elitists, and immature ones at that, going to Princeton in the second decade of the 20th century. I wanted to read it because it was the first success of the guy who wrote "The Great Gatsby," which was indeed great, but I could not bring myself to care about these characters and did not finish the book. I might assign this book in an American literature or creative writing class so students could compare an early work to the same author's more mature one, but I would never recommend it to be read for pleasure.

Had never read Fitzgerald before--found the book a little boring--having seen The Great Gatsby(movie) I expected more !
Knowing about the author's rocky life makes me want to read more of what he wrote--will look forward to his other writings

It is a very contemplative look at the life of youth in early 20th century America, however the struggles that Amory contends with throughout can easily be applied to life today...especially as Americans deal with a great financial recession and the longest war in American History.

"Thrift Edition" means low quality paper and tiny print with small spacing between the lines. If you have young eyes, maybe you don't care. But I do care about the typeface and spacing, as well as the way the paper feels in my hands as I turn the page. But for under $3, it's not worth returning. Just thought others should know.

"Thrift Edition" means low quality paper and tiny print with small spacing between the lines. If you have young eyes, maybe you don't care. But I do care about the typeface and spacing, as well as the way the paper feels in my hands as I turn the page. But for under $3, it's not worth returning. Just thought others should know.

This is the worst book I've ever read. It's inconceivable that his next book was The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald spends way too much time on late night bull sessions, but then skips over Amory's military service in World War I. Did anything happen to Amory while he was there? A great alternative to sleeping aids.

A college minor in English had not introduced me to this well-known author so I was anxious to give him a try. PERHAPS his better known works are more interesting, but the last 80 percent of this book went nowhere and I am disgusted with myself for wasting time finishing it. Totally unsatisfactory.

Read Fitzgerald in my young adult years and this was my favorite of his books. Just read it again (many decades later) and appreciated it just as much, if not more. I had forgotten how influential it was in forming my foundational views about the meaning of life and the purpose of living.

I only bought this book for its cover. I needed it for a craft I was working on and I paid more for shipping than the book, so Im not totally disapointed. However, I am disapointed that the image of the book is not what the book actually looks like since that was the only reason I purchased the book. If I knew what it looked like I would not have gotten it. The book was in good condition and if I were to read it was well worth it. It was just not right for my craft.

This is the worst book I've ever read. It's inconceivable that his next book was The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald spends way too much time on late night bull sessions, but then skips over Amory's military service in World War I. Did anything happen to Amory while he was there? A great alternative to sleeping aids.

A college minor in English had not introduced me to this well-known author so I was anxious to give him a try. PERHAPS his better known works are more interesting, but the last 80 percent of this book went nowhere and I am disgusted with myself for wasting time finishing it. Totally unsatisfactory.

Read Fitzgerald in my young adult years and this was my favorite of his books. Just read it again (many decades later) and appreciated it just as much, if not more. I had forgotten how influential it was in forming my foundational views about the meaning of life and the purpose of living.

I did not like the main character from the beginning of the book. He seemed self-centered and spoiled, and I considered not finishing the book, but kept hoping he would change and improve. He didn't. I haven't read any other books by this author, and now I probably won't read anymore, not even the Great Gatsby.

I only bought this book for its cover. I needed it for a craft I was working on and I paid more for shipping than the book, so Im not totally disapointed. However, I am disapointed that the image of the book is not what the book actually looks like since that was the only reason I purchased the book. If I knew what it looked like I would not have gotten it. The book was in good condition and if I were to read it was well worth it. It was just not right for my craft.

This classic novel was Fitzgerald's favorite of all that he had written and with good reason: the main characters were modeled after him and his wife Zelda. Set mainly on the Riveria and in Switzerland, it shows how the small crack in a marriage widens causing the marriage to fall apart, perhaps irrevocably.

The book opens in 1925 with Rosemary Hoyt going to the beach at the Riveria. She is traveling with her mother touring Europe's warm climate after suffering an illness doing a movie. She is just about to turn eighteen and gets invited to join the Divers' party after spending a day with the boring other crowds of Americans there. The Divers, Nicole and Dick are captivating, especially Dick. But there is also Mary and Abe North, who is a musician who hasn't composed anything in years and drinks too much, and Tommy Barden who keeps running off to a war somewhere to fight and is in love with Nicole.

Rosemary and her mother had only planned on staying for a few days, but Rosemary finds herself falling in love with Dick, so they extend their stay. Dick resists her for as long as he can but soon he gives in as long as Nicole never knows and there's a reason why she must never know. The book is divided into three parts and the second part goes back and shows how Nicole and Dick came to be together.

You don't want to feel sorry for Dick and pull for him, but for a while, you kind of do. Maybe it's because the point of view becomes his. Also, Nicole is seen as a bit of a succubus who sucks the life out of Dick. But Nicole is the wronged party and the one hurt by these events. This situation will have long-term repercussions that will continue to affect their marriage and widen the crack further. This book is a classic for a reason, it is well written with beautiful colorful language that drips from the page. It is very well worth reading.

Quotes
Tell a secret over the radio, publish it in a tabloid, but never tell it to a man who drinks more than three or four a day.
-F. Scott Fitzgerald (Tender Is the Night p 75)

It was often easier to give a show than to watch one.
-F. Scott Fitzgerald (Tender Is the Night p 89)

Sometimes it is harder to deprive oneself of a pain than of a pleasure.
-- F. Scott Fitzgerald, (Tender is the Night p 167)

Either one learns politeness at home or the world teaches it to you with a whip and you get hurt in the process.
-F. Scott Fitzgerald (Tender Is the Night p 255)

Just 24 when he finally got this work published after begging Scribner's to reconsider its rejection and after heavy lobbying by Maxwell Perkins, Fitzgerald shows us his talents and flaws in his first novel of self-discovery. He had to revise it numerous times, and I shutter to think of what it was initially like, as it has some flaws in it still. For one, it still can use cuts, particularly in those scenes of self-indulgent wallowing and self-pity after various loves have been lost. I deeply appreciate that wallowing, as I have definitely been there, but nothing can come of it, especially great art. For another, showy vocabulary and poetry to demonstrate the narrator's self-named egotistical "genius" is a bit over the top. Of course, Fitzgerald would hate any criticism like this and consider me a complete idiot. He also doesn't hesitate to throw class snobbery around, mostly his own. And there are long "intellectual" discussions about sentimentalism and romanticism and many other "-isms" that come off today as rather puerile, which one would expect from someone so young and "literary."
Here's the thing: to understand the impact of this book, one really needs to understand its time, 1920, and its place, post-Victorian and World War I America on its way to prohibition and economic depression. If we can put it in its context, we can see this work as far-sighted, revolutionary, and sexually liberated. In fact, at one point, Fitzgerald talks about the inevitable interconnectivity of "modern life," predicting today's globalization. And there are frequently beautiful passages here describing his college days and loves, as only Fitzgerald can write them: romantic, poetic, and fresh, anticipating his later work. All in all, what Edmund Wilson described as a "hodgepodge" cannot and will not be forgotten, as it foreshadows our "modern" sense of fragmentation, loss of faith in God and religion, and our restless and never-ending search for meaning, beauty, and love.

This is F. Scott Fitzgerald’s first novel, published in 1920 when he was 23 years old and not quite in control of his artistic and literary gifts. It’s the story of Amory Blaine, his undergraduate years at Princeton, his social striving, the girls he kisses. His life unfolds among the privileged in the Ivy League and his glib, epigrammatic personality is conveyed in what must have been a very on-trend Roaring Twenties style in which the protagonist says and thinks things like the following: “‘I’m a cynical idealist.’ He paused and wondered if that meant anything.” He’s the type of image-obsessed lad to whom people say such things as “for you not posing may be the biggest pose of all.”

Throughout the novel he encounters a number of women who mostly serve as mirrors to his emerging self but who also have a few thoughts of their own. Thoughts like “Sometimes when I’ve felt particularly radiant I’ve thought, why should this be wasted on one man?” And who shed some light on Amory’s character with observations delivered directly to him, observations like “The very qualities I love you for are the ones that will always make you a failure.”

As the novel unfolds Amory dispenses his glib wisdom in such piquant observations as “in spite of going to college I’ve managed to pick up a good education.” He also comes to some startling realizations such as “I don’t want to repeat my innocence. I want the pleasure of losing it again.”

On the last page he claims that he knows himself but along the way there are a lot of balls, failed classes, and high-spirited outings. Amory makes few lasting connections and seldom delves deeply into himself or his environment. Everything here is on the surface from the wit to the flappers to the self-consciously literary and often empty prose. Fitzgerald would later take parties and flowery language and turn it all into great American Literature but this immature, apprentice work shows only the raw materials without the later polish that would ensure his immortality.

This is a semi-autobiographical first novel. it follows the decline of Amory Blaine from upper-class wealth into self-inflicted poverty. Blaine is given every advantage in life and fails at everything he does.While the book would claim that he is driven by egotism, far more often he seems simply to be seeking self-destruction. The book's section covering Blaine's university years seem mostly an attempt by the author to "spin" his own personal academic failure at Princeton. To find something worthy or idealistic in his actions. He has almost nothing to say about the first world war because while he volunteered, he like many of his social position, never went overseas and he spent his time guarding Kansas.

His only real use of the war is as an excuse to the cut past social ties of the author by making people he knew dead in the conflict. The cutting of past ties and growing social isolation is part of the basic direction of the novel.

After the war, he works in New York in advertising. But doesn't pay enough for him to live properly. He aimlessly dates a series of women and seems to resent them for thinking too much of themselves rather than him. He can't marry because he doesn't have enough money so he quits his job and ends up with no money at all. But he still knows how absolute his greatness is.

There is one nice set-piece in the book where Blaine ends up in an Atlantic City hotel with another couple. His friend not tipping properly for room service leads to a visit from the house detective and threats to charge someone under the Mann Act. The Mann Act making illegal the transport of a woman across state lines for "immoral purposes". Blaine plays the hero to save the social reputation of his friend. But its ruined in that the author makes the point of the story that his friend will never forgive Blaine for what he has done. That heroic acts are always a stupid waste of time.

As the book moves toward a close, nearly every single person in Blaine's life ends up dead. Then he ends up walking the streets broke. Hitchhiking to Princeton for some reason, a wealthy man offers him a ride. The reader is then presented with a long and tedious political lecture on the virtues of socialism. His key points being that people will struggle for social prestige under socialism in the same way that they struggle for wealth under capitalism and that romance is a waste of time & effort. Kind of lightweight points. The author's strength is in dealing with the interpersonal and efforts made in the direction of ideas tend to fall apart.

Amory Blaine has, at the end, quite literally become Charlie Chaplin's "Tramp" character.

The autobiographical elements of the book are what drag the book down. F. Scott Fitzgerald had, at that time, not led a very interesting life. He tries way too hard through the book to justify himself and his actions. The experiments with narrative structure in the book are interesting and there are brief interludes where the writing works, but there isn't really a novel here. The long political lecture at the end is probably what got the book its attention in the 1920s. But its as false as it could be in that It feels insincere and "tacked on". It also totally undercuts the novel's famous conclusion (""a generation grown up to find all gods dead, all wars fought, all faiths in man shaken."). You can't put forward a long idealistic political lecture on the virtues of socialism and then follow it up by talking about how he had faith in nothing and nobody.

The strengths of the book are in its short set pieces. In particular the romantic set-pieces which are well written. He also plays with narrative structure in the book in interesting ways. Be it covering the war years as "letters" or doing a romantic scene as if it were theatrical dialogue. The changes at least broke up the monotony of many parts of the book. He is strong on interpersonal matters but weak when he tries to shift into talking about ideas. There are flashes of brilliance occasionally but its very much the first novel of a young author.

It's probably difficult for someone reading this book today to truly appreciate it's significance. So many things have changed, in so many ways, since 1920. On the other hand, many things have remained the same. As a coming-of-age novel though, This Side of Paradise is essentially timeless, because many can see themselves in the character of Amory Blaine, even if not born into wealth, or educated at Princeton, or even being male. Most of us have experienced the supreme confidence of youth, the tidal pull of youthful romance, the reflexive questioning of social boundaries, and the inescapable quandary of what exactly it is we were put on this earth to do. In the novel, Blaine deals with all these issues, and more. How successful does he deal with them? Well, how successful are any of us? The most disappointing aspect of the story to me was the part dealing with Blaine's WWI experience - there is none of it! The period of his participation is encompassed in a seven page Interlude. I would think a more full exposition of the impact of the war on Blaine would have been revealing, and may have led to a richer story in the second half of the book. But as it is, it is still a thoughtful, even somewhat haunting tale, and presaged for Fitzgerald even more brilliant writing in the years ahead.

This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald is a classic of American literature, thus there are lots of places to find a plot summary, analysis of characters, etc. so I’ll skip all that and just mention a few things that struck me about the novel.

Amory Blaine, the center of attention of the novel, comes alive as a person, or as a “personage” as it is called by Fitzgerald—more than a mere “personality.” I value this in a novel. I like real people. I get involved in novels where characters “come alive” for me. This is what I want from a book.

Fitzgerald’s writing style is mixed. There are thorny passages with a modernist flavor—odd uses of words, somewhat incoherent syntax, fractured point of view, and so on. Certainly the writing challenges one’s mastery of the English language. Nevertheless unlike some other modernist novels, it never sinks into self-indulgent incoherence. The narrative line is comprehensible and gripping in places. It is not just wallowing in existential angst and woolly self-contemplations.

Fitzgerald does indulge in BS-ing especially toward the end. I got the feeling that he was using the novel as a vehicle to express his half-baked political ideas. The novel gets mushy toward the end. There is also an oddly inconclusive relation to Catholicism throughout the book. In fact everything about Amory and This Side of Paradise is inconclusive.

My main amazement about This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald is the role of WW I in the story—or rather its non-role. Clearly WW I is a frightening monster looming over the lives of young people at the time the events of the novel take place. (Perhaps less for Americans than Europeans, however. But 1,300,000 Americans served in combat in WW I and were decisive for the victory.) In fact the first mention of the war, while Amory is at Princeton University, is flippant. Amory serves in the war, but very little is said about it or thought about it. How can this be? WW I changed everything and we know that Amory’s malaise after the war is a reflection of the general destruction to the old world caused by the war. I find this the most impressive and gripping aspect of This Side of Paradise. That is, the rumbling, groaning, agonizing destruction of the European world that is going on silently in the background of this novel. It gives it a profound sense of detached doom.

In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Tender is the Night, his hero’s fall from grace is more desultory decline than dramatic drop. But the clue is right there from the start with his name, Dick Diver.

The story starts in the 1920s on the newly fashionable French Riviera. Told in three parts, the first sees Diver’s seemingly perfect life with beautiful but brittle wife Nicole whom he loves. Onto the beach and into his life walks lovely 17-year old Hollywood ingénue Rosemary Hoyt; the attraction is mutual. The movie that has catapulted her to stardom is called Daddy’s Girl. The irony of this title later becomes clear.

The second part goes back to how Dick and his wife first meet - he a respected practitioner in the up-and-coming field of psychiatry, she a patient - and reveals Nicole’s shocking history. In the final part, Dick Diver allows his work, his wife, his social acceptability and his own innate likeability to go adrift as his alcohol consumption increases.

This is F. Scott Fitzgerald’s last and, arguably, greatest book. He was a man who knew a thing or two about alcohol and brittle wives himself. And though in later years he re-worked this haunting novel, I believe that the original sequence – with use of flashback rather than chronological order – must be the stronger. Seen through 20th century eyes, this book must have been a quite a phenomenon; through 21st century eyes, it still has the power to shock and dismay.

This was Fitzgerald’s first novel, published when he was 23.So it’s a coming of age novel and semi-autobiographical. Our main character, Amory, is presented to us as a not-very-likeable egotistical young god. “…he wondered how people could fail to notice he was a boy marked for glory…” He’s so “remarkable looking” that a middle aged woman turns around in the theater to tell him so. He’s the football quarterback but hey, who cares, he gives that up. We are told older boys usually detested him.

He’s a big hit with the girls but he’s disgusted by his first kiss. There’s a lot of chasing of girls, drinking, partying, driving fast cars and a tragedy. The blurbs tell us that some young women used the book as a manual for how to be a jazz-age flapper – this in 1920. We even get a bit of goth when we are told that with one girl “evil crept close to him.”

The book is dense with themes, the main one being wealthy young men in an ivy-league environment –Princeton, where Fitzgerald went. So there’s a lot about college life and the competition among young men, endless hours over coffee BS-ing about philosophy and their “rushing” to get into the “right” clubs. There are a lot of excerpts of poetry he was reading and writing and one-sentence judgements about the classics (in those days) they had to read. And a bit about writing: “…I get distracted when I start to write stories – get afraid I’m doing it instead of living…”

Hanging over all these young men is not just the usual “what am I going to do with my life” but first, waiting to survive being drafted into World War I. Our main character is conscious of the changing of the generations and their different values: The Victorians are dying out and the WWI generation is in. They are playing with socialism. He’s prescient when he tells us “Modern life changes no longer century by century, but year by year, ten times faster than it ever has before…” It sounds as if he’s talking about the age of the internet.

By the end of the book he is world-weary, rejected by a woman, fighting a bout of alcoholism. Disillusioned, he turns against books, women and faith. At one point Amory tells us “I detest poor people” because he saw “only coarseness, physical filth, and stupidity.” Was he a Democrat or a Republican? LOL. He has no family left. He is amazing blasé in how he shrugs off the deaths of first his father, then his mother, and finally a monsignor who was a mentor and confidant. Almost noir but a good book. You can see Fitzgerald’s emerging genius.

Coincidentally I happened to be reading A Separate Peace by John Knowles, while reading Paradise. I’m amazed at the similarities. Rich young men coming of age (a prep school instead of university) while a war goes on (WW II instead of WW I) and the draft hanging over them.

“I detest poor people…it’s essentially cleaner to be corrupt and rich than it is to be innocent and poor,” so says the vain, arrogant, reckless, egotistical protagonist Amory Blaine of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel This Side of Paradise. Set on the cusp of the jazz age, Fitzgerald paints a portrait of a young man who is wealthy, has distinct advantages in the world, runs in the “best” circles, is educated at Princeton, and yet, is shallow and worthless, making nothing of his life. I use the word “paint” here deliberately because Fitzgerald proves, in this, his first novel, to be an artist with words. What we came to totally revel in in his The Great Gatsby, which I consider the great American novel, is evident in his first outing. His phrasing is delicious, evoking a world of beauty and a world of harsh reality, as well. This Side of Paradise tells of a young life wasted, and the author seems to not only know that life very well, but he, with his almost satiric look at it, seems to want to warn us away from it. This is a look at the reckless wealthy that Gatsby so admired and wanted to be like, all for the love of woman who wasn’t worthy of it. Amory Blaine, rather than trying to use the advantages life has given him, would rather pine over a lost love and weep over a lost fortune, all the while spouting maudlin poetry and philosophies we don’t believe he believes. And oddly enough, we know from history that the author Fitzgerald, knowing and writing so well about this wasted class of society, succumbed to the same lifestyle. This Side of Paradise is prophetic, indeed.

As I read this book, I thought of "The Great Gatsby". The protagonist Amory Blaine reminded me very much of the people who contributed nothing and took much from jay gatsby at his house parties. The novel is set as a coming of age quest as Amory Blaine comes to terms with the realities that are both external and specific to his era. Amory is born to privilege with wealthy indulgent parents and and Princeton education. His journey through life is metaphoric as it takes him from this wealth and privileged social connections to poverty and isolation. In the end, Amory claims to know himself and that is all that anyone can have.

I did some background research on teh novel and found that it was autobiographical. What struck me about the novel was lack of depth. Amory (and I suppose that this means Fitzgerald) struck me as a dilettante without any intellectual discipline. His Princeton years are described as one in which he ignored the set curriculum and read widely to further his own interests. Fitzgerald must decidedly have hated the required courses in mathematics since there are multiple descriptions of Amory's distaste for discussions of conic sections. Analytic geometry held no interest for Amory. Instead of intellectual discipline, the novel is replete with vague meanderings on topics such as the difference between personalities and personages and how the intellectual elite live differently than the rest. Amory made an intellectual journey and found himself at the end. Amory's narcissism prevented any other finding.

I did enjoy this novel on its own terms. It is an interesting and an above average reading experience in its own right. However, the true value of this novel to me, as a somewhat avid reader, is its place in the overall experience of studying F. Scott Fitzgerald and The Great Gadsby.

I, like most other people, knew of F. Scott Fitzgerald as the author of The Great Gadsby. So the first novel of F. Scott Fitgerald that I read was The Great Gadsby. And I did like it. But I was not as enthralled with it as others seem to be. I have since followed up on that read with a study of the author's life, and a sequential reading of his novels. Now I have grown to have a much greater appreciation of The Great Gadsby.

I am fascinated with various aspects of Fitzgerald's life. As I have come to understand it, this novel, his first, was the only novel of Fitzgerald that was a commercial success during his lifetime. Fitzgerald died believing he was a failure, at least as a novelist. It was only after his death that the Great Gadsby became iconic.

As one reads these novels in order, one finds that the author tends to return to the same general themes. His work tends to be semi-autobiographical and revolves around life in the northeast United States during the so called Guilded Age. One will find diversions to the south and west coast, as well as life in the military during World War One. All of this is drawn from his personal life.

I have since read the author's second novel, The Beautiful and The Damned. The theme of The Guilded Age, as well as the symbolism and metaphors of The Great Gadsby really begin to emerge in these first two novels. This became even more vivid to me in The Beautiful and The Damned. In summation, for me personally, I recommend this novel primarily as a first step to a real savoring of The Great Gadsby. It is in reading these first two novels that I was able to really detect the beginning of the trail and traces to The Great Gadsby.

I'm sixty-eight years old and had never read anything by Fitzgerald, though I did slog through "Zelda" many years ago and arrived at the conclusion that both she and Scott were nuts. After reading a spate of references to him recently, I decided it was time. That was my first error.

This book was populated with rich, cheap, self-centered, egotistic, navel-gazing and sometimes downright cruel characters. I finished it only because I couldn't believe how awful it was and I was convinced it had to get better. After all, everyone loves FSF and they can't be wrong, can they? That was my second error. It didn't get better. It got worse and I heartily resent the hours of my life I wasted on it.

The style is a hodge-podge of everything from prose to poetry to free verse to dramatic script. Banal, non-sensical and precious, it left me wondering what, other than flaunting the wealth of the rich, Fitzgerald was attempting to accomplish. The protagonist and his friends are thoroughly unlikeable, as are the money-grubbing women he loves and leaves (except for the one who left him...smart move, Rosalind).

F. Scott Fitzgerald must be the most over-rated author in American literature, with the possible exception of J. D. Salinger who might have been his identical twin. Save yourself the disappointment and go read Steinbeck instead.

P.S. Yes, I did read "Gatsby". I give up hard. My conclusion was not altered by that experience though it was a tad more readable.

Oh the tale of Dick and Nicole Diver told in the familiar style of F. Scott Fitzgerald. The story is recognizable for those who have read his other popular works like This Side of Paradise and The Great Gatsby. A book that is slow-paced up front picks up momentum in Book II and beyond. The parts some readers may find enjoyable include the psychiatric storyline as well as the post-World War I European lifestyle as described by Fitzgerald.

Much like Fitzgerald's other stories, his main characters revolve around the expatriate life as well as financial prosperity. Based heavily on Zelda Fitzgerald's psychiatric break which sent her to Switzerland for treatment, this story joins much of Fitzgerald's other works as autobiographical. Immediately the reader is plunged into the tale of Dick and Nicole Diver, an up-and-coming American psychiatrist and a patient from his first gig as a doctor, respectively. Cleary there were no doctor/ patient boundaries back then (or at least not documented by Fitzgerald). Dick is on top of the world at the start of the novel while Nicole is merely learning to rejoin society. The couple has come into possession of a lot of money which allows them to spend days on the French Riviera or hike in Switzerland. This plot line alone surely will put off readers who will ask, "Why should I sympathize with rich people?" This is difficult to do in Book I, but continuing through to Book II Fitzgerald begins to pull us in.

Book II rewinds Dick and Nicole's existance to when she was seeking treatment. Impressively Fitzgerald name-drops famous psychological minds such as Freud and Jung. Dick Diver attends a conference where these men also are in attendance. It is a nice glimpse into how the world was during the twenties. Because of Dick's doctorly abilities, the reader finds out why he did not serve in World War I. It certainly wasn't his affluence that prevented him from being slung to the front. As a matter fact, it's quite clear that Dick avoided the War by finding himself in the neutral country of Switzerland. Yet while Dick avoided the War, his role in Nicole's life begins to develop into a sort of sympathy toward him.

It is also in Book II that people who are fans of the television series Mad Men may start to see similarities in Don Draper (note the same initials). Without trying to give too much away, Dick Diver begins to share struggles that Don Draper also battles. At one point in Book II Fitzgerald has the reader pass the same moment as at the start of the novel to return us to the present: Nicole is looking for a chicken recipe while sitting on the beach. It is from there that readers begin to wonder if one should root for Dick Diver. As Fitzgerald ushers us into Book III, the reader has long realized what Dick Diver is dealing with. The shortest book of the novel smacks the reader with as much apathy as a writer like Fitzgerald can get away with.

Interestingly the recurring theme of Dick's desire to ride bikes while alone is of note. While the plot unravels into his lap, he is watching the Tour de France pass through with one rider off the front, then a few chasers, then a bigger group, and finally the remainder of the race. This is the same moment Fitzgerald chooses to make each character's life path known to the reader is blatant terms. This is where Fitzgerald saved the book.

There are times where a writer's name certainly carries a book's success. While Fitzgerald touted this to be one of the best books ever written, it felt like a remarkable struggle. He was nine years removed from The Great Gatsby and was considered to be an afterthought by the time this book came out. An aspect that is quite remarkable is his skill in creating beautiful sentences with retired words thrown in for good cause. Just because these people are rich and running around the posh parts of Europe doesn't mean the reader cannot sympathize with closely-related struggles. That is, in Fitzgerald's world - much like his personal life - even money doesn't make his characters any happier than those lower in societal class. It is that notion throughout his books that makes his name carry big hits.

This book is almost one hundred years old but remains timely. An angst filled exploration of narcissism, romance, economics, and social ordering, it is a record of a young man's intellectual growth spurt and struggle with the meaning of life. The author was very well read and makes a point of it, using it to explain his confused internal debates. He struggles with spirituality and sex and the book is a baring of a young man's torment on these topics. Poor Fitzgerald was already in a dark brood when he wrote this first major work. It is however an honest and searching effort to make some sense of it all.

It WAS endlessly amusing but in the best possible way. Fitzgerald delves into his characters and all of their neurotic tendencies but the story is a little bit of train wreck. It’s all over the place but I kind of liked that aspect of the writing.

Dick, is Nicole’s husband but also her doctor. She’s mentally unstable, which makes it very easy for Dick to have an affair with Rosemary Hoyt. No regard is given to his children and although he cares for Nicole, he doesn’t seem to love her anymore. Love and obligation are two different things. This does not go unnoticed by Nicole so there’s this delicious tension between the two of them which made this a surprisingly enjoyable read.

Tender is the Night is said to be the most autobiographical of his novels and I’d have to agree. His long-time relationship with Zelda and her well-documented mental breakdown is echoed here.

Did I enjoy it more than The Great Gatsby? No. There’s something about Gatsby that grabs me from within. The writing is lovely in both novels but Gatsby is the one that stays with me the most.

When first published in 1920 This Side of Paradise rapidly became a bestseller and launched the career of its 24 year old author, F. Scott Fitzgerald. The novel's protagonist, Amory Blaine, is clearly a stand-in for Fitzgerald himself.
The book traces Amory's life from early childhood to young adulthood and describes in great detail his challenges and conflicts as he reaches maturity in the very turbulent second decade of the 20th century. Amory, like the author, becomes a Princeton man. Perhaps the most noteworthy aspect of This Side of Paradise is that Fitzgerald's unbridled nostalgia for his time spent at Princeton comes through loud and clear. (The fact that he never managed to graduate does not seem to have diminished his fond memories one iota.)
By his own admission, Amory is an egotistical elitist who has little or no empathy for the less fortunate lower classes. Much of the novel consists of Amory's introspection on the true nature of love, personal fulfillment, the relevance of religion and other equally obtuse subjects. This Side of Paradise is also a bit odd from a structural standpoint in that there is an overabundance of poetry interspersed with the prose and one of the more important chapters is written largely in the form of a play complete with lines of dialogue and stage direction.
Those inclined to criticize this book will see it as a hodgepodge of self-indulgence. But to the generation who came of age circa. 1920, it contained much that rang true.

This story is about Amory Blaine, a young man whose story we follow from his early childhood of great privilege through his college graduation to see him develop a great skepticism. It may have been his life's great economic downturn, maybe it was his poor luck at love, or maybe a mix of these and more led Amory to his new perspective. As readers we feel sorry for what has been forced to endure, but the silver lining comes as Amory and his mates discuss love, politics and growing up. The opinions they share are substantial, eye-opening, and they still ring true generations later.

This book was recommended to me a few years back by a friend. I asked her what her favorite book was and this was her response. It obviously took me awhile to get around to reading it, but I am glad I did. Better late than never, as they say.

I feel the book is best broken up into three sections: pre-college, college and post-college. And the first and third sections were my favorites. The pre-college section covers his childhood as Fitzgerald writes him as an Elizabethan "mack daddy." I laughed continuously as the young man with the silver tongue would, always minding his manners, attempt to seduce any woman he encountered.

The college section, which is the majority of the book, we begin to see the transformation of Amory Blaine. Through a group of friends that I found similar to the Dead Poets Society from the movie of the same name, Amory begins to finally see pain, suffering and injustice. He is handed a social conscience and wears it from then on as a badge of courage. This section of the book grew a little monotonous for me and was where I had to strengthen my resolve to get through it.

The post-college section, though somewhat pessimistic, was my favorite part of the book. In this final few chapters to the book I believe I found why my friend had recommended it. While I agreed with some of Amory's arguments at the end of the book and disagreed with others, I found them all to have merit. I must admit that I am even depressed that many of Amory's complaints about the state of society still plague society today. I applaud the author for writing a book that is still relevant so many years later.

This Side of Paradise is a short book where you may breeze through the beginning, lose interest in the middle, and become somewhat empassioned towards the end. I did not love this book, but I enjoyed parts of it a good deal. I'm glad to have now read some Fitzgerald other than just The Great Gatsby.

When F. Scott Fitzgerald left Princeton and joined the military, his belief that he would die at war led him to begin writing the autobiographical "This Side of Paradise." Written rather schizophrenically - alternating between prose, verse, letters, and stage direction - readers are given a unique and multifaceted introduction to Amory Blaine, the intellectual, perpetually disillusioned youth. As he stumbles through life attempting to figure out what he believes in, who he loves, and how he comes to terms with personal losses, it is impossible not to feel a little closer to the iconic author and his own internal struggles. Amory winds his way through the Midwest, Princeton, Europe, and New York, morphing his perspectives on everything from romanticism to socialism based on his experiences and especially his failures.

Fans of Fitzgerald will appreciate the beautiful writing of this work; his word choice and turn of phrase make him remarkably quotable. However, this book is also plagued by narcissism and an overabundance of crazy women with an affinity for poetry, which could prove too much for the reader taking Fitzgerald for a test drive. "The Great Gatsby" or "Tender is the Night" would make much better introductions that the majority would argue are simply better pieces of literature. While admitting to myself that this book was a bit bizarre and will never make it onto my "books I would take with me on a deserted island" list, I could not help enjoying it. This book may have revealed to me just how highly Fitzgerald thought of himself, but I tend to think pretty highly of him, too.

Fitzgerald's first novel, full of autobiographical undertones, has already the mark of the Lost Generation: a US that is frivolous, nouveau riche, at the same time innocent and perverse. Amory Blaine is the scion of a young American fortune. He's handsome, well read, and spoiled by his eccentric, alcoholic, and overpossessive mother, Beatrice, who gives him a bookish education while at the same time she carries him around the US, where he mixes with all kinds of people. During a stage of drinking problems, Beatrice sends his son to live with some relatives in Minneapolis, where Amory begins his flirting career with rich brats. Then comes life in Princeton, his first real love, his passive service in WWI, his first job in advertising, and a maturing process expressed as the full acceptance of egocentrism, which simultaneously adopts and kills his former religious and altruistic spirit. Religion becomes not so much conviction and mysticism, but a mere reference and moral containment. Similarly, Beauty stops meaning the appreciation of a transcendental experience, to be left only as an aesthetic perception of Pleasure. Amory Blaine becomes a kind of disenchanted Oscar Wilde, less caustic and more introspective. The game of playing to be Dorian Gray finishes in front of the difficulties of life, and what remains is not the criminal being, but the eternal dilettante. The apparent frivolity and emptiness of Amory's story is more than redeemed by the the poetic quality of the prose. Behind the merry life of a rich kid, the XX century is full fledged already: "a new generation grown up to find all Gods dead, all wars fought, all faiths in man shaken".

Although not yet in league with successive works, especially "The Great Gatsby", this book gives a good appreciation of how Fitzgerald would develop as a writer.

New Review

Every amateur writer, every young writer looking to make a breakthrough, and every avid reader always is confronted when reading the novels of famous authors like the one under review here F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Tender is the Night with wonder about how much of a story’s plotline is based on the author’s vivid imagination and how much on autobiographical or self-reference. As for the subject matter-mental illness, alcoholism, financial independence and the decline of one’s professional energies- in Fitzgerald’s book for once there is no need for such guesswork because during the period just before sitting down to write this well-written and vividly described book his wife had been hospitalized for some mental disorder, he was hustling like seven dervishes to raise cash, and was letting booze get the best of him (which in the end would contribute mightily to his early death a few years later). This in any case is his last completed novel (The Last Tycoon was unfinished) and while I personally rank The Great Gatsby as his greatest novel this one ranks just a step or two below that classic. (Fitzgerald himself ranked this one as his greatest effort although I don’t what he based that ranking on).
As already noted above this story line, set up as a series of flashbacks and flash forwards over “three books,” is the story of the rise and fall of one Dick Diver from the heights of his profession as a up and coming young psychiatrist to, not surprisingly, a middle aged man sunk in a downward rut and sunk in the depths of booze before the end when he winds up in some upstate backwater doing yeoman’s work as a country doctor. It is also the story, maybe better a cautionary tale, about the pitfalls of bedding and marrying one of your patients because that is what he does with the other main character his initially mentally fragile wife, Nicole Diver nee Warren (that nee is important since she came from serious robber baron money and Dick was lucky to have carfare on his own hook).
Dick and Nicole “meet” in a European sanatorium where Nicole has been deposited by her father after many unsuccessful attempts to cure her affliction elsewhere (there is a strong suggestion of incest as the cause). In the process of “curing” Nicole they fall in love and are married. This gives Dick for a time anyway room to pursue his budding career as a psychiatrist dealing with obscure mental illnesses. But it also creates tensions when it came to financial matters as Dick wanted some independence and of course Nicole was used to having plenty of dough. Created tensions as well when Nicole would for a long while during their marriage and parenthood have periodic relapses.
Most of the story takes place in European settings, mainly France, since as was the vogue in the Jazz Age by the alienated post-World War I intelligentsia that is where they went to get away from low-rent grasping America. A lot of the power of this novel is centered on the isolated existence that these ex-pats’ live as they hunker down amount themselves with romances, liaisons and wasted time. Dick’s life though as he approaches middle age is spiced up by an interest in a young starlet, Rosemary, who has come to Europe with her mother for the grand tour. This affair will end badly as the pair part after a long cat and mouse playing and as Rosemary rises in the film world and Dick succumbs to his own hubris (and alcohol, okay). Worse this affair affected Nicole, led to a few of her relapses. In the end as Dick declined Nicole got stronger, got strong enough to have an affair with one of the men in their circle and eventually divorced Dick as he stumbles downhill and married him (reminding me of the flow of Gide’s The Immoralist where the wife declines after saving the getting stronger life of her self-absorbed husband).
The beauty of this novel is not so much in the now fairly conventional story line but in the vivid descriptions of the characters, of the landscape, hell, like his friend Hemingway, of the food and of his use of metaphor that is nothing less than astounding. Not Gatsby, no question, since that literary effort summed up an age in one person is but a very good description of the rise and fall of a man of that same Jazz Age. Read this one, heck, read all of Fitzgerald.

Old Review
Scott Fitzgerald famously noted that the very rich are different from you and I. Agreed. However, in this tale of the wanderings of a segment of the post World War I "lost generation" one could argue that some things do not escape even the richest. I would note the scars left on Nicole Diver, nee Warren, by her father's incestuous behavior. I would further note the extreme mental problems that caused not only for Nicole's life but for Dick Diver, her husband and a psychiatrist, and their children. If that is Fitzgerald's point it really hits home because this book at the very least reflects his own personal problems with his beloved wife Zelda when she went over the edge. As for the rest of the story line this is a typical Fitzgerald Jazz Age story, well written, but with no necessity to empathize with the plight of the other denizens of the story.

If anyone ever paid close attention to the old literary dictum, "write what you know", it must have been F. Scott Fitzgerald. His novels bear a striking resemblance to his own life. TENDER IS THE NIGHT does not qualify as an exception---it contains alcoholism, mental illness, and the post WW I, Jazz Age American youth scene in Europe; the Riviera, Paris, Switzerland, and Italy, central themes in the legend of Fitzgerald himself. Not having read or heard much about this novel beforehand, at first I felt I was reading a second-rate "Hangin' with the Homies over There in Frantz" or maybe "Rosemary Crashes the In-Crowd". As the novel unfolded, though, I began to appreciate its wider vision and deeper concerns. By the end, I felt that here was another chapter of the Great American Novel, a single version of which may never exist and maybe cannot possibly exist, but which may be perceived as several books that comprise the Great American Story when taken as one. If the rise from poverty to wealth and power is one strand of the `American story', then surely the descent from wealth and respectability to the lower depths is another. While Dick Diver's crash is not as complete as Hurstwood's in "Sister Carrie", he certainly winds up expelled from the Promised Land, [barred from his former social world] practicing medicine in ever smaller New York towns, his European days of glory long disappeared.

Fitzgerald is able to paint a slowly-revealed picture of talent and wit being worn down and defeated. The forces that accomplish this are subtle and not easily named. Dick, the rising young star of psychoanalysis, marries a beautiful patient who suffers from childhood abuse by her own father. She is extremely wealthy to boot. Together they form the core of a shining group of wealthy but rather aimless expatriates in those halcyon days of the dollar after World War I. Great things are expected from Dick, but ever-increasing alcohol and dissipation rob him of his career. He pours his energy into caring for and curing Nicole, his wife. Slowly, dependence on her wealth, living the life of a sybarite, and his decreasing attention to work turn the tables. She becomes the strong one; he begins to decline, has inconclusive affairs, ends up losing everything including Nicole. The sense of loss is palpable. "Her eyes followed his figure until it became a dot and mingled with the other dots in the summer crowd." A number of interesting minor characters and excellent description of life at that time, in those places, of that class, bring the novel to an extremely high level, along with Fitzgerald's mastery of dialogue that reflects the times perfectly. TENDER IS THE NIGHT is not only a great novel, it is an unforgettable portrait of an era that has completely vanished, yet which, with the help of movies, we still feel almost able to touch.

I thought I had reached the high point of Fitzgerald's work when I read The Great Gatsby. I was wrong. This book is not as organized nor as focused as Fitzgerald's more popular work, but, in my opinion, it is better. The characters are astoundingly complex, and are fascinating to read about and get to know. The setting--various places in Europe--is brilliantly depicted. But what makes this book great is the interaction between the characters. It is a story of the Divers, Dick and Nicole, a couple who all but trade roles in the course of the novel. The story opens with Rosemary, a young actress, as she meets the Divers and is completely enthralled by them. Through Rosemary we see that the Divers are, in fact, very nearly the ideal couple at the beginning of the book; but this apparent bliss is a mask of a deep, complex, and difficult history, and an awful foreshadowing of a tragedy to come. The story moves backward to Dick and Nicole's meeting, then forward again to the tragic climax.
Dick, a psychiatrist, met Nicole at his clinic, where she was a patient. He was a brilliant young doctor and successful author, she, a broken and troubled youth. Dick helped her put the pieces back together, and married her. They lived an almost blissful existence for a time, but then Nicole began to relapse. The bulk of the novel deals with Nicole's problems and her struggle to overcome them, as well as Dick's growing problems, which he, with all his training, is not so able to move past. Dick and Nicole's relationship develops into something ugly, a shattered remnant of its past glory. And what is worse, it isn't even really Nicole's fault.
Fitzgerald has a gift for beautiful prose and a talent for storytelling that is almost unparalleled in literature. This book should be considered a classic, and surely deserved to emerge from the shadow of its sister work, The Great Gatsby, and be regarded as the masterpiece that it is.

Written in the 1930's after Fitzgerald's wife had suffered a nervous breakdown and was institutionalized in Zurich, this book about a young aspiring psychiatrist and a young beautiful patient whose relationship commences in a Zurich sanitarium -- a story which eerily rings of Fitgerald's portentous relationship with his wife, Zelda.

The up-and-down relationship of the Divers resembles the Swiss mountain's furnicular - the cable car which has the ascending car counterbalance the descending car. As Dick Diver's character descends from a glorious future to an alcoholic future, his wife's (Nicole) character ascends from insanity to normalcy. By 40, Dick Diver is a ruined man. At 44, Fitzgerald died after having never returned to the heights of "Gatsby" and "Tender" -- which were amazingly finished in his 20's and 30's.

How autobiographical this depressing tale is may never be fully known. But, it definitely recites many of the realties which he and his European expatriate hob nobbers assuredly lived. The most troublesome events being Dick Diver's descent to alcoholism, something which personally plagued Fitzgerald and which equally plagues the easily loved Diver. Only when he drinks does his tongue spew venomously, and unfortunately too often to those closest and fondest of him.

What I love most about Fitzgerald is that pretension belies the characters, not his writing. He hides no hard-to-read symbols within his text. He is a master story teller, who infuses rich dialogue with the magnificent story to make his writing great -- 70 years later.

This is a classic novel written by a classic novelist.

I'm not entirely certain even Fitzgerald quite knew the point of this mess, unless it was to convey the moral "Never marry a mental patient you're treating", which is really kind of the thing that's so obvious it doesn't need 300 pages to explain.

Women are vampires - or maybe they're not. And men are so noble that trying to carry the burden of the world on their shoulders crushes them - or maybe they're not, and it doesn't. Honestly, by the end I didn't particularly care, and the chances are good you won't either.

Mr. Diver, you're no Jay Gatsby. I'm going back to West Egg, where the real party is.

Tender Is the Night is one of the most interesting examples in 20th century fiction of reversing the usual social metaphors. Dr. Dick Diver, a psychiatrist, is examined as a case of mental health. He is also placed in a classic woman's role, that of the desired, amiable beauty sought after by all and sundry. These juxtapositions of the usual social perspectives allow the reader to touch closer to the realities of human need and connection, by piercing our assumptions about what is "right and proper."
The story begins from the perspective of Rosemary Hoyt, an 18-year-old motion picture star, recuperating on the Rivera. One day she goes to the beach and becomes entranced by the Divers, Dick and Nicole, a golden couple with whom she immediately falls in love. Beautiful, young, rich, and looking for adventure, she quickly sets out to capture Dick who is the most wonderful person she has ever met.
Later, the story shifts to Dick's perspective and traces back to the beginnings of his marriage to Nicole. She had formed an accidental attachment to him (a classic psychiatric transference) while residing in a mental hospital. He returned her friendship, and found it impossible to break her heart. They married, and he played the role of at-home psychiatrist tending her schizophrenia. All went well for years, but gradually he became weary of his role. His weariness causes him to re-evaluate his views on life . . . and the psychological profile of Dr. Diver, charming bon vivant, begins.
The tale is a remarkably modern one, even if it was set in the 1920s. Fitzgerald deeply investigates the meanings of love, humanity, and connection. In so doing, he uncovers some of the strongest and most vile of human passions, and makes fundamental commentaries about the futility of fighting against human nature. The result is a particularly bleak view of life, in which the tenders may end up more injured by life than those they tend. What good is it to please everyone else, if they offend rather than please you instead?
The character portrayals of Rosemary Hoyt, Dick Diver, and Nicole Diver are remarkably finely drawn. I can remember no other book where three such interesting characters are so well developed. You will feel like each of them is an old friend by the time the novel ends.
If you have ever had the chance to read Freud, the novel will remind you of his writings. There is the same fine literary hand, the succinctness and clarity of expression, and the remorseless directness of looking straight at the unpleasant. I felt like I was reading Freud rather than Fitzgerald in many sections.
This book should open up your mind to thinking about which social conventions you observe that leave you uncomfortable . . . or which are in contradiction to your own nature. Having surfaced those misfitting parts of your life, I suggest that you consider how you could shift your observation of conventions to make them more meaningful and emotionally rewarding for you.
Be considerate because it pleases you to be, not as a ruse to obtain love!

I twice tried to get into this book as i was reading it in paperback. F Scott is one of my favorite authors, but until I got the audio CD version of this I could not get into it/through it. The narrator in the book is wonderful -- one of the best I have heard on audio cd's -- and I don't think without his excellent reading and characterizations I would have finished the book. The book is slow to start -- it is in 3 parts -- and until Part 2 not much of it will make sense. Then it all starts to come together. If you can stick with the book til Part 2 you will be rewarded. Remember this is not written on the 4th grade level like so many books are written these days so you will have to work harder to read it. I just kept remembering the sense of time and place in history that F Scott wrote and it propelled me on.

At the opening of Tender Is the Night, the reader encounters Dr. Dick Diver on the French Riviera, surrounded by fashionable and wealthy admirers. Diver is terribly attractive and charismatic, but there are signs of trouble. Some type of scene at the Diver's home - we don't know what - leads to a duel, and the Divers decamp for Paris. There, Diver enters into a serious flirtation with a young actress, and the instability of his wife, Nicole, is revealed. Diver's father dies, and this loss seems to loosen some restraint in him. He begins a long debauch and ultimately he is diminished while Nicole is strengthened.

This book explores some themes found in other Fitzgerald novels. Most prominently, it examines the need for people who are superficially attractive and intelligent - people who "have it all" - to base their lives on something more substantial than the approval of others. It examines the role that alcohol can play in a personal collapse. And it examines the nature of emotional damage:

"One writes of scars healed, a loose parallel to the pathology of the skin, but there is no such thing in the life of an individual. There are open wounds, shrunk sometimes to the size of a pin-prick but wounds still. The marks of suffering are more comparable to the loss of a finger, or of the sight of an eye. We may not miss them, either, for one minute in a year, but if we should there is nothing to be done about it."

This is a sad book, but it is beautifully written and the settings - in Switzerland and France between the two world wars - add interest.

F. S. Fitzgerald used a Rupert Brooke verse and an Oscar Wilde line as the epigraph of his first published novel "This Side of Paradise". The verse says that in this side of paradise, the wise can find little comfort. In his novel, he'll try expose how the wise ones feel lonely and lost in this side of paradise.

The `wise one' is Amory Blaine, a wealthy young man who goes to Princeton and discoveries that life is a little different from what he was told. Before that, he has a wonderful and extravagant life with his mother Beatrice. She loves her only son that for some readers it can be a little disturbing. By the way, by using such names (Amory from `amor' [love]) and Beatrice (Dante's muse), Fitzgerald shows what he is talking about here. He wants to explore the European tradition of love (found and lost) and the importance of love in the life of the protagonist in his growing process.

The story is told by an outside narrator who is always adding things from Amory's point of view -- this third person narrator even knows the character's thoughts. Less than making the thread of the story, Fitzgerald prefers to draw sketches of Amory's life. In this fashion, the novel is more a character study of Amory, telling the most important moments that would help the reader to understand the character's quest to find this place in the world.

Much of what Fitzgerald used to create "This Side of Paradise" and its characters comes from his own experience. Many critics have found much of the author in Amory Blaine. This technique of semi-autobiographical novel was often used by Fitzgerald throughout his career -- and it was largely criticized.

But "This other side of paradise" found more acclamation and was his most commercially successful novel. In this book, Fitzgerald was able to capture a period of American history virtually like no one else, and gave a candid portrait of a new youth culture. Not only was he able to described the glamour of the period, but he also made critical commentaries on its flaws.

Fitzgerald's fiction about the rich is written from the vantage point of one who is romantically, maybe neurotically, obsessed with them and articulates it so well. His writing, pulsating with the restless and reckless rhythms of the Jazz Age, finds its strength in empathy, its uncanny ability to describe emotions with clever, original metaphors. You find yourself pitying the problems of these perfectly created characters, but you'd still like to be one of them.
"Tender is the Night" turns our attention to several American expatriates who live, work, and play in the French Riviera and various fashionable locations around Europe in the 1920's. At the center of the novel are an affluent young couple, Dick and Nicole Diver, whose marriage has been built on a shaky foundation. Dick is a prominent psychiatrist of modest means who met Nicole when she was a patient under his care in a Swiss sanitarium. Diagnosed as a schizophrenic, Nicole is still dangerously capricious and fragile. She is the daughter of a fabulously wealthy American man with a dirty secret, and she has a frigid, highly protective older sister called Baby who attempts to be the stabilizing factor in the Divers' lives. Dick and Nicole have two children whose infrequent mention is indicative of their relatively low level of love for them.
One day on the beach at the Riviera, a young American movie actress named Rosemary Hoyt almost literally swims into the Divers' lives and quickly falls in love with Dick. Her mother encourages the affair, thinking Rosemary needs such risque life experiences to stimulate her passion. Nicole also has an extramarital affair with a magnetic playboy named Tommy Barban. By the end of the book, it is disheartening to see that Dick has to pay the price for both of their infidelities and Nicole, although "cured" to the point that she no longer needs his help, is still spoiled and frivolous. (That the rich can render themselves impervious to misfortunes and go on with their carefree lives, leaving the less fortunate to pick up the pieces, was also a major theme in "The Great Gatsby.")
The scenes play out against a picturesque European backdrop populated by a host of interesting characters, including the flighty Abe and Mary North, the awkward McKiscos, the haughty Lady Caroline Sibley-Biers, who gets her comeuppance most satisfactorily, and Collis Clay, a likeable collegiate fellow who hangs around Rosemary and seems to have wandered way outside his cultural element.
This novel, the last Fitzgerald completed, reinforces his position as perhaps the greatest American prose stylist. His writing is like literary ambrosia; it bathes the tired, gray world in vibrant color and leaves it basking in a rosy hue. The experience of reading it is similar to that of listening to the most brilliant, sublime music ever composed or eating the most delicious food ever prepared -- something to be savored once in a long while if only to remind ourselves how good things can be.

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]

I missed this one back in college, where I became enamoured of much more sophisticated writers (Joyce and Hemingway, though some here may question this characterization of Hemingway at least). Indeed, I had liked THE GREAT GATSBY back then but was not overly fond of the Fitzgerald opus of short stories so, on balance, I never felt motivated to read any further into his works. And yet I recently found a copy of this one so, having a little time on my hands, set out to read it. At first it was slow going and very dated in its feel. Hard to relate to the early twentieth century upper class snobbery which seems to suffuse the book and, indeed, Fitzgerald's very sensibility. Hard, too, to relate to a bunch of sophomoric college boys roaming the streets, arm in arm, singing silly little college songs and angling to outshine one another by securing a better reputation among their peers and better connections with the "in groups." And yet, perhaps it was just a simpler time for, in truth, people are not entirely unlike that today though they are, I think, less transparent about it and more sophisticated in their areas of concern. Nevertheless, once past the first superficial ramblings of this book, I began to get sucked into the mind and world of Amory Blaine (presumably the alter ego of Fitzgerald himself). Although he remained a rather superficial and tiresome personality to the end, he was also an interesting soul and one whose travails, such as they were, could and did draw a reader in. I found Blaine's coming of age tale oddly enlightening, if only because I began to see the world as it was, roughly a hundred years ago, in a sharper, almost first-hand perspective. Blaine grows a bit though he never outgrows his essential self-absorption. But the loss of family and friends and lovers take their toll on his psyche and the Blaine we have at the end of the tale is a wiser and bigger boy than the one at the beginning. I think, in general, our serious writers in the twentieth century forgot about telling stories or creating worlds in favor of word-play and self-revelation and that this has done literature no service. Fitzgerald certainly was among those who took writing in that direction. But he sure could write and the fact that the very thin and sophomoric tale of Blaine's coming of age could hold me at the dawn of the twenty-first century is testimony to that. There are better and stronger books out there and some I much prefer. But the man could write. -- SWM

Few would argue against including "This Side of Paradise" on the required reading list for students of American fiction. It's F. Scott Fitzgerald's first novel, which provides both a taste of how great Fitzgerald would become as an iconic American writer, and also an autobiographical glimpse into his life at the turn of the century. The protagonist of the story is Amory Blaine, an aspiring young writer who comes of age at Princeton during the First World War. Amory struggles to find his place among his peers and within society. The story flows very smoothly, but with a few fits and starts during the middle chapters.

It's clear that Fitzgerald also struggled to complete this book. Satisfying himself didn't come easily, nor was it easy for him to satisfy his editors. The end result is very readable and highly enjoyable. The play which appears mid-way through the novel is a little strange, but it doesn't take away from the development of the plot.

I also recommend reading the book's preface for its interesting analysis of Fitzgerald's early years, and its discussion of the book's background and genesis.

I've been intending to read this book for a long time, having a memory of what was probably a 1980s BBC TV adaptation of it and having seen a play about the life of Zelda Fitzgerald on the Edinburgh Fringe in the '90s. Finally I got around to it...

It's impossible for me to comment meaningfully on 'Tender is the Night' without giving away the plot. Obviously it's a very well-written, literary work but about half-way through I had issues with the respect in which the narrative feels very much like masculine self-indulgence, what with Rosemary's abiding obsession with Dick and the incest that we are informed to have been the root of Nicole's mental disturbance being glossed over so glibly.

However, my feelings changed later on. I think the truly great human observation that Fitzgerald makes in this book is that when Dick & Rosemary's relationship is finally consummated, the mutual attraction is instantly killed off and the incident spells the beginning of the personal and professional demise of Dick.

Furthermore, the facts that the novel ends with Nicole herself straying into an adulterous relationship and a final shift towards a focus on her feelings about her marriage to Dick and her own life and identity, redeemed the story from being one seemingly intended to bolster male egos.

It's easy to lose sight of just how long ago 'Tender is the Night' was written because it tackles the question of the viability of monogamy in such a head-on, modern way. So I would recommend it, not only as a literary work of beauty that evokes the long-lost 'Jazz Age' but also and moreover as a book that examines the fundamental and perpetuating question of the nature of romantic love and the value we place upon it.

F. Scott Fitzgerald's novels are a one trick pony in the sense that he writes about the same time period (the 1920's), the same kind of people (rich or successful Americans) and protagonists who suffer the same fate (men whose ultimate failures are the result of their own shortcomings and the influence of women). His works are also highly autobiographical. Thus to read Fitzgerald with understanding one should start at the beginning (This Side of Paradise), move to the full bloom of his talent (The Great Gatsby) and culminate at the end (Tender is the Night). It would help to read a good biography along the way. The other option is to just read Gatsby which is one of the finest American novels ever written.

This Side of Paradise is his first novel and here we see both the promise of the character, Amory Blaine, and the author. On the very first page of the novel Fitzgerald displays his talent for words in his description of Amory's mother: "All in all Beatrice O'Hara absorbed the sort of education that will be quite impossible ever again; a tutelage measured by the number of things and people one could be contemptuous of and charming about; a culture rich in all the arts and traditions barren of all ideas in the last of those days when the great gardener clipped the inferior roses to produce one perfect bud." This lengthy sentence, despite its seeming awkwardness, tells us all we need to know about Beatrice and suggests that the son will share the same qualities. Other examples of Fitzgerald's facility with words follow. On page 45 he describes Isabelle thusly: "She paused at the top of the staircase. The sensations attributed to divers on springboards, leading ladies on opening nights, and lumpy, husky young men on the day of the Big Game, crowded through her. She should have descended to a burst of drums or a discordant blend of themes from `Thais' and `Carmen.' She had never been so curious about her appearance, she had never been so satisfied with it. She has been sixteen years old for six months." And on page 47 is Isabelle's description of Amory: "she had expected him to be dark and of garter-advertisement slenderness." Only Fitzgerald could come up with such vivid and evocative descriptions.

One fault of the book is that it is too episodic without clear transitions. First Amory is a child, then a student at Princeton, then a soldier (although we really do not see this part of this life and it seems to have not affected him), then a lover of Rosalind, then at loose ends, then has a relationship with Eleanor, then the book ends with Amory alone in the world and spouting socialist maxims. It is hard to picture this individual, who for 200 pages has been totally absorbed with himself, suddenly developing a social conscience!

Another problem I have is that Fitzgerald tries too hard to show his education. The book is full of poetry and literary references. It is written much as a college student would write a paper to try to impress the professor and thus get a high grade, rather than in a manner that is appropriate to the telling of a story. Fitzgerald is, of course, at this point in his life not far removed from Princeton and perhaps is still writing as a college student.

In the end, then, we should read This Side of Paradise for the beauty of the language and not be overly concerned with the story line and characters.

Tender Is the Night by legendary author F. Scott Fitzgerald chronicles the tragic fall from grace of Dick Diver, a brilliant American psychiatrist. Through most of the book's angst laden narrative, Dr. Diver has only one patient, Nicole Diver, his wealthy and beautiful wife.

The reader's introduction to the Divers is through the eyes of Rosemary Hoyt, an 18 year old silent screen starlet, as she meets the Divers and their entourage on the French Riviera. Rosemary falls madly in love with the charismatic doctor whose supremely confident demeanor makes him the focus of attention wherever he goes. As the story slowly unfolds, Rosemary is relegated to minor character status and Fitzgerald concentrates on describing the relationship between Dick and Nicole.

We learn how the two met while Nicole was hospitalized in a Swiss psychiatric facility and how it was they decided to marry. Nicole's wealth allows them to live like royalty as they make Europe their playground. But eventually Dick succumbs to alcoholism and his career and marriage suffer as a result.

Tender Is the Night had special meaning for F. Scott Fitzgerald, who reportedly worked on it over a 9 year period from 1925 to 1934. His wife, Zelda, was a diagnosed schizophrenic who was no stranger to Swiss psychiatric hospitals and Fitzgerald himself battled alcoholism. Unfortunately, whatever deep meaning the author intended this novel to convey is not at all apparent. Most readers will see this book as a disjointed collection of curious anecdotes about spoiled rich people.

Reading Tender Is the Night in its entirety is a tough slog. I'm not sure the story it has to tell justifies the effort.

The novel tells the story of the Nicole and Dick Diver, a wealthy, American couple living in Europe in the early 20th century. As the story opens they are introduced to a young movie actress, Rosemary, who is infatuated with Dick and with the lifestyle the Divers and their friends enjoy. Slowly Rosemary, and the reader, watches the Divers' marriage disintegrate, and Dick, in particular, descend into alcoholic despair.

There is no question that Fitzgerald could write brilliantly. It is a complex and thought-provoking look at human failing, at fear and weakness, and at self-destruction. However, I could not stand any of the characters, and really did not care what happened to them. Maybe it's his focus on this very hedonistic lifestyle. This is not the first work by Fitzgerald I've read and I've had a similar reaction in the past. I've also read books by other authors who shone a bright light on a wealthy class - Edith Wharton for example - without feeling that same disconnection with their characters or complete distaste for their lifestyle. I give it 4 stars based on the strength of Fitzgerald's writing; it is full of exquisitely crafted passages which simply took my breath away.

Trevor White does a wonderful job of performing the audio book. His pacing and voice inflection breathed life into the characters.

Part of the problem with Fitzgerald's being affiliated with a prized novel, The Great Gatsby, is that the author's other novels must be compared to it. I use this as an opening because, while the instances of early talent in the writer are here in his debut novel, the story, even though richly autobiographical, fell a little flat. Maybe this is part due to the fact that for a good deal of the book the protagonist, Amory Blaine, is pretty much synonymous with the shallow, aimless generation that Fitzgerald and other Lost Generation authors tried to depict. With the exception of minor moments of insight late in the novel, Amory is as superficial as the world seems around him.

Some have a problem with the experimental format of This Side of Paradise. It is written as a narrative, poem, drama, letter and journal. I didn't feel that way, and thought it gave a unique aspect to the novel. Fitzgerald's technique seems to coincide with the modern novel of experimenting with narrative. However, the story's subject itself clearly comes across as an author working into his craft, rather than having perfected it.

Within the story, Amory Blaine searches for identity and meaning of life amid outside influences--his mother, the world, the war, his acquaintances at school, his friendships, and his loves. While there were some moments of insight, the story comes across as a bit flat and meandering. In the final estimation, the characters were a bit too artificial.

Fitzgerald's movement towards perfecting his skill is evidenced, however. There are some valid insightful moments for the protagonist in the book's concluding pages, and Fitzgerald's style is evidenced in these brief snapshots. Fitzgerald's style would be perfected later in The Great Gatsby.

This pretty much takes me back to my original argument. The Great Gatsby is vastly superior in terms of depth, narrative and likability of main protagonist than This Side of Paradise. Not to say that there isn't a glimpse of talent here, and future higher achievements, but I'd rather be reading The Great Gatsby.

This is a complex coming of age tale about a young man that doesn't really come of age. The young protagonist, Amory Blaine, struggles to find and accept the real person he is as his "fundamental self" and his "conformist self" clash throughout. Amory has a few personality traits (an unreasonable sense of entitlement --possibly from overpampering-- and general lack of self-confidence masked by glibness) that also hinder him from attempting to find out who he is. I found him to be a very frustrating, yet real character that seems completely relatable. Amory has alot on his plate by society's views. He knows he's supposed to do what's necessary to achieve the American Dream, and even though he has been given all the comforts (good money, good schools) and advantages to better achieve that dream, it's not enough. He is confused by why these opportunities aren't just falling into his lap, since by society's views he's doing everything right. He goes through the motions, but finds nothing inspiring. He is constantly sizing himself up to his peers and is jealous that they seem to have something to stand for and he can't seem to feel anything but ambivalence for all situations he's in. His character is so young and naive that you can't help but feel sorry for him. He spends the whole book putting on airs when inside he's a confused and scared kid. While he is a wise-mouth, he is not a wise person. Even the end of the novel is as unsure as he is. I thought it was really humanizing and almost reassuring to see a character out there that is so flawed and realistic.

Published in 1920, F. Scott Fitzgerald's first novel was wildly controversial, critically lauded, and an instant bestseller. Read today, it may be difficult to understand why; the story is a highly episodic "bildungroman" of a pampered, arrogant young man as he drifts with noticeable lack of appreciation through corridors of power and pleasure without absorbing much in the way of insight. But it is precisely because of that THIS SIDE OF PARADISE was felt to be such a shocker in its era: the very notion that any one would write a novel about such a slacker was controversial and new. Amory Blaine is among the first "anti-heroes" of the 20th Century, the opening salvo in a literary tradition that would eventually encompass everything from CATCHER IN THE RYE to ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST to CATCH-22.

In addition to its unexpected apathy, PARADISE was also considered shocking for its portrait of women. Certainly many writers, including numerous female authors, had written about women intelligently--but Fitzgerald stands astride the shift between what was and what is. A society belle of earlier generations would never admit to having been kissed before marriage; the "popular daughter" of the 1910s was not only kissed, she actively connived at it, and she didn't mind talking about it afterward. Fitzgerald's portraits of these seemingly new creatures, who had money and social background, who stayed out late and necked in strange apartments, and who didn't seem to give a damn about what people of thought of them, is at once tender and icy cold. To say that the portrait horrified the parents of teenage girls from New York to California would be a significant understatement.

At the time of its publication, THIS SIDE OF PARADISE was considered "an experimental novel," largely because Fitzgerald shifts between several different narrative styles as the book progresses. At the time it seemed very fresh and new, but in truth the effect was not so much designed as accidental: the novel was cobbled together from Fitzgerald's earlier, unpublished writings, and the contrasts and shifts that seemed fresh and new in 1920 quickly came to feel uneven afterward. Fitzgerald never made the same mistake. His later works would be planned, written and re-written, and polished to an almost superhuman degree. But in spite of the book's uneven narrative, it is very much what we think of when we think of Fitzgerald as a writer: sparks of poetry illuminating the psychology of slightly uncertain, often dubious characters, all interwoven with the hazards of careless wealth and incautious romance. Critics of the day hailed him as a major new talent, and his major works continue to stand the test of time.

Like most of Fitzgerald's novels, PARADISE is distinctly autobiographical in nature. The novel begins with a portrait Amory as a child, son of a non-descript father and the fabulously wealthy, wildly pretentious, and ridiculously eccentric Beatrice--whose influence is one of self-indulgent ennui. In a fit of social ambition, Amory decides to depart from his mother's pseudo-intellectualism and European pretensions and "go to school," enduring an unpleasant stint at an eastern prep school before entering Princeton. But although he rejects his mother's way of life, he is still very much her child; he is a superficial student at best, and he drifts through everything from superficial romances to philosophy class to The Great War without seeming to profit from the experience. An arrogant slacker, he arrives at the end of the novel to find himself without any personal resources, either tangible or internal. What is the point? In forcing the reader to that question, Fitzgerald effectively summed up the attitude of an entire generation. What was it all for? Why do we bother? Perhaps the best any of us can hope is a little comfort here and there and a good time along the way. It was an attitude that marked the beginning of the 1920s roar.

The novel is particularly distinguished by a sense of irony. Amory may not be a likeable person, but the follies of youth--most particularly its pretensions--have not changed significantly over years, and Fitzgerald plays them out with a dry sense of humor that makes the careful reader wince time and again. Amory is indeed insufferable, but so have most of us been at one time or another, and the effect is comic, embarrasing, ridiculous, and at times down right painful. It is also particularly memorable, as many have pointed out, for its brilliant portrait of Princeton during the 1910s; indeed, the school becomes a major character in the novel, and while Amory develops a romantic appreciation of it, his great failure is that he never bothers to scratch the romantic surface in search of the core values that support it. It is, as Fitzgerald himself might have said, the curse of the mother visited on the son, a wallow in luxury without an appreciation for the hard work that supports it.

THIS SIDE OF PARADISE is not really much read these days, and on the occasions that is read, it is usually read by those who are already fans of later Fitzgerald works such as THE GREAT GATSBY and TENDER IS THE NIGHT. It may well be that it is best left to such; I find it hard to believe that the typical reader, if there is such a thing, will be able to grasp what made it so unexpected in 1920. I do recommend it, flawed though it is, but this is really a novel that for all its beauties is probably best left to hardcore fans.

GFT, the store Reviewer

When first published in 1920 This Side of Paradise rapidly became a bestseller and launched the career of its 24 year old author, F. Scott Fitzgerald. The novel's protagonist, Amory Blaine, is clearly a stand-in for Fitzgerald himself.
The book traces Amory's life from early childhood to young adulthood and describes in great detail his challenges and conflicts as he reaches maturity in the very turbulent second decade of the 20th century. Amory, like the author, becomes a Princeton man. Perhaps the most noteworthy aspect of This Side of Paradise is that Fitzgerald's unbridled nostalgia for his time spent at Princeton comes through loud and clear. (The fact that he never managed to graduate does not seem to have diminished his fond memories one iota.)
By his own admission, Amory is an egotistical elitist who has little or no empathy for the less fortunate lower classes. Much of the novel consists of Amory's introspection on the true nature of love, personal fulfillment, the relevance of religion and other equally obtuse subjects. This Side of Paradise is also a bit odd from a structural standpoint in that there is an overabundance of poetry interspersed with the prose and one of the more important chapters is written largely in the form of a play complete with lines of dialogue and stage direction.
Those inclined to criticize this book will see it as a hodgepodge of self-indulgence. But to the generation who came of age circa. 1920, it contained much that rang true.

This story is about Amory Blaine, a young man whose story we follow from his early childhood of great privilege through his college graduation to see him develop a great skepticism. It may have been his life's great economic downturn, maybe it was his poor luck at love, or maybe a mix of these and more led Amory to his new perspective. As readers we feel sorry for what has been forced to endure, but the silver lining comes as Amory and his mates discuss love, politics and growing up. The opinions they share are substantial, eye-opening, and they still ring true generations later.

This book was recommended to me a few years back by a friend. I asked her what her favorite book was and this was her response. It obviously took me awhile to get around to reading it, but I am glad I did. Better late than never, as they say.

I feel the book is best broken up into three sections: pre-college, college and post-college. And the first and third sections were my favorites. The pre-college section covers his childhood as Fitzgerald writes him as an Elizabethan "mack daddy." I laughed continuously as the young man with the silver tongue would, always minding his manners, attempt to seduce any woman he encountered.

The college section, which is the majority of the book, we begin to see the transformation of Amory Blaine. Through a group of friends that I found similar to the Dead Poets Society from the movie of the same name, Amory begins to finally see pain, suffering and injustice. He is handed a social conscience and wears it from then on as a badge of courage. This section of the book grew a little monotonous for me and was where I had to strengthen my resolve to get through it.

The post-college section, though somewhat pessimistic, was my favorite part of the book. In this final few chapters to the book I believe I found why my friend had recommended it. While I agreed with some of Amory's arguments at the end of the book and disagreed with others, I found them all to have merit. I must admit that I am even depressed that many of Amory's complaints about the state of society still plague society today. I applaud the author for writing a book that is still relevant so many years later.

This Side of Paradise is a short book where you may breeze through the beginning, lose interest in the middle, and become somewhat empassioned towards the end. I did not love this book, but I enjoyed parts of it a good deal. I'm glad to have now read some Fitzgerald other than just The Great Gatsby.

When F. Scott Fitzgerald left Princeton and joined the military, his belief that he would die at war led him to begin writing the autobiographical "This Side of Paradise." Written rather schizophrenically - alternating between prose, verse, letters, and stage direction - readers are given a unique and multifaceted introduction to Amory Blaine, the intellectual, perpetually disillusioned youth. As he stumbles through life attempting to figure out what he believes in, who he loves, and how he comes to terms with personal losses, it is impossible not to feel a little closer to the iconic author and his own internal struggles. Amory winds his way through the Midwest, Princeton, Europe, and New York, morphing his perspectives on everything from romanticism to socialism based on his experiences and especially his failures.

Fans of Fitzgerald will appreciate the beautiful writing of this work; his word choice and turn of phrase make him remarkably quotable. However, this book is also plagued by narcissism and an overabundance of crazy women with an affinity for poetry, which could prove too much for the reader taking Fitzgerald for a test drive. "The Great Gatsby" or "Tender is the Night" would make much better introductions that the majority would argue are simply better pieces of literature. While admitting to myself that this book was a bit bizarre and will never make it onto my "books I would take with me on a deserted island" list, I could not help enjoying it. This book may have revealed to me just how highly Fitzgerald thought of himself, but I tend to think pretty highly of him, too.

Fitzgerald's first novel, full of autobiographical undertones, has already the mark of the Lost Generation: a US that is frivolous, nouveau riche, at the same time innocent and perverse. Amory Blaine is the scion of a young American fortune. He's handsome, well read, and spoiled by his eccentric, alcoholic, and overpossessive mother, Beatrice, who gives him a bookish education while at the same time she carries him around the US, where he mixes with all kinds of people. During a stage of drinking problems, Beatrice sends his son to live with some relatives in Minneapolis, where Amory begins his flirting career with rich brats. Then comes life in Princeton, his first real love, his passive service in WWI, his first job in advertising, and a maturing process expressed as the full acceptance of egocentrism, which simultaneously adopts and kills his former religious and altruistic spirit. Religion becomes not so much conviction and mysticism, but a mere reference and moral containment. Similarly, Beauty stops meaning the appreciation of a transcendental experience, to be left only as an aesthetic perception of Pleasure. Amory Blaine becomes a kind of disenchanted Oscar Wilde, less caustic and more introspective. The game of playing to be Dorian Gray finishes in front of the difficulties of life, and what remains is not the criminal being, but the eternal dilettante. The apparent frivolity and emptiness of Amory's story is more than redeemed by the the poetic quality of the prose. Behind the merry life of a rich kid, the XX century is full fledged already: "a new generation grown up to find all Gods dead, all wars fought, all faiths in man shaken".

Although not yet in league with successive works, especially "The Great Gatsby", this book gives a good appreciation of how Fitzgerald would develop as a writer.

New Review

Every amateur writer, every young writer looking to make a breakthrough, and every avid reader always is confronted when reading the novels of famous authors like the one under review here F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Tender is the Night with wonder about how much of a story’s plotline is based on the author’s vivid imagination and how much on autobiographical or self-reference. As for the subject matter-mental illness, alcoholism, financial independence and the decline of one’s professional energies- in Fitzgerald’s book for once there is no need for such guesswork because during the period just before sitting down to write this well-written and vividly described book his wife had been hospitalized for some mental disorder, he was hustling like seven dervishes to raise cash, and was letting booze get the best of him (which in the end would contribute mightily to his early death a few years later). This in any case is his last completed novel (The Last Tycoon was unfinished) and while I personally rank The Great Gatsby as his greatest novel this one ranks just a step or two below that classic. (Fitzgerald himself ranked this one as his greatest effort although I don’t what he based that ranking on).
As already noted above this story line, set up as a series of flashbacks and flash forwards over “three books,” is the story of the rise and fall of one Dick Diver from the heights of his profession as a up and coming young psychiatrist to, not surprisingly, a middle aged man sunk in a downward rut and sunk in the depths of booze before the end when he winds up in some upstate backwater doing yeoman’s work as a country doctor. It is also the story, maybe better a cautionary tale, about the pitfalls of bedding and marrying one of your patients because that is what he does with the other main character his initially mentally fragile wife, Nicole Diver nee Warren (that nee is important since she came from serious robber baron money and Dick was lucky to have carfare on his own hook).
Dick and Nicole “meet” in a European sanatorium where Nicole has been deposited by her father after many unsuccessful attempts to cure her affliction elsewhere (there is a strong suggestion of incest as the cause). In the process of “curing” Nicole they fall in love and are married. This gives Dick for a time anyway room to pursue his budding career as a psychiatrist dealing with obscure mental illnesses. But it also creates tensions when it came to financial matters as Dick wanted some independence and of course Nicole was used to having plenty of dough. Created tensions as well when Nicole would for a long while during their marriage and parenthood have periodic relapses.
Most of the story takes place in European settings, mainly France, since as was the vogue in the Jazz Age by the alienated post-World War I intelligentsia that is where they went to get away from low-rent grasping America. A lot of the power of this novel is centered on the isolated existence that these ex-pats’ live as they hunker down amount themselves with romances, liaisons and wasted time. Dick’s life though as he approaches middle age is spiced up by an interest in a young starlet, Rosemary, who has come to Europe with her mother for the grand tour. This affair will end badly as the pair part after a long cat and mouse playing and as Rosemary rises in the film world and Dick succumbs to his own hubris (and alcohol, okay). Worse this affair affected Nicole, led to a few of her relapses. In the end as Dick declined Nicole got stronger, got strong enough to have an affair with one of the men in their circle and eventually divorced Dick as he stumbles downhill and married him (reminding me of the flow of Gide’s The Immoralist where the wife declines after saving the getting stronger life of her self-absorbed husband).
The beauty of this novel is not so much in the now fairly conventional story line but in the vivid descriptions of the characters, of the landscape, hell, like his friend Hemingway, of the food and of his use of metaphor that is nothing less than astounding. Not Gatsby, no question, since that literary effort summed up an age in one person is but a very good description of the rise and fall of a man of that same Jazz Age. Read this one, heck, read all of Fitzgerald.

Old Review
Scott Fitzgerald famously noted that the very rich are different from you and I. Agreed. However, in this tale of the wanderings of a segment of the post World War I "lost generation" one could argue that some things do not escape even the richest. I would note the scars left on Nicole Diver, nee Warren, by her father's incestuous behavior. I would further note the extreme mental problems that caused not only for Nicole's life but for Dick Diver, her husband and a psychiatrist, and their children. If that is Fitzgerald's point it really hits home because this book at the very least reflects his own personal problems with his beloved wife Zelda when she went over the edge. As for the rest of the story line this is a typical Fitzgerald Jazz Age story, well written, but with no necessity to empathize with the plight of the other denizens of the story.

If anyone ever paid close attention to the old literary dictum, "write what you know", it must have been F. Scott Fitzgerald. His novels bear a striking resemblance to his own life. TENDER IS THE NIGHT does not qualify as an exception---it contains alcoholism, mental illness, and the post WW I, Jazz Age American youth scene in Europe; the Riviera, Paris, Switzerland, and Italy, central themes in the legend of Fitzgerald himself. Not having read or heard much about this novel beforehand, at first I felt I was reading a second-rate "Hangin' with the Homies over There in Frantz" or maybe "Rosemary Crashes the In-Crowd". As the novel unfolded, though, I began to appreciate its wider vision and deeper concerns. By the end, I felt that here was another chapter of the Great American Novel, a single version of which may never exist and maybe cannot possibly exist, but which may be perceived as several books that comprise the Great American Story when taken as one. If the rise from poverty to wealth and power is one strand of the `American story', then surely the descent from wealth and respectability to the lower depths is another. While Dick Diver's crash is not as complete as Hurstwood's in "Sister Carrie", he certainly winds up expelled from the Promised Land, [barred from his former social world] practicing medicine in ever smaller New York towns, his European days of glory long disappeared.

Fitzgerald is able to paint a slowly-revealed picture of talent and wit being worn down and defeated. The forces that accomplish this are subtle and not easily named. Dick, the rising young star of psychoanalysis, marries a beautiful patient who suffers from childhood abuse by her own father. She is extremely wealthy to boot. Together they form the core of a shining group of wealthy but rather aimless expatriates in those halcyon days of the dollar after World War I. Great things are expected from Dick, but ever-increasing alcohol and dissipation rob him of his career. He pours his energy into caring for and curing Nicole, his wife. Slowly, dependence on her wealth, living the life of a sybarite, and his decreasing attention to work turn the tables. She becomes the strong one; he begins to decline, has inconclusive affairs, ends up losing everything including Nicole. The sense of loss is palpable. "Her eyes followed his figure until it became a dot and mingled with the other dots in the summer crowd." A number of interesting minor characters and excellent description of life at that time, in those places, of that class, bring the novel to an extremely high level, along with Fitzgerald's mastery of dialogue that reflects the times perfectly. TENDER IS THE NIGHT is not only a great novel, it is an unforgettable portrait of an era that has completely vanished, yet which, with the help of movies, we still feel almost able to touch.

I thought I had reached the high point of Fitzgerald's work when I read The Great Gatsby. I was wrong. This book is not as organized nor as focused as Fitzgerald's more popular work, but, in my opinion, it is better. The characters are astoundingly complex, and are fascinating to read about and get to know. The setting--various places in Europe--is brilliantly depicted. But what makes this book great is the interaction between the characters. It is a story of the Divers, Dick and Nicole, a couple who all but trade roles in the course of the novel. The story opens with Rosemary, a young actress, as she meets the Divers and is completely enthralled by them. Through Rosemary we see that the Divers are, in fact, very nearly the ideal couple at the beginning of the book; but this apparent bliss is a mask of a deep, complex, and difficult history, and an awful foreshadowing of a tragedy to come. The story moves backward to Dick and Nicole's meeting, then forward again to the tragic climax.
Dick, a psychiatrist, met Nicole at his clinic, where she was a patient. He was a brilliant young doctor and successful author, she, a broken and troubled youth. Dick helped her put the pieces back together, and married her. They lived an almost blissful existence for a time, but then Nicole began to relapse. The bulk of the novel deals with Nicole's problems and her struggle to overcome them, as well as Dick's growing problems, which he, with all his training, is not so able to move past. Dick and Nicole's relationship develops into something ugly, a shattered remnant of its past glory. And what is worse, it isn't even really Nicole's fault.
Fitzgerald has a gift for beautiful prose and a talent for storytelling that is almost unparalleled in literature. This book should be considered a classic, and surely deserved to emerge from the shadow of its sister work, The Great Gatsby, and be regarded as the masterpiece that it is.

Written in the 1930's after Fitzgerald's wife had suffered a nervous breakdown and was institutionalized in Zurich, this book about a young aspiring psychiatrist and a young beautiful patient whose relationship commences in a Zurich sanitarium -- a story which eerily rings of Fitgerald's portentous relationship with his wife, Zelda.

The up-and-down relationship of the Divers resembles the Swiss mountain's furnicular - the cable car which has the ascending car counterbalance the descending car. As Dick Diver's character descends from a glorious future to an alcoholic future, his wife's (Nicole) character ascends from insanity to normalcy. By 40, Dick Diver is a ruined man. At 44, Fitzgerald died after having never returned to the heights of "Gatsby" and "Tender" -- which were amazingly finished in his 20's and 30's.

How autobiographical this depressing tale is may never be fully known. But, it definitely recites many of the realties which he and his European expatriate hob nobbers assuredly lived. The most troublesome events being Dick Diver's descent to alcoholism, something which personally plagued Fitzgerald and which equally plagues the easily loved Diver. Only when he drinks does his tongue spew venomously, and unfortunately too often to those closest and fondest of him.

What I love most about Fitzgerald is that pretension belies the characters, not his writing. He hides no hard-to-read symbols within his text. He is a master story teller, who infuses rich dialogue with the magnificent story to make his writing great -- 70 years later.

This is a classic novel written by a classic novelist.

I'm not entirely certain even Fitzgerald quite knew the point of this mess, unless it was to convey the moral "Never marry a mental patient you're treating", which is really kind of the thing that's so obvious it doesn't need 300 pages to explain.

Women are vampires - or maybe they're not. And men are so noble that trying to carry the burden of the world on their shoulders crushes them - or maybe they're not, and it doesn't. Honestly, by the end I didn't particularly care, and the chances are good you won't either.

Mr. Diver, you're no Jay Gatsby. I'm going back to West Egg, where the real party is.

Tender Is the Night is one of the most interesting examples in 20th century fiction of reversing the usual social metaphors. Dr. Dick Diver, a psychiatrist, is examined as a case of mental health. He is also placed in a classic woman's role, that of the desired, amiable beauty sought after by all and sundry. These juxtapositions of the usual social perspectives allow the reader to touch closer to the realities of human need and connection, by piercing our assumptions about what is "right and proper."
The story begins from the perspective of Rosemary Hoyt, an 18-year-old motion picture star, recuperating on the Rivera. One day she goes to the beach and becomes entranced by the Divers, Dick and Nicole, a golden couple with whom she immediately falls in love. Beautiful, young, rich, and looking for adventure, she quickly sets out to capture Dick who is the most wonderful person she has ever met.
Later, the story shifts to Dick's perspective and traces back to the beginnings of his marriage to Nicole. She had formed an accidental attachment to him (a classic psychiatric transference) while residing in a mental hospital. He returned her friendship, and found it impossible to break her heart. They married, and he played the role of at-home psychiatrist tending her schizophrenia. All went well for years, but gradually he became weary of his role. His weariness causes him to re-evaluate his views on life . . . and the psychological profile of Dr. Diver, charming bon vivant, begins.
The tale is a remarkably modern one, even if it was set in the 1920s. Fitzgerald deeply investigates the meanings of love, humanity, and connection. In so doing, he uncovers some of the strongest and most vile of human passions, and makes fundamental commentaries about the futility of fighting against human nature. The result is a particularly bleak view of life, in which the tenders may end up more injured by life than those they tend. What good is it to please everyone else, if they offend rather than please you instead?
The character portrayals of Rosemary Hoyt, Dick Diver, and Nicole Diver are remarkably finely drawn. I can remember no other book where three such interesting characters are so well developed. You will feel like each of them is an old friend by the time the novel ends.
If you have ever had the chance to read Freud, the novel will remind you of his writings. There is the same fine literary hand, the succinctness and clarity of expression, and the remorseless directness of looking straight at the unpleasant. I felt like I was reading Freud rather than Fitzgerald in many sections.
This book should open up your mind to thinking about which social conventions you observe that leave you uncomfortable . . . or which are in contradiction to your own nature. Having surfaced those misfitting parts of your life, I suggest that you consider how you could shift your observation of conventions to make them more meaningful and emotionally rewarding for you.
Be considerate because it pleases you to be, not as a ruse to obtain love!

I twice tried to get into this book as i was reading it in paperback. F Scott is one of my favorite authors, but until I got the audio CD version of this I could not get into it/through it. The narrator in the book is wonderful -- one of the best I have heard on audio cd's -- and I don't think without his excellent reading and characterizations I would have finished the book. The book is slow to start -- it is in 3 parts -- and until Part 2 not much of it will make sense. Then it all starts to come together. If you can stick with the book til Part 2 you will be rewarded. Remember this is not written on the 4th grade level like so many books are written these days so you will have to work harder to read it. I just kept remembering the sense of time and place in history that F Scott wrote and it propelled me on.

At the opening of Tender Is the Night, the reader encounters Dr. Dick Diver on the French Riviera, surrounded by fashionable and wealthy admirers. Diver is terribly attractive and charismatic, but there are signs of trouble. Some type of scene at the Diver's home - we don't know what - leads to a duel, and the Divers decamp for Paris. There, Diver enters into a serious flirtation with a young actress, and the instability of his wife, Nicole, is revealed. Diver's father dies, and this loss seems to loosen some restraint in him. He begins a long debauch and ultimately he is diminished while Nicole is strengthened.

This book explores some themes found in other Fitzgerald novels. Most prominently, it examines the need for people who are superficially attractive and intelligent - people who "have it all" - to base their lives on something more substantial than the approval of others. It examines the role that alcohol can play in a personal collapse. And it examines the nature of emotional damage:

"One writes of scars healed, a loose parallel to the pathology of the skin, but there is no such thing in the life of an individual. There are open wounds, shrunk sometimes to the size of a pin-prick but wounds still. The marks of suffering are more comparable to the loss of a finger, or of the sight of an eye. We may not miss them, either, for one minute in a year, but if we should there is nothing to be done about it."

This is a sad book, but it is beautifully written and the settings - in Switzerland and France between the two world wars - add interest.

F. S. Fitzgerald used a Rupert Brooke verse and an Oscar Wilde line as the epigraph of his first published novel "This Side of Paradise". The verse says that in this side of paradise, the wise can find little comfort. In his novel, he'll try expose how the wise ones feel lonely and lost in this side of paradise.

The `wise one' is Amory Blaine, a wealthy young man who goes to Princeton and discoveries that life is a little different from what he was told. Before that, he has a wonderful and extravagant life with his mother Beatrice. She loves her only son that for some readers it can be a little disturbing. By the way, by using such names (Amory from `amor' [love]) and Beatrice (Dante's muse), Fitzgerald shows what he is talking about here. He wants to explore the European tradition of love (found and lost) and the importance of love in the life of the protagonist in his growing process.

The story is told by an outside narrator who is always adding things from Amory's point of view -- this third person narrator even knows the character's thoughts. Less than making the thread of the story, Fitzgerald prefers to draw sketches of Amory's life. In this fashion, the novel is more a character study of Amory, telling the most important moments that would help the reader to understand the character's quest to find this place in the world.

Much of what Fitzgerald used to create "This Side of Paradise" and its characters comes from his own experience. Many critics have found much of the author in Amory Blaine. This technique of semi-autobiographical novel was often used by Fitzgerald throughout his career -- and it was largely criticized.

But "This other side of paradise" found more acclamation and was his most commercially successful novel. In this book, Fitzgerald was able to capture a period of American history virtually like no one else, and gave a candid portrait of a new youth culture. Not only was he able to described the glamour of the period, but he also made critical commentaries on its flaws.

Fitzgerald's fiction about the rich is written from the vantage point of one who is romantically, maybe neurotically, obsessed with them and articulates it so well. His writing, pulsating with the restless and reckless rhythms of the Jazz Age, finds its strength in empathy, its uncanny ability to describe emotions with clever, original metaphors. You find yourself pitying the problems of these perfectly created characters, but you'd still like to be one of them.
"Tender is the Night" turns our attention to several American expatriates who live, work, and play in the French Riviera and various fashionable locations around Europe in the 1920's. At the center of the novel are an affluent young couple, Dick and Nicole Diver, whose marriage has been built on a shaky foundation. Dick is a prominent psychiatrist of modest means who met Nicole when she was a patient under his care in a Swiss sanitarium. Diagnosed as a schizophrenic, Nicole is still dangerously capricious and fragile. She is the daughter of a fabulously wealthy American man with a dirty secret, and she has a frigid, highly protective older sister called Baby who attempts to be the stabilizing factor in the Divers' lives. Dick and Nicole have two children whose infrequent mention is indicative of their relatively low level of love for them.
One day on the beach at the Riviera, a young American movie actress named Rosemary Hoyt almost literally swims into the Divers' lives and quickly falls in love with Dick. Her mother encourages the affair, thinking Rosemary needs such risque life experiences to stimulate her passion. Nicole also has an extramarital affair with a magnetic playboy named Tommy Barban. By the end of the book, it is disheartening to see that Dick has to pay the price for both of their infidelities and Nicole, although "cured" to the point that she no longer needs his help, is still spoiled and frivolous. (That the rich can render themselves impervious to misfortunes and go on with their carefree lives, leaving the less fortunate to pick up the pieces, was also a major theme in "The Great Gatsby.")
The scenes play out against a picturesque European backdrop populated by a host of interesting characters, including the flighty Abe and Mary North, the awkward McKiscos, the haughty Lady Caroline Sibley-Biers, who gets her comeuppance most satisfactorily, and Collis Clay, a likeable collegiate fellow who hangs around Rosemary and seems to have wandered way outside his cultural element.
This novel, the last Fitzgerald completed, reinforces his position as perhaps the greatest American prose stylist. His writing is like literary ambrosia; it bathes the tired, gray world in vibrant color and leaves it basking in a rosy hue. The experience of reading it is similar to that of listening to the most brilliant, sublime music ever composed or eating the most delicious food ever prepared -- something to be savored once in a long while if only to remind ourselves how good things can be.

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]

I missed this one back in college, where I became enamoured of much more sophisticated writers (Joyce and Hemingway, though some here may question this characterization of Hemingway at least). Indeed, I had liked THE GREAT GATSBY back then but was not overly fond of the Fitzgerald opus of short stories so, on balance, I never felt motivated to read any further into his works. And yet I recently found a copy of this one so, having a little time on my hands, set out to read it. At first it was slow going and very dated in its feel. Hard to relate to the early twentieth century upper class snobbery which seems to suffuse the book and, indeed, Fitzgerald's very sensibility. Hard, too, to relate to a bunch of sophomoric college boys roaming the streets, arm in arm, singing silly little college songs and angling to outshine one another by securing a better reputation among their peers and better connections with the "in groups." And yet, perhaps it was just a simpler time for, in truth, people are not entirely unlike that today though they are, I think, less transparent about it and more sophisticated in their areas of concern. Nevertheless, once past the first superficial ramblings of this book, I began to get sucked into the mind and world of Amory Blaine (presumably the alter ego of Fitzgerald himself). Although he remained a rather superficial and tiresome personality to the end, he was also an interesting soul and one whose travails, such as they were, could and did draw a reader in. I found Blaine's coming of age tale oddly enlightening, if only because I began to see the world as it was, roughly a hundred years ago, in a sharper, almost first-hand perspective. Blaine grows a bit though he never outgrows his essential self-absorption. But the loss of family and friends and lovers take their toll on his psyche and the Blaine we have at the end of the tale is a wiser and bigger boy than the one at the beginning. I think, in general, our serious writers in the twentieth century forgot about telling stories or creating worlds in favor of word-play and self-revelation and that this has done literature no service. Fitzgerald certainly was among those who took writing in that direction. But he sure could write and the fact that the very thin and sophomoric tale of Blaine's coming of age could hold me at the dawn of the twenty-first century is testimony to that. There are better and stronger books out there and some I much prefer. But the man could write. -- SWM

Few would argue against including "This Side of Paradise" on the required reading list for students of American fiction. It's F. Scott Fitzgerald's first novel, which provides both a taste of how great Fitzgerald would become as an iconic American writer, and also an autobiographical glimpse into his life at the turn of the century. The protagonist of the story is Amory Blaine, an aspiring young writer who comes of age at Princeton during the First World War. Amory struggles to find his place among his peers and within society. The story flows very smoothly, but with a few fits and starts during the middle chapters.

It's clear that Fitzgerald also struggled to complete this book. Satisfying himself didn't come easily, nor was it easy for him to satisfy his editors. The end result is very readable and highly enjoyable. The play which appears mid-way through the novel is a little strange, but it doesn't take away from the development of the plot.

I also recommend reading the book's preface for its interesting analysis of Fitzgerald's early years, and its discussion of the book's background and genesis.

I've been intending to read this book for a long time, having a memory of what was probably a 1980s BBC TV adaptation of it and having seen a play about the life of Zelda Fitzgerald on the Edinburgh Fringe in the '90s. Finally I got around to it...

It's impossible for me to comment meaningfully on 'Tender is the Night' without giving away the plot. Obviously it's a very well-written, literary work but about half-way through I had issues with the respect in which the narrative feels very much like masculine self-indulgence, what with Rosemary's abiding obsession with Dick and the incest that we are informed to have been the root of Nicole's mental disturbance being glossed over so glibly.

However, my feelings changed later on. I think the truly great human observation that Fitzgerald makes in this book is that when Dick & Rosemary's relationship is finally consummated, the mutual attraction is instantly killed off and the incident spells the beginning of the personal and professional demise of Dick.

Furthermore, the facts that the novel ends with Nicole herself straying into an adulterous relationship and a final shift towards a focus on her feelings about her marriage to Dick and her own life and identity, redeemed the story from being one seemingly intended to bolster male egos.

It's easy to lose sight of just how long ago 'Tender is the Night' was written because it tackles the question of the viability of monogamy in such a head-on, modern way. So I would recommend it, not only as a literary work of beauty that evokes the long-lost 'Jazz Age' but also and moreover as a book that examines the fundamental and perpetuating question of the nature of romantic love and the value we place upon it.

Francis Scott Fitzgerald gives here a masterpiece. The building of the conscience of a young American man is explored in the finest and most intricate details through his training in a prep school and at Princeton. His influences from all kinds of writers and poets are also examined in the way they interlace one another into a very subtle and complex whole.

This leads that young man to the experience of the First World War and what follows and he moves from what could be considered as a pose to a more conscious state of mind in which the social reality of his time becomes pregnant with meaning.

That leads him to a socialist stand coming from his dissatisfaction with the establishment that does not propose reforms and change but is self-satisfied in its achievements.

The second level of the novel is the sentimental pilgrimage that the hero follows from the sheer discovery of love play to the deepest passion that leads nowhere and is finally identified by him as nothing but a negation of his self in the titillation of his egotism.

Love is nothing but a mirror of himself and there is none of the two-way altruism that builds real love as a dual-carriageway of emotions and personal involvement.

Hence he moves from a pure egotistic personality to something that is identified as a personage that is able to take into account the outside world as a living being of itself.

The final element of interest in this book is the way Catholicism is an inspiration on that road and that his final starting point as an altruistic socialist is nothing but the development of Christian love that does not exist if the other is not one's equal, no matter where this other stands in the social order.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU

F. Scott Fitzgerald's novels are a one trick pony in the sense that he writes about the same time period (the 1920's), the same kind of people (rich or successful Americans) and protagonists who suffer the same fate (men whose ultimate failures are the result of their own shortcomings and the influence of women). His works are also highly autobiographical. Thus to read Fitzgerald with understanding one should start at the beginning (This Side of Paradise), move to the full bloom of his talent (The Great Gatsby) and culminate at the end (Tender is the Night). It would help to read a good biography along the way. The other option is to just read Gatsby which is one of the finest American novels ever written.

This Side of Paradise is his first novel and here we see both the promise of the character, Amory Blaine, and the author. On the very first page of the novel Fitzgerald displays his talent for words in his description of Amory's mother: "All in all Beatrice O'Hara absorbed the sort of education that will be quite impossible ever again; a tutelage measured by the number of things and people one could be contemptuous of and charming about; a culture rich in all the arts and traditions barren of all ideas in the last of those days when the great gardener clipped the inferior roses to produce one perfect bud." This lengthy sentence, despite its seeming awkwardness, tells us all we need to know about Beatrice and suggests that the son will share the same qualities. Other examples of Fitzgerald's facility with words follow. On page 45 he describes Isabelle thusly: "She paused at the top of the staircase. The sensations attributed to divers on springboards, leading ladies on opening nights, and lumpy, husky young men on the day of the Big Game, crowded through her. She should have descended to a burst of drums or a discordant blend of themes from `Thais' and `Carmen.' She had never been so curious about her appearance, she had never been so satisfied with it. She has been sixteen years old for six months." And on page 47 is Isabelle's description of Amory: "she had expected him to be dark and of garter-advertisement slenderness." Only Fitzgerald could come up with such vivid and evocative descriptions.

One fault of the book is that it is too episodic without clear transitions. First Amory is a child, then a student at Princeton, then a soldier (although we really do not see this part of this life and it seems to have not affected him), then a lover of Rosalind, then at loose ends, then has a relationship with Eleanor, then the book ends with Amory alone in the world and spouting socialist maxims. It is hard to picture this individual, who for 200 pages has been totally absorbed with himself, suddenly developing a social conscience!

Another problem I have is that Fitzgerald tries too hard to show his education. The book is full of poetry and literary references. It is written much as a college student would write a paper to try to impress the professor and thus get a high grade, rather than in a manner that is appropriate to the telling of a story. Fitzgerald is, of course, at this point in his life not far removed from Princeton and perhaps is still writing as a college student.

In the end, then, we should read This Side of Paradise for the beauty of the language and not be overly concerned with the story line and characters.

I was very disappointed by F. Scott Fitzgerald’s famous novel. I found the story tedious and the characters tiresome. Reading through to the end was a chore. I wanted to throw the book in the trashcan.

There are many problems. At the top of the list is Fitzgerald’s main character, a psychiatrist named Dick Diver who marries one of his own patients. I found this unrealistic, like many other facets of the story. It certainly did not endear me to the protagonist. As a reader I had no sympathy for Diver, a obstacle which the author might easily have avoided by casting the story differently. Nor was I convinced by Diver’s psychiatric practice.

An author should write about what he knows. Fitzgerald obviously was writing about his wife’s mental issues which he knew very well. Fine. But his knowledge of the field of psychiatry and/or clinical psychology was not deep enough to bring off the story in a credible manner. A fictional story must be realistic to be believable.

The grander setting is the Parisian Lost Generation of the 1920s, the theme of people leading vacuous lives of quiet desperation, much the same as the backdrop for Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises. However, in my opinion Hemingway did a more convincing job in his great novel, in part because he kept the proper distance from his characters. There are times in Tender in the Night when Fitzgerald interjects pearls of supposed wisdom, puts words in the mouths of his characters that clearly reflect his own views about the world, how things are, life, the nature of women, etc. So much better to let the lost souls be what they are, lost, and leave it at that. Distance.

Tender is the Night was written over a decade, and it shows. Characters grow, stop, we fast forward, and they change and mature without transition. Tempting is the correlations between Fitzgerald's companionship with mentally unhinged Zelda and Dick Diver's nurturing husband/psychotherapist to Nicole, an heiress and ex-schizoid in occasional relapse who was traumatized by her father at a tender age.
Tender is Dick's caressing but scientific approach to loving Nicole. When Rosemary Hoyt, a young starlet-to-be, pursues Dick with all due diligence, Dick loses the cool stability of his marriage experiment for the exciting, verily unscientific, if affected, opportunity to feel something new. Having committed himself to Nicole's love and care despite his better reason, Dick lives with the consequences he signed on to live with. His wife, recovering from her deep, despairing mental illness, sucks the life out of Dick, gaining strength with each drop of vigor he loses, fully aware of his inevitable failure.
Tender is the Night, where Fitzgerald starts to show the influence of Hollywood (not incidental, the Rosemary character, ey?) on his narrative composition, feels like a cast of actors playing their roles with converse dramatic irony. Nicole's and Dick's anticipation of the paths they are on, curves, divergences and all, perhaps account for the absence of dramatic tension and suspense in Tender is the Night. It is, instead, a journal of selected scenes catching the moods and musings of a doomed marriage, often striking poignancy at a perfect pitch.

I wonder why this was so unpopular, as reflected by sales after its first publication. It's a tragic depressive book, true, but then so were 'The Great Gatsby' and 'The Beautiful and Damned'. It features the same bright and beautiful people who, through fatal flaws in their characters, fall through the cracks and never clamber up. This is the only one of the novels, though, that focuses on Americans out of America - rich expatriates in Europe. It's rather Hemingway-ish, except that of course instead of bull-fighting and big-game-hunting they go to beaches and do a lot of shopping. :)
It is true, however, that this book is generally darker and grimmer than the others. The others started off with hope and excitement and wonder. Except for the first section, this is not the case here. Even when we view events through Rosemary's eyes, we are always aware and disturbed that things are not as they seem and people are falling apart. The prose is more muted, too - less of the lovingly lyrical imagery of TBAD, fewer descriptions of the wealth and opulence of TGG. There is a sense of concealed decay throughout this novel.
This has a lot of disturbing undercurrents under its bright and polished surface. The events of the novel, in fact, reflect the characters of Dick and Nicole Diver themselves (Nicole more obviously, with her schizophrenia). Perhaps there isn't the same sense of optimism and idealism that one senses from the protagonists in the other books - Amory Blaine in 'This Side of Paradise'; Anthony Patch and Gloria Gilbert in TBAD; Jay Gatsby, however deluded he is in his case, in TGG; even what's-his-name? in The Love of the Last Tycoon. The first fifth of the book shows Dick and Nicole young, but henceforth they are tired and jaded and struggling desperately to keep up appearances. Rosemary Hoyt is likeable when she first appears, but by the last two sections she is hopelessly corrupted as well. The characters all seem particularly depraved; or perhaps amoral. This is clearly exhibited through their adultery. Yet Anthony Patch had an affair as well; and Jay Gatsby was intent on breaking up a secure marriage.
Another aspect of it might have to do with the fall. Anthony and Gloria were played out by fate. He was the heir to a large fortune and he lost it due to a moment's folly. His error was constructed on a foundation of weakness and ignorance, true, but circumstances play a part. For Gatsby, one can't possibly blame him for not doing enough - if anything, it was that his vision was flawed in the first place and so whatever he did couldn't possibly have achieved him his desire. The reader feels sympathy for him. Yet Dick and Nicole don't have that luxury of blaming things on fate. They have money, they have attainable dreams, they have beauty and power. They foul it all up with no help from anyone else. To a certain extent the reader recoils from such characters.
Fitzgerald appears to have pinned Dick's fall on his need for approval, attention and affection - which fits quite well. It would explain why he married Nicole, who needed him so badly; why he chased after other women, to ascertain to himself that he was still attractive and desirable. Nicole is tougher. I get the impression Fitzgerald uses her schizophrenia as a cover for a lot of things, a one-size-fits-all explanation. Why is she like that? Oh, she's crazy. Why did she do that? Oh, she's crazy.
So what have we looked at? Theme - grimmer, but similar to other books. Characters - less likeable perhaps, but overall still similar. Setting - I can't see that it makes much of a difference. Timing plays a part too, of course. This book came out in the aftermath of the Great Depression, after the Jazz Age had blown past. People didn't want to be reminded of the glitzy parties of a past they couldn't return to; they were focused on hard work, picking up the pieces, moving forward in a steadier saner world. Poor Fitzgerald - he couldn't have helped that, after all.

Despite its sombre tone, I really enjoyed reading Fitzgerald's Tender is the Night. At first, it appears that the novel will follow Rosemary Hoyt, a young American actress traveling abroad with her mother. Rosemary meets Dick and Nicole Diver, a young, affluent couple, on a beach in France, during her travels. She soon finds herself falling in love with Mr. Diver.

From there, however, the story takes an abrupt turn. We learn the history of the Diver couple. Dick is a psychoanalytic doctor, and his relationship with Nicole began as a clinical one. An impossibly rich young girl from America, she'd been committed to a mental facility in Europe after a disastrous turn in her relationship with her father. Dick happens upon her one day in the facility grounds, and the two begin talking and writing to one another. Later, Dick almost seems compelled to marry her in order to fully cure her of her illness.

At any rate, the remainder of the tale primarily follows Dick and Nicole (with brief re-appearances by Rosemary) as their marriage evolves and eventually disintegrates. It is a sad tale, indeed, and it definitely smacks of Fitzgerald's fascinations with social power and money. It also sadly rings with autobiographical elements in Fitzgerald's later life - adultery, mental illness, the feeling of failed potential.

The new movie with Leonardo di Caprio is very close to the the plot of the book; the book lives of the used language though. Phrases like something is "quivering on the horizon" instead of "about to happen" are making this a great book of the English language. Furthermore the destructive character of Gatsby's love is clearer reading the book than watching the movie. That said if you want to know what the book is about just watch the movie. If you love elaborate sentences and some more depth of the characters then read the book.

The quality of the book itself is typical Easton Press standard and makes a great addition to any bookshelf.

This Side of Paradise is a paean to that special period in a young man's life when he forges the principles, flirts with his talents, find and loses love.
Fitzgerald's story is a bit more convoluted as he nurtures his hero from strangeness of childhood (a Portrait of the American Artist, to some extent), through the vanity of teens, through the confusion of college. He captures some of the ubiquitous sensations of being a college student - of the effervescent but ephemeral experience that feels like it will last forever; of friendships, and the general experimentation of finding and losing.
The book is also notable for a protofeminist (albeit from a male perspective) subtext that seems to play out in the background. When women enter into Emory Blaine's Life, it is as if the narrator yields the floor to the object of his affections so that she can write her own part, and by providing differentiation and individuation for the female characters, Fitzgerald validates them as living, breathing, self-willing entities.
By its end, This Side of Paradise seems like an incomplete story whose only outcome is melancholy. It is the gateway to FSF's biggest works, as the pathos of graduation from college leads to our most consequential decisions and ambitious acttions. Yet something is missing - the carefree, unadulterated moments of certainty that we will do something great, that the world is great, and that anything is possible as long as we don't attempt it.

"Tender is the Night" is obviously a more complex novel than "The Great Gatsby" and more difficult to read. I picked this book up twice. The first time I gave up after reading only half. The second time I got bogged down then hopped onto the store.com to read the customer reviews. Here someone wrote that you should spend sufficient time with the novel and read it with careful concentration. That was good advice indeed, because the novel then rolled along and became a pleasure to read once I gave it sufficient attention.
The first part of the novel is a little annoying. The unmarried Rosemary pursues the married Dick Diver with complicity from her mother. Why would her mother encourage her daughter to get involved with a married man? That part I found frustrating.
I was also confused as to what motivated Dick to marry Nicole. Some characters in the novel said it was money. One reviewer here at the store.com, whose opinion seems learned, says he did so out of pity for her schizophrenic state. The novel circles back from the beaches of Cannes and streets of Paris to the mountain hospital where the two characters first met. At first I found myself backing up and rereading parts of this because the change in venue was so abrupt that it left me somewhat lost. It was a major shift from the breezy momentum of the early chapters. But this part of the novel is where the real drama in the story begins to unfold. So it was a necessary detour.
Other reviewers have noted that this novel varies in style from Fitzgerald's other novels. I read "The Great Gatsby" for the second time in one sitting. That novel is more lyrical and rolls along more easily than this one. There are certain sentences here in "Tender is the Night" that I wondered how they escaped the careful editing of Maxwell Perkins (editor at Charles Scriber and Sons).
Finally fans of Fitzgerald who long to read about rich American expatriates living in Europe will find plenty to entertain them here. The scenery is the beaches of Cannes, the streets of Paris, and the spas of France. Nicole and Dick Divers go from one gathering of glitterati to the next. Fitzgerald drops you squarely into the lives of the idle rich as he did in "The Great Gatsby". But here he also reveals a lot about their miseries and heir drunkenness. Maybe that is the chief difference between the two novels (if you ignore that crimes in Gatsby).

After finishing this book I was reminded of a beautiful grand house - if you take it in its entirety, you can't help but admire it. Within, there may be some rooms that leave something to be desired, but the overall effect is breathtaking. So it is with this book. Fitzgerald manages to write a story about a relationship that manages to be acerbicand tender at the same time. Like the other traditional inheritor of the `Great American Novelist' title, Hemmingway. Fitzgerald combines a genius for writing wonderful character insights with great `background painting' - some of his descriptions of settings are truly masterpieces. Even the `extras' - they don't have anything to do with the story so it is hard to call them characters - get wonderfully drawn descriptions. I feel that this book truly captures its age and place.
And the added bonus - this is a wonderful insight into a relationship built on the worst of foundations slowly but surely heading to its end, told to us from various viewpoints. I don't know much about Fitzgerald's life, but if this is semi-autobiographical as literary critics say, you have to feel sorry for all that were involved in the real life events. Dick and Nicole are really caricatures of the Americans of their generation that lived the high life in Europe, and yet could never quite put their finger on what is was that they were actually meant to be doing.

This Side Of Paradise is absolutely one of the finest pieces of literature of its time. I liked it better than Fitzgerald's most popular classic The Great Gatsby. And I think J.D. Salinger was influenced by this novel when he wrote The Catcher In The Rye because there are so many parallels that it just seems obvious. I always laugh when I see or hear people listing their favorite novel is The Catcher In The Rye because I thought This Side Of Paradise was so similar but way better and written decades before. Amory Blaine is an interesting character and I enjoyed every minute of this book. It's been probably 20+ years since I read it but I remember not being able to put it down. The same for one of my other favorite novels, East Of Eden by John Steinbeck. Anyway, if you are a fan of Salinger, then give this novel a chance- it's so worth it!

F. Scott Fitzgerald is an author that represents the 20s in the US, this period where everything was crazy and rich before the Great Depression. This novel is the story of a love affair and of a career, that of Doctor Dick Diver. He is promised to a bright future as a psychiatric doctor. He marries one of the richest heiresses of America who was a patient first of all and became his wife. This love affair is described in the smallest and tiniest details. But Dick Diver comes to the point where he needs to distanciate himself from this ex-neurotic if not schizophrenic wife who was raped by her own father. Dick Diver is also extremely sollicited by many women because he is handsome and charming. He has a short-lived affair with a young Hollywood actress, Rosemary. But his wife Nicole is absolutely dependent on her love for him and cannot survive without his love.
The story leads us among the circles of rich Americans and English people who mostly roams the highlighted areas of Europe, spending the money they have and that is always more than they can spend. But a breaking point builds up slowly and explodes sometime in 1927-28. He gets more and more aloof as for his job, if not frankly sloppy and finally gets out of it due to alcoholism. He gets also more and more distant from Nicole. But the real breaking point is when Nicole conquers her freedom through a liaison with another man. Then the end is inevitable : divorce and going back to America to have a general practitioner's office in the state of New York.
But the book is a lot more interesting than just this picture. It shows how the very rich are living a complete dream life with caprices, good manners and civility, but no touch with the real world and how they get so far from the real world that they have to develop some kind of a screen to be protected from the fall this distance may represent : alcoholism, an artificial lifestyle and environment, spending as a daily occupation. This is in full contradiction with working to earn a living, which Dick Diver is always doing and a collapse is always at hand and it finally happens. One cannot live the contradiction between a real professional life and an artificial lifestyle. What's more interesting is that the fall comes from this very artificial lifestyle. Alcoholism is a coping strategy that dooms a professional life. Good manners and nicely controled love affairs are also in contradiction with a family life (the doctor has two children) and a professional life. So one day it has to break.
Thus the night of the title has many meanings : the nightlife of this detached society, the shadow of all the little affairs and liaisons that remain unrealised or hardly realised, the night of the movie theater since the cinema is always in the background, the night of the end of a love affair, a passion, the night of a lost career. And Doctor Dick Diver submits to this gentle slope going down slowly, to this coming night as if it were a liberation from the obligations of this artificial life. He goes back to reality and gets lost in the night of the unknown, unknown at least for the members of this artificial society of over-rich kids who never grow up. Finally it is a style in the book : every detail is always draped in some kind of shadow, in some kind of night that helps any contradiction and evolution to exist and to survive any kind of crisis.

Perhaps the most remarkable thing about this book is the freshness of its language: except for a few slang words used in speech, the prose is so cutting and modern that it reads like a recent creation.
Much of the discussion surrounding this book has to do with its semi-autobiographical nature, at least to the extent the Divers' marriage and Dick's personal unraveling mirrors the effect Zelda's mental illness had on Fitzgerald. Yet knowing too much about the parallels between a writer's life and his work can be distracting, and this is a good enough story to stand on its own without recourse to voyeurism. Fitzgerald shows the effects of insanity on a marriage and on its (initially) stronger member, but is discreetly circumspect as regards his inner feelings. We can see Dick working to create a sphere of normalcy around Nicole, yet his motivation is not entirely clear. In fact, Dick Diver is ultimately the least fully explored of the bunch: we never really learn what makes Dick tick. Why does he have this compulsion to make himself liked, to briefly be the life of the party then move on before his charm wears thin? In this behavior Dick displays a restless sociopathy worthy of a Bret Easton Ellis character - which also, again, proves the essential freshness of this novel written a lifetime ago.

Other reviewers and critiques have pointed to Fitzgerald�s criticism of the Catholic church and his frustration with capitalism in �This Side of Paradise�. Yet there is another poignant theme�Fitzgerald�s frustration with women�that will resonate deeply with men who are currently dating.
Amory, the main character in the novel who is, of course, Fitzgerald himself, complains that women are quick to jettison real love for a man with real money. Moreover, he complains of those glittering beauties, their callousness toward men, and the heartbreak they cause.
Of one character he writes �She is one of those girls who never make the slightest effort to have men fall in love with them. Two types seldom do: dull men are usually afraid of her cleverness�intellectual men are usually afraid of her beauty.�
The same character is said to ��[she] treats men terribly. She abuses them and cuts them and breaks dates with them and yawns in their faces---and they come back for more�. Of course, as a male reader we know both of these ideas to be absolutely true of so many girls and men�s behavior too.
Writing of his broken relationships and his failure to find a proper muse, Fitzgerland writes �Women�of whom he had expected so much; whose beauty he had hoped to transmute into modes of art; whose unfathomable instincts...were all removed by their very beauty, around which men swarmed, from the possibility of contributing anything but a sick heart and a page of puzzled words to write.� The emotional upheaval from broken relations could be the cause of much writer�s block.
The careful reader need not walk away from this lyric prose a misogynist. Rather Fitzgerald�s first novel can be considered a primer on dating for the college-aged man or the divorcee recently reentering the dating market.

In “Tender Is the Night,” Fitzgerald provides us with a harsh look at human nature and relationships through the lives of three unforgettable characters. The story is told from these three different characters, the Divers, Dick and Nicole and Rosemary. The story shifts between the three persons to slowly reveal the surreal relationship between Dick and Nicole and their sad lives. “Tender Is the Night” is less dramatic and much slower than “The Great Gatsby,” but eventually much more satisfying. The characters are more alive, realistic and some scenes are truly haunting. It’s a sobering, harsh and disturbing look at human nature along with the downfall of a man into despair.

Like everything Fitzgerald wrote this has that burnished by the morning sun feel to it. Certainly there are real themes in it that make this a substantial first novel but the lasting appeal is that romanticism that Fitzgerald himself seemed to have created with his own hands. Forged in that prep school fire though that romanticism isn't made of the toughest stuff and perhaps since Scott never really had any difficulties along the way to becoming a young succesful novelist he was never really forced to become more than that, a young success. His great theme is romance itself, he brings it to everything from football to war to young ladies to writing, he just has the gift to touch and make golden. Not many people will be immune to the contagion of such a disease. Amory is the perfect name for this amourous and ardent young east coaster, a character who was immediately embraced with the publication of this book as the spokesmen for the new up and coming generation, not yet named the lost generation. This book was full of promise and that feeling was infectious and equally attractive was the rather free libertine approach to sex. With Fitzgerald the twenties were born. Amory's affairs are just that, his romances mere flirtations, but he has the ability to make all seem of utter importance because all outcomes effect the state of our heros grace. An egotist, yes! But at that age, college age, what else is there to be. His egotism fuels his romantic ideas about life, and the fire builds and builds slow and burns as bright as life can burn in youth.....at least on this side of paradise.

Written when F. Scott was a mere 23 years of age, This Side of Paradise elevates itself as a seminal and ground-breaking semi-autobiographical novel that inexplicably remains vastly underappreciated as of today. Amory Blaine manifests himself as a veritable study of egotism, romanticism, idealism, and intense disillusionment. Amory proves to be an endearing and highly affable young protagonist. The prep school and Princeton years of supercilious and pretentious egotist hedonism abound immensely in energy, innocence, and vitality.
Through the despair of his failed love with Rosalind et al, his disenchantment with his advertsing job, and the inseparable gloom and despair of WWI, Amory enters into a reproachful state of disillusionment and cynicism subsequent to "The Great War". Fitzgerald, the acclaimed golden boy of his aptly named Jazz Age, emodies in Amory "a new generation grown up to find all Gods dead, all wars fought, all faiths in man shaken."
Amory undergoes a catharsis of sorts in purging his tragic loss of innocence due to the war with his heavy drinking and nihilistic behavior. Nonetheless, he regains a semblance of his former confidence and intensity at the conclusion of the book, "yet the waters of disillusion had left a deposit on his soul." Is Amory the same romantic egotist that we witnessed at the onset of this powerful work? Not by any stretch of the imagination. However, through his despondent adversity, his intellectualism survives as well as his somewhat frayed, yet repaired sense of hopeful idealisism for the future - whatever it may bring. A strikingly similar ending to Hemingway's later masterpiece The Sun Also Rises, n'est-ce pas?