Tender Is the Night

novel by Fitzgerald
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Tender Is the Night, semiautobiographical novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald, published in 1934. It is the story of a psychiatrist who marries one of his patients; as she slowly recovers, she exhausts his vitality until he is, in Fitzgerald’s words, un homme épuisé (“a used-up man”). At first a charming success, Dick Diver disintegrates into drunkenness, failure, and anonymity as his wife Nicole recovers her strength and independence. Fitzgerald’s portrayal of the Divers’ life of lassitude was a reflection of his years spent among the American expatriate community in France; his insight into Nicole’s madness came from his observations of ...(100 of 145 words)