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Tender Is The Night

The New Yorker website is running a profile of Gerald and Sara Murphy, the couple upon whom F. Scott Fitzgerald based Dick and Nicole Diver, the hero and heroine of Tender Is The Night. Published in 1934, Fitzgerald’s novel was poorly received, in part because its portrayal of expatriate life on the French Riviera was deemed out of step with American life during the Great Depression. Apparently, the critical school of thought about Tender Is The Night at the time of this profile’s publication in 1962 held that the novel’s flaws stemmed from Fitzgerald’s basing the Divers on Gerald and Sara Murphy at first, then channeling himself and his wife Zelda into the Divers in the book’s latter chapters.

Today, Tender Is The Night is esteemed for its moments of genius—I, for one, enjoyed the novel quite a bit. And this profile, written by Calvin Tomkins, is rich enough to be enjoyed by those who haven’t read any of Fitzgerald’s work, especially if they’ve ever given a thought to taking their lives abroad as the Murphys did. Thanks to Maud Newton for the link.