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ruyi_t's review against another edition
4.0
I feel like if you enjoyed Cleopatra and Frankenstein you would enjoy this. It's a love story without a happily ever after, where temptations of infidelity are explored, and the idea of 'true love' is explored through the portrayal of a 'mature' relationship. It also dives into themes of mental illness and how they should be approached, alcoholism, and women's infantilisation. I get a sense that Fitzgerald was much ahead of his time.
In true Fitzgerald fashion, the book is laced with decadence and set in some of Europe's most romantic locations: the South of France, Paris and Switzerland. His writing exudes luxury, decadence and scandal.
The book prompted a few questions for me: How many loves can you have in a lifetime? When is it time to persevere in a relationship and when to call it quits? Do actions just fall into habit or is it done out of love and care for a person in a long-term relationship? Does love only exist if you're still together with someone or can you still love a past lover?
In true Fitzgerald fashion, the book is laced with decadence and set in some of Europe's most romantic locations: the South of France, Paris and Switzerland. His writing exudes luxury, decadence and scandal.
The book prompted a few questions for me: How many loves can you have in a lifetime? When is it time to persevere in a relationship and when to call it quits? Do actions just fall into habit or is it done out of love and care for a person in a long-term relationship? Does love only exist if you're still together with someone or can you still love a past lover?
thotfitzgerald's review against another edition
3.0
I love Fitzgerald. But he is unnecessarily long-winded in this noval, more than usual, making it a struggle to get through at times.
joshburtwistle's review against another edition
3.0
Large parts of this have not aged well. It's problematic in pretty much every way you could imagine.
But putting that aside for a moment, there's so much to unpack in this novel. Indeed, Richard Godden's introduction to my edition makes much of economic history embodied in its events.
I was more impressed, however, by the emotional description. Every feeling, no matter how unpleasant, irrational, damaging, maddening is laid out smoothly, poetically. If it doesn't inspire sympathy (and in many cases, it shouldn't) it will at least inspire a kind of understanding. There's beauty in it. That's what pulled me through.
But putting that aside for a moment, there's so much to unpack in this novel. Indeed, Richard Godden's introduction to my edition makes much of economic history embodied in its events.
I was more impressed, however, by the emotional description. Every feeling, no matter how unpleasant, irrational, damaging, maddening is laid out smoothly, poetically. If it doesn't inspire sympathy (and in many cases, it shouldn't) it will at least inspire a kind of understanding. There's beauty in it. That's what pulled me through.
jinjifer's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
ketzalt's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
luthermanuel's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
racheltanza's review against another edition
4.0
A lovely book, really emotional. The denseness of it just made it a slow read to get through.
mborer23's review against another edition
3.0
Tender is the Night was F. Scott Fitzgerald's favorite novel, and it's easy to see why. It revisits some of the tropes we see in The Great Gatsby: the ruin of a man brought about by his attempt to climb social strata; the idea that a man's potential can be wrecked by falling in love with the wrong woman; the moral emptiness at the core of the American dream. Certainly, Fitzgerald drew heavily upon his life to create the characters of Dick and Nicole Diver, and Dick's alcoholism mirrors Fitzgerald's own; however, he writes a comparatively happier end for Nicole, whose mental health is made whole and who is ultimately insulated from the consequences of her actions, as Daisy Buchanan was, by her family's wealth.
The novel is presented in three "books;" the first of these describes the events of the summer that sow the seeds of the destruction of the Divers' marriage, and the second and third outline Dick's history with Nicole and his eventual downfall even as she rises. Rosemary Hoyt, a young actress, is a middle-class striver whose chance meeting of the Divers sets the plot in motion, but she is the least interesting character presented here.
Overall, Tender is the Night is a great novel, but its essential darkness (including an even greater level of racism than seen in Gatsby, that jars the modern reader) is unlikely to displace Gatsby's hold on America's imagination.
The novel is presented in three "books;" the first of these describes the events of the summer that sow the seeds of the destruction of the Divers' marriage, and the second and third outline Dick's history with Nicole and his eventual downfall even as she rises. Rosemary Hoyt, a young actress, is a middle-class striver whose chance meeting of the Divers sets the plot in motion, but she is the least interesting character presented here.
Overall, Tender is the Night is a great novel, but its essential darkness (including an even greater level of racism than seen in Gatsby, that jars the modern reader) is unlikely to displace Gatsby's hold on America's imagination.