Tender is the Night

Set against the shimmering backdrop of the French Riviera in the 1920s, Tender Is the Night is F. Scott Fitzgerald’s hauntingly beautiful exploration of the disintegration of a marriage and the hollow core of the American Dream. The story follows Dick Diver, a brilliant and charismatic young psychiatrist, and his wife Nicole, a wealthy mental patient whom he treated and eventually married. As the narrative unfolds, their glamorous lifestyle among the Lost Generation is revealed to be a fragile mask hiding deep psychological trauma and codependency. In a tragic reversal of roles, Dick gradually loses his vitality, social standing, and professional ambition as he pours his strength into Nicole’s recovery, only to be discarded once she finds her own stability. Written with Fitzgerald’s signature lyrical prose, the novel serves as a poignant elegy for a decade of excess and the personal costs of emotional sacrifice.