Tender is the Night Essay -- Fitzgerald Literature Essays

Tender is the Night Servant troublepolitical worriesalmost neurosisdrinking change magnitudearguments with Scottiequarrel with Hemingwayquarrel with Bunny Wilsonquarrel with Gerald Murphybreakdown of cartight at Eddie Poessick againfirst borrowing from startsick The FireZelda weakens and goes to Hopkinsone servant and eating out. (Mayfield 207)A short excerpt from F. Scott Fitzgeralds Ledger provides a small sample of the many hurdles Fitzgerald struggled to overcome while slaving away nine years with Tender is the Night.The labor which accompanied Fitzgeralds one-fourth impudent was not anticipated by the author. He had first envisioned Tender is the Night to be something really new in form, idea, and structurethe model for the age that Joyce and Stein are searching for, that Conrad didnt find(Scribner 1). But disease, relative poverty, and heartbreak plagued Fitzgerald and repeatedly interrupted his work on the novel.Tender is the Night finally appeared on April 12, 1934. But despite Fitzgeralds high expectations of hot reviews, the reception was, at best, luke warm. The novel sold only thirteen thousand copies and left Fitzgeralds ego bruised and his hopes of its estimable success unfulfilled. Ernest Hemingway offered slender praise. The characters, he believed, were beautifully faked case histories rather than people (Mayfield 209). Similarly unimpressed, Hal Borland of the Philadelphia Ledger remarked on April 13, 1934, Most of the themes of Tender is the Night seem better fitted for clinical studies than for fiction. Fitzgeralds novel is admirably done, and its dozens of cross-currents are well handled. But it is not the important nov... ...the critics reception of Tender is the Night. Though short in length, Scribner reveals several excerpts from Fitzgeralds letter and personal writings which present for the readers a more personal view of Fitzgerald, the author. http//people.brandeis.edu/teuber /fitzgeraldbio.htmlThis website lists Fitzgeralds published works and offers a detailed biography of the author himself. The highlighted texts mete out to differentiate different eras in Fitzgeralds life. The site also offers several links wherein additional information regarding influential people and events can be researched. http//www.sc.edu/fitzgerald.comThis website summarizes Fitzgeralds life as well as the general reception of his novels. It also touches on the many hurdles Fitzgerald came across during his nine years of struggling with his fourth novel, Tender is the Night.