Tender is the Night

New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1934. First Edition, First Printing. Good+. Edward Shenton. 8vo, 7 1/2 x 5 1/2 inches (190 x 132 mm); pp. vii + 408, printed in Old Style type on wove paper; pen and ink drawings (33 head-pieces and 35 tail-pieces) by Edward Shenton (1895-1977). Blue T-cloth binding, blind-stamped single rule frame on front, gilt title on spine, top and bottom edges trimmed; no dust jacket, paper gutter cracked at inside second f.f.l., but binding is square and solid; paper evenly toned with some light dampstain at top of some pages. FIRST EDITION, FIRST PRINTING, with the year 1934 on the title page and the letter "A" on the copyright page, with the Scribner's Seal.

[Bruccoli A 15.I.a]. Tender Is the Night is the fourth and final novel completed by American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald, and one that the author considered to be his masterwork. Set in French Riviera during the twilight of the Jazz Age, the 1934 novel chronicles the rise and fall of Dick Diver, a promising young psychiatrist, and his wife, Nicole, who is one of his patients. The story mirrors events in the lives of the author and his wife Zelda Fitzgerald as Dick starts his descent into alcoholism and Nicole descends into mental illness. Scribner's Magazine serialized the novel in four installments between January and April 1934 before its publication on April 12, 1934. Following Fitzgerald's death in 1940, Tender Is the Night's critical reputation has steadily grown. Later critics have described it as "an exquisitely crafted piece of fiction" and "one of the greatest American novels". It is now widely regarded as among Fitzgerald's most accomplished works, with some agreeing with the author's assessment that it surpasses The Great Gatsby. The novel was adapted for film, television, the theater and ballet.