Tender Is the Night

In September in Zurich, at a meeting with Nicole’s sister, Beth, Dick argues about his indifference to Nicole’s wealth. Beth confronts Dick about the fact that Nicole is rich, but Dick tries to reassure her that his intentions toward Nicole do not stem from a motive of greed.

The text then shifts to Nicole’s voice, narrating an overview of her life with Dick as a married couple, spanning their honeymoon to their settling down in Tarmes and meeting Rosemary Hoyt. Included in this section is Nicole’s experience bearing children and the reveal that Nicole is having an affair with Tommy Barban. Her narrative voice employs stream-of-consciousness writing, which is sometimes fragmentary and forms an impressionistic collage of the early days of Dick and Nicole’s marriage.

The narrative returns to where things left off at the end of Book 1. The scene shifts to Dick sitting with Rosemary’s mother after the incident with Abe North and Rosemary witnessing Nicole’s mental health episode.

Mrs. Speers and Rosemary are at last leaving France. Dick apologizes for the trauma Rosemary has undergone. Mrs. Speers reflects on Rosemary’s feelings for Dick, telling Dick he was the first man she truly loved. Abruptly, Dick tells Mrs. Speers that he is in love with Rosemary. After complimenting Mrs. Speers, Dick expresses his well wishes and says goodbye.

Back at the Villa Diana, Dick looks over his published psychiatric book and reflects about his life’s work in the field of psychology. He sees Nicole out in the garden and remembers how they cleared up the incident at the hotel, moving Rosemary to another hotel without saying goodbye.

Dick and Nicole talk about Rosemary, commenting nonchalantly on her strengths and flaws. The chapter closes with Dick’s feelings of emptiness at the loss of Rosemary and his irritation with Nicole, whose recent mental health episodes have brought back to the surface the old conflict between his roles as doctor and husband.

Now that Rosemary and her mother are gone, Dick returns to married life, with the added awkward element of his lingering feelings for Rosemary. Dick talks casually with Nicole in the garden, and then goes inside but does not know where to go since Nicole’s family paid for most of the property. He reflects on their marriage and his dissatisfactions.

As time goes by, Nicole—who is aware of Dick’s feelings for Rosemary but remains mostly passive about it—recovers a stable sense of good health, and Dick notices that she has, at least supposedly, forgotten all about the Rosemary affair. They travel around France. When December comes, they return to the Swiss Alps for Christmas.

Near Gstaad, Dick and Nicole connect with Baby (Beth) Warren and a young Englishman she is traveling with. Dick is downcast. Nicole notices and tries (unsuccessfully) to lift his spirits.

Dick excuses himself to meet Franz Gregorovius at the train station. Since Dick is so near to Zurich, Franz agreed to visit him. Franz joins the group and they stay at another hotel.

Franz offers Dick the opportunity of having his own clinic, co-run with Franz. An older psychiatrist is about to die and wishes to leave the clinic to a known associate. Franz tries his best to persuade Dick, while other members of the group listen in and participate. Baby, out of a desire to keep her sister always close to a hospital, supports the idea. Dick feels resentful of the Warren fortune and Baby’s greater wealth. Nicole makes a joke about her own condition, but one that leaves things awkward at the table. Dick contemplates Franz’s offer later that night.

Two days later, Dick admits to Franz that the idea appeals to him. He lists as his reasons the stable money it would provide him and the fact that the summer atmosphere and culture in the Riviera is changing, growing too popular and touristy.

The narrative skips ahead a year and a half. Dick is now co-proprietor of the clinic with Franz in Zurich. One day, a nightmare awakens him. He reflects on his marriage to Nicole before exchanging a few morning words with his son, Lanier, and heading off to the clinic.

One particular case touches Dick. A troubled woman rests in bandages and great pain on a bed, speaking to Dick in lofty and esoteric vocabulary. Dick tries to talk to her on her elevated level but also finds himself talking down to her because she is his patient. The fact that she is hurting makes Dick feel guilty for speaking to her this way. As she seeks to understand her own suffering, Dick simply tells her: “We must all try to be good” (185).

When Dick returns to his villa, Nicole is waiting for him with a letter from one of his former patients. In the letter, a young woman claims that Dick made sexual advances on her. In fact, Dick did not, though he did indulge her flirtatiousness with a brief kiss. As Nicole considers the note, Dick dismisses the author as formerly having a mental health condition, to which Nicole replies thoughtfully that she was that way once, too. Dick angrily gathers the family into the car to leave.

At a fair, Nicole, still upset by the letter, runs off into the crowd unexpectedly, with Dick pursuing her. She climbs aboard a Ferris wheel and laughs hysterically as the ride takes her up and down. A small crowd gathers at the spectacle. Dick catches up to her and takes her by the arm. No longer seized with laughter, she tells Dick she knows about his affair with one of his patients. Dick says this is a delusion, but Nicole expresses suspicion that Dick only covers up secrets from her by calling them delusions. They argue for a while more, and then both of them give up the struggle. Nicole asks Dick for help.

On the way back to the clinic, Dick, lost in confusion and turmoil over Nicole’s state, crashes the car into a tree. Nicole laughs about it, believing Dick to have been attempting murder-suicide all along but getting too scared at the last minute to hit the tree head-on. The children go to a nearby inn to ask for help.

The proprietor of the inn arrives. As the two men work on moving the car, Dick commands Nicole to go with the children.

Dick asks Franz for a leave of absence, during which time he leaves Nicole in his care. Explaining to everyone that he will be attending a psychiatric conference, Dick travels to Germany with no intention of attending any conference sessions. He reflects on wanting to get away and longs for the Mediterranean.