Tender Is the Night

After the death of a patient whom Dick had cared for with affection, Dick displays signs of weariness to Franz during a meeting with him one day in the clinic. Franz, beginning to desire a clean break from Dick and ultimately to fire him, suggests he take an assignment in Lausanne.

In Lausanne, Dick meets a hysterical father who complains about his son’s immoral behavior. Dick notices the father exhibits almost the same behavior as the son. When he meets Francisco (the son), Dick talks to him in a moralizing way. The issues Dick takes up with Francisco are his alcoholism and that he is gay. As Dick tries to understand Francisco, he reflects on his own vulnerability during this phase of his life (he is now in his forties).

While talking to Francisco, Dick is recognized by Royal Dumphry (from Tarmes). Mr. Dumphry speaks familiarly to Francisco, and both Francisco and Dick try to end the conversation quickly. Dumphry compliments Dick grandly, saying that the night he spent attending their dinner party in Tarmes was “the most civilized gathering of people” he has ever known (246). Dick learns from him that Nicole’s father is in town and on his deathbed.

Dick phones a doctor and arranges a meeting among the Warren family. Then he returns to see Francisco’s father, who begs Dick to take the boy with him to his clinic for treatment. Dick refuses.

Before Nicole and Baby see the dying Devereux Warren, doctors recommend Dick go and see him. Dick consents. Devereux Warren, lying on his deathbed, has embraced religion. He appeals to Dick to see Nicole again and make things right with her. To arrange this, Dick calls Franz, but Franz is out. He leaves a message to be passed on, but forgets to add that Nicole should not be told.

In Zurich, Kaethe lets it slip to Nicole that her father is ill. Before Franz can stop her, Nicole runs to catch a train.

Back in Lausanne, a nun enters Dick’s room to inform him that Devereux has gone—not that he is dead but in fact left the building. Dick is amazed. Though he tries retracing the man’s steps, Dick misses Devereux, who has taken the train to Paris.

Nicole meets up with Dick. Nicole is emotional and both of them express uncertainty about Mr. Warren’s fate.

A week later, the father of a patient named Von Cohn Morris makes an angry scene in front of the clinic when coming to take his son away. Hoping to have his son cured of supposedly alcohol-inspired kleptomania, this outraged father yells at Dick for having heard his son report smelling alcohol on Dick’s own breath. The father and son storm out. Dick rethinks his alcohol intake.

Franz returns back from a trip to the Alps. Upon hearing about the recent patient outburst, Franz scolds Dick for drinking alcohol, and Dick defends himself. The result of the disagreement is that Dick announces his retirement from the clinic, with Franz immediately agreeing to Dick leaving.

Dick and Nicole plan to return to the Villa Diana on the French Riviera. However, the villa has been rented out, so for the time being they travel around Germany and France. Dick takes the time to grow closer to their two children, Lanier and Topsy.

The Divers have more money at their disposal now that the Warren fortune no longer funds the Zurich clinic, and they travel in style. They are accompanied by Mary North, who has remarried after the death of her husband. With Mary and her new husband (Hosain Minghetti), the Divers have dinner and tell tall tales. Dick tells Nicole later that night that he does not feel like himself anymore.

A fight slowly breaks out between the Divers and Mary because their children bathe one night in the same bath water when Mary’s child is still sick. The woman Dick and Nicole yell at for this unsanitary incident ends up being Hosain’s sister, which angers Mary. They part ways over this fight.

Back at the Villa Diana, Dick fires their servant Augustine after she complains of Dick drinking too much. A scene erupts: She holds a knife to Dick for a while, but eventually leaves with the offer of extra money.

The Divers travel to Nice. Nicole worries about Dick not being himself, wondering if she is the cause for his demise. Dick mentions that his role is to make sure Nicole keeps getting better.

They board a yacht belonging to an old friend of Baby’s, named T. F. Golding, and on the yacht Nicole runs across Tommy Barban. Later at dinner, Dick is seated next to the girl Tommy was with, named Caroline Sibly-Biers, while Tommy sits with Nicole. Dick does not get along well with Caroline and excuses himself. Nicole then excuses herself later to go find Dick.

Alone together on the deck of the yacht, Dick admits to their both being “ruined,” and Nicole feels tenderly toward him. Tommy finds them and makes a joke about Dick having jumped overboard. Nicole and Tommy join the dancers. Dick gets himself drunk.

The yacht arrives at Cannes. Tommy drives them back to Tarmes.

The next morning, Dick apologizes to Nicole for having drunk too much the night before; Nicole does not get angry. Tommy also wakes up in the villa with them, feeling a sore throat.

Nicole, alone in the garden, reflects on Tommy’s feelings for her. She justifies having an extramarital lover and then gazes out imaginatively at the ocean. She overhears a conversation between two passersby.

When Tommy leaves, Nicole gives him an expensive bottle of camphor rub that Dick complains about being rare to find. This incident places a small (added) wedge between the couple. Nicole seeks solitude from Dick.

Though she forgets about Tommy temporarily, a week later she receives a telegram announcing his arrival in Nice and is eager to see him. At the same time, Dick receives a telegram from Rosemary, who announces she will be coming to visit.