F Scott Fitzgerald - Tender Is the Night

*****

Beautiful Writing 24 Jun 2007

This review is intentionally very short, as other reviews consider the novel in more detail. It is worth noting that this novel demonstrates Fitzgerald's skill as a writer to the full, and is a pleasure to read.

The purpose of this review is to clarify a point raised in another review, which asks about why this Popular Classics edition appears to present a corrupt, or at least unauthorised text. The reason for this is that it follows the structure of the novel as set out in the 1951 revision, edited by Malcolm Cowley, based on notes and corrections made by Fitzgerald himself. This revision of the original 1934 text rearranges the novel into chronological order, and divides the text into a different number of sections. This is why the Spark Notes referred to by another reviewer are confusing: they describe the 1934 text. It should be noted that, according to the Penguin Modern Classics edition at least, current critical thinking prefers the 1934 edition, as Cowley's interventions in the later edition make it unclear the extent to which Fitzgerald's intentions were followed.

Of course, no exam board would ever bother to be clear as to which text is to be studied: that would be far too easy for us all, wouldn't it?