Although it’s often said that the best writers write from personal experience, when you’re a gifted alcoholic wandering Europe during the Jazz Age with Ernest Hemingway and a schizophrenic wife, it’s almost like cheating. The fact that F. Scott Fitzgerald was very much a man of his times certainly didn’t hurt his portrayal of the times as brilliantly, or as tragically; In addition to the pervasive feeling of intoxicated irresponsibility that flows through his stories, much of Fitzgerald’s best work is peppered with thinly veiled references to his own troubled life.
Fitzgerald is, of course, best known for writing The Great Gatsby, but his 1931 short story “Babylon Revisited” is often considered the best example of his immense talent. The story takes place after the decade-long party that was the 1920s, and like any good hangover, it’s a complicated mix of guilty nostalgia and even more guilty regrets, especially when compounded by the fact that the wife of Fitzgerald, Zelda, was engaged. she to an asylum in this same year.
The story’s main character, Charlie Wales, visits Paris (one of Fitzgerald’s old watering holes) in an attempt to regain custody of his nine-year-old daughter (Fitzgerald’s own daughter was nine at the time) from her father. sister-in-law, Marion. ; Because Charlie was being treated for alcoholism at the time of his wife’s death, he was considered unfit to be a father, and Marion couldn’t have agreed more. The task now falls to Charlie to convince Marion that she has changed. This tense family dynamic was inspired by Fitzgerald’s real-life sister-in-law, who detested her alcoholism and tried to gain custody of her daughter in Zelda’s absence.
Seeing Paris brings back vivid memories of the same escapades that would later separate Charlie from his daughter, including an incident involving a drunken late-night tour of the city on a stolen tricycle (another gem from Fitzgerald’s personal memory bank). Although Charlie “lost a lot in the accident” on the 29th, going back to the scene of her reckless past shows that she “lost everything”. [he] searched in the boom”.
Two years after Zelda’s hospitalization, Fitzgerald wrote the novel Tender is the Night, which follows a charismatic Dick Diver who struggles not to live up to his character’s name by having an affair with an 18-year-old movie star. ; In addition to the obvious pain and suffering he would cause, Dick fears that an affair will actually disturb his wife’s mental health, since she suffers from, you guessed it, schizophrenia. (And given that Fitzgerald had been having an affair with a young star just a few years earlier, we’re pretty sure Dick’s intuition is correct.) The novel also has a character named Tommy Barban, a cold-hearted mercenary who is widely considered to be based on Ernest Hemingway. (Suffice to say, the Fitzgerald-Hemingway friendship had soured by this time.) Tender is the Night shares several themes with Babylon Revisited, including being set primarily in France (particularly at the Ritz bar in Paris) and featuring an overprotective sister. father-in-law (this time called Baby). More revealing than the similarities between the stories, however, is the critical difference: while Charlie Wales’ story ends on a hopeful note, Dick Diver continues in a downward spiral that suggests a change for the worse in Fitzgerald’s emotional state. .