Tender is the Night

I just finished listening to the audiobook version of Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald. It tells the story of a psychoanalyst (Richard) in the period after World War I. He is married, and his wife Nicole was the victim of child abuse at the hands of her wealthy father and is now schizophrenic. They are rich Americans, they have two children, and they live in the south of France.

Here is a brief plot summary: The couple's life consists of travel and entertaining. He is trying to write another book; she gardens. They care about their children but leave the childcare to a governess. They care about each other, but he eventually feels trapped and has an affair. Then he starts drinking. Her illness disappears, she has an affair, and they divorce. Richard leaves the family and goes back to America.

It is a great but sad picture of how empty life can be, even for people who have money and leisure, when it has no purpose. Once Nicole is well, Richard no longer has to help her and protect her. And Nicole finds that being a wife and mother is not enough. Neither has any thought of asking God for help or has a faith on which to rely.