Tender Is the Night

The group of Americans makes conversation with Rosemary on the beach. They comment on her Hollywood celebrity and Mrs. Violet McKisco mentions that her husband is an aspiring novelist, though her husband scolds her for beginning to share the details of his newest, unpublished book.

While engaged in casual conversation with the group, Rosemary again notices the young couple she spotted earlier farther down the beach, as well as another man with them, a composer named Abe North. When Rosemary asks about the couple, Mrs. McKisco says the woman is Mrs. Diver.

Rosemary lies down on her towel and pretends to sleep, only to wake up a while later to find she had truly fallen asleep. A man—the one she had been watching before from a distance—approaches her to say he was going to wake her so she would not get sunburned. It is 1:30pm, and they are the last two on the beach. Then the man leaves to his car, and Rosemary, who has just had her first interaction with Dick Diver, walks back to the hotel.

That afternoon Rosemary has lunch at the hotel with her mother, Mrs. Elsie Speers, described as a woman twice-widowed. Rosemary tells her mother that she has fallen in love with a man on the beach, referring to Dick Diver. Mrs. Speers reminds Rosemary that she must meet a man named Earl Brady.

After falling into mid-afternoon boredom, the pair board a train into town where Rosemary picks up coconut oil for the slight sunburn she received from sleeping on the beach. She does not return to the beach the following day, hiring a chauffeur and touring the countryside with her mother instead. She returns to bed that evening with a resolve to socialize on the beach again the next day with that group of Americans.

Dick Diver and Abe North approach Rosemary on the beach the following day, and together with Nicole Diver, Dick’s wife, they all start a conversation. Rosemary discloses that she is on vacation as part of her recovery from a case of pneumonia she contracted several months ago.

It is explained to Rosemary that the hotel at which she is staying, Gausse’s Hotel, is the creation of Dick and Nicole, who persuaded the staff to stay on after only one season of being open. Another man present, a Frenchman named Tommy Barban, reads from a list of guests staying at the hotel, noting the diversity of names.

Rosemary observes the friend group and feels attracted to the special something they seem to possess, “a purpose, a working over something, a direction, an act of creation different from any she had known” (19). She notices each man (Abe North, Barban, and Dick) but finds herself most strongly attracted to Dick.

Around midday, the rest of the American group arrives, as well as Mary North. As they interact, Nicole notices that Rosemary is beginning to take a liking to Dick. The Divers are asked to host a party to which the whole group, including the somewhat obnoxious Americans, are invited, but Nicole refuses. They go for a swim, and Rosemary feels increasingly intrigued by the Divers.

Later, Rosemary cries on her mother’s lap, confessing to be deeply in love with Dick and heartbroken that he is already married. Her mother encourages Rosemary by pointing out that she has been invited by them to dinner Friday night, and upon her mother’s request, Rosemary cheers up.

Rosemary visits Monte Carlo to meet Earl Brady, a film producer currently working on a movie there who has requested to see Rosemary about casting her for an upcoming project. Brady takes one look at the young girl and immediately likes her. Rosemary notices this and briefly considers having sex with him. The Hollywood world of filmmaking and business (her career now) swells in front of her in contrast to the relatively peaceful vacationing world of the beach at Gausse’s. Rosemary decides to leave while Brady returns to work on the set.

Nicole is walking through her garden at the Villa Diana in Tarmes where she and Dick are staying (they are not staying at Gausse’s Hotel). As she walks among the flowers and the view of the Mediterranean, her husband emerges from his office room and announces he has invited Mrs. Abrams and a group of other people to their dinner party, adding that he intends to make it a bad party. Nicole reflects that Dick is in one of his excited moods, where he gets an idea in his head and enwraps everyone else into the fun of carrying it out until it ends and he falls into a state of melancholy once again.

Later that night, Rosemary and her mother arrive at the villa in time for the Divers’ dinner party, at which the Diver children are in attendance. Earl Brady is there, and upon comparing him to Dick, Rosemary regards Dick as more attractive. When the American group from the beach arrives, Rosemary is at first disappointed but then trusts Dick’s judgment in inviting them.

Rosemary gets into a conversation with Tommy Barban, who is both French and American. Barban sardonically says that after he leaves tomorrow he will go to war (any war) since being around the Divers for too long always makes him feel like going to war after. Rosemary, enamored of the Divers, dislikes Barban’s cynicism toward them but notices that he lets slip he is especially fond of Nicole.

Rosemary gets a moment alone with Dick as they walk along the terrace to dinner, and, sensing the approval of her mother nearby, tells Dick she is in love with him. In response, Dick remarks: “New friends can often have a better time together than old friends” (31). Rosemary does not fully understand this remark.

At the dinner table, Rosemary is seated next to Earl Brady, whom she listens to absentmindedly while the two of them talk about unimportant subjects.

Sitting at the dinner table, Rosemary overhears lighthearted chatter among the guests at the Divers’ party. She scans the table and watches each person with attentiveness, noting each individual’s quirks and insecurities.

Waiting for another chance to be alone with Dick, Rosemary stays at the table while Violet McKisco announces she is going to the bathroom. Barban and Mr. McKisco, meanwhile, discuss the rise of communism in Russia. When Violet returns, she is about to disclose something secretive she witnessed inside the Divers’ house but is quieted by Barban.

After more small talk among the dinner guests, at last Rosemary wins some time alone with Dick, who reflects on the reality that everyone is gradually leaving and the summer is ending. He asks if Rosemary would accompany Nicole and him to Paris and, discovering that she has her mother’s permission, Rosemary says yes. Then Rosemary tells Dick again that she is in love with him. Dick counteracts this advance with casual, lighthearted responses and walks with her back into the presence of Nicole.

As she leaves the dinner party with her mother, Rosemary reminisces about Dick and wonders what it was Mrs. McKisco had seen inside the house.