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Content snapshot
Flag an inaccuracy →What's in this book, at a glance — five things readers want to know before they start.
Violence
Barely any
Minimal violence; an early duel played for black comedy
Language
Barely any
Mild language; period restraint
Sexual Content
Some
Adult relationships; infidelity; references to Nicole's history of sexual trauma
Substance Use
A lot
Dick's progressive alcoholism is the novel's central tragedy; heavy drinking throughout
Emotional Intensity
A lot
The psychology of a man watching his own gifts erode; Nicole's history of incestuous abuse (referenced, not depicted); the cost of living for and through another person
What this book is about
Dick Diver, an American psychiatrist of brilliant promise, and his wife Nicole—beautiful, wealthy, and mentally fragile—are the golden couple of the Riviera set in the 1920s. Rosemary Hoyt, a young film actress, arrives and falls under Dick's spell. As the novel unfolds, the full cost of Dick's marriage to a former patient (whose trauma has a dark origin) becomes clear, and his slow alcoholic decline from promise to failure plays out with merciless precision. Fitzgerald's most personal and painful novel, shaped by his own marriage to Zelda.
Notes for sensitive readers
Reader-flagged moments and themes that may affect your experience.
Alcoholism depicted as slow, total destruction
Nicole's backstory involves incestuous abuse (referenced not depicted)
Deeply melancholic trajectory
Reader Verification
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