Chapter summary - I Flashcards
The novel opens with a detailed description of the setting: the rose-colored building and beautiful beach of Gausse’s Hôtel on the French Riviera. It has recently become the favorite summer resort for “notable and fashionable people.” It is June 1925, and a mother and daughter have just arrived. They are not particularly pleased with their first impression and plan to depart on a ship for America in three days. The daughter, nearly 18 years old, is a rising star in Hollywood named Rosemary Hoyt. After getting her room she goes down to the beach and enjoys swimming before settling down on the sand to observe the people around her. A homosexual who introduces himself to her as Campion then introduces her to others: Mrs. Abrams, an older woman who recognizes Rosemary from the movies; a couple with the last name McKisco; and a man named Mr. Dumphry. Further down the beach Rosemary also notices a “lovely and pitiful” woman wearing pearls and a “fine man” wearing a jockey cap on the beach; the latter seems to be the center of attention, but she does not meet this couple, nor a few others in their party who seem to be Americans.
Book 1, Chapter 1
Rosemary feels uncomfortable as the people she meets engage her in conversation, and she wishes her mother were with her. After a short while she goes back into the water with the McKiscos and swims out to a large raft where a man identified by Mrs. McKisco as “a rotten musician” named Abe North is sunning. The McKiscos engage Rosemary in more small talk after North swims away, and when Rosemary notices the woman with pearls enter the sea where her two children are playing, Violet McKisco identifies her as Mrs. Diver and says simply, “They’re not at the hotel.”
Rosemary goes back onto the sand and falls asleep. When she awakens, everyone has left the beach except the man wearing the jockey cap. She had noticed before napping he seems to be the orchestrator of the partying at his part of the beach, and now he appears to be the one in charge of clearing away the debris. Although he does not introduce himself, Fitzgerald identifies him as Dick Diver. Dick and Rosemary talk briefly before he carries the last of the beach items to his car and she goes to the hotel.
Book 1, Chapter 2
Rosemary decides she must go back to her room, without Dick, and when she gets there she has the feeling someone is in the room with her. She is shocked to find “a dead Negro … stretched upon her bed.” She runs across the hall to Dick’s room. Nicole is now there, but Rosemary simply yells for Dick to come right away.
When he sees the body, Dick thinks carefully. When Nicole knocks on the door he tells her to bring the coverlet and top blanket from one of the beds in their room. Then he strips the coverlet and blanket from Rosemary’s bed, opens the door, and switches bundles with Nicole. He then drags the body into the hallway, calls the hotel manager, and explains he has found “a dead Negro … in the hall.” The manager responds with discretion and says no one’s name will ever be attached to the discovery.
When Rosemary and Dick go back into his room, Nicole is in the bathroom. Rosemary hears “a verbal inhumanity … in the shape of horror.” Following Dick into the room, she sees a sight that makes her realize it is the same sort of thing Violet McKisco had witnessed in the bathroom at the Villa Diana. Nicole is crazed and Dick is saying, “Control yourself!” Dazed, Rosemary answers the ringing phone and is relieved to learn it is Collis Clay, who has tracked her to the Divers’ room. She asks him to come up and get her.
Book 1, Chapter 25
Abe North brings Jules Peterson straight to find Dick Diver. Getting no answer at Dick’s room, he knocks on Rosemary’s door. Dick and Rosemary are in the room making out, but quickly gather themselves when they find Abe and Peterson at the door. Dick takes everyone to his rooms, and Abe and Peterson tell the details of the previous night. Abe, drunk after drinking heavily all night, claimed a Negro took a thousand franc note out of his hand. The police went to the bistro where it happened, and they arrested a man who actually had not been there at the time. Then the police arrested Freeman, the owner of the bistro, and took him to jail. In reality, however, Abe was not robbed. A man had taken money out of his hand—fifty francs—in order to pay Abe’s bar bill.
Now Peterson is asking Abe to help him get his shoe polish business going—something Abe had promised to do while drunk. Dick is unimpressed and focused only on getting Abe to sleep off his current binge. Peterson goes into the hall, thinking Dick will have a private conversation with Abe regarding how to provide the assistance offered to him. Abe finally does leave, but decides he will go back to the Ritz bar. Peterson is no longer in the hallway.
Book 1, Chapter 24
This chapter opens in the Ritz bar in Paris, where Abe North has been drinking since morning. He is in a drunken fog. At 4:00 in the afternoon, a military officer approaches him and says “a colored fellow of the name Jules Peterson” wants to see him. Since the bartender will not allow the man in the segregated bar, Abe goes out to see him.
Book 1, Chapter 23
The next morning Nicole Diver is awakened by a knock at the hotel door. Dick Diver is not there. When Nicole opens the door, she sees a Parisian police officer. He has come in search of Abe North, stating North was in Paris last night, is registered at the hotel, and was robbed at some point in the night. North made a complaint, and the police have “arrested the correct Negro” for the crime.
Next Nicole gets a phone call from the hotel office, saying a Mr. Crawshow wants to see the Divers about the Abe North incident. Crawshow claims the man under arrest, Mr. Freeman, is innocent, and he desperately needs to see North about it. Nicole hangs up.
Nicole and Rosemary go shopping for a while. When they return to the hotel, Dick is there and has talked to North on the phone. North tells Dick he has “launched a race riot” and wants to help Freeman get out of jail. He also says, “A Negro from Copenhagen that makes shoe polish” might be trying to find him. Nicole wonders why Abe has gone from being “so nice” to becoming such a horrible drunk; Dick thinks about how he has “become intensely critical of her.”
Later, as Rosemary, Dick, and Nicole dine together at the hotel, they observe a group of “gold-star muzzers.” These are mothers of American soldiers who died fighting abroad, and Rosemary and Nicole are very touched by it. Suddenly, Dick loves both of them again and feels the golden aura he is accustomed to, once again, surround their table.
Book 1, Chapter 22
Rosemary again has dinner plans, so Dick is on his own. He meets Collis Clay in the hotel lobby and has a drink with him. Dick then runs into Baby Warren, and they dine together. He fills her in on Nicole’s latest breakdown, and she wonders if it might be time to remove Nicole from the environment of the clinic, suggesting the Divers move to London. She also questions Dick about leaving Nicole alone, and he reminds her he has been at his father’s funeral.
When Baby and Dick move to another area of the hotel after eating, Collis Clay joins them. Uncomfortable continuing to talk about Nicole in front of Collis, Dick turns the conversation to questions about Baby, asking her why she doesn’t marry. Then he takes her to her hotel.
The next day Rosemary takes Dick to lunch. They return to the hotel and find Nicotera in Rosemary’s sitting room. She dismisses him, but Dick suggests they go to his room. He again questions her about her love life, and she gives some details but says she has never really loved anyone but Dick. Since Dick knows in his heart neither of them is in love with the other, it’s not clear why he keeps demanding this information.
Soon Nicotera calls Rosemary in Dick’s room, and he responds with jealousy. He asks her to do without Nicotera as long as he is around, but she says, “It’s difficult.” She goes on to explain Nicotera wants to marry her—which, she points out, Dick has never asked her to do—and she is very confused. Dick decides for sure “he [isn’t] going to be in love with her again.” He begins to dress in his evening clothes and refuses to have any more exchanges with her beyond bidding her goodbye and says, “I don’t seem to bring people happiness anymore.”
Book 2, Chapter 21
Arriving at Rosemary’s room, Dick greets her with a compliment about her beauty. She is glad he looks much more rested than when she saw him earlier. They begin exchanging news of their lives, but then the phone rings. She finishes the call, but it rings again. When that call ends, Rosemary lowers the lights. She is wearing black pajamas, and they begin kissing passionately. After another phone call, they end up in bed but do not make love.
Dick questions her about her love life. She claims she is still pure. Dick suggests they take a walk in a garden, so they do. She already has plans for the evening, so Dick dines alone and goes to bed early. He meets Rosemary very early in the morning, to go with her to her set. He watches the actors and actresses work and notices the male star, Nicotera, seems especially infatuated with Rosemary.
Dick and Rosemary eat lunch together. Both have drinks, and when they return to the hotel, they finally consummate their love.
Book 2, Chapter 20
Dick retrieves his father’s body in Buffalo and then takes it to Virginia for burial “among a hundred Divers, Dorseys, and Hunters.” Dick finds solace in leaving his father there, but he does not think he himself will ever come back. He says “good-by, all my fathers.”
Traveling on the same ship back across the Atlantic are the McKiscos, Albert and Violet. Buoyed by a new confidence following his duel with Barban, Albert has become a popular novelist. Dick enjoys the change in Albert, “the disappearance of the man’s annoying sense of inferiority,” and the two have good conversations. Violet, too, is changed for the better.
The McKiscos disembark at Gibraltar, but Dick continues on to Naples and then goes on to Rome by train. As soon as he enters his hotel, he sees Rosemary—for the first time in four years—who is in the city filming her newest movie. They exchange pleasantries, and Rosemary instructs him to call her the next afternoon.
Dick is exhausted and sleeps deeply until well past noon the next day. Upon awakening, he examines his feelings about Rosemary. He is a realist and knows she has probably had lovers and he is probably much less attractive to her than he was before. Nevertheless, he dresses carefully and calls Rosemary around 3:00 p.m. She asks him to come to her room. He stops at the bar for a drink first and there encounters Collis Clay, who is still following Rosemary around when he can. He is studying architecture in Florence and has come to Rome for the weekend.
Book 2, Chapter 19
Dick arrives in Innsbruck at dusk the next day. He thinks about the fact he is in Switzerland, as is Nicole, but he is far from her. He remembers a day on the Riviera when she said to him: “I don’t ask you to love me always like this, but I ask you to remember. Somewhere inside me there’ll always be the person I am to-night.” Rather than sinking into sentimentalism, however, Dick reminds himself he has every right to be here, “for his soul’s sake.”
Dick is disgusted he has “been swallowed up like a gigolo” by Nicole’s money. As the evening progresses, he admits to himself he is “in love with every pretty woman he [sees].” He tries to connect with one, but he is unsuccessful.
The next morning Dick sets out with a guide and two other men to climb a mountain. However, the weather disrupts their adventure. After eating dinner and drinking a bottle of wine, he thinks of chasing the woman from last night again, but decides to practice restraint. When he goes up to his room, he finds a telegram that has been forwarded from Nicole. It is announcing the death of his father. Dick feels very sad at the news, filled with memories of his father’s goodness to him as his moral guide. He immediately makes plans to take a ship to America, and places a call to Nicole.
Book 2, Chapter 18
Dick arrives in Innsbruck at dusk the next day. He thinks about the fact he is in Switzerland, as is Nicole, but he is far from her. He remembers a day on the Riviera when she said to him: “I don’t ask you to love me always like this, but I ask you to remember. Somewhere inside me there’ll always be the person I am to-night.” Rather than sinking into sentimentalism, however, Dick reminds himself he has every right to be here, “for his soul’s sake.”
Dick is disgusted he has “been swallowed up like a gigolo” by Nicole’s money. As the evening progresses, he admits to himself he is “in love with every pretty woman he [sees].” He tries to connect with one, but he is unsuccessful.
The next morning Dick sets out with a guide and two other men to climb a mountain. However, the weather disrupts their adventure. After eating dinner and drinking a bottle of wine, he thinks of chasing the woman from last night again, but decides to practice restraint. When he goes up to his room, he finds a telegram that has been forwarded from Nicole. It is announcing the death of his father. Dick feels very sad at the news, filled with memories of his father’s goodness to him as his moral guide. He immediately makes plans to take a ship to America, and places a call to Nicole.
Book 2, Chapter 18
While still in Munich, Dick encounters Tommy Barban. He is in the company of a prince and two other men. He and the prince have recently escaped from Russia. Tommy went there to bring the prince safely out of hiding. One of the men Tommy is with, Mr. McKibben, offers Dick a ride to Innsbruck, where they are both going the next day, but Dick declines.
Dick learns from Tommy that Abe North has just died—”beaten to death in a speakeasy in New York.” Dick feels remorse for Abe’s death and mourns the loss of his own youth.
Book 2, Chapter 17
Three months after Nicole’s breakdown, Dick asks Franz for a leave of absence. He says he must get away, get some rest.
Dick flies the next week to Munich, ostensibly to attend a conference, but he plans to attend sessions as little as possible. From there he plans to travel to the Mediterranean, for pure relaxation.
Book 2, Chapter 16
After lunch Dick goes to the house where a distraught Nicole awaits him with a letter she demands he reads. Addressed to Nicole, it is from a recently discharged female patient who is accusing Dick of molesting her daughter who was with her during much of her treatment. Dick recalls the daughter as a “flirtatious little brunette” and remembers he had kissed her in an “almost indulgent way,” but went no further than that.
Dick assures Nicole of his innocence, pointing out the writer of the letter is “deranged.” Nicole is unconvinced, so Dick takes a strong tone with her and tells her to get the children so they can go on their planned trip to an area fair. As he drives them, he knows Nicole is very unstable. Sure enough, when they get to the fair, Nicole suddenly takes off running. Knowing he must give chase, Dick deposits the children with an attendant at a lottery wheel and desperately looks for his wife, finally finding her riding a Ferris wheel and laughing crazily. He takes her firmly by the arm, again taking a strong tone with her, but she remains resistant and refers to him as Svengali, a fictional character who seduces young women.
Remaining strong, Dick finally sees Nicole succumb as she begs, “Help me, help me, Dick!” They go to find the children and start the drive home. The feeling is of grief and sorrow. Dick knows what awaits him once they get home, a return to “the régime relaxed a year before.”
Suddenly, as they near the clinic on a treacherous patch of road, Nicole grabs the wheel and nearly sends them to their death. Luckily, the car is trapped at a 90-degree angle against a tree. Dick is absolutely furious. He sends Lanier and Topsy to a nearby inn to get help. Nicole’s insane action is to look at herself in a compact mirror and smooth back her hair.
The proprietor of the inn soon arrives, and Dick tries to get Nicole safely out of the car. Her response is to jump out on her own and nearly fall down the hillside. Dick sends her to the inn to wait with the children. Then, worried about what she might do next, he decides to abandon the car for now, and he hurries up after her.
Book 2, Chapter 15
The Divers have been in Zurich for 18 months as this chapter opens. Dick awakens from a dream about war and diagnoses in himself: “Non-combatant’s shell-shock.” He thinks about Nicole’s loneliness and continuing need to own him. It seems being back in Zurich has not eased the repression he feels around the relationship at all.
When morning arrives Lanier comes to watch Dick shave. He and his father have developed a closer relationship in Zurich, and Dick is glad of that. He is now 38 years old.
Dick and Nicole have added a great deal of class and beauty to the clinic, so it now rather resembles a country club. Dick seems to enjoy his work, and many of his patients adore him. He muses this morning about some of his current cases. His most fascinating is an American painter who came to the clinic from Paris, where her cousin found her raving mad among other artists. She suffers acutely physically, with sores all over her body, but her mind remains mostly sharp. He feels a certain level of love for her and great empathy for her suffering. Readers are able to follow Dick on his rounds that morning and meet several more of his patients.
Book 2, Chapter 14
