Tender Is the Night: Book 2, Chapter 19 Summary & Analysis

Pulling into the harbor in New York, Dick is initially stunned by “the magnificent façade of [his] homeland.” The feeling vanishes, however, as he travels to Buffalo and later to Virginia with his late father’s body. Dick is glad that his father can be buried among relatives but feels that, with this last tie to America broken, he will not return again. Dick bids farewell to his homeland, saying, “Good-bye, my father—good-bye, all my fathers.”

Boarding the ship back to Europe, Dick feels as if the pier exists in a strange space between the past and the future. On the boat he bumps into Albert McKisco, who has become a very successful writer since Dick last saw him. McKisco’s fame and accomplishment were due, in part, to his duel with Tommy, which gave him “a new self-respect.” Indeed, Dick finds McKisco far less irritating than before, and even enjoys his company. Violet is changed too: happier, well dressed, and more charming than before.

Disembarking from the ship in Naples, Dick is overcome by a strong desire to feel admired and finds himself taking a lost mother and her two daughters under his wing on the train to Rome. He drinks too much in order to sustain the various illusions he has invented about them, but watches, “with pleasure,” as they regain their confidence.

Arriving at a hotel in Rome, Dick spots “the person he had come to see, the person for whom he had made the Mediterranean crossing.” Rosemary, startled, hurries over immediately, telling Dick that she’s in Rome to shoot a new movie. She is beautifully groomed, and Dick hopes that she won’t notice his disheveled appearance.

After he has slept, washed, and eaten, Dick turns his thoughts to Rosemary. He concedes that Rosemary is “young and magnetic, but so [is] Topsy.” Longing gets the better of him, however, and he summons all he possesses that might attract her to him once more. He wants “to hold [Rosemary’s] giving-of-herself in its precious shell till he enclosed it, till it no longer existed outside him.” Preparing himself to meet Rosemary, Dick gets dressed and does a handstand in his hotel room “to limber himself up.”

On his way to meet Rosemary, Dick bumps into Collis Clay at the bar. Collis tells Dick that Rosemary is now “a woman of the world,” insinuating that she has had her fair share of romantic experiences since Dick last saw her three years before. “Believe me,” says Collis, “has she got some of these Roman boys tied up in bags!” Dick leaves to find Rosemary.