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Nicole Diver (Nicole Warren)
Abe is an exquisite musician and composer, but after enormous success early in life, has since failed to compose anything new. He is a great friend of the Divers’, and his presence at the beginning of the novel serves to foreshadow Dick’s later decline. Rosemary meets Abe at the beginning of the story on the beach outside Gausse’s hotel. Her first impressions indicate that he is friendly, fun, and respectable, but it soon becomes apparent that he has a terrible drinking problem, which his wife, Mary, finds very difficult to manage. After abandoning his plans to return to America, Abe causes a great deal of trouble in Paris when falsely accusing a man of theft. The confusion leads to the false imprisonment of a black man named Freeman, and the murder of Jules Peterson, an innocent shoe polish maker. Abe’s alcoholism makes him increasingly unpleasant to be around, and his failures serve as a warning against excess and self-indulgence. Dick learns much later, long after they have lost contact, that Abe died after being beaten up in a bar in New York.
Abe North Quotes in Tender Is the Night
The Tender Is the Night quotes below are all either spoken by Abe North or refer to Abe North. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Book 1, Chapter 19
Quotes
They stood in an uncomfortable little group weighted down by Abe’s gigantic presence: he lay athwart them like the wreck of a galleon, dominating with his presence his own weakness and self-indulgence, his narrowness and bitterness. All of them were conscious of the solemn dignity that flowed from him, of his achievement, fragmentary, suggestive and surpassed. But they were frightened at his survivant will, once a will to live, now become a will to die.
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However, everything had happened—Abe’s departure and Mary’s impending departure for Salzburg this afternoon had ended the time in Paris. Or perhaps the shots, the concussions that had finished God knew what dark matter, had terminated it. The shots had entered into all their lives: echoes of violence followed them out onto the pavement where two porters held a post-mortem beside them as they waited for a taxi.
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Book 1, Chapter 25
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“Look here, you mustn’t get upset over this—it’s only some nigger scrap.”
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Abe North Quotes in Tender Is the Night
The Tender Is the Night quotes below are all either spoken by Abe North or refer to Abe North. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Book 1, Chapter 19
Quotes
They stood in an uncomfortable little group weighted down by Abe’s gigantic presence: he lay athwart them like the wreck of a galleon, dominating with his presence his own weakness and self-indulgence, his narrowness and bitterness. All of them were conscious of the solemn dignity that flowed from him, of his achievement, fragmentary, suggestive and surpassed. But they were frightened at his survivant will, once a will to live, now become a will to die.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
However, everything had happened—Abe’s departure and Mary’s impending departure for Salzburg this afternoon had ended the time in Paris. Or perhaps the shots, the concussions that had finished God knew what dark matter, had terminated it. The shots had entered into all their lives: echoes of violence followed them out onto the pavement where two porters held a post-mortem beside them as they waited for a taxi.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 1, Chapter 25
Quotes
“Look here, you mustn’t get upset over this—it’s only some nigger scrap.”
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Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
