Save Me The Waltz (Vintage Classics)

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The [novel's poor sales] won't be encouraging to you, and I have not liked to ask whether you were writing any more because of the fact, but I do think the last part of that book, in particular, was very fine; and if we [both Perkins and Zelda] had not been in the depths of depression, the result would have been quite different." Davis, Susan Lawrence (1924), Authentic History Ku Klux Klan, 1865–1877, New York: Davis Publishing, ISBN 978-1-258-01465-0– via Internet Archive French identity cards for the Fitzgeralds circa 1929, the year in which Zelda's mental health deteriorated.

By Spring of 1932, Zelda Fitzgerald had been a recurrent patient of several psychiatric institutions. After an episode of hysteria, Zelda insisted that she be readmitted to a mental hospital. [2] Over her husband's objections, [2] Zelda was admitted to the Phipps Clinic at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore on February 12, 1932. [2] Her treatment was overseen by Dr. Adolf Meyer, an expert on schizophrenia. [20] As part of her recovery routine, she spent at least two hours a day writing a novel. [3] They move to Paris and join the never-ending party happening in the capital. David becomes interested in a beautiful woman and propositions her in front of Alabama, who feels inadequate in comparison. He disappears with the other woman as Alabama goes to the ballet with some friends, and she becomes interested in pursuing a career in it. She meets a famous former dancer, known as Madame, who says she would be willing to teach her, despite Alabama being too old. She arrived at the clinic in Switzerland in June 1930 and stayed for over a year. The rest of her life would be spent in and out of hospitals and sanatoriums in both Europe and the U.S.The Collected Writings of Zelda Fitzgerald, ed. Matthew J. Bruccoli, University of Alabama Press, 1997 (3rd ed) Written in six weeks and drawing from the life she shared with F. Scott Fitzgerald, Save Me the Waltz is a classic novel of one woman's experience in a fast-moving Jazz Age society.

Over the next few months, Zelda revised the novel, this time with some input from Scott — although how much he influenced the revisions is unclear, as the original drafts have been lost. His own opinion of the novel varied dramatically, sometimes feeling that it was “perhaps a very good novel” and other times claiming that it was “a bad book.” Fitzgerald, Zelda (1991), Bruccoli, Matthew J. (ed.), The Collected Writings of Zelda Fitzgerald, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, ISBN 0-684-19297-7– via Internet Archive During the boat journey to Europe, a storm hits and Alabama is anxious throughout a lot of the journey. She spends much of her time cooped up in her cabin with Bonnie while David drinks with friends at the bar. They arrive in France, and find a house to settle into. David spends all his time working on his painting, and Alabama feels alone. One day, she meets Jacques, a handsome French aviation officer, and becomes fascinated by him. They begin an affair, and David becomes jealous as the couple’s relationship becomes strained. Eventually, Jacques leaves for China and Alabama is heartbroken. One of the great literary curios of the twentieth century Save Me the Waltz is the first and only novel by the wife of F. Scott Fitzgerald. During the years when Fitzgerald was working on Tender is the Night, Zelda Fitzgerald was preparing her own story, which strangely parallels the narrative of her husband, throwing a fascinating light on Scott Fitzgerald's life and work. In its own right, it is a vivid and moving story: the confessional of a famous glamour girl of the affluent 1920s and an aspiring ballerina which captures the spirit of an era. Here is Zelda's novel. It is a good novel now, perhaps a very good novel—I am too close to tell. It has the faults and virtues of a first novel. It is more the expression of a powerful personality, like Look Homeward Angel, than the work of a finished artist like Ernest Hemingway. It should interest the many thousands in dancing. It is about something and absolutely new, and should sell." [30]

Purposely I didn’t — knowing that you were working on your own and honestly feeling that I had no right to interrupt you to ask for a serious opinion. Also, I know that Max will not want it and I prefer to do the corrections after having his opinion …

She installed a large mirror and a barre at home where, in addition to the time spent at the studio, she would practice for hours. Here we have a woman whose talents and energy and intellect should have made her a brilliant success, who was determined to be an accomplished artist, writer, and ballet dancer in an era where married women were supposed to be wives and mothers, period.” Turnbull, Andrew (1962) [1954], Scott Fitzgerald, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, LCCN 62-9315– via Internet Archive It was far from her first foray into writing fiction, but it was the first time she had ever written anything and sent it to a publisher without showing it to her husband beforehand. Forty years after its publication, Zelda's biographer Nancy Milford speculated in 1970 that F. Scott Fitzgerald extensively rewrote Zelda's novel prior to publication. [11] This supposition was echoed by later biographers. [12] However, scholarly examinations of Zelda's earlier drafts of Save Me the Waltz and the published version disproved this speculation. [13] Nearly every revision was by Zelda and, contrary to Milford's biography, her husband did not rewrite the manuscript. [14]In the autumn of 1929, she was offered a salaried position with the San Carlo Opera Ballet Company in Naples, dancing a solo role initially in Aida with more solos to follow during the season, but had to decline the offer as she was not mentally capable of fulfilling the demanding contract. In Winter of 1929, Zelda Fitzgerald's mental health abruptly deteriorated. [15] During an automobile trip to Paris along the mountainous roads of the Grande Corniche, Zelda seized the car's steering wheel and tried to kill herself, her husband F. Scott Fitzgerald, and their 9-year-old daughter Scottie by driving over a cliff. [16] A portrayal of the marriage of Alabama Beggs and David Knight, Save Me the Waltz highlights the trials and tribulations both went through in their attempts to discover their own identities, separately and in the context of one another. Using place and setting, Fitzgerald manages to portray the nuanced, multifaceted lives of the Knights. Fitzgerald’s characters are compelling, interesting and multi-dimensional, and she makes them extremely likable, despite all their flaws. Fitzgerald’s semi-autobiographical novel is a wonderfully detailed account of a couple, who despite their misgivings and fights, loved each other greatly. This account, albeit partly fictional, of the Fitzgeralds’ marriage, portrays the people behind the larger-than-life legends and the emotional truth of their lives. I was also afraid we might have touched on the same material. Also, feeling it to be a dubious production due to my own instability I did not want a scathing criticism such as you to have mercilessly — if for my own good given my last stories, poor things. I have had enough discouragement, generally, and could scream with that sense of inertia that hovers over my life and everything I do.”

This Side of Paradise was an immediate success, and the couple became overnight celebrities. In rendering the youthful rebellion of the 1920s, Scott became known as the chronicler of the Jazz Age, and Zelda became an emblem of the 1920s liberated woman. They both indulged in an extravagant lifestyle, spending beyond their means on travel, parties, and liquor. In 1924 the Fitzgeralds moved to France, where they joined a group of American expatriates, led by Gerald and Sara Murphy, on the Riviera. There Scott finished his third novel, The Great Gatsby, in 1925. Although the book would later become a classic, its middling initial reception disappointed Scott. By the end of the decade, the Fitzgeralds’ already quarrelsome marriage had grown more agitated. Scott struggled to write his fourth novel, and Zelda sought creative outlets of her own, writing short stories for magazines, painting, swimming, and intensely practicing ballet, a hobby from her youth. When Scott did see the novel soon after, he was furious. He wrote to Zelda’s doctor accusing her of plagiarizing several ideas from his current novel-in-progress, which would become Tender Is the Night — “literally one whole section of her novel is an imitation of it, of its rhythm, materials…” — and of exposing too much of his private life. Alabama sees both her sisters experience heartbreak as their father disapproves of their suitors of choice. Alabama, still young but eager to grow older, paints her face, dances ballet, and hopes to marry a man from New York and move to the big city someday. By the time Alabama is almost eighteen, the war has been going on for a few years. She has a reputation in town for being a flirt and for inappropriate behavior, kissing officers and getting drunk. She falls in love with one of her many beaux, a lieutenant called David Knight. David wants to move to New York and be an artist, and believes he will be famous one day. Alabama loves him, but does not like it when he speaks of his success and how he will maintain her.

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This time she was sent to a hospital in Switzerland, where the doctors recommended psychological treatment. After seeing a highly sought-after psychiatrist, Dr. Oscar Forel, she was diagnosed with schizophrenia.