F. Scott Fitzgerald's Psychiatric Novel: Nicole's Case, Dick's Case: 13 (American University Studies Series 24: American Literature) - Tapa dura

-As a literary biographer and a psychoanalyst in private practice, I welcome the publication of Charles Metzger's new book on F. Scott Fitzgerald. Metzger's careful, attentive readings shows how much Fitzgerald put into this novel, by how much Metzger gets out of it. The skill and intelligence of the novelist is, in this case, paralleled by the same qualities in his critic.- (Jay Martin, Leo S. Bing Professor of English, University of Southern California, California College of Medicine, University of California, Irvine, Southern California Psychoanalytic Institute)"

Book I addresses in clinical detail the questions: What were Nicole's symptoms? What kind of treatment did she get? Did she get well? This detail is presented against the back-drop of a romance of love-service in which the heroine, afflicted with enchantment, is rescued from it by the hero. Once well, the heroine drops the hero and accepts his alternate as a more appropriate husband.
Book II deals in similar detail with the problems of the hero: role playing, depression, alcoholism, against the background of his belief in heroism as exploit, i.e. work, and love-service.