Which Fitzgerald novel is set in the French Riviera?

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel set in the French Riviera is Tender Is the Night.

Published in 1934, Tender Is the Night is Fitzgerald’s fourth and final completed novel. Its opening section takes place on the French Riviera, where the glamorous American expatriate couple Dick and Nicole Diver rent a villa and entertain a circle of friends. The Riviera setting presents an attractive, sunlit surface while gradually revealing emotional instability beneath it.

The novel follows the rise and decline of Dick Diver, a promising young psychiatrist, and Nicole, a wealthy patient whom he eventually marries. Rosemary Hoyt, a young American actress, becomes involved with the couple and helps expose tensions in their relationship. The narrative later moves to Paris and the United States, so the entire novel is not confined to the Riviera.

Fitzgerald drew inspiration from his experiences living in Europe and from expatriates Gerald and Sara Murphy. Two major editions exist: the original 1934 version uses a more fragmented structure, while a posthumous 1948 revision rearranges events chronologically. The title comes from John Keats’s poem “Ode to a Nightingale.”