''Save Me the Waltz'' is a
1932 novel by American writer
Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald
Zelda Fitzgerald (; July 24, 1900 – March 10, 1948) was an American novelist, painter, dancer, and socialite.
Born in Montgomery, Alabama, she was noted for her beauty and high spirits, and was dubbed by her husband F. Scott Fitzgerald a ...
. It is a semi-autobiographical account of her early life in the
American South
The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, or simply the South) is a geographic and cultural region of the United States of America. It is between the Atlantic Ocean ...
during the
Jim Crow
The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws enforcing racial segregation in the Southern United States. Other areas of the United States were affected by formal and informal policies of segregation as well, but many states outside the Sout ...
era and her tempestuous marriage to novelist
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (September 24, 1896 – December 21, 1940) was an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer. He is best known for his novels depicting the flamboyance and excess of the Jazz Age—a term he popularize ...
. She composed the work while a patient at
Johns Hopkins Hospital
The Johns Hopkins Hospital (JHH) is the teaching hospital and biomedical research facility of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, located in Baltimore, Maryland, U.S. It was founded in 1889 using money from a bequest of over $7 million (1873 mo ...
's
Phipps Clinic in
Baltimore, Maryland
Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...
. As part of her recovery routine, she spent at least two hours a day writing a novel. She sent the manuscript to her husband's editor,
Maxwell Perkins
William Maxwell Evarts "Max" Perkins (September 20, 1884 – June 17, 1947) was an American book editor, best remembered for discovering authors Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, and Thomas Wolfe.
Early life and e ...
. Although unimpressed by the manuscript,
Perkins published the work in order for Fitzgerald to repay his financial debt to his publisher
Scribner's
Charles Scribner's Sons, or simply Scribner's or Scribner, is an American publisher based in New York City, known for publishing American authors including Henry James, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Kurt Vonnegut, Marjorie Kinnan Rawli ...
.
Divided into four chapters, the novel is a chronological narrative of four periods in the lives of Alabama Beggs and her alcoholic husband David Knight, two
Jazz Age hedonists
Hedonism refers to a family of theories, all of which have in common that pleasure plays a central role in them. ''Psychological'' or ''motivational hedonism'' claims that human behavior is determined by desires to increase pleasure and to decre ...
who are thinly-disguised
alter-ego
An alter ego (Latin for "other I", "doppelgänger") means an alternate self, which is believed to be distinct from a person's normal or true original personality. Finding one's alter ego will require finding one's other self, one with a different ...
s of their real-life counterparts. As her marriage deteriorates, Alabama grows further apart from her husband and their daughter. Determined to be famous, an aging Alabama aspires to become a renowned ''
prima ballerina
A ballet dancer ( it, ballerina fem.; ''ballerino'' masc.) is a person who practices the art of classical ballet. Both females and males can practice ballet; however, dancers have a strict hierarchy and strict gender roles. They rely on yea ...
'' and devotes herself relentlessly to this ambition. However, a blister soon becomes infected from the glue in the box of her
pointe shoe
A pointe shoe (, ), also called a ballet toe shoe or simply toe shoe, is a type of shoe worn by ballet dancers when performing pointe work. Pointe shoes were conceived in response to the desire for dancers to appear weightless and sylph-like an ...
, leading to
blood poisoning
Sepsis, formerly known as septicemia (septicaemia in British English) or blood poisoning, is a life-threatening condition that arises when the body's response to infection causes injury to its own tissues and organs. This initial stage is follo ...
, and Alabama can never dance again.
Upon its publication by Scribner's, the novel received generally negative reviews. The book sold approximately 1,300 copies for which Zelda earned a grand total of $120.73. Its critical and commercial failure greatly disappointed Zelda and led her to pursue her other interests as a playwright and a painter. However, Broadway producers declined to produce her play, and when her paintings were exhibited in 1934, the critical response was equally disappointing.
Forty years after its publication, Zelda's biographer
Nancy Milford
Nancy Lee Milford (née Winston; March 26, 1938 – March 29, 2022) was an American biographer. She was noted for her biographies on Zelda Fitzgerald and Edna St. Vincent Millay.
Early life and education
Nancy Lee Winston was born in Dearborn ...
speculated in 1970 that F. Scott Fitzgerald extensively rewrote Zelda's novel prior to publication. This supposition was echoed by later biographers. However, scholarly examinations of Zelda's earlier drafts of ''Save Me the Waltz'' and the published version disproved this speculation. Nearly every revision was by Zelda and, contrary to Milford's biography, her husband did not rewrite the manuscript.
Background
In Winter 1929, Zelda Fitzgerald's mental health abruptly deteriorated. 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
The Scottish Terrier ( gd, Abhag Albannach; also known as the Aberdeen Terrier), popularly called the Scottie, is a breed of dog. Initially one of the highland breeds of terrier that were grouped under the name of ''Skye Terrier'', it is one o ...
by driving over a cliff.
After this homicidal incident, Zelda sought psychiatric treatment, and doctors diagnosed her with
schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by continuous or relapsing episodes of psychosis. Major symptoms include hallucinations (typically hearing voices), delusions, and disorganized thinking. Other symptoms include social withdra ...
in June 1930. Zelda's biographer, Nancy Milford, quotes Dr. Oscar Forel's contemporary psychiatric diagnosis: "The more I saw Zelda, the more I thought at the time
hat
A hat is a head covering which is worn for various reasons, including protection against weather conditions, ceremonial reasons such as university graduation, religious reasons, safety, or as a fashion accessory. Hats which incorporate mecha ...
she is neither
uffering froma pure
neurosis
Neurosis is a class of functional mental disorders involving chronic distress, but neither delusions nor hallucinations. The term is no longer used by the professional psychiatric community in the United States, having been eliminated from th ...
nor a real
psychosis
Psychosis is a condition of the mind that results in difficulties determining what is real and what is not real. Symptoms may include delusions and hallucinations, among other features. Additional symptoms are incoherent speech and behavior ...
—I considered her a constitutional, emotionally unbalanced
psychopath
Psychopathy, sometimes considered synonymous with sociopathy, is characterized by persistent Anti-social behaviour, antisocial behavior, impaired empathy and remorse, and Boldness, bold, Disinhibition, disinhibited, and Egotism, egotistical B ...
—she may improve,
utnever completely recover." The couple traveled to
Switzerland
). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
where Zelda underwent further treatment at a clinic.
By Spring 1932, Zelda Fitzgerald had been a recurrent patient of several psychiatric institutions. After an episode of
hysteria
Hysteria is a term used colloquially to mean ungovernable emotional excess and can refer to a temporary state of mind or emotion. In the nineteenth century, hysteria was considered a diagnosable physical illness in women. It is assumed that ...
, Zelda insisted that she be readmitted to a mental hospital. Over her husband's objections, Zelda was admitted to the
Phipps Clinic at
Johns Hopkins Hospital
The Johns Hopkins Hospital (JHH) is the teaching hospital and biomedical research facility of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, located in Baltimore, Maryland, U.S. It was founded in 1889 using money from a bequest of over $7 million (1873 mo ...
in Baltimore on February 12, 1932. Her treatment was overseen by Dr. Adolf Meyer, an expert on
schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by continuous or relapsing episodes of psychosis. Major symptoms include hallucinations (typically hearing voices), delusions, and disorganized thinking. Other symptoms include social withdra ...
. As part of her recovery routine, she spent at least two hours a day writing a novel.
At Phipps Clinic, Zelda developed a bond with Dr. Mildred Squires, a female resident. Toward the end of February, she shared fragments of her inchoate novel with Squires, who wrote to Scott that the unfinished novel was vivid and had charm. Zelda wrote to Scott from the hospital, "I am proud of my novel, but I can hardly restrain myself enough to get it written. You will like it—It is distinctly École Fitzgerald, though more ecstatic than yours—perhaps too much so." Zelda wrote diligently each day and finished the novel on March 9. She sent the unaltered manuscript to Scott's gifted editor,
Maxwell Perkins
William Maxwell Evarts "Max" Perkins (September 20, 1884 – June 17, 1947) was an American book editor, best remembered for discovering authors Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, and Thomas Wolfe.
Early life and e ...
, at
Scribner's
Charles Scribner's Sons, or simply Scribner's or Scribner, is an American publisher based in New York City, known for publishing American authors including Henry James, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Kurt Vonnegut, Marjorie Kinnan Rawli ...
.
Surprised to receive an unannounced novel in the mail from Zelda, Perkins carefully perused the original and unaltered manuscript. He concluded the work had "a slightly deranged quality which gave him the impression that the author had difficulty in separating fiction from reality." Nevertheless, he felt the manuscript contained several good sections, but its overall tone seemed hopelessly "dated" and hearkened back to the glamorous Jazz Age hedonism recounted in Fitzgerald's 1922 work, ''
The Beautiful and Damned
''The Beautiful and Damned'' is a 1922 novel by American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald. Set in New York City, the novel's plot follows a young artist Anthony Patch and his flapper wife Gloria Gilbert who become "wrecked on the shoals of dissipatio ...
''. Perkins hoped that her husband might be able to improve its overall quality with his criticism.
Upon learning that Zelda had submitted her manuscript to Perkins, Scott became perturbed that she had not shown her manuscript to him beforehand. After reading the manuscript, he objected to her novel's
plagiarism
Plagiarism is the fraudulent representation of another person's language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions as one's own original work.From the 1995 '' Random House Compact Unabridged Dictionary'': use or close imitation of the language and thought ...
of the character of Amory Blaine, the protagonist in his first novel ''
This Side of Paradise
''This Side of Paradise'' is the debut novel by American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald, published in 1920. It examines the lives and morality of carefree American youth at the dawn of the Jazz Age. Its protagonist, Amory Blaine, is an attractive ...
''. He was further surprised to learn that Zelda's novel used the very same plot elements as his upcoming novel, ''
Tender Is the Night
''Tender Is the Night'' is the fourth and final novel completed by American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald. Set in French Riviera during the twilight of the Jazz Age, the 1934 novel chronicles the rise and fall of Dick Diver, a promising young ps ...
''.
After receiving letters from Scott delineating these objections, Zelda wrote to Scott apologetically that she was "afraid we might have touched the same material." Despite Scott's initial annoyance, a debt-ridden Fitzgerald realized that Zelda's book might earn a tidy profit. Consequently, his requested revisions were "relatively few," and "the disagreement was quickly resolved, with Scott recommending the novel to Perkins." Several weeks later, Scott wrote enthusiastically to Perkins:
Although unimpressed by the manuscript,
Perkins nonetheless agreed to publish the work regardless as a way for Fitzgerald to repay his considerable financial debt to Scribner's. Perkins arranged for half of Zelda's book royalties to be applied against Scott's debt to Scribner's until at least $5,000 had been repaid.
On June 14, 1932, Zelda signed the contract with Scribner's to publish the book. It was published on October 7 with a printing of 3,010 copies—not unusually low for a first novel in the middle of the
Great Depression
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
—on cheap paper, with a cover of green linen. According to Zelda, the book derived its title from a
Victor record catalog, and the title evokes the romantic glitter of the lifestyle which F. Scott Fitzgerald and herself experienced during the riotous Jazz Age of American history.
Plot summary
Alabama Beggs, a vivacious
Southern belle
Southern belle () is a colloquialism for a debutante in the planter class of the Antebellum South.
Characteristics
The image of a Southern belle is often characterized by fashion elements such as a hoop skirt, a corset, pantalettes, a wide-b ...
who "wanted her own way about things", comes of age in the
Deep South
The Deep South or the Lower South is a cultural and geographic subregion in the Southern United States. The term was first used to describe the states most dependent on plantations and slavery prior to the American Civil War. Following the war ...
during the
Jim Crow
The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws enforcing racial segregation in the Southern United States. Other areas of the United States were affected by formal and informal policies of segregation as well, but many states outside the Sout ...
era. She marries David Knight, a 22-year-old
Yankee
The term ''Yankee'' and its contracted form ''Yank'' have several interrelated meanings, all referring to people from the United States. Its various senses depend on the context, and may refer to New Englanders, residents of the Northern United St ...
artist of
Irish Catholic
Irish Catholics are an ethnoreligious group native to Ireland whose members are both Catholic and Irish. They have a large diaspora, which includes over 36 million American citizens and over 14 million British citizens (a quarter of the British ...
stock. Alabama met David when he was a
United States Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...
officer stationed near her Southern town during
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
. Knight becomes a successful painter, and the family moves to the
French Riviera
The French Riviera (known in French as the ; oc, Còsta d'Azur ; literal translation " Azure Coast") is the Mediterranean coastline of the southeast corner of France. There is no official boundary, but it is usually considered to extend fro ...
where Alabama has a romance with a handsome French aviator named Jacques Chevre-Feuille. In retaliation, David abandons her at a dinner party and spends the night with
a dancer.
Alabama grows further apart from her husband and their daughter. Determined to be famous, an aging Alabama aspires to become a renowned ''
prima ballerina
A ballet dancer ( it, ballerina fem.; ''ballerino'' masc.) is a person who practices the art of classical ballet. Both females and males can practice ballet; however, dancers have a strict hierarchy and strict gender roles. They rely on yea ...
'' and devotes herself relentlessly to this ambition. She is offered an opportunity to dance featured parts with a prestigious company in
Naples
Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...
—and she takes it, and goes to live in the city alone. Alabama dances her solo debut in the opera ''
Faust
Faust is the protagonist of a classic German legend based on the historical Johann Georg Faust ( 1480–1540).
The erudite Faust is highly successful yet dissatisfied with his life, which leads him to make a pact with the Devil at a crossroads ...
''. However, a blister soon becomes infected from the glue in the box of her
pointe shoe
A pointe shoe (, ), also called a ballet toe shoe or simply toe shoe, is a type of shoe worn by ballet dancers when performing pointe work. Pointe shoes were conceived in response to the desire for dancers to appear weightless and sylph-like an ...
, leading to
blood poisoning
Sepsis, formerly known as septicemia (septicaemia in British English) or blood poisoning, is a life-threatening condition that arises when the body's response to infection causes injury to its own tissues and organs. This initial stage is follo ...
, and Alabama can never dance again. Though outwardly successful, Alabama and David are miserable.
At the novel's end, the unhappy couple returns to the Deep South during the
Great Depression
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
where Alabama's father is dying. She searches for meaning in her father's death, but finds none. Though she says otherwise, her childhood friends assume she must be happy, and they envy her privileged lifestyle as the wife of a famous artist. The last paragraph depicts the unhappy Knights immobile and dissipated as a couple:
Critical reception
The reviews by literary critics were mostly negative. The critics savaged Zelda's prose as overwritten, attacked her characters as weak and uninteresting, and declared her tragic scenes to be grotesquely "
harlequinade
''Harlequinade'' is a British comic theatrical genre, defined by the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' as "that part of a pantomime in which the harlequin and clown play the principal parts". It developed in England between the 17th and mid-19th cent ...
". ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' review was particularly harsh and lambasted her editor Max Perkins:
The overwhelmingly negative reviews bewildered and distressed Zelda. However, she acknowledged to Maxwell Perkins that a review from
William McFee
William Morley Punshon McFee (15 June 1881 – 2 July 1966) was an English writer of sea stories. Both of his parents were Canadian.
Early years
The son of John McFee and Hilda Wallace McFee, he was born (as was his sister) on the ''Erin's Is ...
, writing in ''
The New York Sun
''The New York Sun'' is an American online newspaper published in Manhattan; from 2002 to 2008 it was a daily newspaper distributed in New York City. It debuted on April 16, 2002, adopting the name, motto, and masthead of the earlier New York ...
'', was at least accurate in its criticisms. McFee wrote:
Malcolm Cowley
Malcolm Cowley (August 24, 1898 – March 27, 1989) was an American writer, editor, historian, poet, and literary critic. His best known works include his first book of poetry, ''Blue Juniata'' (1929), his lyrical memoir, ''Exile's Return ...
, a friend of the Fitzgeralds, read the book and wrote consolingly to her husband Scott, "It moves me a lot: she has something there that nobody got into words before." Yet another friend,
Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style—which he termed the iceberg theory—had a strong influence on 20th-century fic ...
, believed the work lacked artistic merit and warned editor Maxwell Perkins that if he ever published a novel by any of his wives, "I'll bloody well shoot you." Perkins himself was somewhat dismissive of the novel's quality.
[: "She has some mighty bad tricks of writing, but she is now getting over the worst of them."] The book sold approximately 1,300 copies for which Zelda earned a final sum of $120.73.
After the failure of ''Save Me the Waltz'', Zelda's spirits were temporarily crushed. She nevertheless attempted to write a farcical stage play entitled ''Scandalabra'' in Fall 1932. However, after submitting the manuscript to agent
Harold Ober
Harold Ober (1881–1959) was an American literary agent.
In 1907 — two years after graduating from Harvard with a degree in literature — Harold Ober became a literary agent at the Paul R. Reynolds Literary Agency. By 1908 he was representing ...
, Zelda was further dispirited when Broadway producers rejected her play. A year later, during a group therapy session with her husband and a psychiatrist, Fitzgerald remarked that she was "a third-rate writer." Disheartened, Zelda next attempted to paint
watercolors
Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (British English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin ''aqua'' "water"), is a painting method”Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to t ...
but, when her paintings were exhibited in 1934, the critical response was equally disappointing.
In 1965, nearly two decades after Zelda's death, her friend and literary critic
Edmund Wilson
Edmund Wilson Jr. (May 8, 1895 – June 12, 1972) was an American writer and literary critic who explored Freudian and Marxist themes. He influenced many American authors, including F. Scott Fitzgerald, whose unfinished work he edited for publi ...
cautioned that readers should not infer too much about the Fitzgeralds' supposedly glamorous existence based on ''Save Me the Waltz'' as the semi-fictional novel "was merely a reflection of the fantasy that he and she lived together". Wilson stated that
Morley Callaghan
Edward Morley Callaghan (February 22, 1903 – August 25, 1990) was a Canadian novelist, short story writer, playwright, and TV and radio personality.
Biography
Of Canadian/English-immigrant parentage,Clara Thomas, ''Canadian Novelists 192 ...
's 1963 memoir ''That Summer in Paris'', which recounted Callaghan's friendship with the Fitzgeralds during their sojourn abroad, provided a more accurate representation of the daily lives of Zelda and her husband in Europe.
Authorship
In 1970, forty years after the novel's original publication, Zelda's first biographer
Nancy Milford
Nancy Lee Milford (née Winston; March 26, 1938 – March 29, 2022) was an American biographer. She was noted for her biographies on Zelda Fitzgerald and Edna St. Vincent Millay.
Early life and education
Nancy Lee Winston was born in Dearborn ...
posited that novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald had extensively rewritten his spouse's manuscript prior to its publication. Contrary to this speculation, later scholarly examinations of Zelda's earlier drafts of ''Save Me the Waltz'' and the revised version of her novel discerned fewer alterations than previously assumed.
According to Fitzgerald scholar
Matthew J. Bruccoli, the revised galleys were "worked over, but almost all the marks are in Zelda Fitzgerald's hand. F. Scott Fitzgerald did not systematically work on the surviving proofs: only eight of the words written on them are clearly in his hand." Furthermore, the revisions requested by Fitzgerald were determined to be relatively minor.
References
Notes
Citations
Works cited
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{{Authority control
1932 American novels
Adultery in novels
Metafictional novels
Modernist novels
Charles Scribner's Sons books
Novels set in the Roaring Twenties
Novels set in New York City
Novels set in France