Scandalous Women: The Lives and Loves of History's Most Notorious Women by Elizabeth Mahon
Authors: Elizabeth Mahon
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economize and Fitzgerald wrote. When Scott wrote, he required a life free from distractions, which left Zelda at loose ends. While he holed up in his study working feverishly on the short stories that kept them afloat between novels, she spent her days swimming, playing tennis, or waiting for the bootlegger to show up with their booze. Even the birth of their daughter, Scottie, didn’t completely fill up her days.
Attempting to save money, the Fitzgeralds sailed for Europe, where the dollar was strong and drinking was legal, along with fifty-five pieces of luggage, and settled in the south of France. They would spend the better part of the next five years abroad. While Scott hunkered down to finish what would be his masterpiece, The Great Gatsby , Zelda was bored. She and Scott became friendly with a group of French pilots stationed nearby. For Zelda, it brought back memories of her glory days in Montgomery when pilots from the nearby airfield would fly over her house. Zelda became particularly friendly with one in particular. When she told Scott that she had fallen in love and wanted a divorce, he locked her in the villa. Depressed, Zelda took an overdose of sleeping pills. Still only twenty-four, she felt as if life was passing her by. Her unhappiness manifested itself in illness; she began to suffer from anxiety attacks and colitis.
They continued to quarrel and make up incessantly, seeming to egg each other on to see who could be the more outrageous. Once Zelda threw herself under the wheel of their car and goaded him into driving over her, which he almost did. They fought over his drinking, which was getting in the way of his work. When Scott flirted with an aging Isadora Duncan in a café in the south of France, Zelda threw herself down a flight of stone stairs.
Needing a creative outlet of her own, Zelda was drawn back to her first love, ballet. Despite the fact that ten years had passed since her last dance class, Zelda became fanatical about practicing. She installed a mirror and a barre so she could work sometimes for eight hours a day. As Scott was stalled in writing his new novel, he resented Zelda’s determination to revive her dance career. He was unwilling to admit that she might have real talent, that she needed to be seen as more than his wife. Despite her age, Zelda was offered a position with a company in Naples, dancing a solo in Aida . No one knows exactly why she turned it down. Perhaps just the offer was enough for her.
In 1930, Zelda had her first breakdown. The sparkle had gone out of her; she seemed tired and distracted. Her blond hair turned dark brown, and she lost weight. She complained of hearing voices in her head, and her speech became confused. Diagnosed with schizophrenia, for the rest of her life she would be in and out of institutions, most of the time voluntarily. Scott blamed her breakdown on her obsession with dancing. She agreed to cease dancing if he would stop drinking but he refused to see he had a problem.
While recuperating at the Phipps Clinic at Johns Hopkins in 1932, Zelda began secretly working on her first novel, Save the Waltz . It was the semiautobiographical story of a young woman from the South who marries a famous artist. Without telling Scott, she sent the manuscript to his editor, Maxwell Perkins, at Scribner. When Scott finally read the manuscript he felt betrayed; as Zelda’s biographer Nancy Milford writes, he believed that Zelda had directly invaded what he considered his domain. How dare Zelda use her own life for her work? Her life belonged to Scott, not to her. It was as if she were his personal property, not just his wife. He was writing his own book, one that would become Tender Is the Night , which used some of the same material.
During a joint session with her doctor, the transcript running 116 pages, Scott blamed her for the fact that he hadn’t published a novel in seven years, refusing to see the role that alcohol played in his inability to work.
Attempting to save money, the Fitzgeralds sailed for Europe, where the dollar was strong and drinking was legal, along with fifty-five pieces of luggage, and settled in the south of France. They would spend the better part of the next five years abroad. While Scott hunkered down to finish what would be his masterpiece, The Great Gatsby , Zelda was bored. She and Scott became friendly with a group of French pilots stationed nearby. For Zelda, it brought back memories of her glory days in Montgomery when pilots from the nearby airfield would fly over her house. Zelda became particularly friendly with one in particular. When she told Scott that she had fallen in love and wanted a divorce, he locked her in the villa. Depressed, Zelda took an overdose of sleeping pills. Still only twenty-four, she felt as if life was passing her by. Her unhappiness manifested itself in illness; she began to suffer from anxiety attacks and colitis.
They continued to quarrel and make up incessantly, seeming to egg each other on to see who could be the more outrageous. Once Zelda threw herself under the wheel of their car and goaded him into driving over her, which he almost did. They fought over his drinking, which was getting in the way of his work. When Scott flirted with an aging Isadora Duncan in a café in the south of France, Zelda threw herself down a flight of stone stairs.
Needing a creative outlet of her own, Zelda was drawn back to her first love, ballet. Despite the fact that ten years had passed since her last dance class, Zelda became fanatical about practicing. She installed a mirror and a barre so she could work sometimes for eight hours a day. As Scott was stalled in writing his new novel, he resented Zelda’s determination to revive her dance career. He was unwilling to admit that she might have real talent, that she needed to be seen as more than his wife. Despite her age, Zelda was offered a position with a company in Naples, dancing a solo in Aida . No one knows exactly why she turned it down. Perhaps just the offer was enough for her.
In 1930, Zelda had her first breakdown. The sparkle had gone out of her; she seemed tired and distracted. Her blond hair turned dark brown, and she lost weight. She complained of hearing voices in her head, and her speech became confused. Diagnosed with schizophrenia, for the rest of her life she would be in and out of institutions, most of the time voluntarily. Scott blamed her breakdown on her obsession with dancing. She agreed to cease dancing if he would stop drinking but he refused to see he had a problem.
While recuperating at the Phipps Clinic at Johns Hopkins in 1932, Zelda began secretly working on her first novel, Save the Waltz . It was the semiautobiographical story of a young woman from the South who marries a famous artist. Without telling Scott, she sent the manuscript to his editor, Maxwell Perkins, at Scribner. When Scott finally read the manuscript he felt betrayed; as Zelda’s biographer Nancy Milford writes, he believed that Zelda had directly invaded what he considered his domain. How dare Zelda use her own life for her work? Her life belonged to Scott, not to her. It was as if she were his personal property, not just his wife. He was writing his own book, one that would become Tender Is the Night , which used some of the same material.
During a joint session with her doctor, the transcript running 116 pages, Scott blamed her for the fact that he hadn’t published a novel in seven years, refusing to see the role that alcohol played in his inability to work.
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