Published in 1926 to explosive acclaim, The Sun Also Rises stands as perhaps the most impressive first novel ever written by an American writer. A roman à clef about a group of American and English expatriates on an excursion from Paris’s Left Bank to Pamplona for the July fiesta and its climactic bull fight, a journey from the center of a civilization spiritually bankrupted by the First World … First World War to a vital, God-haunted world in which faith and honor have yet to lose their currency, the novel captured for the generation that would come to be called “Lost” the spirit of its age, and marked Ernest Hemingway as the preeminent writer of his time.
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Hemingway is not everyone’s cup of tea — his spartan, understated writing (ever heard of the Iceberg Theory?) — can be too simple for those looking for more description and more adjectives. But in The Sun Also Rises, one of his greatest known works, you can’t help but get hooked into the story of Jake, Lady Brett Ashley, and their friends, as they travel from boozy cafes and clubs in Paris to the bullfighting ring in Pamplona, Spain.
This is a story of what was called the “Lost Generation,” the legions of men who returned from WWI and drowned their sorrows in drink as they struggled to find themselves and their place in the world. This is a story of a love that you can’t ever quite let go, even when you know it’s bad for you. This is a story of trying to be a good person when everyone around you seems crazy and is behaving badly. And this is a story whose ending is one of the most debated among Hemingway and literary scholars: does it end with heartbreak or hope?
I first read this as a freshman in college, and read it again this summer with renewed eyes and found it to be more resonant than before. This is a Hemingway classic not to be missed.
Finished this over the weekend. It felt like a postcard from the 1920s — beautiful at times, ugly and out-of-date at others. I loved the second epigraph (from Ecclesiastes): “One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh; but the earth abideth forever… The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to the place where he arose… The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north; it whirleth about continually, and the wind returneth again according to its circuits… All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come thither they return again.”
Ernest Hemingway’s “The Sun Also Rises,” published in 1926, has been continuously in print for over nine decades. That, in itself, is a strong testament to any novel. I cannot say exactly how many times I have read this work, but I am going to guess at five readings. My lovely wife brought the book home from the library and, as it was just sitting there, I picked it up and read it. Why?
It has become fashionable, in the years following his death by suicide, to malign Hemingway’s work. There are many reasons for this, most of which do not have much to do with his writing. A cult of personality has grown up around Hemingway’s life, a cult of machismo, that of the hunter, the fighter, the fisherman, the man of many wives. Having read a good bit about his life, I believe that this cult of personality played a part in his undoing. He was a complicated public figure, a famous American novelist, a man of braggadocio and bluster. Infantilized by his mother, he overcompensating for that upbringing by embracing a facade of manliness that he would become famous for. But that is the writer, not the writing. Let us set that aside.
Hemingway subscribed to the “Iceberg Theory” of composing a novel. Using spare, simple prose, he told the tip of the tale, leaving the reader to plumb the depths of what lay beneath his stark words. It may not seem like a huge revelation now, but compare Hemingway’s work to some of his contemporaries: Theodore Dreiser, Ford Madox Ford, John Dos Passos, all great writers who wrote deeply complex novels. “The Sun Also Rises,” seems almost a novella by comparison. Yet below the deceptively simple descriptions, and direct dialogue, lies the bulk of the story. Hemingway’s writing style has had a significant impact on modern novels. Because of that impact, as well as his impressive body of work, he remains an important literary figure.
The novel was written in late 1925 and early 1926, following Hemingway’s third trip to Pamplona, Spain. If the reader knows about the ‘Running of the Bulls’ in Pamplona, the chances are it is because of Hemingway. The characters in the novel are based on real persons, those that made up the party of that third journey. The novel consists of three books: Paris, traveling in Spain and the Festival of San Fermin, and a short third book that is the aftermath and conclusion.
On the surface, this is a novel of flawed characters, desperate friendships, and misplaced longing for love. Only look a bit deeper, and there is so much more. Jake Barnes, the narrator, has been wounded in World War One. The reader is never told the exact nature of his wounds, but he has been rendered impotent. Barnes’ wound becomes an exploration of masculinity, and an example of the Iceberg Theory. Much later in the novel, there are some very subtle (and masterful) hints at what may have happened to Barnes. It is there, sketched as a simple line drawing, yet an integral part of the story.
The beautiful and feckless Lady Ashley, Brett, represents not only the love interest of several characters, but the emerging modern image of female sexuality in the 20th Century. She does not come off well in the process, but none of the characters do. And so it goes, from Robert Cohen to Mike Campbell, both besotted with Brett, both towed along in the building madness of the fiesta.
The novel spills through the streets and cafés of Paris, giving the reader a view of a bygone era. The journey continues into the Basque country of Spain, a quiet fishing trip in a land untouched by the civil war looming in the next decade. Then all of the ill-fated characters come together for the fiesta, a group of disparate expatriates standing out against a backdrop of traditional Spanish culture. The backdrop is portrayed as pure and good, the characters certainly not. As the Fiesta ends, the world comes crashing in, leading to the aftermath.
“The Sun Also Rises” is a deceptively simple novel. The characters haunt cafés and bars, talk, argue, drink an extraordinary amount of alcohol, and then move on. Read through quickly, it is an enjoyable story, a succinct slice of a time and a culture. Taken slowly, however, and a much larger set of themes emerge, just visible beneath the surface. It is well worth the reader’s time to take the novel slowly. Sexuality, masculinity, honor, love and loss, values and friendship, these are the themes that are waiting to be discovered.
I would add a note of caution. The novel is a product of the time in which it was written. There are derogatory terms used to describe one of the characters, who is Jewish. There are also racial terms used to refer to one of the minor characters. Some readers may find them offensive. In no way do I endorse any racial labels, or defend Hemingway’s use of them. I simple point out that they exist in the novel.
In conclusion, if you have read Hemingway, but not “The Sun Also Rises,” I highly recommend the novel. If you have managed to live your life without reading Hemingway, then this is a good place to start. If you like what you read, I would suggest “For Whom the Bell Tolls” as Hemingway’s other excellent early novel, along with some of his short stories, particularly the Nick Drake stories. As always, Happy Reading!
I’ve always been fascinated with Hemingway’s writing and find it a touch stone for characterization. Especially, The Old Man and the Sea. After watching the Ken Burns series on Hemingway, I decided to reread many of these classics. Ignore the use of derogatory terms, like the N word, and the appearance of antisemitism. For a broader context read literary and academic papers on class and culture for the time period. Read for characterization and a slice of the expat life in France and Spain.
A masterpiece from one of the greatest authors in the world literature.
If you only plan to read one Hemingway novel, just to say you did, this is probably the one. It introduced the world to the Hemingway sound, which was a minimalist one, and it issued in an American sound in writing the world had never heard before. Except in the work of Sherwood Anderson, who was Hemingway’s mentor. And in the work of Gertrude Stein who influenced them both. The book is probably important for another reason, since the plot does turn on a groin wound the hero, Jake, received in the war. The groin wound is a very important motif that reaches at least as far back as the Fisher King myths, the idea being that the land is suffering a famine because the king was wounded in battle by an arrow that pierced the testicles and now can never be removed. In order to heal the king and the land, a champion is sought, someone unusually pure of heart who will be sent on a quest to find the Holy Grail. His name is Percival or Parsifal. Robert Bly argued persuasively in his book Iron John that the myth is the blueprint for the way the male psyche functions at the deepest, unconscious levels, that every man is attempting in his own way to perform the feat of finding the Grail Castle and claiming the Holy Grail that can heal everyone. But it’s a quest that takes a lifetime and has several clear steps and — if any step is missed or botched — the result
can be disastrous for all. Apparently, cultures used to be better at making sure a boy hit all the rungs on the way up than we are now. Thus Jake’s story is an important one because he is wounded and ailing and must watch his friends fall in love, cheat on each other and fight to the death from the sidelines, which gives him a unique perspective on passion and its role in the world’s miseries.
The Sun Also Rises tells the story of Jake Barnes, Brett Ashley, Robert Cohn. Jake Barnes is a WWI veteran and friend of Robert Cohn. While in Paris they meet up with Jake’s friend Brett, who Robert is smitten with. Jake plans to revisit Pamplona for the annual running of the bulls and invites the other. The trip is disastrous. Although the plot is seemingly uneventful, there are a lot of significant themes to unravel.
The book is primarily about a devastated world in the wake of WWI (hence the title). It must explore the roles of love, morals, masculinity, and religion in this new context. Hemingway writes with a tight, tough prose- which distinctly contrasts with other writing from that time. This style contributes to why it is so easy to pick up and read today. This is a great book to read, especially if you are in the golden years of your life.
Seldom do I read a book that stays with me for years. This is one of the few. It is so understated that it gains power with memory. 100% show, 0% tell. The foundational rule for fiction. Show the reader a situation, paint it with words, and allow them to make up their own minds. Excellent work.
Read it but was not my kind of book. The characters were heavy drinkers and not particularly likeable. I did not care for the descriptive bull fighting.
The Sun Also Rises is one of those novels shoved down the throat of every American high school student in 11th or 12th grade English class. After revisiting the classics as an adult, and discovering how beautiful they truly are, I find myself thinking that high school students do not have enough life experiences to understand such books. That is the reason why they usually don’t enjoy them. That was not the case with this Hemingway classic, however. This novel was as boring and excruciating to read as the first time I struggled to get through it many moons ago.
I have always been amazed that critics fall in love with certain authors almost instantaneously while other authors struggle for years without recognition. A fatal flaw of The Sun Also Rises is that the story had no suspense. For some reason, authors such as Hemingway and Miller were so fascinated by living in Paris in the 1920’s and 1930’s that they were inspired to write novels about it describing their daily activities in excruciating detail. Why should anyone care about the daily lives of a bunch of spoiled Americans who decided to escape their problems by getting drunk at every single minute of every single day. We are all aware that Gertrude Stein labeled the spoiled misfits of that era as the “Lost Generation.” Perhaps they could have found direction in life by getting a job, volunteering for a charity, going to college or technical school to gain new skills.
The last half of the story focused entirely on the debauchery of the fiesta in Pamplona, ad nauseam. Jake, Bill, Robert, Mike and Brett Ashley did nothing but drink, fight, insult each other and act like fools. This is the written version of reality TV, Jerry Springer meets Shah’s of Sunset. Finally, the story would of been much more enjoyable if Jake’s character had grown over time. Yes you guessed it, the story would have benefitted from Jake finally growing a pair of “cojones” and telling Brett that he would not remain a shoulder for her to cry on while she shamelessly flaunted her lovers in front of the one man who cared about her the most. All in all, The Sun Also Rises has little going for it other than the name of its author (Hemingway).
Reading this today is very different than reading it when I was in high school. I loved it when I first read it, but this time around, it was just okay. I did enjoy Hemingway’s description of the bullfights, beaches and what it’s like to drink too much, travel without itinerary and take in the local culture. Just like many things, the writing style, the content, and presentation are of it’s time.
Perhaps my favorite by Hemingway. A great book!
One of my all time favorites and the book that introduced me to Hemingway. His simple sentences spoke to me: whereas I felt many authors try to impress the reader with their vocabulary, I thought Hemingway cared about getting the story across with as much brevity as possible.
Great story!
It’s funny, to me, to read books considered classics and wonder, a little, how they got to be such. The book was easy enough to read, although I find Hemingway’s style to be a bit clipped and abrupt in its delivery, but it gets on my nerves a little when the characters repeat themselves within the same conversation. His choice of simple text leaves it clear what is being conveyed, so the repetition seems to serve no real purpose. I guess I also prefer there to be some sort of plot, and this was the sort of story that is just like jumping into and out of the lives of these characters for just the duration of the book, without any real point or resolution. There is also something just generally unlikable about this particular generation, at least as they are portrayed in literature. Much as I felt while reading “The Great Gatsby,” I didn’t find a single character I liked, even in passing moments.
The first time I attempted to read a book by Hemingway, I was twelve, and it was The Old Man and the Sea. Of course, it didn’t sit well with me. But fast forward to ten years later, and I’ve finally finished my first Hemingway!
Fiesta: The Sun Also Rises is told through the eyes of Jacob Barnes, a war veteran who didn’t escape completely unscathed from the battlefield. Jake and his friends are a bunch of expatriates who live in Europe now, and want to enjoy their life after viewing the horrors of war. And the best way to do this, they decide, is to travel to Pamplona in Spain, to bear witness to the raucous fiesta of San Fermin. The fiesta brings about relationships that are broken or solidified, and the painful realization that the love of Jake’s life will never love him back. At the risk of revealing a bit too much, the book isn’t a totally ‘feel-good’ read about a friend road trip.
What I liked that Hemingway did differently to his peers writing in the same era was that he didn’t go out of his way to use bombastic language and make things decorated. In a way though, I felt like his writing suffered just a tad, by being a tad too simplistic at times. He also went into in depth descriptions of activities happening throughout the day that felt like they had no significance to the actual plot – he often ends up describing exactly what it is they ate and drank and what they talked about at the dinner table, but this rarely holds any significance to the plot itself unless there’s some form of dialogue.
While I appreciate the new writing style, and enjoy Hemingway for the brilliant author he is, the constant, diary-like droning of Jake’s activities managed to bore me just a tad.
Nonetheless, I enjoyed reading this novel, especially considering that I’ve grown up in a household where the feast of San Fermin is a highly awaited one – my parents watch the televised running of the bulls every morning, every day of the seven-day fiesta. The book does justice to the fiesta, and also gives Jake a very likable quality – while he knows that Brett will never love him, he does nothing to stop her from being with those she wants to love. And that makes all the difference in the kind of character he is.
Final rating: 4/5. Please read this book.
This is currently on my nightstand. I will post a review when I am finished. Happy reading everyone! Have a spectacular week!!