About this title: Ernest Hemingway's great post-World War I novel, his first major work and the classic novel of the "lost generation," is a vivid exploration of the moral wasteland of Europe in the Twenties, and of the sterility and despair of postwar life. His hero, Jake Barnes, has suffered a war injury that has left him impotent. Hopelessly in love with the seductive and flamboyant Lady Brett Ashley, Jake leaves Paris to accompany Brett, her drunken fiancé, and an American boxer to Pamplona, watching helplessly as she falls for a young bullfighter. The expatriate crowd that Hemingway portrays so vividly ...
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Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Scribner Book Company
Date Published: 1920
ISBN-13:9780684718088ISBN:0684718081
Description: Good. No dust jacket as issued. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. Audience: General/trade. Gently used, but an old copy with tanned pages and a curve to the book. read more
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Holiday House
Date Published: 1986
ISBN-13:9780684174723ISBN:0684174723
Description: Acceptable. Overall below average used book. May have highlighting, underlining, notes, price sticker on cover, or be an ex-library book. read more
"Considered by critics to be Hemingway's finest novel,The Sun Also Rises showcases a young Hemingway in full flower.One of the key members of the so called "Lost Generation" and part of the ex- patriot tradition of American writers(Fitzgerald, Ezra Pound, Ford Maddox Ford etc) who found a spiritual home away from home in Paris,the novel introduced the reading public to a compact style of writing that would be a Hemingway hallmark.As noted by more than one critic, what made Hemingway stand out ,was not only did he capture the ennui of a generation, but he did so in a unique and moving way,where what was left out was as important as what he chose to include.Disillusioned and war wearied, Jake Barnes represented every American who was scarred by the events of World War One and the end innocence it brought about. When at the end of the novel,Jake and Brett's cab comes to an abrupt halt at a symbolic red light,Jake is not the only one who realizes the futility of Lady Brett's remark to him, "We could have had such a fine life together." The reader knows it too and may well nod in agreement with Jake who responds simply , "Isn't it pretty to think so.""
"I honestly didn't think that this book would be as bad as it was. I was assigned to read this book for class, and the books we've read for class have hitherto been better than this.
This book has virtually no plot, and the characters are very flat. The entire book consists of a group of people, each of them disliking at least one person in their party, driving around Paris drinking. Then they decide to go to Spain and drink. So the rest of the book is about them drinking with each other, drinking with people they meet in Spain, drama, a little more drinking and drama, and a little bit of bullfighting."
The matador is Death. He is inevitable and inescapable. Not cruel, just there -- and he has come for the bull, who will fight for his life and lose. But don't feel sorry for the bull for the bull will die fighting, a chance not given to other bulls -- who will die without dignity. The people who enjoy watching are not yet aware that there is a matador for each of them. Not cruel. Just there. Inevitable. So what do you do? You get drunk and have a lot of sex and sleep so time will pass. But what if your manhood has been taken from you and you are deprived of the chance to Be A Man and fight your matador with dignity. No, you have no balls, so you will die with out dignity. You can not even love, for the woman will be disappointed. You can't consummate your love if you had your balls shot off in the war. Only love makes life worth living. So if no woman will love you because fate has emasculated you -- well, you represent a whole "Lost Generation" of men who were emasculated by the war. Terrified. All men realize all men (and women) are good only for slaughter. They have smelled death. They have seen Death at work. They know Death comes for each of us. They have learned love cannot save them. But don't worry because the Sun also rises. (That's a Heminway pun for those who don't get it -- "rises"? You don't get a rise if your balls have been shot off in the war. A whole generation . . . emasculated by war."
"I don't blame Hemingway. I was bothered by the bull-fighting. During some of the descriptions, my eyes just wandered off the book and stared at a fixed spot and tried to understand it. I don't. I can't begin to put myself in his life and times, though, and I do understand why it was such a strong motif in a book about Post World War I Europe.
I was very interested in the Cohn character, and when he had his breakdown, it was the closest thing I felt to an emotional attachment to the book (other than disgust and revulsion).
I think I have to try one more novel, though, before I cross him off. I loved Old Man and the Sea. Or maybe I should read his Moveable Feast?"
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