Set in post-WWI, The Sun Also Rises is the story of post-war expatriates who wander through places as they wander through an existence without meaning and purpose. The novel centres around the character Jake Barnes, who has been rendered impotent (both literally and metaphorically) by his participation in the war. He lives in Paris working as a journalist and fills his day with work and night with... read more
Description:
0
0
Amazon.com Review
The Sun Also Rises first appeared in 1926, and yet it's as fresh and clean and fine as it ever was, maybe finer. Hemingway's famously plain declarative sentences linger in the mind like poetry: "Brett was damned good-looking. She wore a slipover jersey sweater and a tweed skirt, and her hair was brushed ba 0
0
Amazon.com Review The Sun Also Rises first appeared in 1926, and yet it's as fresh and clean and fine as it ever was, maybe finer. Hemingway's famously plain declarative sentences linger in the mind like poetry: "Brett was damned good-looking. She wore a slipover jersey sweater and a tweed skirt, and her hair was brushed back like a boy's. She started all that." His cast of thirtysomething dissolute expatriates--Brett and her drunken fiancé, Mike Campbell, the unhappy Princeton Jewish boxer Robert Cohn, the sardonic novelist Bill Gorton--are as familiar as the "cool crowd" we all once knew. No wonder this quintessential lost-generation novel has inspired several generations of imitators, in style as well as lifestyle.
Jake Barnes, Hemingway's narrator with a mysterious war wound that has left him sexually incapable, is the heart and soul of the book. Brett, the beautiful, doomed English woman he adores, provides the glamour of natural chic and sexual unattainability. Alcohol and post-World War I anomie fuel the plot: weary of drinking and dancing in Paris cafés, the expatriate gang decamps for the Spanish town of Pamplona for the "wonderful nightmare" of a week-long fiesta. Brett, with fiancé and ex-lover Cohn in tow, breaks hearts all around until she falls, briefly, for the handsome teenage bullfighter Pedro Romero. "My God! he's a lovely boy," she tells Jake. "And how I would love to see him get into those clothes. He must use a shoe-horn." Whereupon the party disbands.
But what's most shocking about the book is its lean, adjective-free style. The Sun Also Rises is Hemingway's masterpiece--one of them, anyway--and no matter how many times you've read it or how you feel about the manners and morals of the characters, you won't be able to resist its spell. This is a classic that really does live up to its reputation. --David Laskin
"Fiesta, Ernest Hemingway’s original title for the novel, is still used for some European editions. Hemingway changed the American version to The Sun Also Rises (which is paraphrased from Ecclesiastes 1:5) at the behest of his publisher.
"
Mr. Saturn added this to a list 1 month, 2 weeks ago
"Day 13 - A book that you liked, except the ending
Compared to the rest of the book the ending seemed really flat and dull to me, not to mention somewhat expected. Of all the Hemingway I've read this is my least favorite."
Xanadon't added this to a list 2 years, 7 months ago
""Meet Jake Barnes: working journalist, expatriate, tough talker, tragic hero. Jake was horribly wounded in the war—in fact, he was effectively gelded—so he spends his time in Paris getting drunk in cafes, nursing his ennui, bantering with his hard-boiled friends, and mooning over his unconsummatable love for a beautiful, aristocratic Englishwoman named Bret Ashley who dines on men three meals a day. This doomed pair, plus a lively cast of romantically reckless expatriates, head to Pamplona f"
coroner added this to a list 4 years, 7 months ago
"Meet Jake Barnes: working journalist, expatriate, tough talker, tragic hero. Jake was horribly wounded in the war—in fact, he was effectively gelded—so he spends his time in Paris getting drunk in cafes, nursing his ennui, bantering with his hard-boiled friends, and mooning over his unconsummatable love for a beautiful, aristocratic Englishwoman named Bret Ashley who dines on men three meals a day. This doomed pair, plus a lively cast of romantically reckless expatriates, head to Pamplona fo"
chuckmuck added this to a list 4 years, 9 months ago
“Set in post-WWI, The Sun Also Rises is the story of post-war expatriates who wander through places as they wander through an existence without meaning and purpose. The novel centres around the character Jake Barnes, who has been rendered impotent (both literally and metaphorically) by his participation in the war. He lives in Paris working as a journalist and fills his day with work and night with drinking and clubbing. Through his eyes, the reader sees the general and overall impotence of his generation - "the lost generation" - of people who go about life seeking pleasure and alcohol to numb an existence without any purpose and spiritual depth.
Hemingway's language is simple and the narrative is intentionally superficial. The first person narrative of Jake never touches on the” read more
Hibiscus added this to a list 5 years, 4 months ago
Explore
Join Listal
Movies
TV Shows
DVDs
Music
Books
Games
Lists
Reviews
Images
53 comments
What Classic Literature Was Almost Called
Listal's Favorite Books Poll (Ongoing)
30 days of books
TIME's 100 Greatest Novels: 1923 -- Present
Time's 100 Best English Novels
Banned, Burned, Censored