The Sun Also Rises

Ernest Hemingway

Nov 2023 · DigiCat

About this ebook

The Sun Also Rises is one of the earliest and most important novels by Ernest Hemingway. The story tells of a group of British expatriates who travel to the Festival of San Fermín in Pamplona to watch the running of the bulls and the bullfights. The story is based on the real experience in Hemingway's life. During his stay in Paris in the 1920s and a trip to Spain in 1925 for the Pamplona festival and fishing in the Pyrenees he lived through the similar events. The work investigates the themes of love and death, the revivifying power of nature, and the concept of masculinity. It also touches upon the topic of Lost Generation – young intelligent people that got decadent, dissolute, and irretrievably damaged by World War I. Yet, in this work, he proves they are still resilient and strong. This novel also demonstrates Hemingway's "Iceberg Theory" of writing. The surface of the plot is a turbulent love story between Jake Barnes—a man whose war wound has made him unable to have sex—and the promiscuous divorcée Lady Brett Ashley. Yet, the lower levels of the novels raise the questions of the lost generation and the relation between the man and nature.

About the author

Ernest Hemingway, born on July 21, 1899, in Oak Park, Illinois, was a novelist, short story writer, and journalist with a formidable influence on 20th-century literature. Known for his economical and understated prose—a style he termed the 'Iceberg Theory'—his writing foregrounds surface elements while hinting at deeper themes beneath. Hemingway's adventurous life and public image played an essential role in shaping his literary persona. He served as an ambulance driver during World War I, which influenced much of his work including one of his most celebrated novels, 'A Farewell to Arms'. Hemingway was a part of the 1920s expatriate community in Paris and a member of the 'Lost Generation' as defined by Gertrude Stein. 'The Sun Also Rises' (1926), one of Hemingway's most famous works, reflects the disillusionment of this generation and remains a classic exploration of the postwar existential malaise. Hemingway's distinctive writing style characterized by minimalism and understatement, had a significant impact on the development of modern fiction. His body of work includes numerous classics such as 'For Whom the Bell Tolls', 'The Old Man and The Sea', which contributed to his Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954. Hemingway's contributions have remained a subject of scholarly study, and his unique approach continues to influence writers to this day. He passed away on July 2, 1961, in Ketchum, Idaho, leaving behind a legacy that continues to resonate within the literary world.