Old Man and the Sea

Ernest Hemingway

Jul 2002 · Sold by Simon and Schuster

About this ebook

The last novel Ernest Hemingway saw published, The Old Man and the Sea has proved itself to be one of the enduring works of American fiction. It is the story of an old Cuban fisherman and his supreme ordeal: a relentless, agonizing battle with a giant marlin far out in the Gulf Stream. Using the simple, powerful language of a fable, Hemingway takes the timeless themes of courage in the face of defeat and personal triumph won from loss and transforms them into a magnificent twentieth-century classic.

Ratings and reviews

10/10/11 7th period Book Review There was once an old man who loved to fish in the sea whose name was Santiago. He went over eighty days without catching any fish out at sea. A young boy named Manolin who fished out at sea with the old man for forty days, until his parents made Manolin leave the job with the old man for a different job. His parents wanted him to work in a better boat that gets paid more money. After Manolin had made some money with the new job that he had, he wishes to go back to Santiago’s boat. Manolin thought if he went back to the boat he was first at that his bad luck would run out and they would finally start catching fish. The two men have a long and dreadful eighty seven days of bad luck and did not catch a single fish. For the next three weeks the old man and Manolin caught fish every day . The men eat supper and go to sleep hoping to catch fish the next day. The next morning when the old man wakes up they get the fishing gear ready to go. As the old man row away from shore into the deep sea they hear the splashing on the water of flying fish. When they get out to their fishing spot. The old man lowers his fishing lines so that they will flow with the current. As the sun rises they drift further out to sea with their lines still lowered. Soon while he is drifting his line jerks and he pulls in a ten pound tuna fish. The old man cuts the tuna up for bait and puts it on a hook and puts the bait about one hundred feet deep. When the line starts moving around the old man knows its a marlin and prays he takes the bait. The marlin takes the bait and drags the old man and his boat out to sea and it drug him so far that land was no longer visible. The fish pulls the boat all day and keeps dragging him further out to sea. The struggle with the marlin goes on all through the night. The next morning the fish is still pulling him and the fish is going into shallow waters. If the hooks cut a hole to big in the fishes mouth then the fish will get loose. the old man wants the fish to jump so the air in the fishes lungs will hold the fish back from going to deep and the old man not to have a chance to get the marlin into the boat. As the old man is holding the line with the marlin on the end of the line, the marlin makes a quick jerk which almost pulls the old man overboard. The old man looks down at his hands and notices that they are bleeding from holding the line tight. To keep his strength up the old man eats some of the raw tuna that he had caught from the day before. While eating the tuna in his right hand and holding the line in his left hand, the old man gets a cramp in his left hand from the tightness on the line. When he is waiting for his cramp in his hand to heal the old man notices that he is completely alone in the middle of the sea. The fish finally leaps into the air and the old man sees that the fish is two feet longer than the boat he is in. The old man decides to bait another line in case the fight with the marlin was to continue another night and maybe he could catch a meal on the other line. Just before nightfall a dolphin takes the second bait. the old man brings in the dolphin and and hits it on the head killing it. He cuts up the dolphin and saves the meat for the next day. The old man tries to sleep but for the next few hours into the night he cannot sleep and when he wakes up he is frustrated at himself for not going to sleep and build up his strength. The next morning the old man is awaken by the marlin pulling the boat and the old man is thrown into the front of the boat. He quickly grabs the line and tries to stop the line. He cuts open the dolphin and eats a flying fish that was in his stomach. As he eats the fish he remembers that no man has pain. For hours the old man

A short epic of man against nature written in Hemingway's sparse style. *The* book to read to gain an appreciation for that style without having to wallow in too much of Hemingway's he-man bravado. The only thing better are his short stories. This is a first edition in excellent condition - let me know if you are interested.

zero stars. worst book i've ever read. he goes crazy and starts talking to his hand and talking to fishes and to clouds and to himself. yeah i know he's in the ocean on a boat all by himself but i dont care. he's a crazy old man and im mad that my english teacher choose this book for me to read.

About the author

Ernest Hemingway did more to change the style of English prose than any other writer of his time. Publication of The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms immediately established Hemingway as one of the greatest literary lights of the twentieth century. His classic novel The Old Man and the Sea won the Pulitzer Prize in 1953. Hemingway was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954. His life and accomplishments are explored in-depth in the PBS documentary film from Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, Hemingway. Known for his larger-than-life personality and his passions for bullfighting, fishing, and big-game hunting, he died in Ketchum, Idaho on July 2, 1961.