The Sun Also Rises

Written by Ernest Hemingway and Colm Toibin

Narrated by William Hurt

2007 Audie Award Finalist for Classics

Originally published in 1926, The Sun Also Rises is Ernest Hemingway’s first novel and a classic example of his spare but powerful writing style.​

A poignant look at the disillusionment and angst of the post-World War I generation, the novel introduces two of Hemingway’s most unforgettable characters: Jake Barnes and Lady Brett Ashley. The story follows the flamboyant Brett and the hapless Jake as they journey from the wild nightlife of 1920s Paris to the brutal bullfighting rings of Spain with a motley group of expatriates. In his first great literary masterpiece, Hemingway portrays an age of moral bankruptcy, spiritual dissolution, unrealized love, and vanishing illusions.

“The ideal companion for troubled times: equal parts Continental escape and serious grappling with the question of what it means to be, and feel, lost.” —The Wall Street Journal

• Language: English
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
• Release date: Oct 17, 2006
• ISBN: 9780743563437

Ernest Hemingway

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. 

Reviews for The Sun Also Rises

[madepercy-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

As Hemingway's first novel, it is certainly beyond my comprehension how he could ever understand so much at the age of 27. I am reluctant to disclose too much for fear of spoilers, but the conclusion to the story is very real. The bullfighting is described in ways that make me want to see one, yet simultaneously I am appalled at the thought. Hemingway seems to have felt the same way. He also describes concussion in a way that can only be described by someone who has suffered several concussions. There are no lies in this work. I am becoming accustomed to the meandering first three-quarters of the typical Hemingway plot. It isn't hard work but it isn't gripping either. He seems to lull you into a comfortable sense of normalcy which doesn't end but the last quarter builds and builds to a climax in the last sentence that unfolds the final emotion. With the conclusion to "A Farewell to Arms" I burst into tears. With this novel I exclaimed, "That fucking sucks!" Hemingway's work is seriously brilliant while incredibly timeless. I am not sure whether it is simply cultural alignment or not, but the connection between the pedestrian and the nostalgic intertwined with the exotic European setting connects one's past to Hemingway's past to the power of two. He takes you to the place he has been and then where he is in the story. I am convinced this is the result of his technique of writing as the protagonist in the first person while excising, completely, the presence of the narrator. Brilliant stuff!

[dottieph · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Although Hemingway has great talent in writing conversational prose, I found this novel very boring. How many drinks can one have in one story? Bet this novel has the record!

[Joseph Nobs · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Don’t like the weird intonations of the reader. Sometimes he’s shouting for no reason. It sounds like he doesn’t really understand the words, like it’s all a first take reading.

[ebt1002 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I went back and forth on my rating of this novel several times. It's so easy to see how Hemingway was said to alter the novel, to take the form into new territory. At first, I was underwhelmed: short, choppy sentences and unconvincing dialogue. But as Jake Barnes, Lady Brett Ashley and their companions in Paris and Pamplona developed, as the tensions of fear, loathing, and longing entwined them in adolescent but also sympathetic tenor, I fell under their spell and enjoyed the narrative ride. That Jake and Brett are in love, and that fate has contrived to keep them apart (that is all I'm saying about that so as to avoid spoilers), serve as the primary thematic vehicle for exploring a time and place and a generation devastated by WWI. Racist language and anti-Semitic themes are part of why I struggled with my rating; can I excuse those by pointing to the 1926 publication date? In today's world, I find it harder to make that call. And it hardly feels adequate to "knock off a star" for such. So, I rated the novel for its literary merits as I perceive them without reference to the undertone of bias and discrimination. It's a great novel. And its author and characters are profoundly flawed. That is both the figure and the ground.

[theampersand · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Every time I read "The Sun Also Rises," I come away with new ideas of what it's actually about, and I think that that's very high praise indeed. Sure, it's about bullfights and drinking and Hemingway's masculine obsessions, but this time around I was struck by the curious social dynamics at work among Jake Barnes's drunken, glamorous friends. Its a novel about in-groups and out-groups, whether the divide in question is between mere tourists and true bullfight "aficionados," those who saw the Great War up close and those who didn't, or riotous, shameless, spendy drunks and our kind of riotous, shameless, spendy drunks. For all of the author's powerful description of bullfights and bull runs, the scene that made the biggest impression on me was the one in which harmless steers quieted murderously dangerous bulls: the book is full of descriptions of various kinds of herd behavior. Hemingway's use of negative literary space here is nothing short of masterful: he implies the rules that the book's characters play by, but he never spells them out, and this brings the reader into their circle. Similarly, the book's haunted by the specter of the First World War, which seems to have affected all of its characters so deeply that they struggle -- or have perhaps given up trying -- to articulate the ways that they've been hurt. And the damage is extensive: the emotional and moral tone of "The Sun Also Rises" is so despairing that, overt antisemitism aside, Robert Cohn's most serious crime seems to be his sentimentalism. On a more personal level, there's Lady Brett Astley, Jake's potential soulmate and a puzzle composed gender, class, and sexual contradictions: she seemed to me a dangerous beauty jealously guarding a dwindling store of personal magnetism. "The Sun Also Rises" is a short book, but it reads long: Hemingway's prose is journalistically efficient in places, but he's not afraid to lapse into grand and obvious Spanishisms when he describes Pamplona's bullfights. All in all, an enigmatic masterpiece, a book to read and read again.

[deckehoe · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The reader is plunged vividly into the worlds of both the post-war lost generation of Paris in the 1920's and the blood-soaked and alcohol-fuelled fiesta de San Firmino of Pamplona. As always, Hemingway is sparse, brutal, and masculine.

[jtp146 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a story about American expatriates, a group of writers bent on experiencing life and experiencing adventures. They are part of a cafe society in Paris where we meet Jake Barnes, Robert Cohn, and Lady Brett Ashley. We soon learn that all of the men are in love with Brett, who is engaged to Mike but has had an affair with Robert and who loves Jake. The group decides to take off on an adventure to the Spanish hillsides for fishing and then to Pamplona to take in a bullfight. Jake and another friend, Bill Gorton, continue to the fishing trip but Mike and Brett are late and Robert decides to wait for Brett in Pamplona. Once the group is all in Pamplona, the bullfighting culture is terrifically described. Few people really understand the finer points of the sport, but Jake is one of them. He introduces Brett to a young bullfighter, whom she seduces and then falls in love with. Tension builds among all the men who are in love with Brett, but Cohn is the most frustrated thinking that he has laid his stake in her because of their affair. They are constantly getting drunk during the fiestas and eventually the men take on Cohn. Cohn is egged on by antisemitic remarks and, being a champion boxer, easily lays into the guys, injuring them all but especially beating Romero, the young bullfighter. Despite his injuries Romero successfully fights the next day and wins Brett as well. Finally, Jake rescues Brett who has been abandoned in Madrid by Romero. She announces that she has decided to stay with Mike, leaving Jake and Brett speaking of things that might, but could not, have been.

[John Whiting · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

What a boring, pointless book. No one grows, learns, changes, or does anything particularly interesting.

[richard nagi · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A pretty good audio book , but William Hurt’s narration wasn’t very good in my opinion.

[piefuchs · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Yes, Hemingway is a great writer, but this book didn't do much for me other than make me dislike the characters.

[theokester · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I have had very little experience with Hemingway prior to picking up this book. For some reason I had it in my head that his writing would be haughty, inaccessible and laborious to read. I was pleasantly surprised that none of my preconceptions were true.The writing style in Sun Also Rises is fluid, simple and easy to follow. His sentences are short and easy to follow. His dialog is natural. His descriptions are straightforward and to the point. Even though the simplicity of the style made the reading quick and easy, I quickly saw that there was a lot going on "between the lines." As terse as much of the writing is, it was apparent that what was left out was just as important (perhaps more so) than what was on the page.As a case in point, nowhere in the book does Hemingway explicitly identify the nature of the wound that Jake received in the war. In fact, if a reader wasn't paying close attention, the importance of that wound would quickly fade into the background. However, there are plenty of clues as to the type of injury and the nature and extent that it has affected Jake's life. The injury was probably the largest case of something "not written" that was important. There were a few other instances where I felt like Hemingway was leaving out significant details while alluding to their importance.The character development in the book was very interesting. With the first person narrative, we only really get into Jake's head (although, as mentioned above, there's plenty of detail he leaves out even about himself) and everything is tainted by his view of life. At first his view felt fairly realistic and trustworthy but it quickly became apparent that he was jaded and cynical. I felt like we got a pretty good feel for Cohn by the end of the novel. His character seemed to be the most straightforward and easy to understand and also seemed to follow along with the narrator's initial description of him in the opening. Lady Brett Ashley's character was a bit more troublesome. She generally felt like a party girl who absolutely loved life and was always happy, but as the layers came back, she had more emotional depth than first expressed.The other characters in the novel were intriguing but again it was hard to unravel their motivations and get at the heart of their character because their words and motives were often veiled by volatile or sullen behavior. The various lovers of Brett and friends of Jake were interesting but seemed to serve as reflections to play off Brett and Jake and let us gain more depth into those personalities. The drunken repartees and the random banter was funny at times, harsh at others.The overall tone of the book was almost paradoxical. As readers, we're following around a group of expatriates as they party and travel around Europe reveling and enjoying life for all its worth. From a high level, you would think that this would be great fun. But as we drill down into the hearts and heads of these characters, the true story became rather depressive. Instead of a semi-aristocratic party crowd, in the end it felt like we were following a bunch of slovenly lounge-a-bouts who only lived for the next drink. Both Brett and Jake had a yearning for some true emotion or passion in life but neither was able to find a clear path to that state of happiness. Instead, all of the characters lived lives of broken, or disabled, relationships. They wandered aimlessly through life spending money like water in order to try and find some sort of emotional high (or perhaps a liquor induced numbness) to detract from their otherwise unfulfilled lives.After reading this book, I have a desire to seek out more Hemingway and read more of his stuff. I really enjoy the style he used in this book and found his characters intriguing and approachable. The story and emotions were thought provoking and effective.Definitely recommended.****4 stars out of 5

[darkwater_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

In Hemingway's classic Lost Generation trailblazer, the lifeless Jacob Barnes is a thirty something American living in post-World War I Europe. Barnes is an emotional desert, defeated by his physical injuries from the war and unable to please the love of his life, he sits idly by as the lovely Brett tramps about to both's unhappiness. His physiology goes unmentioned and begs the reader ask if his impotence is just a psychosomatic manifestation of a broken psyche. He and the other expatriates vamp around Europe and drink feverishly, reflecting their escapist desire for a never-to-be-found home-away-from-home.Otherwise inert, Jake lives vicariously through the Spanish bull fights. Perhaps he is unconsciously drawn to them by their symbolic significance - triumph of man's nature over his impulsive animality; perhaps by the likeness of the fight's rhythms to his own unrequited game of love; or simply by its reputably macho and morbid allure - a palpable conflict of life and death. Hemingway's own fascination with the sport may be gleaned from his "Death in the Afternoon": "Bullfighting is the only art in which the artist is in danger of death and in which the degree of brilliance in the performance is left to the fighter's honour."In this work, Hemingway's emblematic prose embodies the aridness of his characters. It also serves to place a sharp focus on the story and on the characters, rather than on flowery and shallow language.

[oreillynsf_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

In my view, Hemingway's best novel. His simple, clean writing style belie the depth with which he equips his characters. The book's narrative perspective is so focused and delightfully insular -- just as you would expect a story told by a single person to be. For me, the fun of reading Hemingway is thinking about what he leaves out of the text. Why does he provide so much detail about some things, and none about others? The first time I read Hemingway I confess I didn't "get" what people were so enamored with. But I was blessed to havea high school teacher who patiently explained to us what was so unique about the writing, and that added vividly to my appreciation of the author. I am very thankful for that perspective so I can enjoy this book so much. I am not as eloquent as some of the other reviewers on this page -- I suggest you check out ellenq's review to get a more complete picture. But give this one a try, and just take time every once in a while to appreciate the sound of the words and the simplicity and clarity of the book, especially its dialogue.

[casabooks · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I read "The Paris Wife" earlier this year and it tells the story of the Hemingways and friends going to bull fights in Spain, which inspired this first major break through work for Ernest. Thus, I felt compelled (yawwwwn) to read the actual (ho hum) book to see what all the (huh?) fuss was about.
OK, so maybe he wrote differently than the other popular writers of that time, but I got little if no "meat" from this story of self-indulgent rich people with nothing better to do than to drink and drink and drink some more and fuss over a silly woman. Writing simple sentences can make you famous. I can write a simple sentence. I can be famous. I went to the pub and drank too much. Am I famous now? She is not one to read "the classics".

[edwardc_237324 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Maybe I just started Hemingway with the wrong novel, but this book was incredibly humane and sad. Not the testosterone-driven work I was led to believe typifies Papa's style and content.

[Tom Smith · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A literary masterpiece that will stand the test of time versus work that is notable only for being fashionable at this time .

[wordygirl39 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Love this book. I always wanted to be Brett when I was young (and tried).

[crashmyparty · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A tale of rich people (men and their one female companion - who they all seemed to want, although I can't work out why as she was extremely whiney) who drink and squander money they got from God knows where through France and Spain. While amusing in some places, I'm not sure I get all the fuss. Maybe I didn't understand it...?

[mahallett · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

was not expecting to like this and don't really know why i did. a story of english-speakers in france and spain between wars, they all drink way too much and look down on the europeans. they are all in lust with brett who is more like a man than the men. jake is an extremely nice guy. hope he doesn't finish last. he keeps the novel going.

[figre · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I don?t get it. I just don?t see anything in this first novel that would cause it to be a sensation, to cause people to think of Hemingway as a preeminent writer. I read it and see a bunch of disaffected people wondering around, getting drunk, pretending they have importance, and generally being the kind of people that give people a bad name. I don?t like these people, and I don?t care what happens to them.The only part of this book that does anything is the description of the bull fight. This is the terse, quick descriptions one expects, and descriptions that draw you into the action. But the book is not about bullfighting ? it is about people. And these are people I would rather have not spent time with.

[tinkettleinn · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The novel is set in post-WWI Europe, and the characters are American expatriates living in France and drinking to exist, except for Jake Barnes who is the hero of the novel; he is the only character that isn't drunk for the story's entirety. Jake is able to stare into the meaninglessness of the modern world and find some hope in it. Jake's penis was shot off in the war. His balls and testicles remained intact, so is was still capable of being aroused, but unable to consumate his love with Brett, the love of his life. Because he cannot satisfy her sexually, he makes the ultimate sacrifice out of love: he allows Brett to sleep with other men. He watches her satisfy her physical, animal desire with men she does not really love. It is the most painfully romantic book I have ever read. It's a novel about being authentic.In the years directly following WWI, Gertrude Stein said to Hemingway, "You are all a lost generation." Hemingway wrote the novel in response to Stein's insensitive ignorance. He placed Stein's quote at the front of the book, and used this quote from Ecclesiastes to respond to it: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 his 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.Existentialism says we have to live our lives as though they are ends in themselves. If you want to live a good life and be an 'authentic' good person, you have to do it because it's good, because you want to, not because it may get you into Heaven. The question, then, arises about whether or not good morals can exist in a Godless world. Whether people can do things for their own sake. In the novel, most of the characters drink all of the time because the world is meaningless and it doesn't matter what they do; they don't realize they have a responsibility to live a good life.Hemingway uses bull-fighting as a metaphor for this authenticity. Good bull fighters will do it for its own sake, not as a performance for someone else. The descriptions of the bull fights are so beautiful; I hope to see a bull fight in Spain, one day. I leave you with this:Romero's left hand dropped the muleta over the bull's muzzle to blind him, his left shoulder went forward between the horns as the sword went in, and for just an instant he and the bull were one, Romero way out over the bull, the right arm extended high up to where the hilt of the sword had gone in between the bull's shoulders.

[memccauley6 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I think this is my fourth or fifth time to read this novel, and each time I read it I had an entirely different impression. In high school, the group of expatriates visiting Spain seemed glamorous and tragic, the dialog hard to follow.

Now I see the book more as having historical significance. Hemingway captured ?The Lost Generation? in these pages. His use of terse, journalistic prose was revolutionary. However, with age, the characters drunken escapades seem pathetic and juvenile rather that funny and glamorous. I feel certain this will be my last time to read it?. I?m too old for this crap.

[raven9167 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I have looked forward for many years to reading another Hemingway novel. I loved A Farewell to Arms and the characters of Frederick Henry and Catherine Barkley have stayed with me for many years. With the understanding that The Sun Also Rises is considered by many to be Hemingway's finest work, I dove in hoping to be as enthralled as I was with AFTA. And so, because I was not, I wonder if I'm judging TSAR somewhat unfairly. But I cannot escape that fundamentally this book is about celebrating the flaws in characters and commending them for being selfish and hateful. This was simply something I did not enjoy. I rate this with three stars because the plot is good (once you get past the first section, which is essentially only to lay the groundwork for the rest of the novel) and because the characters are unforgettable. But they are unforgettable for very different reasons than Lieutenant Henry and his beloved nurse Barkley; they are unforgettable because they are, quite simply, immature and indecent people.

Perhaps I'm being too harsh here. I did enjoy Hemingway's simple style, and the descriptions of the festival at Pamplona are excellent, particularly of the bull fighting towards the end. But at the end of the day, what we have here are men who drink too much, who hate other men because they all desire the same woman, and that one woman is selfish, superficial and someone who uses men only for her ends. I found it very difficult to sympathize with any of them. Robert Cohn may very well be a petty man who is egotistical, but the characters constantly demean him not for these negative qualities but for his Jewish ethnicity. Michael Campbell is a drunken gentlemen prone to fits of rage and rants, but no one stands up to him and calls him out on it. Jake Barnes stands at the center of all of this, and while he seems to have more redeeming qualities than the rest, he also goes along with the childish antics of his friends and engages in foul behavior even when he is aware of its foulness. He is anti-Semitic towards Cohn like all the others and cannot find the inner strength to tear himself away from the poison that is Lady Brett Ashley. Brett Ashley is possibly the worst offender of them all, as she consistently does damage to everyone around her, seems to be aware of this damage, and simply chooses to ignore it as it does not serve her own selfish ends. If there was anything redeeming of the way these characters carry on, it is this: none of them, perhaps save Ashley, get what they want in the end.

My rating reflects the fact that I don't like the characters and I especially hated the anti-Semitic theme with regards to Cohn. But I will not dispute that it is a valuable book and it is written well. I think if anyone were searching for a novel that shows the fruits of pursuing a life of selfishness, depravity and above all drunkenness (I'm not entirely sure the characters were ever sober), this would be it. But don't expect to find characters you can empathize with, because they simply aren't here.

[bookishjojo · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Doing a re-read of the novel for the Seasonal Reading Challenge (Fall 2009). I loved this book when I studied it in high school, so it will be interesting to see if I feel the same way about it now.

[ccayne_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Predictable in the drinking, chasing women, fishing and bullfighting. Surprising in the lyrical descriptions of place, whether in the countryside of Spain or in Paris, and that the person in power was a woman, Brett Ashley. That said, Brett's power resided in her beauty not in intellect of accomplishments.

[jennysbookbag.com · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I'm just not a Hemingway fan. I must be in the minority because I see that a lot of people love his work.

[dbsovereign · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Not my favorite Hemingway (that would be _A Moveable Feast_) - especially since it has bullfighting in it. Bull fighting is an obsession with Hemingway...

[corinneblackmer · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Although my students roundly detest this novel, I enjoy it for its willingness to show an assortment of disillusioned people in the wake of WWI attempting to engage in activities, largely relating drinking and bull fighting, that they can regard as authentic, or as authentic representations of their predicaments of social entrapment, crippling injury, or fatalism. Lady Brett does sexual desire as personal nihilism and good form beautifully, and Jakes's love for her reaches some level of sense making. The anti-Semitism is real in this novel, and quite unfortunate, and this is a group of malcontents who need a convenient scapegoat. They find him and thus anticipate further historical terrors to come.?

[dandelionroots · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

American and English expats living in Paris head down to Pamplona for the bullfights. I love his imagery, especially of Spain and its locals. For Whom the Bell Tolls was... amazing. One of my favorite novels. Perhaps I just didn't understand this one? Maybe you have to be part of the lost generation to empathize with their continual drunkenness and cruelty towards each other. Plus, I'll never understand bullfighting as a noble enterprise. Or perhaps that's the point, they commiserate with a cruel and pointless sport because they are themselves cruel and pointless. Meh, either way I don't much care.

[zmagic69 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

So here is my problem I rad this book back in high school and could not relate to it. 30 years later I had a better understanding of it, but still can't relate to it nor did I care about any of the characters in the story. I know people rave about Hemingway but to me he is just an ok writer. The only book for me that was readable by him was The Old Man & The Sea. The rest of his books were boring.