The Sun Also Rises

By Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Hemingway's quintessential story of the Lost Generation
 
With a new introduction by Maria Hinojosa, Emmy Award-winning journalist and anchor of Latino USA

“A truly gripping story, told in a lean, hard, athletic narrative prose that puts more literary English to shame. . . It is magnificent writing, filled with that organic action which gives a compelling picture of character. This novel is unquestionably one of the events of an unusually rich year in literature.”--New York Times Book Review

First published in 1926, The Sun Also Rises displays the full flower of Hemingway's unique style, at once spare and gut-wrenching. Following a group of expatriates in Europe after the devastation of World War I, the novel traces the doomed love story of Jake Barnes, a veteran wrestling with wounds both physical and emotional, and the beautiful Lady Brett Ashley. As they drift from the hedonistic nightlife of Paris to the macho world of bullfighting in Spain, these members of the Lost Generation face the loss of their illusions and the impossibility of love. Closely based on true people and events Hemingway experienced as an ex-pat in Europe, this debut novel marked the arrival of a towering talent.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Group
• Release date: Jan 25, 2022
• ISBN: 9780593201145

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

[mykl8s · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A very grown up story, that gives us everything we need to know about the characters by what they do, without long paragraphs of explication.

[badger2jc · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Understanding much of the emotional power and observations of the novel seems likely to require knowledge/experiance of historical situation

[g0ldenboy_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Hemingway's minimalist style does not stand up for more than a couple dozen pages, and his plot is nonexistent. Read his short stories instead.

[timswings · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Very good clear prose, technically seen. And Hemingway is very visual in the description of Paris,Spain, bullfighting, fishing and boxing and cycling sports. You have to place the novel, in the historical time (nineteen twenties). Nowadays, you can see the description of the Jewish character Robert Cohn as political incorrect, as also the bullfighting can be seen nowadays.

[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.

[donaldgallinger_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A young Ernest Hemingway writes his first novel. Full of the joy and sadness of youth, no one is better than Hemingway in evoking the sensual pleasures of the world. Lovely prose, wonderful energy...Hemingway in the first flush of his true talent. Not to be missed.

[gayla.bassham · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I still love the way Hemingway writes, but I'm docking this a star because the portrayal of Brett Ashley feels so dated. Yes, I recognize this book was written 90 years ago. But I found Brett grating enough that it spoiled the reading experience.

[doondeck · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Short sentences, lots of drinking, dissolute characters and bulls.

[moonglade_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

My first Hemingway and I must say that I was impressed. The "tough guy" writing style along with his natural wittiness is what first caught my attention but it was the characters and their relationships that really drew me in. Brett is one of the most interesting female characters I've read about and, throughout the novel, I found myself wishing that she and Jake could somehow consummate their complex and unobtainable relationship.

[bookomaniac-1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Portret van een Lost Generation helemaal in lijn van Scott Fitzgerald, ook toets van Hesses Steppenwolf. Stylistisch helemaal de toonzetting van de echte Hemingway: direct, echte spreektaal.

[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!

[buffalogr · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Classic novel -- emasculated WWI veteran finds himself in Paris with others of the lost generation. I kept drawing parallels to the children of the 60s, similar, I thought. Characters well developed as always. Papa did good in this novel. My first Hemingway novel in this decade, I'll read some more.

[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.

[raphaelmatto · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Didn't connect w/this one like I did w/For Whom The Bell Tolls & A Farewell To Arms. For Whom The Bell Tolls is my favorite.

[schmerguls · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

When I finished this book on March 12, 1955, I said: "I so envied the characters, getting to spend such delightful days and nights in Paris and Spain. I felt so refreshed by Hemingway's clear, clean prose, better, I think, than his later stuff. I was quite caught up in the style, and of course vicariously enjoyed the drinking that so reminded me of my brief times in Europe. Golly, how I wish I could go to Europe."

[delphimo_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

After, reading The Paris Wife, I was disappointed in The Sun Also Rises. So many of the scenes are repeated in both books, with more detail in The Paris Wife. All the drinking and carousing and fighting becomes too much. The relationships are sketchy in both books. The bull fighting and fishing are very detailed. I would venture to say that The Sun Also Rises is a book that most men would enjoy, but I felt under currents of homosexuality.

[rizeandshine · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

The book was well written, I suppose, but I found it a complete bore. I could never connect with any of the characters. Hemingway got his point across about this bitter and amoral lost generation of young people after the first world war, who spend their days aimlessly drinking and partying together. I am sure that there is much literary praise for this work and the author, but I wasn't impressed with the book at all.

[the_terrible_trivium · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

When people are talking it's kinda interesting, but more often it's just pages and pages of Spanish countryside and fishing and stuff. Meh.

[denisetoby · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I had just finished the Paris Wife which tells about EH writing this book after they had been to the bull-fights in Spain. I have to remember this was written in a different time. It seems all they did was drink and travel and I wonder how they had the money to do all of that. Not my favorite book. But glad I can say I read Hemmingway.

[scofer_2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Wonderful read. Set after WWI, the book chronicles the wild nightlife and laissez faire attitude of ex patriate Jake Barnes and his unforgettable friends as they drink themselves silly enjoying the Paris nightlife and during a trip to Spain to fish and participate in a week long bullfight fiesta. Terrific dialogue and character development ... particularly with Lady Brett Ashley, a true free spirit.

[akinin_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A powerful description of the Lost Generation that aptly resonates in modern ears. Various topics of importance are discussed like the irreparable damage of war, how to hold your liquor and cultural differences between the Spanish and the French. Is both very sad and very funny simultaneously with the leitmotif properly expressed by Voltaire long ago "O che sciagura d'essere senza coglioni."

[dramman_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Powerful, vivid book read in 1969, just after living in Spain - Hemmingway's description of Spain and bullfighting resonated strongly.

[jenburge · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Loved the critique of ex-pat society in the 1920's. Loved the slight on the French. Loved that this American man experienced and described the corridas in a decade where few would have known what the hell he was talking about. Loved that he uses French and Spanish words and doesn't define them. In general, I very much enjoyed this book and look forward to the rest of Hemingway. Say what you will of his character, but writing by your own rules certainly has an impact.

[unclebob53703 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Lovely edition of my favorite of his books, with a hand-tipped illustration, Woman With a Mandolin by Georges Braque (1937,) on the cover. Beautiful writing, timeless story, very handsome book. Best last line in the history of novels.

[neilsantos_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

not sure about this one. Got to page 94. Might get again.

[jamesfallen · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

My favorite Hemingway. Explores the expatriates of the list generation.

[prop2gether · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The first Hemingway novel I've read in a very long time, and it totally redeemed the writer for me. The episodic story of Jake Barnes and Lady Ashley, together with their friends was much more than their drunken sprees, fishing in the Pyrennes, and the bulls running in Pamplona. This time the language absolutely caught me up in the atmosphere and time period between two world wars.

[gittel_7 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Yeah, Hemingway, so I'm sure its great. I didn't get it.
I feel dumb for not getting it, but I didn't get it.
These characters were a brat pack of annoying spoileds getting drunk and roaming Europe. Read it anyway, because I'm a literary snob and Hemingway was on my literary bucket list. Someone please explain it to me.

[sadiebooks_1 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

BORING!!!!! this book should have ended 100 pages before it did. the first hemingway i ever read. i only pick it up now if i can't sleep.

[gwendolyndawson · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Although Hemingway is unquestionably a master at evoking much with very concise prose, I found this book annoying. The characters and unlikeable--alcoholic, wayward, misdirected, cruel. Also, I cannot be moved by the "art" of bullfighting, a inhumane tradition. I recognize the brilliance in some of the prose and the dialogue, but I also end up feeling as if Hemingway is over-rated.