The Sun Also Rises reviewed in-depth

Ernest Hemingway’s book The Sun Also Rises is renowned as the work that got his writing career off the ground.

This article provides a review of one of the greatest works of American literature and some of Hemingway’s other popular publications.

A biography of Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Hemingway was an American author born on July 21, 1899 in Oak Park, Illinois.

His novels and short stories exhibited a unique writing style full of vigor and intensity. His prose became one of the most influential voices of American and British fiction of the 20th century.

In 1954, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Hemingway started writing in high school, by which time he was already a prolific author. After high school, he moved to Kansas City and got a writing job as a reporter for The Kansas City Star, and therefore didn’t attend college.

Due to a defective eye, he was rejected for military service. However, Hemingway managed to serve in World War I as an ambulance driver for the American Red Cross.

He was injured in 1918 and transferred to Spain, where he met and fell in love with Agnes von Kurowsky, a Red Cross nurse. However, she declined to marry him.

In the United States, he started working as a correspondent for the Toronto Star Weekly. The job took him to France, where he met other American authors, such as F. Scott Fitzgerald and Gertrude Stein. They encouraged Hemingway to publish some of his non-journalistic work. Hemingway eventually signed a contract with the publisher Scribner’s, who also published many of his contemporary writers like Fitzgerald.

In 1924, he published his first book named, In Our Time. The collection of short stories was published in the United States in 1925. Although it was well received by the readers, it would be Hemingway’s first novel that would pivot his career.

The Sun Also Rises was Hemingway’s first and most famous novel, published in 1926. The book was adapted into a film in 1957, starring Tyrone Power, Ava Gardner, and Errol Flynn.

Ernest Hemingway died by suicide on July 2, 1961 in Ketchum, Idaho.

The Sun Also Rises—A review

The novel follows a group of American expatriates wandering through Europe in the 1920s after the end of World War I. They are a cynical group nicknamed “The Lost Generation.”

The story’s main characters are Lady Brett Ashley and Jake Barnes. Jake is the novel’s narrator. He is a journalist and a war veteran, and an injury he suffered in battle has left him impotent.

After the war, Jake moves to Paris. He lives close to his friend Robert Cohn, introduced as “the middleweight boxing champion of Princeton.” He also spends time with his ex-lover Brett. However, it’s implied in the story that they are no longer together due to his impotence problem.

Cohn wants to pursue a relationship with Brett, but Jake discourages him, as Lady Ashley is engaged to a Scottish war veteran named Mike Campbell. Brett and Cohn eventually leave Paris.

Sometime later, a friend of Jake, Bill Gorton, arrives in Paris. Together, they attend the Fiesta de San Fermin in Pamplona, Spain.

The day they go to see the Running of the Bulls and the bullfights, they run into Brett and her fiance. The group plan to reunite in Spain, bringing Cohn along.

When the group reunites in Pamplona, they meet a young bullfighter named Pedro Romero. Brett is especially captivated by the young man, and they decide to run away to Madrid.

The end of the novel is uneventful. Brett contacts Jake and asks him for help. She has sent Romero away. Brett and Jake take a taxi and wonder about the good time they could have had together.

In the epigraph, Hemingway added the term coined by Gertrude Stein, “you are The Lost Generation.” The novel features the existential disillusionment of the generation.

The characters lack mental and moral foundations, noticeably in how they handle themselves and their relationships. They are listless in life, drinking excessively to numb their thoughts of war and partaking in meaningless fights over women and sex.

Despite the success of the novel, it’s important to be aware of Hemingway’s anti-Semitism in his writing before reading.

The New York Times included this review of the novel in 1926,

“No amount of analysis can convey the quality of The Sun Also Rises. It is a truly gripping story, told in a lean, hard, athletic narrative prose that puts more literary English to shame.”

Other notable titles by Hemingway

If you like The Sun Also Rises, you may be interested in some of Ernest Hemingway’s other books:

The Old Man and the Sea

This novella follows the story of Santiago, an old Cuban fisherman struggling with a giant marlin in the Gulf Stream.

A Farewell to Arms

Published in 1929, it features an AWOL American soldier serving in the Italian army and a Florence nurse who decides to escape the Great War.

For Whom the Bell Tolls

The novel is set during the Spanish Civil War. It’s the story of an American volunteer attached to a Republican Guerrilla named Robert Jordan.

The Moveable Feast

It’s Hemingway’s memoir published in 1964. The book follows his years in Paris and his marriage to Hadley Richardson.

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FAQ

What is the message in The Sun Also Rises?

The Sun Also Rises is about the human condition. The main characters in the story feel inadequate in situations that should be easy and normal.

Is The Sun Also Rises a hard read?

The Sun Also Rises is a lean, hard narrative that requires the readers’ full attention to keep up with the story.

What is the irony of The Sun Also Rises?

Hemingway used irony in his depiction of Jake’s situation. He is the hero of the story that can’t accomplish even the most simple tasks.

Is The Sun Also Rises based on a true story?

The Sun Also Rises is based on real people from Hemingway’s circle of friends. The events are the author’s personal experiences of his life in Paris.

What is the significance of the title The Sun Also Rises?

The novel’s title references Ecclesiastes 1:5, written by King Solomon in the Bible. It defines the human condition as a continuous cycle of ups and downs. People need to accept that life will not always be at an all-time high, and that will ease the pain caused by difficult events.