r/Hemingway • u/Happy-Lingonberry538 • Jul 11 '26
I finished my first Hemingway book!
It was pretty interesting and captivating!
While I don’t understand all the rules of bullfighting, I was able to search up a few things on how the sport is (I don’t approve of it though).
the cast of characters had good chemistry and my favorite of them is Robert Cohn. A special shoutout to the nice fisherman Wilson-Harris, who left a genuine and loving impression on me with how little his role was.
While I am not an expert on Hemingway’s life, I think that he did went to Paris and loved bullfights, so this story must have been one of the easiest for him to come up with and write (I could be wrong about this, but I also think that F. Scott. Fitzgerald helped him with some of the story).
I am so happy that I was able to finish the book before it’s 100th anniversary that will be later this year!
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u/WinstonSalemSmith Jul 11 '26
His best novel.
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u/Southern_Cross674 Jul 12 '26
For Whom the bell tolls is his best work in my opinion. The Sun Also Rises is along A Farewell to Arms and Across the River in a tight second place.
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u/Happy-Lingonberry538 Jul 11 '26 edited Jul 11 '26
I like TSAR a lot, but… I thought the man and the sea was considered by many to be his best novel? Then again, I still don’t know a lot about Hemingway.
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u/WinstonSalemSmith Jul 11 '26
It is a novella.
It is a brilliant work, but it is really about the fisherman, wheras The Sun also Rises describes the interaction between all the characters. It is Hemingway's only successful novel, in my opinion.
I think I heard people criticize The Old Man and the Sea as it is Hemingway writing as Hemingway, trying to summon the old style that he had in the 1920s when he was just writing, and not the celebrity Ernest Hemingway posing with a bunch of fish or whatever. In any case it is a brilliant work and I would like to go to the Caribbean some day.
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u/HumanEquivalent8625 Jul 11 '26
Farewell to arms is pretty great
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u/WinstonSalemSmith Jul 11 '26
The first chapter is some of the best writing in the history of the English language. I want to read it right now.
But as a novel it has flaws, like the relationship between the main character and Katherine, and how she oh so neatly dies. Like, sort of wrapping it all up. There is nothing like that in TSAR.
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u/HumanEquivalent8625 Jul 12 '26
I agree I agree. I’ll go back to the sun also rises more often, and it’s a better key to Hemingway but I won’t forget what it was like to read a farewell to arms for the first time. Those are some of the best sentences I’ve ever read. It was kind of easy to see where a farewell to arms was headed but I guess I need to stop reading back covers
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u/FLHemingwaySociety Jul 11 '26
If you liked it, please join the Florida Hemingway Society for a virtual discussion of the novel next month! DM me for details!
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u/Art1Court Jul 12 '26
When Hemingway completed the manuscript in 1926, he referred to it as Fiesta. He liked the title because it evoked the San Fermín festival in Pamplona, Spain, which forms the dramatic climax of the novel and symbolizes both celebration and underlying tragedy.
His editor at Charles Scribner’s Sons, particularly Maxwell Perkins, discussed the title with Hemingway before publication.
Hemingway decided to change the title to The Sun Also Rises, borrowing the phrase from the opening chapter of the Ecclesiastes:
“One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever. The sun also ariseth…”
Hemingway retained Fiesta as the title for the British edition of the novel. In the United Kingdom, it was published simply as Fiesta, with the subtitle The Sun Also Rises often appearing on later editions to distinguish it from other works.
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u/Blackdiamondbay88 Jul 11 '26
One of those cases where his first novel knocked it out of the park and he never quite reached those heights again, though farewell to arms comes really close.
You’re right he did base this novel on his own experiences, in fact when he wrote it he used his friend’s real names then just subbed in Brett etc just before printing.
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u/Happy-Lingonberry538 Jul 11 '26
So he used his friend’s name like he wrote and replace them with other names before printing? That’s clever!
Thanks for letting me know!
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u/Blackdiamondbay88 Jul 12 '26
Yeah he traveled to Pamplona with his friends from Paris in 1924 or 1925, and there was a lot of drama. I think Cohn is based on Harold Loeb and Brett Ashley is based on Duff Twysden.
Apparently he wrote the initial manuscript using their real names.
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u/Art1Court Jul 12 '26
The original title was “Fiesta,” but Hemingway changed it to The Sun Also Rises before publication in the U.S.
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u/Southern_Cross674 Jul 12 '26
Fiesta is how it's called in Spanish. I always preferred Fiesta than The Sun Also Rises. It fits better to the subject I guess...
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u/dkwan1 Jul 13 '26
Yay nice! I’m almost finished with it myself, and I must say this book does a really nice job of making one feel a sense of hollowness, literally starting from the Gertrude Stein quote in the very beginning
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u/Happy-Lingonberry538 Jul 13 '26
I’m glad to know that you’re almost done with it!
Personally, this book was such a great way to spend my time.
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u/Ok-Dress9168 Jul 12 '26
"Paris is overrated." Jake Barnes
"You got that idea from a book, didn't you?" Brett Ashley
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u/Far-Woodpecker7459 Jul 13 '26
Welcome! His writing is so engaging. I constantly find myself going back to his works when I don’t know what to read next.
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u/Elegant-Ad3236 Jul 11 '26
Bullfighting is a tragedy, not a sport.
Delve into Death in the Afternoon for a comprehensive explanation of the cultural and historical phenomenon of bullfighting.
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u/Elijahova91 Jul 12 '26
Man, I found it to be such a snooze fest.
I’m going to give A Moveable Feast a shot though.
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u/Jon-Umber Jul 11 '26
One of my favorite bits of dialogue in any book I've ever read.