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Literature Ernest Hemingway

The Sun Also Rises

By Ernest Hemingway · 1926

A group of expatriates travel from Paris to Spain, confronting love, disillusionment, masculinity and the aftermath of the First World War.

Form
Novel
Genre
Modernist fiction Literary fiction
Date
1926
Tags
Lost GenerationExpatriate lifePost-war disillusionmentBullfightingUnrequited love

The Sun Also Rises follows Jake Barnes, an American journalist living in Paris after the First World War. Jake is in love with Lady Brett Ashley, but a wartime injury prevents them from having a conventional sexual relationship. Their circle includes Robert Cohn, Mike Campbell and other expatriates whose lives are marked by drinking, restless travel and strained relationships. Tensions grow after Brett has an affair with Cohn, creating jealousy and resentment within the group.

The characters travel to Pamplona in Spain for the fiesta of San Fermín, where they attend bullfights and continue their personal conflicts. Brett becomes involved with the young bullfighter Pedro Romero, leading to further confrontation. After the group separates, Jake returns to Spain to help Brett after her relationship with Romero ends. The novel closes with Jake and Brett together in Madrid, reflecting on the life they might have shared.

Quotes

“How did you go bankrupt? Two ways, gradually and then suddenly.”

Ernest Hemingway · The Sun Also Rises, 1926 · Primary source

“This wine is too good for toast-drinking, my dear. You don’t want to mix emotions up with a wine like that. You lose the taste.”

Ernest Hemingway · The Sun Also Rises, 1926 · Primary source

“You can’t get away from yourself by moving from one place to another.”

Ernest Hemingway · The Sun Also Rises, 1926 · Primary source

“You ought to dream. All our biggest business men have been dreamers.”

Ernest Hemingway · The Sun Also Rises, 1926 · Primary source

“You’re an expatriate. You’ve lost touch with the soil. You get precious. Fake European standards have ruined you. You drink yourself to death. You become obsessed by sex. You spend all your time talking, not working. You are an expatriate, see? You hang around cafés”

Ernest Hemingway · The Sun Also Rises, 1926 · Primary source

“Oh, Jake,” Brett said, “we could have had such a damned good time together.”
Ahead was a mounted policeman in khaki directing traffic. He raised his baton. The car slowed suddenly pressing Brett against me.
“Yes,” I said. “Isn’t it pretty to think so?”

Ernest Hemingway · The Sun Also Rises, 1926 · Primary source

Explore the author

Ernest Hemingway

47 quotes · 8 works · 94 themes · 230 tags
Quotes
“How did you go bankrupt? Two ways, gradually and then suddenly.”“The world is a fine place and worth the fighting for and I hate very much to leave it.”“But man is not made for defeat. A man can be destroyed but not defeated.”
Works
A Farewell to Arms 1929For Whom the Bell Tolls 1940The Old Man and the Sea 1952
Themes
Gradual decline and sudden collapseHidden accumulation of riskEnjoying things on their own terms
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