The Sun Also Rises

De: Ernest Hemingway, Colm Toibin - introduction

Narrado por: William Hurt

2007 Audie Award Finalist for Classics

“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

Originally published in 1926, The Sun Also Riseshelped cement Ernest Hemingway's status as the one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century. A poignant look at disillusionment and angst, the novel introduces two of Hemingway’s most indelible characters: Jake Barnes and Lady Brett Ashley.

The story follows the flamboyant Brett and the hapless Jake as they journey from 1920s Paris to the brutal bullfighting rings of Spain with a motley group of expatriates. It is set during an age of moral bankruptcy, spiritual dissolution, unrealized love, and vanishing illusions. The story lays bare themes of alienation and disenchanted youth.

Hemingway's first novel is “an absorbing, beautifully and tenderly absurd, heartbreaking narrative...a truly gripping story, told in lean, hard, athletic prose” (The New York Times).

Hurt's reading adds a new dimension to the novel.

What did you love best about The Sun Also Rises?

The endless description of food, coffee, fishing and bullfighting is hypnotic. Many readers cant stand it, but one gets caught up in the flow of the small events that comprise the larger narrative. The famous Hemingway terseness is a jarring read on the page, but Hurt's reading interprets the repeated description of

What other book might you compare The Sun Also Rises to and why?

Any aficionado of the American novel should contrast this one with The Great Gatsby and one of the early Faulkner novels, e.g., Sanctuary.

Have you listened to any of William Hurt’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

no -- just his movie and stage work. He is a good actor.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

no extreme reactions

Gorgeous Title, Quite Unexceptional Story

If you're reading this and haven't read the novel, you may have been captured by the title (and, of course, the author); I certainly was because I like Hemingway's short stories and the book indeed has one of the most gorgeous titles in all literature: **The Sun Also Rises**. On my mission to read all novels deemed classics, this book has been the considerably least impressive.

After reading it, I researched a bit to find out why this is a "classic," besides by automatic qualification based on reverence for Hemingway. According to commentary I read, the novel is apparently held in high esteem, more now, for Hemingway's style than for the story's substance. Specifically, his short sentences with little punctuation are intended to, and mostly do, create a collage of visuals. He was a master at quasi-cinematic techniques of cutting quickly from one scene to the next and seamlessly blending one scene into the next. Also, the story is known for drawing maybe the most vivid picture of American and British expatriates living in Paris during the 20s, it led to Americans romanticizing the place and era, and its portrayal of Lady Brett (a twice-divorced, liberated lady) created a fad for short hairdos for 1920s American females.

The novel, a roman à clef based on the lives of Hemingway and a few of his friends, follows protagonist Jake, a vet rendered impotent by a war injury, and his writer/artiste/riche pals, only one of whom is female, Lady Brett Ashley. They hang out in Parisian nightclubs, Jake and a buddy go fishing, and then all head to Pamplona, attend the bullfights, drink and be merry. Jake is in love with Brett Ashley; yet, he cannot fulfill her needs. Robert Cohn, a former boxer turned writer, is also in love with Lady Brett, yet all in their group detest Cohn, who is Jewish (the novel could be considered anti-Semitic). Lady Brett (a new feminist of the 1920s) is attracted to and seduces the young stud bullfighter, who is half her age.

I was unaffected by this novel, except to feel empathy for Jake for his impotence and inability to consummate his love and a bit of anger for the general mistreatment of Cohn.

William Hurt? Ouch !

The story is typical Hemingway, but Hurt is horrible! He does incredibly awful renditions of several accents for the dialogue, and in the narration he just sounds bored. Ugh

Enjoyed tremendously

The reading was very good. Have always loved the book and this audio brings it to life.

oh man, i actually loved the reader

I am not sure why everyone hates this reader. He was by and large pitch perfect in the longer chunks of prose. The dialogue wasn't the best reading ever done, but it truly did not distract me at all. He mercifully refrains from reading the female voices in a falsetto, which is a bizarre affectation that so many male readers adopt. I was revisiting this book for the first time since grad school, and the reading genuinely felt correct.