efore
Ernest Hemingway gained fame as a writer of lucid, precise prose with the 1929
A Farewell to Arms, he wrote another gem centered on expatriate Americans, with
Spain and the bull fighting at Pamplona as the vivid background. Thus, Fiesta:
The Sun Also Rises was the novel that first established Hemingway's reputation
as a writer. Our reason to talk about the now at this time of the year is this:
Bull fighting is still held every July at Pamplona during the San Fermin
festival. Despite protests by animal rights organizations, the cruel killing in
the bull rings continues unabated.
Fiesta,
set in the 1920's, has love, flirting, new passions and old, jealousies and the
lure of travel, even as human emotions are explored with a rare subtlety.
Hemingway did have a strange passion for violence, cruelty and death, be it war
(For Whom the Bell Tolls), deep-sea fishing (The Old Man and the Sea), big-game
hunting (Green Hills of Africa) and bullfighting. In many ways a modern novel,
the descriptions of matadors fighting bulls, hero-worship of their skills, the
themes of courage and loss - Hemingway was at his best when he held up a gritty
mirror to life. If you want to read more on Hemingway's documentation of this
controversial sport, we recommend his non-fiction work, Death in the Afternoon.
For
starters, Hemingway was born in 1899 in Oak Park Illinois, USA. Among the
reading audience he is considered to be the most important writer of 21st
century literature in America. Ernest Hemingway's writing career began early at
the age of 17. He worked then for the Kansas City Star. It was when the World
War I broke out that he volunteered for working in the ambulance section in
Italy and got severely injured. It was this experience and the later months of
hospitalization that inspired the war scenes and the unforgettable love story
in A Farewell to Arms.
After
the First World War has ended, Ernest Hemingway set up base in Paris and there
he befriended fellow writers like James Joyce, Ezra Pound and Gertrude Stein.
These are the friends who encouraged Hemingway to write, and thus began a
glittering unparalleled writing career. After the First World War has ended,
Ernest Hemingway set up base in Paris and there he befriended fellow writers
like James Joyce, Ezra Pound and Gertrude Stein. These are the friends who encouraged
Hemingway to write, and thus began a glittering unparalleled writing career.
