The Old Man and the Sea
 

Old Man And The Sea (Scribner Classics)

by Ernest Hemingway

Here, for a change, is a fish tale that actually does honor to the author. In fact The Old Man and the Sea revived Ernest Hemingway's career, which was foundering under the weight of such postwar stinkers as Across the River and into the Trees. It also led directly to his receipt of the Nobel Prize in 1954 (an award Hemingway gladly accepted, despite his earlier observation that "no son of a... (read more)

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Most Helpful Reviews

Liked It

1 of 1 members found this review helpful.
jmadigan
  • Rated 4 stars

I consider myself fairly well read (fun fact: I minored in English Lit in college) but oddly enough I don't think I've read any Hemingway beyond a short story or two. I started remedying that with The Old Man and the Sea, the original fish story about the one that got away. Well, sort of.

One of the first things that struck me about Hemingway's writing is how expertly he follows the rule of "show, don't tell." Over reliance on exposition and explanation are hallmarks of amature...

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Didn’t Like It

1 of 1 members found this review helpful.
Joshua M
  • Rated 2 stars

This is a really short book. Couldn't it have been shorter. I think it would have made a good thirty page story.

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Community:
  • Rated 3.753764 stars
Amazon:
  • Rated 4 stars
 

Newest Comments

  • NhaTrang

    nhatrang said:

    I am not a big fan of Hemmingway or possess a brilliant brain to digest his works. Still "Old man and the sea" is a real difference to me. Perhaps I read it at the right point of time. When I was most down, lost everything, locked myself in the shadow, had no money, no joy, no social contacts, I read it and day by day, the book gradually showed me the light. I just pictured Santiago being there in the total darkness on the ocean where you can't tell days from nights, being extremely on his own, chasing a fish that seems so unreal. What is on his mind? What makes him fight for it to the extreme and more important, WHAT HE FIGHTS IT FOR when all he gets in the end is only its bone??? The questions kept popping in my mind and haunted me for quite a long time.
    Somehow I figure out should only read Hemmingway's books at the time of loneliness and down, then I always feel much better and like I can love the whole world again!! Haha. I normally don't understand them very well :)) but it's the persistent and drastic fighting spirit that is hard to find in other books. Though people always say his works show the pain and disappointment of a lost generation! Don't know why I don't want to find them that way.

    posted 1 day ago
  • parisa y

    parisa y said:

    I wonder why I have never been able to read any of hemingway's works to the end. someone recommended this book to me as a noble-prize worthy book. But I still wonder why? Maybe I'm too dumb!!

    if someone has got a reason, analysis or interpretation of the book, I would thankfully welcome it.

    posted 3 weeks ago
  • hajar z

    hajar z said:

    liked the analysis my teacher made for this novel but i didn't really like it maybe because i don't like Hemingway's style, but the idea that the sea represents life the fish the problems and the fisherman represents humans was what motivated me to read this novel

    posted Sunday, June 15 2008 ( | view 2 replies )
  • uplandpoet

    uplandpoet said:

    as much as i am not a fan of hemingway, is there anything more wonderful than a semi delusional fisherman thinking about baseball and illnesses of the greats and trying to find his place, not only in the universe, but in the pantheon between joe dimaggio and lou gehrig and the other heros of a silly summer sport that has taken on a somewhat religious significance for some of us

    posted Sunday, May 18 2008
  • Michael G

    michael g said:

    A man will often pit himself against the cosmos. This may be due to a number of factors, his age, his religion, his idiocy. Whatever. But the point is that no fish shall be deemed better than a half eaten man, a man baked in the hot tropical sun, a man who loves to talk about baseball.

    posted Sunday, May 18 2008
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