The Sun Also Rises Audiobook By Ernest Hemingway, Colm Toibin cover art

The Sun Also Rises

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The Sun Also Rises

By: Ernest Hemingway, Colm Toibin
Narrated by: William Hurt
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About this listen

Originally published in 1926, The Sun Also Rises is Ernest Hemingway’s first novel and a classic example of his spare but powerful writing style.​

A poignant look at the disillusionment and angst of the post-World War I generation, the novel introduces two of Hemingway’s most unforgettable characters: Jake Barnes and Lady Brett Ashley. The story follows the flamboyant Brett and the hapless Jake as they journey from the wild nightlife of 1920s Paris to the brutal bullfighting rings of Spain with a motley group of expatriates. In his first great literary masterpiece, Hemingway portrays an age of moral bankruptcy, spiritual dissolution, unrealized love, and vanishing illusions.

Who's your papa? Listen to more from Ernest Hemingway.©1926 Charles Scribner's Sons. Copyright renewed 1954 Ernest Hemingway. All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form (P)2006 Simon and Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved. AUDIOWORKS is an imprint of Simon and Schuster Audio Division, Simon and Schuster, Inc.
Classics France

Critic reviews

2007 Audie Award Finalist for Classics

"An absorbing, beautifully and tenderly absurd, heart-breaking narrative....It is a truly gripping story, told in lean, hard athletic prose...magnificent." (The New York Times)

“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)

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What listeners say about The Sun Also Rises

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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

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6 people found this helpful

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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.

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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

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Enjoyed tremendously

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

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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.

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William Hurt makes it so much better.

Hemingway's dialogue becomes mundane and you can hear it in the narrator's voice. Love it!

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perfect narration

Even if you're not a huge Hemingway fan, this is worth it because of the perfect match up of reader and text. William Hurt would not be right for everything, but his reading of this is maybe the best reading of any book I have listened to, wonderful with characters' voices, excellent French and Spanish pronunciation (important in this book) and perfectly captures Jake's voice and the melancholic air of the story.

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Worst Narration Ever

I had to stop at chapter 5 and buy another version, because holy hell does this narrator butcher any coherent sense of the story.

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Narration is a bit off, otherwise it’s Hemingway

Strange cadence and emphasis by the narrator. I would’ve enjoyed it more if the flow was smoother.

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A Classic done right.


Hemingway's essence is conveyed beautifully by Hurt. A most pleasant listen of one of my favorite books.

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