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The Dangerous Summer
Experience Hemingway’s firsthand chronicle of a brutal season of bullfights in Spain.
In the 1950s, Hemingway and his wife return to Spain, where Hemingway had visited before as a war correspondent to cover the Spanish Civil War, in order to see friends and follow bullfighting events. Hemingway’s time in Spain is most often remembered as his experiences with bullfighting, his passion often conveyed through his writing. He and his wife follow summer-long series events and witness the complexities and danger within the bullfighting community.
In this vivid account, Hemingway captures the exhausting pace and pressure of the season, the camaraderie and pride of the matadors, and the mortal drama as in fight after fight the rival matadors try to outdo each other with ever more daring performances. At the same time, Hemingway offers an often complex and deeply personal self-portrait that reveals much about one of the twentieth century's preeminent writers.
In the 1950s, Hemingway and his wife return to Spain, where Hemingway had visited before as a war correspondent to cover the Spanish Civil War, in order to see friends and follow bullfighting events. Hemingway’s time in Spain is most often remembered as his experiences with bullfighting, his passion often conveyed through his writing. He and his wife follow summer-long series events and witness the complexities and danger within the bullfighting community.
In this vivid account, Hemingway captures the exhausting pace and pressure of the season, the camaraderie and pride of the matadors, and the mortal drama as in fight after fight the rival matadors try to outdo each other with ever more daring performances. At the same time, Hemingway offers an often complex and deeply personal self-portrait that reveals much about one of the twentieth century's preeminent writers.
240 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 1985
98 people are currently reading
3087 people want to read
About the author
Ernest Hemingway
2,216 books32.4k followersErnest Miller Hemingway was an American novelist, short-story writer and journalist. Best known for an economical, understated style that significantly influenced later 20th-century writers, he is often romanticized for his adventurous lifestyle, and outspoken and blunt public image. Most of Hemingway's works were published between the mid-1920s and mid-1950s, including seven novels, six short-story collections and two non-fiction works. His writings have become classics of American literature; he was awarded the 1954 Nobel Prize in Literature, while three of his novels, four short-story collections and three nonfiction works were published posthumously.
Hemingway was raised in Oak Park, Illinois. After high school, he spent six months as a cub reporter for The Kansas City Star before enlisting in the Red Cross. He served as an ambulance driver on the Italian Front in World War I and was seriously wounded in 1918. His wartime experiences formed the basis for his 1929 novel A Farewell to Arms. He married Hadley Richardson in 1921, the first of four wives. They moved to Paris where he worked as a foreign correspondent for the Toronto Star and fell under the influence of the modernist writers and artists of the 1920s' "Lost Generation" expatriate community. His debut novel The Sun Also Rises was published in 1926.
He divorced Richardson in 1927 and married Pauline Pfeiffer. They divorced after he returned from the Spanish Civil War, where he had worked as a journalist and which formed the basis for his 1940 novel For Whom the Bell Tolls. Martha Gellhorn became his third wife in 1940. He and Gellhorn separated after he met Mary Welsh Hemingway in London during World War II. Hemingway was present with Allied troops as a journalist at the Normandy landings and the liberation of Paris. He maintained permanent residences in Key West, Florida, in the 1930s and in Cuba in the 1940s and 1950s. On a 1954 trip to Africa, he was seriously injured in two plane accidents on successive days, leaving him in pain and ill health for much of the rest of his life. In 1959, he bought a house in Ketchum, Idaho, where, on July 2, 1961 (a couple weeks before his 62nd birthday), he killed himself using one of his shotguns.
Hemingway was raised in Oak Park, Illinois. After high school, he spent six months as a cub reporter for The Kansas City Star before enlisting in the Red Cross. He served as an ambulance driver on the Italian Front in World War I and was seriously wounded in 1918. His wartime experiences formed the basis for his 1929 novel A Farewell to Arms. He married Hadley Richardson in 1921, the first of four wives. They moved to Paris where he worked as a foreign correspondent for the Toronto Star and fell under the influence of the modernist writers and artists of the 1920s' "Lost Generation" expatriate community. His debut novel The Sun Also Rises was published in 1926.
He divorced Richardson in 1927 and married Pauline Pfeiffer. They divorced after he returned from the Spanish Civil War, where he had worked as a journalist and which formed the basis for his 1940 novel For Whom the Bell Tolls. Martha Gellhorn became his third wife in 1940. He and Gellhorn separated after he met Mary Welsh Hemingway in London during World War II. Hemingway was present with Allied troops as a journalist at the Normandy landings and the liberation of Paris. He maintained permanent residences in Key West, Florida, in the 1930s and in Cuba in the 1940s and 1950s. On a 1954 trip to Africa, he was seriously injured in two plane accidents on successive days, leaving him in pain and ill health for much of the rest of his life. In 1959, he bought a house in Ketchum, Idaho, where, on July 2, 1961 (a couple weeks before his 62nd birthday), he killed himself using one of his shotguns.
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September 13, 2025
The book's narrative is straightforward: Hemingway follows the bullfighting season, often alongside Ordonez and his entourage, traveling around Spain to participate in various bullfights. He describes the matches themselves, with the understated style for which he is famous, and particularly relevant when it comes to men flirting with death. It also describes daily life in parallel with the fights, the journeys, the food, the backstage bullfighting, and the medical aspect. Dominguin is seriously injured in a row early in the book; later, it's Ordonez's turn. The apotheosis of the story describes the final fight between the two bullfighters in Bilbao, an exceptional battle during which they both receive ten ears, four tails, and two hooves as a reward for their talent. During this fight, Dominguin was seriously injured, reopening the injury he had received earlier in Valencia, while Ordonez asserted his superiority by fighting virtuously.
October 19, 2020
A Mindenható egy nap kedveskedni akart a jó öreg Ernestnek, aki - minden köztük fennálló ideológiai nézeteltéresen túl - szeretett írója volt. Elhatározta, hogy kitalál egy pont neki való sportot. Egy olyan sportot, ami egyszerre elegáns és kegyetlen, veszélyes és giccses, amiben az ember órákon keresztül bámulhat vicces-csicsás gúnyákban táncikáló karcsú férfiakat, miközben az egész mégis baromi maszkulinnak hat. Így aztán az Úr megteremté: a bikaviadalt. (Ráadásul ez a sport kellően egzotikus is, magyarán: a nem-spanyolok zöme maximum annyira érti a szabályokat, hogy meg tudja különböztetni a matadort a bikától. Úgyhogy Hemingway igen könnyen, különösebb konkurenciaharc nélkül szakértői pozícióba emelkedhet - és a Papa szeret szakértőnek látszani.)
Ezt a könyvet én a bikaviadal ellenére szerettem. Persze átjött, hogy Hemingway nagyon érti a műfajt, de nagytestű állatok önveszélyes összevagdosása (nem, nem a berúgva böllérkedésről beszélek) számomra akkor sem tud szimpatikus elfoglaltság lenni. De azt meg kell adni, mindez olyan terepet ad írónknak, ahol otthon érzi magát. Ahol kikerekíthet egy mítoszt: a kor két legzseniálisabb matadorának személyes vetélkedését, akik pontosan tudják, hogy rivalizálásuk egy ponton el fog jutni oda, amikor valamelyikük figyelme egy percre ellankad - és sitty-sutty szarvára tűzi őket a bika. Ez a párbaj, ez az igazi hemingwayi férfiasságpróba az, ami lüktető feszültséggel tölti meg a kötetet.
És azt se feledjük, hogy a könyv egyben egy remek spanyol útirajz is, amiben a matador sleppje (élén Hemingway-jel) arénától arénáig utazik, hol Burgosban, hol Zaragozában, hol Madridban tűnnek fel, esznek, isznak, élnek, mindezt pedig a Papa jellegzetesen jelzőtlen, szűkszavúságában plasztikus tolmácsolásában élvezhetjük. Az embernek kedve lenne velük tartani - no persze a bikaviadalok idején inkább nézne valami múzeumot vagy vadasparkot, már csak a bika iránti tiszteletből is.
Ui.: Hemingway utolsó műve, ilyen formában életében meg sem jelent. Talán ezért is éreztem olvasásakor nyomatékosabban, hogy a hemingwayi vitalitás mögött azért jó adag mániás depresszió húzódik meg. Amikor például a hatvanadik születésnapján azzal szórakozik, hogy a barátja szájában lévő cigiről lövi le a parazsat, azt nehéz másnak, mint túlkompenzációnak értelmezni.
Ezt a könyvet én a bikaviadal ellenére szerettem. Persze átjött, hogy Hemingway nagyon érti a műfajt, de nagytestű állatok önveszélyes összevagdosása (nem, nem a berúgva böllérkedésről beszélek) számomra akkor sem tud szimpatikus elfoglaltság lenni. De azt meg kell adni, mindez olyan terepet ad írónknak, ahol otthon érzi magát. Ahol kikerekíthet egy mítoszt: a kor két legzseniálisabb matadorának személyes vetélkedését, akik pontosan tudják, hogy rivalizálásuk egy ponton el fog jutni oda, amikor valamelyikük figyelme egy percre ellankad - és sitty-sutty szarvára tűzi őket a bika. Ez a párbaj, ez az igazi hemingwayi férfiasságpróba az, ami lüktető feszültséggel tölti meg a kötetet.
És azt se feledjük, hogy a könyv egyben egy remek spanyol útirajz is, amiben a matador sleppje (élén Hemingway-jel) arénától arénáig utazik, hol Burgosban, hol Zaragozában, hol Madridban tűnnek fel, esznek, isznak, élnek, mindezt pedig a Papa jellegzetesen jelzőtlen, szűkszavúságában plasztikus tolmácsolásában élvezhetjük. Az embernek kedve lenne velük tartani - no persze a bikaviadalok idején inkább nézne valami múzeumot vagy vadasparkot, már csak a bika iránti tiszteletből is.
Ui.: Hemingway utolsó műve, ilyen formában életében meg sem jelent. Talán ezért is éreztem olvasásakor nyomatékosabban, hogy a hemingwayi vitalitás mögött azért jó adag mániás depresszió húzódik meg. Amikor például a hatvanadik születésnapján azzal szórakozik, hogy a barátja szájában lévő cigiről lövi le a parazsat, azt nehéz másnak, mint túlkompenzációnak értelmezni.
April 2, 2025
Mar 22, 9pm ~~ Review asap. Rating between 2 and 3, rounded up because of chapter 11.
Apr 2, 1152am ~~ I first read this book many years ago but when I was compiling a list for my Bullfight Books project a couple of years ago I chose not to add TDS. I had many others that seemed more compelling, so I left this one out.
Then for 2025 I embarked on a buddy read of Hemingway's first nonfiction book about bullfighting, Death In The Afternoon. As Mr. James and I began working our way through the book, I began to wonder how EH's style might have changed by the time TDS was written 20 years after DITA.
I discovered that editors make a HUGE difference to the feel of Hemingway's nonfiction work.
James Michener wrote the introduction to this book and this was one of the times I was glad I read an introduction before reading the actual book. I knew the intro would not spoil the plot; what it did was open my eyes.
Turns out this book was originally commissioned by Life magazine as a 10,000 word article. But the first draft was 120,000 words. I will quote Michener:
"The polished manuscript, from which the Life excerpts and the present book were edited, ran to about 70,000. The present version, which contains about 45,000 words, endeavors to give the reader an honest rendering of what was best in this massive affair."
TDS was supposed to be just one essay, but it was published in Life as a three part series. That was in 1960. Then in 1985 the Hemingway family renewed the copyright and published 'the essence' and so here we are.
I had read the book so long ago that I didn't really remember much about it, and this reading was colored by my ongoing overall disappointment with DITA, so I admit I mainly skimmed through The Dangerous Summer. I could not even truly compare writing style over the years, because of being aware how much editing had been done. I was impressed in a couple of chapters (5 and 11 were incredible) but I always had the mental image of all those editors cutting away. How much was EH and how much was clever editing?
I am glad that I have never been a rabid Hemingway fan, because if I was I would have been disappointed to know how much editing was necessary to create a book that did not make the reader want to throw it against the wall in frustration.
This book didn't generate that response, but neither was I thrilled with it. Besides the images of those editors, I kept picturing someone trying to relive their past. That was especially apparent in the early chapters when EH describes his first trip back to Spain in 1953. He seemed to expect to be arrested the moment he stepped foot into the country because of his activities during the Spanish Civil War. He was surprised (and probably a little disappointed) to learn he was no longer of any interest to the authorities except for his reputation as an author.
Oh, by the way, the plot of the book is Hemingway traveling with two matadors all across Spain during one summer. He is friends with both of them, but more so with one than the other, and it shows. Thanks to the editors, there is very little digression from the main topic. The book reads more like a story, thanks again to the editors, who, according to Michener, cut away most of the 'bullfight minutiae' which had already appeared in DITA.
Overall, I would suggest this book rather than DITA, if you must read a nonfiction Hemingway bullfight book.
Apr 2, 1152am ~~ I first read this book many years ago but when I was compiling a list for my Bullfight Books project a couple of years ago I chose not to add TDS. I had many others that seemed more compelling, so I left this one out.
Then for 2025 I embarked on a buddy read of Hemingway's first nonfiction book about bullfighting, Death In The Afternoon. As Mr. James and I began working our way through the book, I began to wonder how EH's style might have changed by the time TDS was written 20 years after DITA.
I discovered that editors make a HUGE difference to the feel of Hemingway's nonfiction work.
James Michener wrote the introduction to this book and this was one of the times I was glad I read an introduction before reading the actual book. I knew the intro would not spoil the plot; what it did was open my eyes.
Turns out this book was originally commissioned by Life magazine as a 10,000 word article. But the first draft was 120,000 words. I will quote Michener:
"The polished manuscript, from which the Life excerpts and the present book were edited, ran to about 70,000. The present version, which contains about 45,000 words, endeavors to give the reader an honest rendering of what was best in this massive affair."
TDS was supposed to be just one essay, but it was published in Life as a three part series. That was in 1960. Then in 1985 the Hemingway family renewed the copyright and published 'the essence' and so here we are.
I had read the book so long ago that I didn't really remember much about it, and this reading was colored by my ongoing overall disappointment with DITA, so I admit I mainly skimmed through The Dangerous Summer. I could not even truly compare writing style over the years, because of being aware how much editing had been done. I was impressed in a couple of chapters (5 and 11 were incredible) but I always had the mental image of all those editors cutting away. How much was EH and how much was clever editing?
I am glad that I have never been a rabid Hemingway fan, because if I was I would have been disappointed to know how much editing was necessary to create a book that did not make the reader want to throw it against the wall in frustration.
This book didn't generate that response, but neither was I thrilled with it. Besides the images of those editors, I kept picturing someone trying to relive their past. That was especially apparent in the early chapters when EH describes his first trip back to Spain in 1953. He seemed to expect to be arrested the moment he stepped foot into the country because of his activities during the Spanish Civil War. He was surprised (and probably a little disappointed) to learn he was no longer of any interest to the authorities except for his reputation as an author.
Oh, by the way, the plot of the book is Hemingway traveling with two matadors all across Spain during one summer. He is friends with both of them, but more so with one than the other, and it shows. Thanks to the editors, there is very little digression from the main topic. The book reads more like a story, thanks again to the editors, who, according to Michener, cut away most of the 'bullfight minutiae' which had already appeared in DITA.
Overall, I would suggest this book rather than DITA, if you must read a nonfiction Hemingway bullfight book.
December 1, 2017
Quando i libri sostituiscono esperienze mai fatte.
Non avendo ancora mai potuto assistere ad una corrida, la lettura di questo reportage sulla stagione delle corride seguita da Hemingway nell’estate pericolosa del 1959 ha placatoparzialmente in me questo fortissimo desiderio.
Grazie alle puntuali, nitide, scevre di fronzoli e sentimentalismi descrizioni come se avessi assistito ad una corrida, ne ho imparato la terminologia, i tempi, le fasi, i riti.
La corrida, in Spagna quasi una forma d’arte, si è svolta davanti ai miei occhi: ho partecipato per il toro che entra nell’arena già perdente, strumento per permettere lo sfoggio dell’abilità del matador, ho sospirato per il torero per la sua apparente indifferenza, ho visto i passi di danza dell’uomo con l’animale, i volteggi dei tessuti multicolori della cappa e poi, alla fine prima dell’ultimo gesto fatale, l’inganno dello sventolio della muleta che ammalia, ancora una volta, il toro e lo porta inevitabilmente verso il suo destino segnato di rosso.
Magico e crudo, comunque grazie Hemingway.
Non avendo ancora mai potuto assistere ad una corrida, la lettura di questo reportage sulla stagione delle corride seguita da Hemingway nell’estate pericolosa del 1959 ha placatoparzialmente in me questo fortissimo desiderio.
Grazie alle puntuali, nitide, scevre di fronzoli e sentimentalismi descrizioni come se avessi assistito ad una corrida, ne ho imparato la terminologia, i tempi, le fasi, i riti.
La corrida, in Spagna quasi una forma d’arte, si è svolta davanti ai miei occhi: ho partecipato per il toro che entra nell’arena già perdente, strumento per permettere lo sfoggio dell’abilità del matador, ho sospirato per il torero per la sua apparente indifferenza, ho visto i passi di danza dell’uomo con l’animale, i volteggi dei tessuti multicolori della cappa e poi, alla fine prima dell’ultimo gesto fatale, l’inganno dello sventolio della muleta che ammalia, ancora una volta, il toro e lo porta inevitabilmente verso il suo destino segnato di rosso.
Magico e crudo, comunque grazie Hemingway.
May 8, 2016
The Dangerous Summer is, I believe, the last manuscript that Hemingway worked on in its totality before his death in 1961. The work is based on the 1959 mano-a-mano between Antonio Ordóñez and Luis Miguel Dominguín. Hemingway not only chronicled the competition between the two Spanish bullfighters but also his own experiences in Spain during the 1959 bullfighting season as he crisscrossed the country from Andalucía in the south to Cataluña in the northeast and points in-between.
The text itself, published in 1985, was heavily edited by Scribners. The original manuscript ran to 120,000 words and apparently included details on any number of other bullfighters in addition to Ordóñez and Dominguín. In its substantially edited 1985 version the book captures the essence of the contest between those two matadors as well as a sense of Spain and its people in the late 1950s.
Within the Hemingway canon, the book is a companion piece to The Sun Also Rises and to Death in the Afternoon with their descriptions of Spain and of bullfighting. It also provides glimpses into Hemingway’s own physical and emotional states in the last years leading up to his death.
There was for me an added attraction. My first extended stay in Spain occurred just 3 years after Hemingway’s 1959 travels. The countryside he described, the places he visited and the roads he traveled have changed greatly since that time past but they were the places, roads and by-ways that I knew first hand and that have stayed with me, etched into my memory. Reading The Dangerous Summer was a pleasant romp with nostalgia.
The text itself, published in 1985, was heavily edited by Scribners. The original manuscript ran to 120,000 words and apparently included details on any number of other bullfighters in addition to Ordóñez and Dominguín. In its substantially edited 1985 version the book captures the essence of the contest between those two matadors as well as a sense of Spain and its people in the late 1950s.
Within the Hemingway canon, the book is a companion piece to The Sun Also Rises and to Death in the Afternoon with their descriptions of Spain and of bullfighting. It also provides glimpses into Hemingway’s own physical and emotional states in the last years leading up to his death.
There was for me an added attraction. My first extended stay in Spain occurred just 3 years after Hemingway’s 1959 travels. The countryside he described, the places he visited and the roads he traveled have changed greatly since that time past but they were the places, roads and by-ways that I knew first hand and that have stayed with me, etched into my memory. Reading The Dangerous Summer was a pleasant romp with nostalgia.
November 13, 2023
Hemingway's book, 'The Dangerous Summer', when he turned 60, describes his last visit, I believe, to Spain during the 1959 bullfights is fascinating. The building disparagement, by that year, from some readers, on the left, for him evincing little political consciousness in his writings certainly was not corrected, in the least, by this narrative. James Michener, in the book's lengthy introduction indicates this book resulted from significant editing by NYC professionals to present it in his usual tight writing style with no more total commas than I use here and with few, if any, wasted words. As with his other books such as the world-weary, anti-war novel, 'The Sun Also Rises', places a subtle emphasis on the humiliations of organized, violent death. It's possible to interpret this story as him articulating the worst possible view of bullfighting, that it was a pointless waste of life.
Hemingway places himself as a close confident to two brother-in-law matadors who were involved in several mano a mano bullfights (a duel between two established matadors) that summer, with more than one exemplifying qualities as being the best he had ever observed. The Author's travels through Spain with his friends, his wife, and his driver during the temporada (the season) to plaza de toros (bull rings) in Valencia, Malaga, Ciudad Real, Madrid, Bilbao, and others, although brief, are informative. The included photo of Ernest shooting a lighted cigarette from one of the bullfighter's lips using a 22 rifle at the portable shooting gallery hired by Mary Hemingway for his 60th birthday celebrations caught my attention. I also read with interest, the Author's description of the pilot and co-pilot of a chartered plane deliberately giving up their seats to the two star matadors, who, bravely, had zero flying experience.
Hemingway's terse, often flat, sardonic, almost painfully masculine style of writing, of which I do not encounter these days, fit well with a bullfighting book. His single sentence mention of Gertrude Stein, in the context of nostalgia, may signal subtle acknowledgment to the hurtful criticism from her circle of once supportive friends.
Hemingway places himself as a close confident to two brother-in-law matadors who were involved in several mano a mano bullfights (a duel between two established matadors) that summer, with more than one exemplifying qualities as being the best he had ever observed. The Author's travels through Spain with his friends, his wife, and his driver during the temporada (the season) to plaza de toros (bull rings) in Valencia, Malaga, Ciudad Real, Madrid, Bilbao, and others, although brief, are informative. The included photo of Ernest shooting a lighted cigarette from one of the bullfighter's lips using a 22 rifle at the portable shooting gallery hired by Mary Hemingway for his 60th birthday celebrations caught my attention. I also read with interest, the Author's description of the pilot and co-pilot of a chartered plane deliberately giving up their seats to the two star matadors, who, bravely, had zero flying experience.
Hemingway's terse, often flat, sardonic, almost painfully masculine style of writing, of which I do not encounter these days, fit well with a bullfighting book. His single sentence mention of Gertrude Stein, in the context of nostalgia, may signal subtle acknowledgment to the hurtful criticism from her circle of once supportive friends.
April 12, 2023
Narcisismo, amore per le situazioni di pericolo in cui mettersi alla prova..le caratteristiche personali di Hemingway si applicano perfettamente a questo breve testo dallo stile asciutto e compiaciuto: un tour in terra spagnola nella seconda metà degli anni '50, inseguendo il culto e riti della tauromachia e dei suoi più famosi matador.
August 6, 2017
"I like to get out of a dressing room fast..." writes Hemingway. But we learn that the dressing of a matador is a rather ritualistic event and that it's an honor to be invited to this "ritual". Is it that Hemingway wants to see the show, but not necessarily what goes on behind the scenes? Or is it that we read along with Hemingway his admiration/attachment to the matadors (perhaps we'd call these "bromances" today) and this part of the show is unnerving, as it reveals the risks that the matadors take? Or, sadly, was an explanation just edited out? In the introduction, we learn Hemingway's original version of this autobiographical work was 120,000 words, but it was edited down by Life magazine to 70,000 words, but the current edition we read, published in 1985, is 40,000 words. Given the aforementioned contradiction about the dressing room, I'd say the missing 80,000 words tell us much more about Hemingway and bullfighting, information/stories that Hemingway wrote, but pages and pages were just weeded out. Given the current book is just over 200 pages, the entire book would have run about 600 pages or so and that's not a huge amount of pages compared to other autobiographical work.. Here is a sad truth: there is simply too much money available to avoid publishing the entire book: I guess we'll have the whole, original version on the next, big Hemmingway anniversary (birth, death, etc). Meanwhile, I did enjoy this book and learned much about bullfighting. USA Today says, on the back of this book: "...when what is said suggests a whole universe that is unsaid...that's about as good as writing gets." Well, that may very well be true. Still, there is no excuse to throw out 80,000 words. Of Hemingway, for goodness sakes!
March 28, 2019
Inget man måste läsa direkt... mest referat från tjurfäktning. Det bästa var på en fest då en tjurfäktare tände en cigg och Hemingway släkte den genom att skjuta på glöden med ett gevär -- tjurfäktaren hade alltså fortfarande cigaretten i munnen. Kulan smekte läpparna...
March 28, 2022
Macho manliness is difficult to read about but Hemingway does it well in his usual understated way
July 16, 2017
An excellent narrative of the art of tauromachy as recounted in the inimitable style of Hemingway, which epitomized two of Spain's greatest bullfighters: Luis Miguel Dominguín and Antonio Ordóñez. Being a knowledgeable admirer of the sport, his descriptions of the actual bullfight scenes throughout the book in a play-by-play style puts you right in the arena. It's a brutal sport, and I couldn't help but cringe at the descriptions of the actual killings of these beautiful animals at the end of the bullfighter's faena when the sum of the his work in the final third of the bullfight concludes with this act. The book was an engaging read as well as a didactic one.
February 5, 2021
"—¿Cómo supiste que el toro tenía suficientes ánimos para embestir por segunda y tercera vez?
—Lo supe —respondió—. ¿Cómo se saben las cosas?
—Pero ¿qué es lo que viste?
—Para entonces lo conocía bien.
—¿Las orejas?
—Todo. Yo te conozco a ti. Tú me conoces a mí. Es lo mismo. ¿No creíste que atacaría?"
—Lo supe —respondió—. ¿Cómo se saben las cosas?
—Pero ¿qué es lo que viste?
—Para entonces lo conocía bien.
—¿Las orejas?
—Todo. Yo te conozco a ti. Tú me conoces a mí. Es lo mismo. ¿No creíste que atacaría?"
September 26, 2021
Perhaps, for most readers, the book doesn't have a great subject. Bullfighting. I'm not a fan of this sport either and I can understand why some people like it and others don't. But I didn't read the book that way. Beyond this topic, it's about Hemingway's style (as good as ever) and how he describes the rivalry between the two bullfighters. And for that I really enjoyed it.
May 19, 2018
If not for a few paragraphs that were vintage Don Ernesto, this would be a one star review.
Read Death in the Afternoon. Read The Sun Also Rises. And if after you really love bullfighting, then read this too. But know that this falls far short of Hemingway’s best works.
Read Death in the Afternoon. Read The Sun Also Rises. And if after you really love bullfighting, then read this too. But know that this falls far short of Hemingway’s best works.
May 11, 2025
If you pay attention, you’ll see that in this book, Hemingway teaches you how to write. Not anything superficial, but one of the deep truths, so profound that to state it plainly would diminish it. The place where the art requires not just skill, but moral character.
The introduction by Michener is also valuable. I wish they would publish the full, unedited manuscript Michener says they cut The Dangerous Summer down from.
The introduction by Michener is also valuable. I wish they would publish the full, unedited manuscript Michener says they cut The Dangerous Summer down from.
July 3, 2020
I quite enjoyed reading this book. It is short and sweet and makes you feel like you are in Spain which is the nicest part. Although I really disliked the bullfighting, I did really appreciate the passion of the bullfighters and was able to root for them when they were fighting the bulls (although I must admit I did not feel too bad for them when they were gored).
Some passages I'd like to remember:
(p.62, describing the Spanish villa where they were invited to stay): "There was a swimming pool fed by water from a mountain spring and there was no telephone. You could go barefoot but it was cool in May and moccasins were better for the marble stairs. You ate wonderfully and drank well. Everyone let everyone else alone and when I would wake up in the morning and go out on the long balcony that ran around the second floor of the house and look out over the pines in the garden to the mountains and the sea and listen to the wind in the pines I knew I had never been a finer place."
(p.98): "Wounded matadors who are going to fight again as soon as possible are given a minimum of sedation. The theory is that they must have nothing that will affect their nerves or their reflexes. In an American hospital they might have kept him out of pain, 'snowed' it is called. In Spain pain is quite simply regarded as something a man has to take. Whether the pain is not as bad for the man's nerves as the drug that would stop it is not considered."
(p.119, passing an area where he had fought in the Spanish civil war): "Seeing the terrain did not bring back the fight. That had never gone away. But it helped a little, as always, to purge some things that happen on the earth to see how little difference it has made to the dry hills that once were all-important to you. Riding along the road toward Segorbe that morning I thought how a bulldozer does more violence to a hill than the death of a brigade and that a brigade that was left to hold a height so that it, the brigade, might be destroyed, may enrich the soil for a short time and add some valuable mineral salts and a certain amount of metal to the hill but the metal is not in mineable quantities and any fertilization made will be washed away from the infertile soil in the rains of spring and fall and in the run-off of the snow of winter."
Some passages I'd like to remember:
(p.62, describing the Spanish villa where they were invited to stay): "There was a swimming pool fed by water from a mountain spring and there was no telephone. You could go barefoot but it was cool in May and moccasins were better for the marble stairs. You ate wonderfully and drank well. Everyone let everyone else alone and when I would wake up in the morning and go out on the long balcony that ran around the second floor of the house and look out over the pines in the garden to the mountains and the sea and listen to the wind in the pines I knew I had never been a finer place."
(p.98): "Wounded matadors who are going to fight again as soon as possible are given a minimum of sedation. The theory is that they must have nothing that will affect their nerves or their reflexes. In an American hospital they might have kept him out of pain, 'snowed' it is called. In Spain pain is quite simply regarded as something a man has to take. Whether the pain is not as bad for the man's nerves as the drug that would stop it is not considered."
(p.119, passing an area where he had fought in the Spanish civil war): "Seeing the terrain did not bring back the fight. That had never gone away. But it helped a little, as always, to purge some things that happen on the earth to see how little difference it has made to the dry hills that once were all-important to you. Riding along the road toward Segorbe that morning I thought how a bulldozer does more violence to a hill than the death of a brigade and that a brigade that was left to hold a height so that it, the brigade, might be destroyed, may enrich the soil for a short time and add some valuable mineral salts and a certain amount of metal to the hill but the metal is not in mineable quantities and any fertilization made will be washed away from the infertile soil in the rains of spring and fall and in the run-off of the snow of winter."
May 5, 2017
I went to a dinner one time where they served rattlesnake meat. The guy next to me told me it tasted like chicken, if you could forget what you were eating. I couldn't forget.
The Dangerous Summer is a nonfiction account of Hemingway's love affair with bullfighting. The torture and killing of bulls is not a pleasant topic for me, but the book tasted like chicken when I forgot what it was about. Hemingway's crisp prose and direct style brings the summer of 59 in Spain to life. Two great bullfighters duel for status as the best. As much as the description of the cruel deaths of the bulls disturbed me, Chapter 11 is one of the better pieces of writing to be found anywhere. My take? If you're an animal lover, beware. But the writing is superb as always with Hemingway.
The Dangerous Summer is a nonfiction account of Hemingway's love affair with bullfighting. The torture and killing of bulls is not a pleasant topic for me, but the book tasted like chicken when I forgot what it was about. Hemingway's crisp prose and direct style brings the summer of 59 in Spain to life. Two great bullfighters duel for status as the best. As much as the description of the cruel deaths of the bulls disturbed me, Chapter 11 is one of the better pieces of writing to be found anywhere. My take? If you're an animal lover, beware. But the writing is superb as always with Hemingway.
May 31, 2019
Mi mancava, e dopo il mio viaggio andaluso volevo verificare cosa era rimasto della Spagna di fine anni 50, pacificata sotto la cappa asfissiante del franchismo, a chi l'aveva vista e descritta, libera negli anni 20 e sotto la guerra civile poi.
Lo stile di Hemingway, che a questo punto della sua vita molti già liquidavano come finito, a me piace ancora molto.
La competenza approfondita delle corride - tecniche, strategie, estetica, psicologia del torero... - trapela a ogni passo.
Della Spagna vera e propria, purtroppo, a parte certi scorci di Malaga, di Burgos, di Barcellona, di Madrid, o certi gustosi siparietti sulle strade percorse su e giù per il paese con autisti più o meno spericolati, esce poco in questo saggio che del resto non il paese doveva descrivere ma la rivalità tra due toreri al culmine della carriera.
Si fatica a leggerlo - ed è solo per questo che finora l'avevo trascurato - se si amano gli animali e si considera la corrida spagnola (ma anche la corsa dei tori di Pamplona) un'insopportabile ripetersi di sadismo fisico e mentale ai danni di bestie innocenti, tori e cavalli, nella quale per qualche forma di giustizia universale ogni tanto a lasciarci le penne è l'animale uomo.
Che lo facessero gli antichi romani, passi. Che in Spagna nel XXI secolo non vogliano ancora adeguarsi a quanto hanno fatto i paesi vicini, Francia e Portogallo, che tengono anch'essi corride ma senza far scorrere il sangue, trascende ogni comprensione.
Che poi Hemingway, il quale amava e praticava caccia e pesca, non vedesse nella corrida altro che un'appassionante nobile pratica, attributo di un'élite di uomini, i toreri, destinati a interpretare una sorta di tragedia greca in cui è bello e giusto che ogni spettacolo si concluda con un animale braccato, stuzzicato, torturato e infine giustiziato, mentre il ferimento o la morte del torero serve a lui e al resto del pubblico a provare il frisson erotico della paura, fa parte della sua visione della vita, e se lo si legge bisogna prenderlo così.
(Ernie ribadisce più volte come il colpo di grazia ottimale, anche al fine del giudizio del pubblico e della giuria, sia quello dritto tra le vertebre, veloce. E che seccatura quando la spada incontra l'osso e bisogna reinfilare la spada una seconda, una terza, a volte una quarta volta! In quel caso i trofei - un orecchio / due orecchie /le orecchie, la coda e magari uno zoccolo - il torero se li può scordare)
Lo stile di Hemingway, che a questo punto della sua vita molti già liquidavano come finito, a me piace ancora molto.
La competenza approfondita delle corride - tecniche, strategie, estetica, psicologia del torero... - trapela a ogni passo.
Della Spagna vera e propria, purtroppo, a parte certi scorci di Malaga, di Burgos, di Barcellona, di Madrid, o certi gustosi siparietti sulle strade percorse su e giù per il paese con autisti più o meno spericolati, esce poco in questo saggio che del resto non il paese doveva descrivere ma la rivalità tra due toreri al culmine della carriera.
Si fatica a leggerlo - ed è solo per questo che finora l'avevo trascurato - se si amano gli animali e si considera la corrida spagnola (ma anche la corsa dei tori di Pamplona) un'insopportabile ripetersi di sadismo fisico e mentale ai danni di bestie innocenti, tori e cavalli, nella quale per qualche forma di giustizia universale ogni tanto a lasciarci le penne è l'animale uomo.
Che lo facessero gli antichi romani, passi. Che in Spagna nel XXI secolo non vogliano ancora adeguarsi a quanto hanno fatto i paesi vicini, Francia e Portogallo, che tengono anch'essi corride ma senza far scorrere il sangue, trascende ogni comprensione.
Che poi Hemingway, il quale amava e praticava caccia e pesca, non vedesse nella corrida altro che un'appassionante nobile pratica, attributo di un'élite di uomini, i toreri, destinati a interpretare una sorta di tragedia greca in cui è bello e giusto che ogni spettacolo si concluda con un animale braccato, stuzzicato, torturato e infine giustiziato, mentre il ferimento o la morte del torero serve a lui e al resto del pubblico a provare il frisson erotico della paura, fa parte della sua visione della vita, e se lo si legge bisogna prenderlo così.
(Ernie ribadisce più volte come il colpo di grazia ottimale, anche al fine del giudizio del pubblico e della giuria, sia quello dritto tra le vertebre, veloce. E che seccatura quando la spada incontra l'osso e bisogna reinfilare la spada una seconda, una terza, a volte una quarta volta! In quel caso i trofei - un orecchio / due orecchie /le orecchie, la coda e magari uno zoccolo - il torero se li può scordare)
December 18, 2025
I've been slacking on my reviews, but this needed one, badly.
I love Hemingway, and that's no secret, but I had no idea this book even existed until I randomly found it in the closet corner of my library's student book club sale. I immediately picked it up, especially after finding out it was a nonfiction written by him.
What a RIDE this book was. Hemingway was THE guy for describing nature, hunting, war, camping, bullfighting, anything he had done his life with, truly.
But this takes it to another level.
I've read every Hemingway short story, and many major works. I admit that I tried to quickly skim the paragraphs on the details of bullfighting just because the subject matter makes me ill.
Until this book.
This book is MAINLY the detailed fights in the bullfighting ring and the rivalry between the two greatest bullfighters at the time, brothers-in-law to boot. I could not look away for a moment from any of this. Despite feeling ill at the practice, the way Hemingway described the techniques.. he painted it as truly an art, not because of the aesthetics, but the trained science and skill that has to be so well executed with beauty to be done properly.
You know how you may hate sports movies but there's always one that you just GET into and you're on the edge of your seat? That's what this book felt like.
I can't tell you how many times I got chills, or I held my breath waiting to read the next lines. I laughed. I teared up. It was both realistically cinematic in capturing the moments people must've known were historic at the time, but too full of life to acknowledge it with grandeur, and matter of fact.
I loved this so, so much.
I love Hemingway, and that's no secret, but I had no idea this book even existed until I randomly found it in the closet corner of my library's student book club sale. I immediately picked it up, especially after finding out it was a nonfiction written by him.
What a RIDE this book was. Hemingway was THE guy for describing nature, hunting, war, camping, bullfighting, anything he had done his life with, truly.
But this takes it to another level.
I've read every Hemingway short story, and many major works. I admit that I tried to quickly skim the paragraphs on the details of bullfighting just because the subject matter makes me ill.
Until this book.
This book is MAINLY the detailed fights in the bullfighting ring and the rivalry between the two greatest bullfighters at the time, brothers-in-law to boot. I could not look away for a moment from any of this. Despite feeling ill at the practice, the way Hemingway described the techniques.. he painted it as truly an art, not because of the aesthetics, but the trained science and skill that has to be so well executed with beauty to be done properly.
You know how you may hate sports movies but there's always one that you just GET into and you're on the edge of your seat? That's what this book felt like.
I can't tell you how many times I got chills, or I held my breath waiting to read the next lines. I laughed. I teared up. It was both realistically cinematic in capturing the moments people must've known were historic at the time, but too full of life to acknowledge it with grandeur, and matter of fact.
I loved this so, so much.
April 30, 2020
First, I found it incredibly funny that James A. Michener would write in the introduction that he writes long and needs an editor then go on to write 40 pages in a 200-page book. I can't imagine how long a work like "Texas" had been when he finished because the published manuscript was over 1,000 pages. But I digress.
Supposedly, Hemingway's assignment was to write a short piece about returning to the bullfighting circuit in Spain. What he completed was filled with so much minutiae and detail that no person in their right mind would want to read about bullfighting in Spain. The editors, probably Michener's, cut the thing down to what we get to read in The Dangerous Summer (This is all according to Michener.).
I am grateful they did. As much as I felt not a lot was being said, Hemingway's short terse sentences kept me sailing along with him on his journey. I recognized moments. And I enjoyed certain passages where I felt the sharp Hemingway came through again. Hemingway certainly was a character larger than life and that would have been true whether he was famous or not.
What I did realize as I was reading this book was that as "bad" as this one was, it is still better than 90% of everything else out there. And I wonder if The Dangerous Summer wasn't Hemingway's, would I like it? Would I want to read more by the author? Yes and Yes.
One at a time I will make my way through the library of good ol' Ernesto.
Supposedly, Hemingway's assignment was to write a short piece about returning to the bullfighting circuit in Spain. What he completed was filled with so much minutiae and detail that no person in their right mind would want to read about bullfighting in Spain. The editors, probably Michener's, cut the thing down to what we get to read in The Dangerous Summer (This is all according to Michener.).
I am grateful they did. As much as I felt not a lot was being said, Hemingway's short terse sentences kept me sailing along with him on his journey. I recognized moments. And I enjoyed certain passages where I felt the sharp Hemingway came through again. Hemingway certainly was a character larger than life and that would have been true whether he was famous or not.
What I did realize as I was reading this book was that as "bad" as this one was, it is still better than 90% of everything else out there. And I wonder if The Dangerous Summer wasn't Hemingway's, would I like it? Would I want to read more by the author? Yes and Yes.
One at a time I will make my way through the library of good ol' Ernesto.
March 4, 2021
Mijn eerste aanraking met Hemingway was waarschijnlijk de verkeerde, want 'A Dangerous Summer' deed me de hele hype rond "Papa" in vraag stellen. Het boek - een verslaggeving van een zomer vol stierengevechten - kon me totaal niet boeien, zat vol met jargon en bevat nul diepgang.
Als ik het effectief als een verslaggeving zie (het is geschreven in opdracht van de NY Times), kan het er zeker mee door. Tenminste, als je iets weet van stierengevechten. Als roman heeft het me hoe dan ook teleurgesteld.
Wat we hem wel moeten aangeven, is hoe Hemingway een zekere sfeer kan opwerpen. Lange autoritten van Madrid naar Valencia in de zengende hitte en de typische volkse vibe in oude mediterraanse dorpjes, die zitten er wel in. Zin om Spanje te doorkruisen, absoluut. Begrijpen waarom een bepaalde passage met de pica en de cape één of twee oren van de stier als prijs verdient, niet echt.
Maar we geven hem het voordeel van de twijfel. Verkeerde eerste indruk, laten we het daarop steken.
Als ik het effectief als een verslaggeving zie (het is geschreven in opdracht van de NY Times), kan het er zeker mee door. Tenminste, als je iets weet van stierengevechten. Als roman heeft het me hoe dan ook teleurgesteld.
Wat we hem wel moeten aangeven, is hoe Hemingway een zekere sfeer kan opwerpen. Lange autoritten van Madrid naar Valencia in de zengende hitte en de typische volkse vibe in oude mediterraanse dorpjes, die zitten er wel in. Zin om Spanje te doorkruisen, absoluut. Begrijpen waarom een bepaalde passage met de pica en de cape één of twee oren van de stier als prijs verdient, niet echt.
Maar we geven hem het voordeel van de twijfel. Verkeerde eerste indruk, laten we het daarop steken.
May 25, 2024
"- Я люблю ваше вино. - Я сам його люблю, - сказав він. - Тому і лаю. Чого не любиш, те не лаєш".
Гемінгвей вже наприкінці життя таки зміг повернутися у свою Іспанію. Він там знову дружив, пив і смачно їв з найкращими матадорами. Знову зміг насолоджуватись часом, проведеним з ними і хвилюватися за них під час боїв з биками, яких матадори, якщо вірити книзі, одночасно люблять, поважають, але мають вбити, перетворюючи смерть на мистецтво.
Ця книга про повернення, суперництво, покликання, гординю, майстерність і карнавал. А також про смерть, але не людську.
Гемінгвей вже наприкінці життя таки зміг повернутися у свою Іспанію. Він там знову дружив, пив і смачно їв з найкращими матадорами. Знову зміг насолоджуватись часом, проведеним з ними і хвилюватися за них під час боїв з биками, яких матадори, якщо вірити книзі, одночасно люблять, поважають, але мають вбити, перетворюючи смерть на мистецтво.
Ця книга про повернення, суперництво, покликання, гординю, майстерність і карнавал. А також про смерть, але не людську.
November 23, 2025
“O vinho continuava tão bom como quando tínhamos vinte e um anos e a comida maravilhosa como sempre. Havia as mesmas canções e algumas novas boas que irrompiam das gaitas de foles e tambores. Os rostos outrora jovens eram agora tão velhos como o meu, mas todos nós recordávamos como tínhamos sido. Os olhos permaneciam iguais e ninguém engordara. Não havia bocas rancorosas apesar do que os olhos tinham visto. As linhas de rancor dos lábios são o primeiro sinal de derrota. Ninguém fora derrotado.”
July 9, 2025
Classic Hemingway travelogue. I read this in chunks because I've been reading some other books this Summer, too. I read a good bit of it at the vet's office the night before Zoey died. We didn't realize she was dying but the irony wasn't lost on me that I was reading, in graphic description, about noble bulls bleeding out and falling to the ground. Zoey was a noble dog.
September 22, 2025
The Dangerous Summer stands as Hemingway’s final extended manuscript, chronicling the famed mano-a-mano of 1959 between Spanish matadors Antonio Ordóñez and Luis Miguel Dominguín. What was intended as a 10,000-word article for Life ballooned into 120,000 words, later pared down to roughly 45,000 in the 1985 edition we read today. The result is both illuminating and frustrating, an intriguing glimpse of Hemingway’s late style, but one marred by heavy editorial pruning and a sense of incompleteness.
At its best, the book captures Hemingway’s enduring fascination with Spain, its landscapes, and the ritualized spectacle of bullfighting. Chapters 5 and 11, for instance, pulse with vivid detail and narrative drive, showing Hemingway’s ability to blend cultural reportage with gripping storytelling. His admiration for Ordóñez, the more traditional of the two matadors, is palpable, while his complicated friendship with Dominguín adds a personal, almost intimate tension. For readers familiar with The Sun Also Rises or Death in the Afternoon, this book feels like a companion piece, circling back to themes of courage, ritual, and mortality.
But there are shortcomings. The brutal editing leaves the text uneven, with abrupt transitions and unexplored threads. Hemingway’s contradictions, such as his curiosity about the matadors’ rituals yet reluctance to linger behind the scenes, suggest there was much more nuance in the original draft that readers are denied. Too often, what we’re left with feels like the skeleton of a larger, richer work. And at times, the book reads less like a fresh perspective than a man trying to relive past glories in a Spain that had moved on without him.
For Hemingway completists, The Dangerous Summer offers value: snapshots of the author in his twilight years, and an intimate portrait of a legendary rivalry. But for general readers, it lacks the depth and polish of his earlier nonfiction. It is enjoyable in moments, but ultimately feels like a footnote to greater works rather than a lasting masterpiece.
At its best, the book captures Hemingway’s enduring fascination with Spain, its landscapes, and the ritualized spectacle of bullfighting. Chapters 5 and 11, for instance, pulse with vivid detail and narrative drive, showing Hemingway’s ability to blend cultural reportage with gripping storytelling. His admiration for Ordóñez, the more traditional of the two matadors, is palpable, while his complicated friendship with Dominguín adds a personal, almost intimate tension. For readers familiar with The Sun Also Rises or Death in the Afternoon, this book feels like a companion piece, circling back to themes of courage, ritual, and mortality.
But there are shortcomings. The brutal editing leaves the text uneven, with abrupt transitions and unexplored threads. Hemingway’s contradictions, such as his curiosity about the matadors’ rituals yet reluctance to linger behind the scenes, suggest there was much more nuance in the original draft that readers are denied. Too often, what we’re left with feels like the skeleton of a larger, richer work. And at times, the book reads less like a fresh perspective than a man trying to relive past glories in a Spain that had moved on without him.
For Hemingway completists, The Dangerous Summer offers value: snapshots of the author in his twilight years, and an intimate portrait of a legendary rivalry. But for general readers, it lacks the depth and polish of his earlier nonfiction. It is enjoyable in moments, but ultimately feels like a footnote to greater works rather than a lasting masterpiece.
April 11, 2024
Maybe more like 2.5. Idk, I love Hemingway’s writing but the writing wasn’t enough to make the story do anything for me in this one.
February 28, 2020
I am not a fan of bullfighting and never will be. It seems barbaric to me, but different strokes for different folks. This mano et mano book does show how much man will face death to an art. Two men go head to head in multiple contests and sometimes the bull wins. Written by Hemingway, it gives a great portrait of Spain in 1959. I enjoyed the book despite its concentration on bullfighting.
February 10, 2025
Hemingway vividly captured the drama, tradition and danger of the bullfight-spectacle in this book but it didn't quite catch me.
August 2, 2024
If you are a bullfighting aficionado or simply want to get a sense of how the world of bullfighting works, Hemingway offers the perfect place to start. Whether it is with this book or “Death in the Afternoon”, the reader gets an inside view on the demanding and brutal life of a Matador, constantly facing the threat of death in order to achieve glory in one of the most extreme arts that exist.
The book is also enjoyable for the more experienced bullfighting fan, as it provides a private account on how two of the greatest to ever do it go head-to-head against each other, with Hemingway clearly having an inclination towards his good friend Antonio Ordóñez. Maybe the only complain I have about the story is the light in which Luis Miguel Dominguín, also one of the greatest of all time, is portrayed. Clearly presented as the villain and less talented of the two bullfighters, someone that doesn’t deeply know the history of this art, might come out of this book with an erroneous opinion of the diestro.
The book is also enjoyable for the more experienced bullfighting fan, as it provides a private account on how two of the greatest to ever do it go head-to-head against each other, with Hemingway clearly having an inclination towards his good friend Antonio Ordóñez. Maybe the only complain I have about the story is the light in which Luis Miguel Dominguín, also one of the greatest of all time, is portrayed. Clearly presented as the villain and less talented of the two bullfighters, someone that doesn’t deeply know the history of this art, might come out of this book with an erroneous opinion of the diestro.
August 17, 2021
No se si es la intención del autor pero yo también quiero pasarme un verano recorriéndome de punta a punta España, comiendo y bebiendo como ellos. Indispensable la introducción de Michener.
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