New Essays on The Sun Also Rises

The American Novel

by Linda Wagner-Martin (Editor)

The Sun Also Rises (1926) was Hemingway's first novel and is now widely considered to be the most important of his longer works of fiction. Written in an accessible style by prominent scholars, this collection of essays provides helpful and valuable insight for new readers and Hemingway specialists alike. Each essay is devoted to a major aspect of the novel: Hemingway's use of humor, the literary and historical context of the book, the atypically modern character of Brett Ashley, and recent approaches to issues of sexuality in the novel.

Genres: Nonfiction

144 pages, Paperback

First published June 26, 1987

About the author

Linda Wagner-Martin is the Frank Borden Hanes Professor of English and Comparative Literature Emerita at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Over a teaching career spanning 53 years, she taught at Wayne State University, Michigan State University, and UNC, while authoring and editing more than 55 books. Her work includes biographies of major literary figures such as Sylvia Plath, Ernest Hemingway, Toni Morrison, and Maya Angelou, along with studies like A History of American Literature from 1950 to the Present and The Routledge Introduction to American Postmodernism. After retiring in 2011, she continued publishing extensively. Wagner-Martin’s contributions have earned her prestigious awards, including the Guggenheim Fellowship, the Hubbell Medal for Lifetime Service to American Literature, and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Radcliffe Institute. She holds BA, BS, MA, and PhD degrees from Bowling Green State University, where she graduated magna cum laude with majors in English and minors in American History.

Reviews

[Tom Quinn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very helpful in interpreting the primary text. Helped to clarify and link various symbolic readings, as well as provide a foundation in the historical context from which the book arose.

[Tina Kacey · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pretty solid collection of essays on a notoriously controversial book in academia. The first two essays, "Humor in The Sun Also Rises" and "The Sun in its Time: Recovering the Historical Context" were pretty good, "Bretty Ashley as New Woman in The Sun Also Rises" was a decent essay with some interpretations I didn't quite agree with, and the final essay, "Afterthoughts on the Twenties and the Sun Also Rises," had some interesting, if not infallible, insights. Only the second to last essay, "Decoding the Hemingway Hero in The Sun Also Rises," was unilaterally dubious, from the interpretation of the book to the expression of that interpretation. Somewhat surprisingly and perhaps disappointingly, the introduction is the most interesting and most enlightening part of the whole book, and I'm glad I checked it out if only for this section.

[Henry Sturcke · Rating 3 out of 5]

Five essays, plus an introduction, by recognized scholars on the book serve as a good reminder that there is no one way to read Jake, Brett, and the others. Some good insights, some things to disagree with.

[Jane De vries · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an excellent literary criicism which added so much depth to the novel I've already read

The contributors were all well-versed in their subjects.

I will certainly be using this series in the future.

[Ketelen Lefkovich · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read it for my master's.

[Rosanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book of essays on The Sun Also Rises presents the reader with a variety of essays on various issues of the novel including: gender issues, historical context, humor, femininity and masculinity. I particularly liked the essay of "Brett Ashley as New Woman in The Sun Also Rises”. It explores the complex character of Brett and shows how on the one hand she represents a sexually liberated, free new woman but on the other hand still relies on the patriarchal system; while Jake represents the ideal masculine male, but has lost his manhood. It discusses these contradictions, as well as the blurring gender roles of the time.
The historical information provided in the book was helpful and revealed some background information and context that I would not have known otherwise. All in all I thought it was worth the read and provided some interesting new ideas, though at times it could be a little dry. I was glad it provided some contradictory opinions and perspectives. However, I would have liked to have seen some criticism from critics of the time when The Sun Also Rises first came out. All of the essays in the book were written for the book, so they lacked diversity as far as when they were written. Also, four of the seven authors were Professors from the University of Michigan, so I think the contributors could have been a little more diversified.

[Jerry Wells · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked this book up from the library at Randolph on a whim. I saw it next to The Sun Also Rises and thought it might be interesting. I was right. The essays in this book stretched my understanding of Hemingway's first critically acclaimed novel in many directions.