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| The Old Man and The Sea |  | Author: Ernest Hemingway
Publisher: Scribner
Category: Book
List Price: $12.00
Buy Used: $0.34
as of 3/19/2010 12:42 CDT details
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Seller: Blue_Cloud_Books
Rating:  750 reviews
Sales Rank: 1,625
Media: Paperback
Pages: 128
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 5.2 x 0.3
ISBN: 0684801221
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.52
EAN: 9780684801223
ASIN: 0684801221
Publication Date: May 5, 1995
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Amazon.com Review
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 bitch that ever won the Nobel Prize ever wrote anything worth reading afterwards"). A half century later, it's still easy to see why. This tale of an aged Cuban fisherman going head-to-head (or hand-to-fin) with a magnificent marlin encapsulates Hemingway's favorite motifs of physical and moral challenge. Yet Santiago is too old and infirm to partake of the gun-toting machismo that disfigured much of the author's later work: "The brown blotches of the benevolent skin cancer the sun brings from its reflection on the tropic sea were on his cheeks. The blotches ran well down the sides of his face and his hands had the deep-creased scars from handling heavy fish on the cords." Hemingway's style, too, reverts to those superb snapshots of perception that won him his initial fame: Just before it was dark, as they passed a great island of Sargasso weed that heaved and swung in the light sea as though the ocean were making love with something under a yellow blanket, his small line was taken by a dolphin. He saw it first when it jumped in the air, true gold in the last of the sun and bending and flapping wildly in the air. If a younger Hemingway had written this novella, Santiago most likely would have towed the enormous fish back to port and posed for a triumphal photograph--just as the author delighted in doing, circa 1935. Instead his prize gets devoured by a school of sharks. Returning with little more than a skeleton, he takes to his bed and, in the very last line, cements his identification with his creator: "The old man was dreaming about the lions." Perhaps there's some allegory of art and experience floating around in there somewhere--but The Old Man and the Sea was, in any case, the last great catch of Hemingway's career. --James Marcus
Product Description
The Old Man and the Sea is one of Hemingway's most enduring works. Told in language of great simplicity and power, it is the story of an old Cuban fisherman, down on his luck, and his supreme ordeal -- a relentless, agonizing battle with a giant marlin far out in the Gulf Stream. Here Hemingway recasts, in strikingly contemporary style, the classic theme of courage in the face of defeat, of personal triumph won from loss. Written in 1952, this hugely successful novella confirmed his power and presence in the literary world and played a large part in his winning the 1954 Nobel Prize for Literature.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 500
 The Old Man and the Sean March 19, 2010
sylvia
Great story and so well told. Beautifully written with strong characterization and symbolism. I love the relationship between the old man and the young boy - so loving. Truly a book that will continue to bring joy and tears to future generations of people who take the time to form relationships of love and respect.
RAGE AGAINST THE DYING OF THE LIGHT March 16, 2010
Mr Pineapples (Rural England)
I am not going to re-tell the story....or summarise the events - it's been done so well in many of these reviews already. I read this many years ago as a child and have returned to it and have come away profoundly affected.
This time for me.....
The book brought a sense of peace - an appreciation for the indomitable spirit of a man who refuses to give in to self-pity - who accepts that the simple life often delivers more richness than that cluttered with possessions and fraught relationships.
The Sea plays a major part - representing life and eternity. Here we have a little old man - on a fragile boat gliding across this powerful monolith - subject to the whims of powers outside of his control.
And hey....isn't that just like our lives?
But he embraces this with courage, acceptance and love.
It's more than a story of a man catching a fish. It really is. And if you view it just like that then disappointment will follow.
It is an allegory of life and we must be grateful for this insightful and magical account. The writing is sparse and simple without embelishment or exaggeration and this adds to the temperate effect.
The Old Man and the Sea March 11, 2010
S. B. Anderson (USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Ernest Hemingway is one of my favorite "time past" authors. His great insight and the delivery of it in simple sentences is unmatched by any other author. "The Old Man and the Sea" is one of Hemingway's better known works, though it was written in a form of a novella. It is that much more important that this book won a Pulitzer Prize and helped Hemingway win the Nobel Prize in literature.
Santiago is an old Cuban fisherman who is down on his luck. Eighty four days without a catch, with a previous personal record of eighty seven. Santiago is not giving up though, even when the boy who helps him fish tells him that his parents will no longer allow him to fish with Santiago. The old man takes it in stride and on the eighty fifth day takes to the sea, alone.
Soon Santiago gets a bite, and a bite so strong that the fish can only be a large one. Catching a glimpse of it, the old man sees that the fish is indeed a magnificent marlin of the size that the old fisherman had never seen before. Immediately approximating the marlin's weight, Santiago realizes how much he can earn from the sale of the fish. But the marlin is strong and refuses to give in easily, taking Santiago farther and farther away into the sea, until there is no land.
Santiago and the marlin are caught in a battle of persistence, a battle that drives Santiago almost to the point of breaking. Having gone so far, the old fisherman can not give up, as he gains respect for the strong and brave fish. The battle must end soon, as both the man and the fish are running out of food and out of strength, and Santiago is relieved when he sees the marlin behave in a capitulating manner, circling around Santiago's skiff.
"The Old Man and the Sea" is truly a classic, a book that is written in a very simple language. Very simple characters and a simple plot reveal a complicated life dilemma of survival, courage, respect and pride. Santiago, originally driven by the need to survive, becomes driven by pride, causing careless behavior that creates the need for survival yet again. And Santiago's win turns into a loss, making one wonder if the price of pride is really worth the end result.
Hemingway is typically calm in this novella as he reveals Santiago's thought processes and the events that directly influence these processes, while at the same time revealing a different side of the fisherman, his past and all that led him to the marlin and the fight with things that are larger than himself. Santiago puts up with all the blows and pains, accepting them as they come along as a part of life, not realizing that he himself largely caused those pains. This is indeed the case with most of us, and Hemingway only pointed this fact out in his usual leisurely manner.
All in all, "The Old Man and the Sea" is a refreshing classic, maybe a bit short and sometimes too simple or haphazard, especially in Santiago's repetitive thought processes and dreams. Nonetheless, this is a novel that makes the reader think about the message that Hemingway invariably leaves in all his works. Recommended.
One Good Book February 18, 2010
Janie
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
The Old Man and the Sea is a book about a man, a fish, and the sea. Throughout the book, I couldn't help but admire the old man's, a.k.a. Santiago's, endurance, and his love for all life is staggering compared to the average human one can meet on the streets. To me, Santiago embodies the love and beauty that too many people don't display, but Santiago has more than that, he has enough for everyone the little Cuban village he lives in. The saddest part of the book, for me personally, was not that the magnificent fish Santiago caught was destroyed, but was the fact that the little boy was his only friend despite his seemingly endless love for everything. However, one friend is much better than no friends at all, and I think Santiago understands that. All in all, my only problem with this book is its shortness, but when I think about it, there really wouldn't be a good way to extend the story without taking away some of the charm.
If you ever get the chance, stop and read this book. 120 or so pages may not look like much, but the lessons taught by Hemmingway in this book are some of the most important many people will ever learn.
Hemingway February 12, 2010
Brad Blair
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is the book that got me hooked on Hemingway! Truly a great work.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 500
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