| Secure Shopping |
|
|
|
|
The Old Man and The Sea |  | Author: Ernest Hemingway
Publisher: Scribner
Category: Book
List Price: $12.00
Buy Used: $0.99
as of 11/21/2009 14:05 CST details
You Save: $11.01 (92%)
New (101) Used (274) Collectible (15) from $0.99
Our website uses secure 3rd party servers to protect you from identity theft and credit card fraud. |
|
|
Seller: earthbooks123
Rating:  722 reviews
Sales Rank: 2922
Media: Paperback
Pages: 128
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.1 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
Tell A Friend
| |
| Features:
|
| Also Available In:
|
| Similar Items:
| |
| Editorial Reviews:
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.
|
| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 500
 Classic Story with a Classic Message November 17, 2009
Daniel J. Leyva
A great story communicated in a non-traditional manner. Though some find Hemmingway depressing, I find that his method of delivering a message ensures that anyone, despite their background, can relate and grasp the meaning
Peerless November 10, 2009
Andrew Desmond (Neutral Bay, NSW Australia)
If there has been a better book written in the English language than "The Old Man and the Sea" then I am yet to read it. This book is the very essence of the written language at its best. Here, we see the perfect amalgam of simplicity and poignancy. Here, we see a novel of scarcely more than 100 pages tell a truly touching tale with absolute clarity.
"The Old Man and and the Sea" was first published in 1952 and was the key to Ernest Hemingway being awarded the 1954 Nobel Prize for literature. It is the simple tale of a very old Cuban fisherman who has not had a large catch in 84 days. He is deemed as being beyond the task by the people of his village. No one seems to have any faith in him except the boy, Manolin. The boy never loses his faith. He adores the old man and is bursting with emotion when the old man returns from the sea with the remains of a huge marlin. He is both proud of the old man while also being desperately sorry that the fish had been eaten by sharks. Indeed, it is the attack on the fish by the sharks where one feels so sad for the old man. He has been at sea for days and single handedly brings the fish to his boat only to see his prize snatched from him by remorseless sharks.
Many authors should take lessons from Hemingway in general and this book in particular. Simplicity of tale and frugality of structure are the keys to the book. Sentences are simple and words direct without being needlessly flowering. This is truly the work of a genius. Indeed, Hemingway wrote many books in his time but none match this peerless effort.
This is one of the greatest books ever written November 4, 2009
I LOVE THIS BOOK! I cry every time I read it. There is a noble sadness to the book that makes u interested every time u read it.
Just wait a few more years... October 31, 2009
Isabelle Bouche
Though I enjoyed reading this novel, I believe the price is a little high. The story is quite short and I have read better and longer books for less. It is very possible that I didn't fully understand the book, as I am only sixteen years old, but if I had I am sure the price would have been suitable. to sum up what I just wrote, because I hardly understand it myself, the older you are the better this novel will seem to you!
Hemingway's greates novel October 20, 2009
woodrow locksley (lINCOLN NE)
The Old Man and The Sea is Hemingway's shortest novel but in my opinion it is also his greatest. The theme of the book is when a man of achievement is seen as over the hill can he rise up to prove his critics wrong ? Santiago, the old man in the novel, is a professional fisherman who was once considered the best in his craft.He goes out every day but for 84 days has not caught a fish. He goes out again in the novel and he hooks a marlin which he says is the biggest fish he has ever seen.The struggle to vanquish the marlin and Santiagos thoughts during the struggle are the heart of the book.The Old Man and the Seais about the quest for excellence and the difficulty of achieving it the even harder job of maintaining it and the realization that humanity in the end must fade away for no one can stay on top forever. If this book were written in the 20s or 30s it would be radically different and not as good Instead, Hemingway gives us a masterpiece that shows much insight of one of mankinds existential questions and contributes greatly to the nations and the worlds literary canon
Showing reviews 1-5 of 500
|
|
|
CERTAIN CONTENT THAT APPEARS ON THIS SITE COMES FROM AMAZON SERVICES LLC. THIS CONTENT IS PROVIDED ‘AS IS’ AND IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE OR REMOVAL AT ANY TIME. Powered by Amazon Web Services | |
