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    Death in the Afternoon
    Death in the Afternoon
    Death in the Afternoon
    Audiobook9 hours

    Death in the Afternoon

    Written by Ernest Hemingway

    Narrated by Boyd Gaines

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    Ernest Hemingway's classic exploration of the history and pageantry of bullfighting, and the deeper themes of cowardice, bravery, sport and tragedy that it inspires.

    Still considered one of the best books ever written about bullfighting, Death in the Afternoon reflects Hemingway's belief that bullfighting was more than mere sport. Here he describes and explains the technical aspects of this dangerous ritual, and "the emotional and spiritual intensity and pure classic beauty that can be produced by a man, an animal, and a piece of scarlet serge draped on a stick." Seen through his eyes, bullfighting becomes an art, a richly choreographed ballet, with performers who range from awkward amateurs to masters of great grace and cunning.

    A fascinating look at the history and grandeur of bullfighting, Death in the Afternoon is also a deeper contemplation on the nature of cowardice and bravery, sport and tragedy, and is enlivened throughout by Hemingway's pungent commentary on life and literature.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio
    Release dateJan 2, 2007
    ISBN9780743563536
    Author

    Ernest Hemingway

    Ernest Hemingway did more to change the style of English prose than any other writer of his time. Publication of The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms immediately established Hemingway as one of the greatest literary lights of the twentieth century. His classic novel The Old Man and the Sea won the Pulitzer Prize in 1953. Hemingway was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954. His life and accomplishments are explored in-depth in the PBS documentary film from Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, Hemingway. Known for his larger-than-life personality and his passions for bullfighting, fishing, and big-game hunting, he died in Ketchum, Idaho on July 2, 1961. 

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    Reviews for Death in the Afternoon

    4/5

    23 ratings9 reviews

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    • 4/5
      I wasn't really sure what to expect when I picked this up, but I thought if I were to read about bullfighting, Hemingway might be a good choice as a guide. I had no idea it would be so detailed.I feel like I came away from it understanding the structure of a bullfight, the environment, the emotion. I was fascinated by his descriptions of proper killing, the work of the picadores and banderilleros (who I didn't even know existed before), and all the moves that a matador may perform, properly or improperly. Perhaps the most interesting part was Hemingway's recurring theme of the bravery of the bull. It's easy for an outsider to think of the matador as brave (or crazy), but one rarely considers the idea of a brave bull and how that bravery can raise the level of a bullfight to sheer brilliance if properly used by the matador.Also, you get a glimpse of Spain and its people through his writing, which I also enjoyed immensely. And finally, some of it was quite funny, as my boyfriend can attest because I kept reading passages out loud to him.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      Hemmingway is clearly enthralled with bullfighting and here tells you more than you ever wanted to know about it. Of course bullfighting has changed over time, so part of what he writes is no longer valid. Why should you read a book about bullfighting? Like anything, there is subculture that surrounds it, and it is an art form--albeit a violent one. This is not Hemmingway at his best. Perhaps he was so in love with bullfighting that he could not get enough distance from it, but it is still Hemmingway--and worth your time.
    • 4/5
      This work has challenged a number of my views about life and death and culture and globalisation. Regardless of one's thoughts on the topic of the book, Hemingway's ability to weave dialogue and stories into a polemic while creating a historical document is almost classical. This book is rather like reading a history of the ancient events of The Colosseum written first-hand. The only difference with this book is the photographs.
    • 4/5
      This was a rather remarkable book , a view into a history and culture about which I had known next to nothing. It is, of course, about bullfighting and it's extraordinary intricacies and ethos, but also a meditation on courage in its various forms.
    • 3/5
      This is Hemingways masterpiece about bull fighting. Its history and pagentry. No matter what your feelings are about the "sport" its still a facinating read.
    • 4/5
      Hemingway is yet another of the great writers that I have never read, I'm quite keen on seeing a bullfight and when I saw this paperback languishing in a second hand shop I snapped it up.This book will tell you pretty much everything you would ever want to know about the traditions and mechanics of bullfighting, and about the men who undertook this risky occupation in the years up to 1930 or so.Hemingwa was obviously greatly taken with the spectacle of the bullfight and had strong, and well informed, opinions about the event. Death In The Afternoon provides a guide to the uninitiated from the basics, where to see fights, how to buy tickets, through to the event itself with an exhaustive glossary and descriptions of terms, movements, styles and individuals.Hemingway must have caused a storm when this book was published, his opinions on some fighters are shocking, if he considered a matador 'cowardly', if you can call any man a coward who would take on an angry bull in single combat, he would write that such a man would be better off killed rather than continue to disgrace the ring. Although there may have been a few matadors happy with Hemingway's description of them, there must have been many more who would have happily run him through with a banderilla after reading his scathing thoughts.Bullfighting was a much more dangerous profession in this era than it is in the modern day, but even so Hemingway mourned the breeding of small, less dangerous bulls which he thought had taken much of the true honour and bravery out of the fight. The men who had instigated this bredding of smaller animals, the matadors themselves, were obviously of differing opinion.This book did no shy away from the controversy of bullfighting, included is a chapter with gives the opinions of a number of people on seeing their first (and often their one and only) bullfight. Hemingway does ask though that people give the bullfight a chance, the only people he is totally dismissive of are those who attend a fight fully intending to walk out after the first death.The deaths of men and horses in the ring is given plenty of space as well, also horse lovers would not be happy with Hemingway's couldn't care less attitude about the horses (and sometimes about the men). Bullfighting in this age was obviously an intensively dangerous occupation, even the very best matadors seemed to suffer regular and dreadful gorings, deaths in the ring were common, and the careers of many of the finest fighters were ended by bulls.Also included are some articles concerned with death in many forms, and some rather strange 'discussions' Hemingway has about bullfighting wit an imaginary old lady, the last chapter lists at some length all the things that Hemingway thought should have been included in an exhaustive work about bullfighting but couldn't be bothered including.I enjoyed Hemingway's forthright writing style, and the bravery he showed both in voicing his opinions and in the research he did, he did some training in the ring with bulls with blunted horns but quickly realised he had not the speed, style or grace required to fight bulls, and he admits this.An interesting writer, I'll be on the look out for a copy of the The Old Man And The Sea, anyone have a spare one ?
    • 4/5
      Hemingway's non-fiction writing about bullfighting in Spain.
    • 4/5
      Hemingway writes Death in the Afternoon as more of a travel guide for someone who wants to see Spanish bullfights as much as anything else. Yet, there is something else here. It is an expose on death and honor and includes great descriptiong of the essence of death as well as Hemingway's tremendously brilliant wit and dialogue. The book drags and becomes long-winded in places, but it is worth reading for the classic Hemingway commentaries on death, honor, and the art of writing.
    • 4/5
      I was a little surprised I enjoyed "Death in the Afternoon" as much as I did. I've always cringed at the idea of bullfights, except those in the south of France where rings are pulled off the bull's horns instead and the animals are not killed. However, Hemingway paints such a complete picture and immersed me into the world he loved that it was very intersting. The book also includes about 100 pages of pictures that bring the work to life. It's not fiction and it's not for everyone, but I liked it. Quotes:On change (and writing):"I know things change now and I do not care. It?s all been changed for me. Let it all change. We?ll all be gone before it?s changed too much and if no deluge comes when we are gone it still will rain in summer in the north and hawks will still nest in the Cathedral at Santiago and in La Granja?We never will ride back from Toledo in the dark, washing the dust out with Fundador, nor will there be that week of what happened in the night in that July in Madrid. We?ve seen it all go and we?ll watch it go again. The great thing is to last and get your work done and see and hear and learn and understand; and write when there is something that you know; and not before; and not too damned much after."On courage:"If qualities have odors the odor of courage to me is the smell of smoked leather or the smell of a frozen road or the smell of the sea when the wind rips the top from a wave, but the valor of Luis Freg did not have that odor. It was clotted and heavy?"On death:"There is no lonelier man in death, except the suicide, than that man who has lived many years with a good wife and then outlived her. If two people love each other there can be no happy end to it."On living in the now:"Within our time the scientists may well abolish these old diseases and we?ll live to see the end of all morality. But meantime I would rather dine on suckling pig at Botin?s than sit and think of casualties my friends have suffered."On suicide, certainly poignant given Hemingway's end:"It seemed a crime to keep him alive and he would have been much luckier to have died soon after the fight while he still had control of himself and still possessed his courage rather than to have gone through the progressive horror of physical and spiritual humiliation that the long enough continued bearing of unbearable pain produces. ? But as long as man is regarded as having an immortal soul and doctors will keep him alive through times when death would seem the greatest gift one man could give another, then the horses and the bulls will seem well taken care of and man to run the greatest risk."On the younger generation:"In the old days you went to a doctor and he fixed up, or tried to fix up, whatever was wrong with you. So in the old days you went to a bullfight and the matadors were matadors?""?if you sit with the older men at the caf? you know there are no good bullfighters now either; they are all children without honor, skill or virtue, much the same as those children who now play football, a feeble game it has become, on the high-school team and nothing like the great, mature, sophisticated athletes in canvas-elbowed jerseys, smelling vinegary from sweated shoulder pads, carrying leather headguards, their moleskins clotted with mud, that walked on leather-cleated shoes that printed in the earth along beside the sidewalk in the dusk, a long time ago.There were always giants in those days?"