Product Description

Set in the Gulf Stream off the coast of Havana, Hemingway's magnificent fable is the story of an old man, a young boy and a giant fish. It was The Old Man and the Sea that won for Hemingway the Nobel Prize for Literature. Here, in a perfectly crafted story, is unique and timeless vision of the beauty and grief of man's challenge to the elements in which he lives.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5102 in Books
• Published on: 1994-08-18
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 112 pages

From Amazon.co.uk
Here, for a change, is a fish tale that actually does honour to the author. In fact The Old Man and the Sea revived Ernest Hemingway's career, which was foundering under the weight of such post-war 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 favourite 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

Amazon.co.uk Review
Here, for a change, is a fish tale that actually does honour to the author. In fact The Old Man and the Sea revived Ernest Hemingway's career, which was foundering under the weight of such post-war 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 favourite 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

Review
Hemingway won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954 for 'his powerful style-forming mastery of the art of modern narration as most lately revealed in his novel The Old Man and the Sea'. Reading his spare economic style is a tonic. This short novel tells of an old fisherman, a young boy and a big fish. The story is of a heroic duel between the old fisherman and a huge marlin way off Havana, and its subsequent destruction by sharks. Much wisdom, soul searching and inspiring prose: 'A man can be destroyed but not defeated...' A fine story displaying the dignity of the human spirit, sometimes hard to spot in real life. (Kirkus UK)

A long short story and worth the money in quality of the old Hemingway of Men Without Women days - though in quantity it can't bulk to more than a scant 150 pages. A unique fishing story - as old man Santiago determines to try his luck in the Gulf waters off Cuba for the eighty fifth day. Surely his luck will change, he assures his faithful young friend whose parents wouldn't let him fish any more in such an ill-fated boat. So the boy goes along in imagination with the old man, pretending that there is enough food in the shanty- and supplementing the lacks from his own table; pretending that bait could be found- and bringing him sardines; planning for getting some warmer clothes for him and lugging water from the village pump; talking gaily of the great "DiMag" and of the game the Yankees are sure to win. And then the old man goes out - beyond the other fishing boats - and drops his lines in the way he has always done, and baits the hooks so that his hoped for great fish could smell and taste. The miracle happens - and the fish, a giant marlin, is bigger than any fish dreamed of. And the old man is alone....The story of that battle, that carried him out to sea and lasted through two days and two nights, is one of the miniature modern classics of such writing. And the story of the sailing back to port, as little by little the scavengers of the sea stripped what was to have been his livelihood for months to come, down to the skeleton, is grim and heartbreaking. A miracle tale, told with such passionate belief that the reader, too, believes. There's adventure here and Hemingway's old gift for merging drama and tenderness gives it a rare charm. (Kirkus Reviews)

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Customer Reviews

Worst book I have ever read...
I had to study this text for my GCSE for exam questions...what a bad book to choose! It is boring and I don't see Nobel Prize winning stuff here! This is for people with a real interest in literature because you have to go too deep to find the meaning of the story. As you can imagine, I was not motivated during my exam...

Old Man And The Pile Of Crap
Perhaps the most over-rated book of all time. A book that boasts absolutly no substance and is sure to kill anyone who has even the slightest slither of personality. For me this book exemplifies everything wrong with the critical world; distinctly average and even poor books and films etc. are hailed as materpieces due to the alledged 'body of thourght' behind them. I can assure you there is no 'thought' here, at least none above the mundane and enfantile.
I am fully aware of the 'messages' such as 'material gain is worthless', however these values are extremly rudimentary and are learnt as a child. Essentially, 'The old man and the sea' tells us nothing that we didn't already know and, perhaps more impotantly, is just a crap story.
This stole nearly 3 months of entertaining, if only mildly, english lessons away from me. During that 3 month period I would describe this book as 'the bain of my existence'. To summerise:
DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK, unless your hobbies include watching hours upon hours of riveting box assembly and/or cutting yourself in the face with very long sharp knives, in which case this is the book for you.


By Tom K

The Old Man And The Sea - Dreary, Boring twaddle.
I appreciate the deeper meanings of this book, but ultimately get distracted by the very absurdity of the book. There are nearly 100 pages about an old man on a boat by himself who talks to his own hand. The story is well-written and laced with the simplistic prose Hemingway is known for, but so much time is spent rambling, the story gets bogged down with pointless chitchat.

This story does show 'victory in defeat', but is so dreary it becomes unbearable.