Ernest Hemingway ranks as the most famous of twentieth-century American writers; like Mark Twain, Hemingway is one of those rare authors most people know about, whether they have read him or not. The difference is that Twain, with his white suit, ubiquitous cigar, and easy wit, survives in the public imagination as a basically, lovable figure, while the deeply imprinted image of Hemingway as rugged and macho has been much less universally admired, for all his fame. Hemingway has been regarded less as a writer dedicated to his craft than as a man of action who happened to be afflicted with genius. When he won the Nobel Prize in 1954, Time magazine reported the news under Heroes rather than Books and went on to describe the author as "a globe-trotting expert on bullfights, booze, women, wars, big game hunting, deep sea fishing, and courage." Hemingway did in fact address all those subjects in his books, and he acquired his expertise through well-reported acts of participation as well as of observation; by going to all the wars of his time, hunting and fishing for great beasts, marrying four times, occasionally getting into fistfights, drinking too much, and becoming, in the end, a worldwide celebrity recognizable for his signature beard and challenging physical pursuits.
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.
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
一 在我初次撰写本文的那些天,我在校园散步时读到一则讣告,本校一位退休工人在家中去世,享年104岁。讣告特别提到,他生前是一位淡泊、俭朴的老人。我在对他油然升起敬意的同时,也产生一丝惊讶,我从讣告中得知,他与我同居一幢宿舍,而我却对他一无所知,甚至素未谋面。 我...
评分一 在我初次撰写本文的那些天,我在校园散步时读到一则讣告,本校一位退休工人在家中去世,享年104岁。讣告特别提到,他生前是一位淡泊、俭朴的老人。我在对他油然升起敬意的同时,也产生一丝惊讶,我从讣告中得知,他与我同居一幢宿舍,而我却对他一无所知,甚至素未谋面。 我...
评分海明威在《太阳照常升起》的序言中说:这世界大多数人都在迷茫。我们安慰自己,只因为那里,或许有个上帝,端坐天堂。 因为这句话,我迷恋上了这个男人。他有怎样的境遇,怎样的故事,让他对于人生有了这样的感慨。 带着无限的好奇,我在网上搜索他的生平,却惊讶的...
评分一直慕名《老人与海》,结果到现在才看。。 从kindle上凭感觉购买了余光中的版本,在回家的地铁上开始阅读,读着读着总是觉得有些别扭,知道海明威所描写的硬汉形象,简练概括,摒弃任何浮夸,丝毫不啰嗦的叙事手法,可是总觉得余光中所译的感觉不太相符,看了没有几页,语言...
评分我不相信人会有所谓的“命运”,但是我相信对于任何人来说,“限度”总是存在的。再聪明再强悍的人,能够做到的事情也总是有限度的。老人桑地亚哥不是无能之辈,然而,尽管他是最好的渔夫,也不能让那些鱼来上他的钩。他遇到他的限度了,就象最好的农民遇上了大旱,最好的猎手...
看到最后,老人回家男孩哭了还是有些感动。沉郁的小说,说的事情太“大”太重了。真经典。
评分卷毛文青逼迫读QAQ 从小到大都不喜欢这个故事啊
评分英文更简洁有力一些吧
评分2014年,1.19-2.2,计5hrs
评分终于看到眼泪掉下来。开始一直云淡风轻风平浪静的为了看书而看这本书,到快要结束的时候猝不及防的触动了我。认同圣地亚哥并且在实践。
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