Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.52
EAN num: 9780020531906
ISBN number: 0020531907
Label: Macmillan Pub Co
Manufacturer: Macmillan Pub Co
Printing Date: 1973-10
Publishing house: Macmillan Pub Co
Sale Popularity Level: 4004487
Studio: Macmillan Pub Co
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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.
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 orange blanket, his small line was taken by a dolphin. He saw it very 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
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Rated by buyers 
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I have a different interpretation of The Old Man and the Sea. Many view this novella as a symbol of struggling and beating the odds when life gets hard. However, I see this as a symbol of when one is in their darkest hour, one has to struggle or choose to drown on their own accord. This is my interpretation because of the fact that Hemingway decided to "drown in the sea" by committing suicide. If the author would have died of natural causes, then we could interpret the novella as a triumph over life. I came to this conclusion because of the passage at the end of the novel when Santiago is looking deep into his psyche and contemplating if life is worth living due to the harshness of this life- "Bed [death] will be a great thing. It is easy [to die] when you are beaten, he thought." No matter what one sees in the symbols of this great novella, the one thing that resonates with generation after generation is that Hemingway wrote one of the most powerful novels of the 20th century.
Rated by buyers 
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Ernest Hemingway certainly knows how to write a tight, concise narrative novel with his Pulitzer Prize winning novel "The Old Man & The Sea". This is what makes "The Old Man & The Sea" a great novel.
There seems to be quite a bit of religious inference going on inside this novel too. Sin is touched upon. The old man struggles to catch the fish (only to have a sad ending in the novel) and there are other scenes that eludes to the crucifixion of Christ.
I enjoyed reading this classic novel... But wouldn't rank Hemingway's writing style as one of my favorites.
Rated by buyers 
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Placed the order in Nov. but never got the book. After one month, I wrote to the seller to check it out, then I got a refund without any explanation. I need the book for my kid's school project and the seller messed it up. How can we trust the seller any more?
Rated by buyers -
You must bring it back. But the real prize isn't the fish, it's the universal struggle for survival.
Rated by buyers -
Ernest Hemingway, the author of The Old Man and the Sea, is a novelist, short-story writer who liked to depict people whose courage and honesty are set against the atrocious ways of society and in the midst of the confrontation, would lose all optimism and faith. A classical novella, The Old Man and the Sea, displays emotional sentiment virtually throughout the story. This is a heroic story that is perfectly written and that is filled with perseverance, pride and friendship. This novella mostly takes action at the sea.
Santiago, the old Cuban man, goes for eighty-four days without catching a fish. His buddy, Manolin, strongly believes in the old man that he can catch a fish. Manolin has been deprived of going with the old man who has worst luck. The two of them like to talk about baseball in their conversation. Santiago's favorite baseball player is the great DiMaggio.
On the eighty-fifth day, Santiago goes sailing far beyond the island's shallow coastal waters and ventures into the Gulf Stream. Like always, whenever he throws the line that has the bait fixed to it, a fish would eat whatever is attached to that line and quickly move away. The following is a battle which tests the old man's skill to suffer to the limit. It was as if perseverance was in the man's blood. At noon, this particular marlin catches on the line and actually moves the skiff along. The strange man points out that the fish was two feet longer than the skiff. During some time, when the line was steady hard, Santiago's left hand got cramped. He disgustingly looks at his hand and asks it how it is doing after eating fish that he caught earlier.
While weariness hit him, he remembers the time when he and an African American went one day and one night arm wrestling. By remembering this event, he gave himself confidence. At daylight, the old man defeated the African American and became known as "The Champion." This memory effectively shows that the old man has sustained before and can still endure the encounter with the enormous fish.
During the whole story, the old man wishes that the boy was with him to see this magnificent fish. He has only three things that are his brothers, his two hands and the fish. He greatly admires this marlin but at the end, he pities the great fish that he had hooked. On the third day of the struggle, the fish circles around the boat which means exhaustion. This was the time for the old man to strike into the fish.
Hemingway effectively shows his objective by describing an old man against society (the fish and the sea). Frankly, this simple book is mostly about fishing, friendship, and endurance. I strongly encourage anyone who enjoys to fish to read this novella. Its suspenseful climax really lures the reader to finish the book. I liked this book because of the structure on how it is written and its simplistic wording.
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