Death in the Afternoon
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 Front Cover |
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| Author | Ernest Hemingway |
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| Language | English |
| Publisher | Vintage |
| Released | April 16, 1996 October 5, 2000 (Reprint) |
| Media type | Paperback |
| Pages | 343 |
| ISBN | ISBN 978-0-09-928502-1 |
Death in the Afternoon is a non-fiction book by Ernest Hemingway about the ceremony and traditions of Spanish bullfighting. It was originally published in 1932. The book provides a look at the history and magnificence of bullfighting, while also being a deeper contemplation on the nature of fear and courage.
Any discussion concerning bullfighting would be incomplete without some mention of the controversy surrounding it. Toward that end Hemingway commented, "anything capable of arousing passion in its favor will surely raise as much passion against it."
Hemingway was not as knowledgeable about bullfighting as he liked to make out and his opinion of some of the leading matadors is questionable. The great Domingo Ortega is given a very negative notice, as is the brilliant gypsy Cagancho. Later, Hemingway was to arouse controversy in Spain by his dismissal of Manolete (who he never saw fight).
Beyond the controversy surrounding bullfighting it is also important to realize that as with any performance or form of art, the quality of it may vary considerably. "The chances are that the first bullfight any spectator attends may not be a good one artistically; for that to happen there must be good bullfighters and good bulls; artistic bullfighters and poor bulls do not make interesting fights, for the bullfighter who has ability to do extraordinary things with the bull which are capable of producing the intensest degree of emotion in the spectator will not attempt them with a bull which he cannot depend on to charge..."
| Ernest Hemingway Books |
| Novels: The Torrents of Spring | The Sun Also Rises (¡Fiesta!) | A Farewell to Arms | To Have and Have Not | For Whom the Bell Tolls | Across the River and Into the Trees | The Old Man and the Sea | Adventures of a Young Man | Islands in the Stream | The Garden of Eden |
| Non-fiction: Death in the Afternoon | Green Hills of Africa | The Dangerous Summer | A Moveable Feast | Ernest Hemingway Selected Letters 1917–1961 | Under Kilimanjaro |
| Short story books: Three Stories and Ten Poems | In Our Time | Men Without Women | Winner Take Nothing | The Fifth Column and the First Forty-Nine Stories | The Snows of Kilimanjaro | The Essential Hemingway | The Hemingway Reader | The Nick Adams Stories | The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway | The Collected Stories |
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