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Death in the Afternoon | 
 enlarge | Author: Ernest Hemingway
Creator: Boyd Gaines
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Category: Book
List Price: $39.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  36 reviews
Sales Rank: 307173
Format: Audiobook, Unabridged
Media: Audio CD
Edition: Unabridged
Number Of Items: 8
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 5.9 x 5.1 x 1.2
ISBN: 0743564456
Dewey Decimal Number: 791.82
EAN: 9780743564458
ASIN: 0743564456
Publication Date: January 2, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
A fascinating look at the history and grandeur of bullfighting Death in the Afternoon is an impassioned look at bullfighting by one of its true aficionados. It reflects Hemingway's conviction that bullfighting was more than mere sport and reveals a rich source of inspiration for his art. The unrivaled drama of bullfighting, with its rigorous combination of athleticism and artistry, and its requisite display of grace under pressure, ignited Hemingway's imagination. Seen through his eyes, bullfighting becomes a richly choreographed ballet, with performers who range from awkward amateurs to masters of great elegance and cunning. Death in the Afternoon is also a deeper contemplation of the nature of cowardice and bravery, sport and tragedy, and is enlivened throughout by Hemingway's sharp commentary on life and literature.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 31 more reviews...
 Death as an art form July 8, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I am an aficionado of the corrida and, almost necessarily, loved this book. It is the best thing every written on the subject and, although I don't agree with Hemingway's every point, I still enjoy it. The book was written in 1930 and, even then, he decries a certain corruption in the spectacle. He maintains that the bulls have been bred down in size to make it easier for the matador to work and ultimately kill the bull. Maybe, although I haven't seen this tendency during my lifetime.
He also decries the fact that the emphasis is less and less on the killing as opposed to pageantry and hot-dogging [read Mitchener's "Mexico"]. There is some truth in this but, even back in 1930, Madrid was becoming a tourist mecca and, to a certain extent, the matadors were and are playing to unsophisticated audiences. On the other hand, my experience in less touristy areas has been the opposite. The kill, although not the total point of the fight, is definitely the most important part. Pity the poor matador who has a perfect fight only to have his sword, at the "moment of truth", glance off a rib. He won't get two ears and a tail. He'll be lucky if he gets one ear.
I think Hemingway should have more emphasized that the corrida is NOT a sport. It is a tragedy which appeals to the Spanish [and some non-Spanish]mind. It is not meant to be "fair" in the Anglo-Saxon sense of the word. A brave beast rages courageously only to be bloodied, broken and killed. The matador, on his part, needs to be just as brave. If you don't think so, just try to face an enraged 1500 lb beast with a cape and a flimsy sword. To go to a bullfight hoping the matador will be knocked down and gored, would be like going to a ballet and hoping the prima ballerina fall on her face.
It is a deliberate tragedy where sometimes the dead bull gets a bigger hand than does the matador. It appealed to Hemingway's fatalism. Most of his stories, if you think about it, mirrored the corrida. "All true stories end in death." He said. If you read his tales most end with defeat and death. The Snows of Kilamanjaro, The Old Man and the Sea, The Short and Happy life of Francis MacComber, A Farewell to Arms, For Whom the Bell Tolls and many, many others. I wonder if he was thinking of the wounded bull when he loaded his shotgun that day...
Ron Braithwaite author of novels--"Skull Rack" and "Hummingbird God"--on the Spanish Conquest of Mexico
BULLFIGHTING 101 May 22, 2007
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
At the time that Hemingway wrote this book the rather exotic art of bullfighting was fairly unknown to English audiences. Hemingway almost single-handedly drove many expatriate Americans and Europeans of the `lost generation' to the corrida. Some of his novels and short stories also have the bullring as a backdrop. This book is an interesting combination of Hemingway's literary flair and a how to book on the art of bullfighting. The bullfight experience (watching, that is) became a mandatory exercise for later, mainly American, male writers and formed a rite of passage for manly writing. One thinks immediately of Norman Mailer but there were others.
Having watched a bullfight in Mexico I find it hard to see the interest that Hemingway and the others had in the sport. I do not care for prizefighting either. I will admit to having spent many a fruitless hour watching the 'bullpen' of the beloved home town Red Sox at Fenway Park blow a lead that would make any bull see red. On its own terms, Hemingway surely had more than an amateur interest in describing the ritual of the fight and grading the performances of man and beast. That part, in essence, the literary part is what held my interest. If one suspends a certain disbelief about the obvious surface brutality of the event and rather delves into the `man against nature' and `dancing with death' aspects that is where you will find Hemingway. Ole
Happiness Is A Dead Bull May 9, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
For Ernest Hemingway, a fiesta wasn't a fiesta until someone got killed, preferably a 1,400-pound male bovine, horns dripping with horse blood, legs up in front of thousands of cheering Spaniards. That was the world of the bullfight, a world Hemingway discovered by accident while on a break from mingling with the Lost Generation in Paris, and made his own with the help of this book.
First published in 1932, "Death In The Afternoon" may be what separates Papa's truest fans from mere admirers like myself. Most people who value writing understand that Hemingway wrote very well, but many like me would go on to say we wish he spent less time on attitude and posturing and developed a surer sense of focus, in line with "The Sun Also Rises" and "In Our Time." But for those who drink and fish and grow white beards in emulation of their hero, "Death In The Afternoon" is THE book precisely because it so messily captures Hemingway's self-image of the macho artist.
"Death In The Afternoon" starts out with a rambling chapter that deals with American attitudes about bullfighting rather than the thing itself. It finishes with a self-indulgent one where he outlines all the things he left out as if giving a long-winded Oscar speech. In between is much to admire, for bullfighting aficionados and vegetarians alike, including some of the most arresting passages in American letters.
"Someone with English blood has written: 'Life is real; life is earnest, and the grave is not its goal,'" Hemingway writes. "And where did they bury him? and what became of the reality and the earnestness?"
Hemingway's theme, here and throughout the book, seems to be that death and suffering are the things of life, its essence and only ultimate truths. Only art lends them meaning. Of all art, Hemingway finds bullfighting the truest and most inspiring because of how close it is to the bone of the matter, to death, and how transitorily it is experienced. All art, even the most lasting, ultimately fades, but only in bullfighting is that impermanence accepted and understood.
Hard words, hard philosophy. But Hemingway works hard too at entertaining the reader, often quite successfully. He tells of one matador's farewell performance where he dedicates the killing of his last bull before the fact to first one, than another, and then a third person, so caught up is he in the moment and his own eloquence. There is an ongoing discussion with an old lady frankly curious about the sex habits of both bull and bull-killer. He extols Faulkner, has at Huxley, and fesses up to how he must come off: "The fellow is no philosopher, no savant, an incompetent zoologist, he drinks too much and cannot punctuate readily...He is bull crazy."
The book comes with a generous number of photographs with Hemingway-written captions that are works of art in miniature. Under a photo of a dead matador surrounded by people, he notes: "Only two in the crowd are thinking about Granero. The others are all intent on how they will look in the photograph."
I didn't really buy Hemingway's take on some things, especially the issue of the horses. He opposes padding their undersides to protect them from bull horns as it violates the aesthetic of the performance. Then he writes of how the picadors riding the horse will use the horse's horning as a way of artificially tiring the bull to give the matador an easier time. Doesn't padding then produce a better bullfight?
Hemingway also loses his train of thought, in ways that impair rather than enrich the reading experience. One moment he's talking about the handling of the muleta or the politics of the cuadrilla, the next he is talking about a pair of homosexuals or how langostinos are best enjoyed.
It's really about a man discovering a country he loves, and in that sense, the Spanish backdrop is the best thing about "Death In The Afternoon." It's a love letter with more than a touch of sadness; the Spain Hemingway knew was about to be lost, to civil war and Franco, for the rest of his lifetime. But nothing was forever to Hemingway. In the world of the bullring, he found the closest thing to perfection he could believe in. Believe it or not, you have to admire the result.
Excellent journalism August 7, 2006
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
An epic tome on the art and grandeur of Spanish bullfighting from one of America's greatest aficionados, Ernest Hemingway, who explicates the craft and spiritual intensity of this ancient European ritual through terse, journalistic, prose and rigorous scholarship. Not surprisingly, Hemingway is not terribly perturbed by the grotesque barbarity of the violence of bullfighting; Hemingway was an enthusiast of hunting and had little to no moral qualms about killing animals (and sometimes people). Yet he is not totally insensitive, warning the reader that most spectators of bullfighting are normally disgusted by the killing of the horses more than anything else.
For Hemingway, the bullfight is not meant to be understood as an equal battle between man and beast. Rather, it is a tragedy, and the tragedy is for the bull who ought to be killed. He writes, "The best of all fighting bulls have a quality, called nobility by the Spanish, which is the most extraordinary part of the whole business" (113), yet Hemingway does not provide any comment on the utter absurdity of the whole business. Hemingway was a writer obsessed with, and in search of true courage in the face of natural danger and fate, and he found it most explicitly in war and in bullfighting.
However, some readers will be surprised to find that `Death in the Afternoon,' is not simply about bullfighting. Hemingway also expounds quite at length about his views on art and the craft of writing. He says: "When writing a novel, a writer should create living people; people not characters. A character is a caricature" (191). Unfortunately, Hem was never fully successful at creating a living woman, but every writer has a weakness. "A serious writer may be a hawk or a buzzard or even a popinjay, but a solemn writer is always a bloody owl" (192).
Also included in this altogether excellent volume is a collection of stunning photographs depicting various stages of the bullfight and various matadors of fame; there are also fascinating portraits of the running of the bulls in Pamplona (echoing those fabulous sequences in `The Sun also Rises'). Additionally, Hemingway has provided the reader with a detailed glossary of important bullfighting terms for true aficionados. Originally published through Scribner in 1932.
Yes = the Fine Art of Bullfighting October 12, 2005
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
One thing that Hemingway clears up is that bullfighting is not a contest between man and beast. It is a tragedy; no matter if the bull succeeds in killing the matador, and all the picadors and bandierros for that matter, he will still be executed after the fight. This is pure art, and nothing more. I can't explain why to you, but Hemingway says that it is very Spanish, and to understand it you must understand the Spaniards.
This is just a general overview of bullfighting. The book is very descriptive and very much more worth your time. You will find that there is something of the bullfight and the muleta in all of us.
The three steps of the bullfight are clear and showcase the bull. (It is worth mentioning that these are not just any bulls: they are finely bred fighting bulls that are too agressive to be good for anything else.)
One: the bull shows his strength and bravery in the killing of the horses in the first stage with the picador. The picador pierced the muscle on his shoulder, therefore showing the bravery of the bull if he continues through the pain to gore the horse. After this stage, the dead horses are covered and the bandierros enter the ring.
Two: The bandierros use small spears with hooks on them so they stay in the bull's hide. They are 'set' in pairs in the large hump of agrivated muscle over the withers. These are used to raise the neck of the bull and therefore weakening it so the matador can do his work. In this stage the bull is confused: he cannot (if the man knows his work and is not unlucky) catch the man as he did in the last stage. His courage is useless.
Three: The matador enters the arena (or barrera, I believe...it's been a while) to finish the bull. At this stage, the bull is tired and his head is beginning to droop. His shoulders are covered in blood but he stands there arrogant. The matador cannot rise over the horns of the bull to kill in his origional condition; therefore, he must tire him over the course of the three stages. The matador does his part with the muleta (cape) and then kills the bull by stabbing him with a sword to his heart. It is here, Hemingway will tell you, that the bull is either said to be killed or assasinated. If the matador is competent, his body will come over the top of the horn. If the bull lifts his head, the matador is gored. Thus, in a proper kill, the bull in the end had a chance to kill again. If the matador pulls back at the last second and just stabs the animal without the threat, he is said to "assasinate."
This is excellent. Your friends might look at you a little funny for reading about "killing bulls" and not understand that it is...well, an ART. This is just plain wonderful. Hemingway again does a terriffic job, showing more of his journalistic side than in For Whom the Bell Tolls.
Excellent read, but not for everyone. Get it from the library and read the first few chapters. If you still feel sorry for the bulls after that, you're on your own.
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