Book Bearings
The Old Man and the Sea
- 131 pages · about 2 hours
- First published 1952
- 307 editions
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1 About this book
The Old Man and the Sea is a 1952 novella by Ernest Hemingway, the last major work of fiction he published in his lifetime. Santiago, an aging Cuban fisherman, has gone eighty-four days without a catch and is thought to be very unlucky. Manolin, the boy he trained, has been made to work on another boat but still looks after him. On the eighty-fifth day Santiago rows far out into the Gulf Stream alone and hooks a marlin longer than his skiff, too heavy to haul in. The story follows his long struggle with the fish, far from land.
- Male friendship
- Friendship
- Bildungsromans
- Psychology
- Taoism
- Sea stories
- Fishers
- Older men
2 What to expect
A very short novel about an old fisherman's long fight with a giant marlin, told simply and almost entirely from one small boat. The old man's thoughts and memories carry the story. Endurance, old age, luck and a man's contest with nature are its subjects, with Christian symbolism for those who look for it, and it can be read in a single sitting.
Good for readers who want: a short classic, the sea, and a simple story with depth.
3 About Ernest Hemingway
Bio adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
4 More by Ernest Hemingway
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