“You are all a lost generation.” The phrase was Gertrude Stein’s, but Ernest Hemingway made it famous when he selected it as the epigraph for his novel, The Sun Also Rises. Immediately a bestseller upon its publication in 1926, The Sun Also Rises defined a cultural moment and brought modernism to the masses. It made Hemingway a literary celebrity, whose life of café-hopping and bullfights became synonymous with glamour.

But The Sun Also Rises has a second epigraph, taken from Ecclesiastes, that suggests a very different perspective on the dissipated, seemingly aimless lives of his post-war expatriates. In this course, we will delve into both epigraphs and explore how they address the novel’s deepest questions: What does it mean to live life fully? To face death bravely? To find meaning in a world transformed by war and upheaval?

Image: Matador and bull, 1903, Library of Congress

Cheryl Miller on The Sun Also Rises

Faculty

Cheryl Miller

Cheryl Miller is executive director at the Hertog Foundation. Previously, she served as deputy director of research in the Office of Presidential Speechwriting and as research assistant to David Brooks at The New York Times. Her reviews and commentary have appeared in such publications as The Wall Street Journal, Commentary, and The Weekly Standard. She graduated from the University of Dallas with Bachelor of Arts degrees in English and Politics.

Preview the Syllabus by Week/Session

Other Courses You Might Be Interested In

Herman Melville’s Moby Dick

Explore the fundamental human question of the nature and existence of God with Melville's great American novel.

Edith Wharton’s The Custom of the Country

Follow the transatlantic adventures of a social-climbing American in this classic novel.

Tom Wolfe’s The Bonfire of the Vanities

Read Tom Wolfe’s devastating, irresistible satire of urban and racial politics.

The First American: The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

Reflect on what it means to be an American.

Saul Bellow’s Ravelstein

Reflect on a novel rich with themes of politics, philosophy, religion, love, friendship, and death.