she states that these novels are nevertheless gripping accounts because "the impression of truth
is so strong that these fictional accounts seem more than true to life than actual reports" (p. 13).
According to Mitcham then, truthfulness, humor, gentleness and tenderness are the
characteristics that best describe Gabrielle Roy's writing. Her study awakens in the reader the
desire to explore more fully the varied aspects of the writer and to read and reread her work.
Frederic Joseph Svoboda
HEMINGWAY AND T H E SUN ALSO RISES:
THE CRAFTING OF A STYLE
Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas, 1983.
Pp. xii+ 152.
Donald R. Noble, ed.
HEMINGWAY: A REVALUATION
Troy, N.Y.: The Whitston Publishing Company, 1983, Pp. 282.
Reviewed by Raymond S. Nelson
Using materials in the Hemingway Collection at the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston,
Frederic Svoboda traces the growth of The Sun Also Rises from Hemingway's first sketches of
the story through its published form. From Hemingway's original thirty-two page journalistic
account of experiences at the Fiesta of San Fermin together with other actual persons (Lady
Duff Twysden, Pat Guthrie, Donald Ogden Stewart, Harold Loeb, and Hadley Richardson
Hemingway) through a series of revisions and galley proofs, Svoboda traces the growth of the
novel. Svoboda pursues Hemingway's "theory of iceberg composition" and his determination
to avoid conventional "literary signs" as he interprets Hemingway's steadily growing selfconfidence as a young writer discernible in successive stages of composition.
Svoboda reviews Hemingway's "beginnings and backgrounds" briefly, reminding the reader
of the nature of Hemingway's work up until 1925: quite a good number ofjournalistic articles,
a few poems, and In Our Time. Svoboda then concentrates on "the most difficult job of revision"
(p. 43) which Hemingway undertook at Schruns, Austria, during the winter of 1925 and 1926.
Last, Svoboda demonstrates that Scott Fitzgerald persuaded Hemingway to alter the beginning
of the novel, cutting about one and a half chapters (3500 words). After such a systematic and
thorough analysis, Svoboda offers a short chapter in which he assesses the "significance" of The
Sun Also Rises. "The book," he says, "shows Hemingway's maturation into an artist of the first
rank in his ability to integrate and interrelate all the varied elements of the novel..." (p. 114).
Svoboda shows the gradual shift from the real people who shared the week at Pamplona to the
fictional counterparts with whom readers of Hemingway are familiar. He also reveals how
Hemingway steadily cut most of Jake's theorizing on form and style which early drafts of the
manuscript contain.
Two other significant elements of the book are the many photocopies of variant readings
of the text, deleted portions, and photographs. In three appendices Svoboda describes the
manuscripts, the original opening of the novel that was cut from the galleys, and a letter from
F. Scott Fitzgerald. All of this material is vital to the argumentative force of the book and to the
clarity of the discussion. An index helps to make the book a useful research tool.
Svoboda organized his study well, focusing on significant developments as Hemingway
formed his first novel. Svoboda goes beyond the development of this particular novel; he traces
the growth of the young writer at work on his first long work. Thus, The Sun Also Rises is a
critical work in the maturation of one of our major authors of the twentieth century.
The Crafting of a Style is readable and the author accomplishes his purpose. It has most
interest for students of The Sun Also Rises but it does have a broader implication, particularly
Book Reviews
121
for those who are interested in textual criticism or those who are tracing the evolution of
Hemingway's aesthetic theories.
Hemingway: A Revaluation contains thirteen essays on Hemingway's work, eight of them
presented at the third Alabama Symposium on English and American literature in Tuskaloosa
in 1976, plus an introduction by the editor. Like any such collection, it is uneven in quality.
Several of the essays are superb, and the rest range from serviceable to undistinguished.
Perhaps the best essay is H. R. Stoneback's "Hemingway and Faulkner on the Road to
Roncevaux." Stoneback presents a cogent argument for the pilgrim motif that runs throughout
The Sun Also Rises, from Paris through Madrid, with Jake the conscious pilgrim "seeking a
deeper participation in grace through the careful practice of ritual and discipline" (p. 145).
Stoneback documents his case carefully, treating the theme first in Hemingway and then,
towards the close of the essay, more incidentally in Faulkner's Flags in the Dust.
The second most valuable essay is F. Allen Josephs's "Hemingway's Poor Spanish: Chauvinism
and Loss of Credibility in For Whom the Bell Tolls." It is a disturbing essay, for Josephs is at pains
to itemize the long list of errors in Hemingway's use of Spanish. Robert Jordan, supposedly a
Professor of Spanish and therefore a superb speaker and writer of the language, errs and errs
again in spelling, in accenting, and in word choice. Josephs lists a good number of mistakes in
capitalization and use of diacritical marks, then focuses on what he considers three glaring
lapses: to use the word Lache for "coward" (when he probably meant lche, a French word), to
confuse aburrimiento with aburmiento, andworst of allto call Maria "kitten" (pp. 208-14). He
concludes from his evidence that Hemingway really didn't care about Spain or the Spanish
language, that Hemingway was an American chauvinist who (at worst) may have thought of
Spaniards as "primitives" (p. 218).
Philip Young's essay, "Hemingway: The Writer in Decline," is perhaps his "farewell" to
Hemingway studies. Young was among the first to offer keen and valuable insights into
Hemingway's work, despite Hemingway's nastiness to him in those early years, and he has been
at the center of work related to the manuscripts at the Kennedy library. This essay is an
engaging personal account of Young's many experiences concerning the manuscripts, and his
attempt to understand the last twenty years of Hemingway's disappointing output.
The rest of the essays in the volume are not bad, but they are run of the mill. Though
several of the writers make use of manuscript materials, they offer no strikingly new interpretive
insights or dramatic reinterpretations. Critical opinions fall into predictable patterns (some
critics, for example, insist that the novels must be viewed without recourse to the "biographical
fallacy" (p. 2), but just as many others insist that autobiographical interpretation is a necessity).
Not a great deal has changed.
The volume itself is serviceably bound. It looks as though it was destined for library shelves.
The text is carelessly proof-read, however, for entirely too many errors slipped through.
Michael Reynolds writes/ormani five or six times (pp. 116-18), meaningforeword, I suppose. He
picked up the error from Hemingway himself (a notoriously bad speller). Reynolds also writes
imminence (p. 119) when he probably means eminence. Pilgrimage is misspelled (p. 142), that on p.
159 should be than, aviator's on p. 182 should be plural possessive, initial is misspelled on p. 187,
is is occurs thrice for itis (pp. 189, 199,24l),artistically on p. 192 is misspelled, as is Bernhardt on
p. 226. Such a large number of typos in an otherwise attractive book suggests a lack of pride in
the finished volume.
All in all, the two volumes will be useful to students, along with the other hundred or so
volumes on Hemingway to be found on university library shelves. They offer some distinctive
insights.
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The International Fiction Review, 11, No. 2 (1984)
