The influences behind The Sun Also Rises

1926

The Sun Also Rises

Ernest Hemingway

Lost Generation. Paris / United States. Written in English.

Hemingway's first novel (1926) follows Jake Barnes, an American journalist left impotent by a war wound, and the expatriates around Lady Brett Ashley from the cafes of Paris to the fishing streams of Burguete and the bullfights at Pamplona. Its title and epigraph come from Ecclesiastes, and its spare, repetitive prose draws on Gertrude Stein.

Where it came from

Find “The Sun Also Rises” on Amazon

1922

The Waste Land

T. S. Eliot

High Modernism. London. Written in English.

A five-part poem of fragments and quotations portraying a sterile postwar Europe through the myth of a wounded king and a parched land.

What it handed down

To The Sun Also Rises (1926)

Thematic kinship, probable.

Jake's war wound, which leaves him unable to consummate his love, has been widely read as a version of Eliot's wounded Fisher King presiding over a sterile postwar world. The fishing trip to Burguete and the drinking, aimless society of the novel answer the poem's imagery of drought and spiritual exhaustion. Hemingway disparaged Eliot in print, so the debt is one of shared material rather than avowed discipleship.

To The Great Gatsby

Thematic kinship, well documented.

The 'valley of ashes' between West Egg and New York, watched over by the billboard eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg, adapts Eliot's landscape of dust and spiritual emptiness. Fitzgerald admired the poem and sent Eliot a copy of the novel, which Eliot praised in a letter.

Where it came from

Satyricon, Petronius c. 60 CE follow this thread
Ecclesiastes (Qohelet), Anonymous (attributed to Solomon) c. 3rd century BCE follow this thread
Perceval, the Story of the Grail, Chretien de Troyes c. 1190

Find “The Waste Land” on Amazon

c. 1190

Perceval, the Story of the Grail

Chretien de Troyes

High Middle Ages. Northern France (Flanders court). Written in Old French.

An unfinished verse romance in which the naive knight Perceval visits the castle of the wounded Fisher King and fails to ask about the Grail.

What it handed down

To The Waste Land (1922)

Thematic kinship, probable.

Chretien's Perceval is the earliest surviving story of the Grail, the wounded Fisher King and his ruined land. Eliot took the poem's title, its fishing king and its chapel perilous from the Grail legend, which he said he had studied through Jessie Weston's account of it.

Where it came from

Roman de Brut, Wace 1155

Find “Perceval, the Story of the Grail” on Amazon

Roman de BrutWace

1155

Roman de Brut

Wace

Anglo-Norman. Normandy / England. Written in Anglo-Norman French.

A verse chronicle of British history from Brutus to Cadwallader, adapting Geoffrey of Monmouth and introducing the Round Table.

What it handed down

To Perceval, the Story of the Grail (c. 1190)

Thematic kinship, probable.

Wace's chronicle established Arthur's court, its knights and the Round Table in French verse a generation before Chretien. Chretien's romances, including Perceval, take that court as the fixed setting from which their knights set out.

Where it came from

The History of the Kings of Britain (Historia Regum Britanniae), Geoffrey of Monmouth c. 1136

Find “Roman de Brut” on Amazon

c. 1136

The History of the Kings of Britain (Historia Regum Britanniae)

Geoffrey of Monmouth

Anglo-Norman. England. Written in Latin.

A pseudo-history of Britain from its founding by Brutus, great-grandson of Aeneas, through the reign of King Arthur.

What it handed down

To Roman de Brut (1155)

Direct source, well documented.

The Roman de Brut is a free verse translation of Geoffrey's Latin History into Anglo-Norman French. Wace follows Geoffrey's sequence of kings, adding details such as the Round Table.

Where it came from

Historia Brittonum, Anonymous (attributed to Nennius) c. 829

Find “The History of the Kings of Britain (Historia Regum Britanniae)” on Amazon

c. 829

Historia Brittonum

Anonymous (attributed to Nennius)

Early Middle Ages. Wales. Written in Latin.

A compilation of British history and legend that traces the Britons to Brutus of Troy and lists Arthur's twelve battles.

What it handed down

To The History of the Kings of Britain (Historia Regum Britanniae) (c. 1136)

Direct source, well documented.

Geoffrey took from the Historia Brittonum the story of Brutus, the Trojan founder of Britain, and the list of Arthur's battles. He expanded these brief notices into a full narrative history.

Where it came from

The Aeneid, Virgil 19 BCE

Find “Historia Brittonum” on Amazon

19 BCE

The Aeneid

Virgil

Augustan. Augustan Rome. Written in Latin.

Virgil's epic of the Trojan Aeneas's flight from burning Troy, his love affair with Dido, his descent to the underworld and his war in Italy.

What it handed down

To Heart of Darkness

Disputed link, conjectural.

Some critics have read Marlow's journey upriver as a descent to the underworld on the model of Aeneas's in Aeneid Book 6, with the knitting women at the Company office as guardians of the threshold. Conrad left no statement confirming the parallel.

To Inferno

Direct source, well documented.

Dante makes Virgil his guide through Hell and calls him his master and author. Charon, the river crossings and the geography of the dead come from Aeneas's descent in Aeneid Book 6.

To Historia Brittonum (c. 829)

Thematic kinship, probable.

The Historia Brittonum makes Brutus a descendant of Aeneas and links British origins to the Trojan diaspora that Virgil's epic made famous. The Trojan genealogy borrows its authority from the Aeneid's story of Rome's founding.

To Satyricon

Direct source, well documented.

The poet Eumolpus recites the 'Troiae Halosis', a verse account of the fall of Troy that reworks Aeneid Book 2. Petronius uses Virgil's epic material for comic and critical effect in a low setting.

To Metamorphoses

Direct source, well documented.

Books 13 and 14 of the Metamorphoses retell Aeneas's voyage from Troy to Italy, a compressed 'little Aeneid' in which Ovid passes quickly over Virgil's set pieces. Ovid's epic is written in deliberate competition with Virgil's.

Where it came from

Argonautica, Apollonius of Rhodes c. 250 BCE
The Odyssey, Homer c. 725 BCE
The Iliad, Homer c. 750 BCE

Find “The Aeneid” on Amazon

c. 250 BCE

Argonautica

Apollonius of Rhodes

Hellenistic. Alexandria. Written in Ancient Greek.

A Hellenistic epic of Jason's voyage for the Golden Fleece and Medea's love for him.

What it handed down

To The Aeneid (19 BCE)

Direct source, well documented.

Dido's love for Aeneas in Book 4 is modeled on Medea's love for Jason in Argonautica Book 3, as the ancient commentator Servius observed. Virgil took from Apollonius the close psychological portrait of a woman consumed by passion.

Where it came from

The Odyssey, Homer c. 725 BCE

Find “Argonautica” on Amazon

c. 725 BCE

The Odyssey

Homer

Archaic Greece. Ionia. Written in Ancient Greek.

The epic of Odysseus's ten-year voyage home from Troy, pursued by the anger of Poseidon, including his descent to the dead.

What it handed down

To Satyricon

Structural model, probable.

Encolpius is hounded by the wrath of Priapus as Odysseus is hounded by Poseidon, and the novel names a seductress Circe and has its hero call himself Polyaenus, a Homeric epithet of Odysseus. Many scholars read the whole work as a low parody of the Odyssey.

To The Aeneid (19 BCE)

Structural model, well documented.

The first six books of the Aeneid follow the Odyssey's pattern of sea wanderings, a hero's tale told at a foreign court and a visit to the dead. Virgil also borrows specific episodes such as the Cyclops and the passage past Scylla and Charybdis.

To Argonautica (c. 250 BCE)

Stylistic influence, well documented.

Apollonius wrote in Homeric hexameters and diction, and his sea voyage past monsters and enchantresses reworks Odyssean episodes. He often varies or comments on rare Homeric words.

Where it came from

The Iliad, Homer c. 750 BCE

Find “The Odyssey” on Amazon

c. 750 BCE

The Iliad

Homer

Archaic Greece. Ionia. Written in Ancient Greek.

The epic of the wrath of Achilles during the tenth year of the Trojan War.

What it handed down

To The Aeneid (19 BCE)

Structural model, well documented.

The last six books of the Aeneid are Virgil's Iliad, a war in Italy with funeral games, a slain young comrade and a final duel. Aeneas's killing of Turnus answers Achilles's killing of Hector.

To The Odyssey (c. 725 BCE)

Thematic kinship, probable.

The Odyssey presupposes the Trojan War of the Iliad: the bard Demodocus sings of Troy, and Odysseus meets the shades of Achilles and Agamemnon. Its audience is assumed to know the earlier epic's heroes.

Where it came from

This is one of the oldest surviving works in its tradition; the line ends here.

Find “The Iliad” on Amazon

Where it came from

What it handed down

To The Sun Also Rises (1926)

To The Great Gatsby

Where it came from

What it handed down

To The Waste Land (1922)

Where it came from

What it handed down

To Perceval, the Story of the Grail (c. 1190)

Where it came from

What it handed down

To Roman de Brut (1155)

Where it came from

What it handed down

To The History of the Kings of Britain (Historia Regum Britanniae) (c. 1136)

Where it came from

What it handed down

To Heart of Darkness

To Inferno

To Historia Brittonum (c. 829)

To Satyricon

To Metamorphoses

Where it came from

What it handed down

To The Aeneid (19 BCE)

Where it came from

What it handed down

To Satyricon

To The Aeneid (19 BCE)

To Argonautica (c. 250 BCE)

Where it came from

What it handed down

To The Aeneid (19 BCE)

To The Odyssey (c. 725 BCE)

Where it came from

Share this