CHAPTERS 3-4
Chapter 3 Summary: After leaving Cohn back at a café, Jake makes his way around the Paris streets, eventually running into a poule. In an effort of socialization, Jake takes the prostitute out for dinner, rejecting any sexual advances she makes towards him, claiming he got hurt in “that dirty war.” After dinner, Jake takes the lady with him to a bal musette to meet some of his other friends, including the Braddocks, Frances, and Robert. Jake introduces the prostitute as Georgette LeBlanc, to the crowd’s confusion. After some dancing, Brett Ashley makes her entrance, famously surrounded by “a crowd of young men.” Cohn is immediately stricken by Brett, who was “damned good-looking,” viewing her similarly to how “his compatriot must have looked when he saw the promised land.” Brett dances with Jake, eventually leading her to suggest going to another bar. Jake and Brett leave the bal musette and take a taxi away. During the taxi ride, Brett confesses to Jake that in reality, she has been “so miserable,” despite being desired by so many men.
Chapter 4 Summary: Jake and Brett continue their taxi drive, talking of times past when they were together, before Jake’s injury. And while they kiss and Brett says she turns “all to jelly” at Jake’s touch, Jake states “there’s not a damned thing we could do,” due to his impotence. The taxi drive takes them to another club, where the reader is introduced to Count Mippipopolous, an older businessman enamored with Brett. Brett stays at the club while Jake departs for home. Walking through the Paris streets, Jake passes the statue of Marshal Ney, who he thought “looked very fine.” Once in his flat, Jake undresses and prepares for bed. He looks at his naked body in the mirror, thinking “Of all the ways to be wounded… I suppose it was funny.” Jake tries to fall asleep by reading a couple of bullfighting newspapers, but is interrupted by noises coming from outside. Jake realizes it is a drunken Brett making commotion. Brett eventually comes up to Jake’s room and tells him about the Count, who “Owns a chain of sweetshops in the States” and “Offered [Brett] ten thousand dollars to go to Biarritz with him.” After a while, Brett kisses Jake good night. The chapter ends with Jake in a sentimental state, confessing, “It is awfully easy to be hard-boiled about everything in the daytime, but at night it is another thing.”
Chapter 3 Annotations
Pernod 🇫🇷
“A proprietary name for: an aperitif, esp. (originally) absinthe, (now) a clear yellow-green aniseed-flavoured drink” (OED)
Poules 🇫🇷
A hen or chicken; colloquially a prostitute
"Dit le garçon" 🇫🇷
"Tell the boy"
Fiacre 🇫🇷
Taxi cab, carriage
Avenue de l'Opéra
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An important thoroughfare found in the center of the city
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Runs from the Louvre to the Palais Garnier, the primary opera house until the opening of the Opera Bastille in 1989
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Was part of Haussman’s Renovations of Paris from 1853-1870
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Commissioned by Emperor Napoleon III and directed by prefect of Seine, Georges-Eugene Haussman
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Included demolition of medieval neighborhoods deemed unhealthy and crowded
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Avenue was built between 1864 and 1879
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Avenue de l'Opéra in present-day
Image Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avenue_de_l%27Op%C3%A9ra#/media/File:Avenue_de_l'Op%C3%A9ra_Paris.jpg
New York Herald (offices)
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Was known as herald tribune after 1967 joint acquired by Washington Post and NYT
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Was started in 1887 when James Gordon Bennett Jr., Son of founder James Gordon Bennett Sr.,
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James Jr. sent journalist Julius Chambers to Paris to start the European edition
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Avenue Rue des Pyramids
A street found in the Place des Pyramides - a public square in the 1st arrondissement
Rue de Rivoli
Intersecting street with Place des Pyramides
Tuileries
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Park found between the Louvre and Place de la Concorde
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Created by Catherine de’ Medici as the garden of Tulieres Palace in 1564, but opened to public in 1667
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Later become a recognized public park after the French Revolution
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A famous locations for Parisians to stroll, relax, celebrate, picnic, etc.
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Location of the first free flight by a manned hydrogen balloon
Rue des Saint Pères
Street in Paris containing several cafés and diners
Foyot’s
Famous restaurant and celebrated rendezvous for over 169 years for political and literary figures in Paris. No longer there.
Restaurant Foyot as it stood in Paris in the early 20th century
Image Source: https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1937/12/12/96764249.html?pageNumber=222
Cocher 🇫🇷
Coachman
Liege
A city in Belgium, situated on the Meuse River, and bordering the Netherlands and Germany.
Brussels
A city in the North central part of Belgium, today known for housing the EU’s administration center. Any mentions of Belgium or cities in Belgium during Hemingway’s time would have recalled some of the worst battles of the Great War. Here is a map for reference:
Map depicting the Nazi invasion of Belgium
Image Source: https://nzhistory.govt.nz/media/photo/schlieffen-plan-and-german-invasion-1914
Georgette LeBlanc
Georgette Leblanc was a French operatic soprano, actress, author, and sister of novelist Maruice Leblanc. She made her professional opera debut at the Opéra Comique in 1893, appeared in French films including L’Inhumaine (1923), and played Lady Macbeth in the 1916 Macbeth film. In 1924, LeBlanc met Margaret Anderson, becoming LeBlanc’s piano accompanist. Together they toured the United States to critical acclaim. In 1939, Georgette Leblanc, Margaret Anderson, and Monique Serrure fled war-torn Europe, moving from place to place in Normandy with little to no money. Ernest Hemingway, friends with Margaret Anderson, and sent $400 “in remembrance of old times.” Leblanc’s Story of the Blue Bird was published later that year in November 1939, and Leblanc passed away in 1941 at Le Chalet Rose, near Cannes.
Zinc bar
(noun) High end bar tops covered in metal, less maintenance needed
[je ne] connais pas 🇫🇷
[I] don't know
Bal musette 🇫🇷
a dance (specifically with accordion music), colloquially a dance hall/ club
Rue de la Montagne Sainte Geneviève
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Street on hill overlooking the left bank Seine in 5th arrondissement
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The Pantheon and Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève (used by University of Paris [La Sorbonne] students) found at top of hill
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Known to the Romans as Mons Lucotitius
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Side streets contain many bars and restaurants
Pantheon Quarter
Part of the Latin Quarter, area surrounding the Pantheon
Fines à l'eau 🇫🇷
cognac mixed with water or a spritzer infused with brandy
"Compatriot must have looked when he saw the promised land"
“The land of Canaan, as promised to Abraham and his descendants (Genesis 12:7, 13:15, etc.) (frequently with the); (hence in extended use) a place or situation of expected happiness, esp. heaven" (OED).
C'est entendu, Monsieur 🇫🇷
I heard/ hear you, sir.
Chapter 4 Annotations
"Avenue des Gobelins"
Jake and Brett are in a taxi (fiacre), being driven to the Café Select at the opening to Chapter 4. Being nighttime, the light comes in and out of focus, not allowing Jake to have a clear image of Brett while sitting next to her: “I saw her face in the lights from the open shops, then it was dark, the I saw her face clearly as we came out on the Avenue des Gobelins” (33). Before, Jake was not able to have a clear image of Brett, even though there were lights intruding into the stagecoach from passing shops. However, it is not until they turn onto the Avenue of Goblins can Jake see Brett “clearly.”
The OED has two definitions for a goblin: 1) “A small, ugly, gnome-like creature of folklore, fairy tales, and fantasy fiction; in early use considered as malevolent or demonic, in later use often as merely mischievous. Sometimes more generally: any imaginary being invoked to frighten children. 2) “figurative. A source or cause of evil or harm; a malign or destructive influence.”
Acetylene
(noun) A colorless gas used primarily as a form of fuel. Used widely in portable lighting and welding.
Mons
Mons, Belgium is notable for the 1914 Battle of Mons, which took place during the first few weeks of World War I between the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) and the German army in Mons. The 150,000 men and 600 guns of the German First Army battled the BEF’s 75,000 men and 300 guns. While the British defenders’ accurate rifle fire managed to make its artillery superior despite being outnumbered, their lack in numbers forced the BEF back east and southeast of Mons. The British stand at Mons was unable to stop the German army’s advance into France, bringing the war to French territory, resulting in the war’s aftermath that we witness in The Sun Also Rises.
Map depicting the Battle of Mons
Image Source: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Battle-of-Mons-1914/images-videos
Yellow Card
“But on the subject of Parisian whores, [the critic Michael] Reynolds makes an important correction. At the bal musette, Georgette flashes her yellow card, her license as a prostitute, a license that necessitated regular examinations for venereal disease (SAR 36). When she tells Jake, "Everybody's sick. I'm sick, too" (SAR 23), it is not venereal disease to which she is referring, as many readers and critics have assumed. As Reynolds says, "it is not sickness of the flesh but of the spirit, and in that sense everybody in the novel is, indeed, sick." (76)
Marshal Ney
The statue Hemingway refers to depicts Michel Ney, who was one of Napoleon’s most notable marshals. When Napoleon abdicated in 1814, Ney was loyal to the Bourbon monarchy, and Ney rejoined Napoleon upon his return to the throne in 1815. The restored monarchy charged Ney with treason, and he was convicted and killed by a firing squad.
Lithograph by François Le Villain in the early 19th century, borrowing from a portrait of Ney by Charles Maurin
Image Source: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Michel-Ney
Le Toril
Bullfighting paper from the south of France (the Midi). According to Stoneback, “the point here is that he [Jake] reads Le Toril from cover to cover, trying to keep from thinking about his wound, about Brett, trying to get to sleep to no avail since his ‘head’ starts to work, and the ‘old grievance’ of thinking overcomes his daytime discipline of not thinking about his wound” (65).
A copy of the Le Toril newspaper
Image Source: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/481814860104431238/
Petit Correspondence 🇫🇷
a small correspondence or a personal column, colloquially letters to a newspaper editor
Italian Front
The main Italian front during World War I was on Italy’s northern frontier, causing Italy’s troops, provisions, and artillery to be transported long distances. Transportation once soldiers reached the front was so difficult that “it took five men to perform what three could do on the French front.” This did not help Italy’s position, as it also had inferior equipment and training compared to the other countries engaged in the war.
Che mala fortuna! 🇮🇹
What bad luck/ fortune!
Captialism: "chain"
The industrial revolutions in Europe and the United States changed the majority of supply chains from being local and region-restricted to national and even international. Railroads made it easier and cheaper to transport goods over long distances, and developments like pallets (invented in 1925, one year before The Sun Also Rises was published) allowed goods to be stacked and stored more efficiently.
Biarritz
A popular beach town in France. This wonderful restored video can transport modern audiences to Biarritz in 1928, just two years after The Sun Also Rises was published. Many of the fashion choices, such as short hair for women, are evident in this film.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJNjKvCP8UY&feature=youtu.be
See also:
https://glamourdaze.com/2021/09/biarritz-france-1920s-a-day-at-the-beach-ai-film.html
Bois 🇫🇷
Drink
Livery
(noun) Special uniform worn by a servant or official
Mumms
A brand name of champagne founded by brothers, officially called P. A. Mumm Giesler et C°. P.A., which dates back to 1827 and is still the 4th largest champagne brand today (Mumms.com)
Cordon
(noun) A line or circle of police, soldiers or guards preventing access to or from an area or building
“Hard boiled in the day…”
The term “hard-boiled” was first utilized by Mark Twain in 1886 when he wrote “hard-boiled, hide-bound grammar.” While the term was originally connotated with toughness and hardness, it morphed into Hemingway’s intended meaning, that being “a cynical protective stance adopted by someone toughened by experience” (Stoneback 71). “Hard-boiled detective fiction” also became popular in the late 1920s, with authors such as Dashiell Hammett and Mickey Spillane paying homage to Hemingway’s use of the term in their detective novels. For further discussion on Hemingway’s “hard-boiledness,” see Stoneback’s Reading Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises, pages 71-73.