CHAPTERS 5-6
Chapter 5 Summary: While not much plot action occurs in Chapter 5, the reader is given integral information which helps forms the rest of the narrative. Jake goes into work the next morning after Brett’s commotion the night before. Jake hops in a taxi with two co-workers, Woolsey and Krum. The men discuss things from tennis to cars on the way to the office. Ironically, Krum also wants to “Live out in the country” and get away from the city, similar to Cohn’s desires. Upon arriving at the office, Jake finds Cohn waiting for him. After seeing “if there is anything new,” Jake agrees to go out to Wetzel’s for lunch with Cohn. While at the restaurant, conversation circles back to Cohn’s wish to travel to South America. However, Cohn tells Jake he can’t go because he’s “got certain obligations to her [Frances].” Cohn then asks Jake about Brett, stating that she is “a remarkably attractive woman,” going so far to claim that he “shouldn’t wonder if [he] were in love with her.” Jake then tells Cohn that Brett is engaged to Mike Campbell. Jake, prompted by Cohn, gives some biographical information about Brett, including her service in the war as a V.A.D., her age (34), and the death of her first husband during the war. Jake, in Cohn’s view, uses an insulting tone when speaking of her, causing Jake to tell Cohn to “go to hell.” This prompts Cohn to demand Jake “to take that back.” While Jake thinks this is “prep-school stuff,” he eventually apologizes to Cohn and finish lunch. The chapter ends with the men walking to another café for coffee and Jake returning to the office.
Chapter 6 Summary: The chapter opens with Jake getting stood up by Brett at the Hotel Crillon. After accepting that Brett will not show up, Jake decides to head over to the Café Select. Jake crosses the Seine in a taxi on the way to the café, thinking to himself that “It was always pleasant crossing bridges in Paris.” The taxi drops Jake off at the Select, where he finds Harvey Stone sitting alone outside. Stone is another ex-pat that Jake knows, one who had “won two hundred francs from me [Jake] shaking poker dice in the New York Bar” just three days ago. And even while winning the poker game the other night, Stone still has “No money. Money hasn’t come.” At this, Jake offers him a hundred francs, showcasing to the audience Jake’s financial stability, a contrasting characteristic when compared with other personages in the novel. Cohn arrives at the Select as well, leading Stone to comment, “That moron.” The three men talk, and eventually Stone leaves the table, leaving Jake and Cohn alone. Cohn confides in Jake that his literary pursuits are not successful. Cohn is also having romantic troubles ever since Brett made an appearance in his life. His relationship with Frances is crumbling as Cohn offers his mistress two hundred pounds to visit her friends back in England, a clear bribed attempt to excuse Frances from his life. Frances sarcastically confronts Cohn about her dismissal. Jake, obviously done being the audience for the couple, excuses himself from their company and grabs a taxi back to his flat.
Chapter 5 Annotations
Cinzano
Cinzano is an Italian brand of vermouth, introduced in 1757 by brothers Carlo Stefano and Giovanni Giacomo Cinzano.
"Oh, go to hell"
According to Christian beliefs, one must believe in Jesus Christ as the Lord and Savior and God’s only-begotten son, who died for the world’s sins and was raised to die no more. According to religious beliefs, if one accepts this proclamation, they are saved from the “wrath to come.” Because Robert is Jewish, his beliefs do not allow for him to believe in the fundamental stance Christians take in their beliefs.
Historically, there has been religious and social tension between Christians and Jews. Martin Luther, in his book The Jews and Their Lies writes, “Do not dispute much with the Jews about the articles of our faith. From childhood, they have been brought up with poison and hatred against our Lord, there is no hope until they arrive at the point where through their misery they become soft and compelled to confess that the Messiah has come and is our Lord Jesus Christ” (12). Luther takes the stance that all Hebrews will shall eventually face eternal consequences for not accepting Christ as their savior: “What will be the eternal wrath of God in hell over all false Christians and unbelievers” (11). Luther rebukes Christians who have “a desire to lodge, nurse, and honor such poisonous serpents and young Devils [Jews]” and claims that should a practicing Christian engage in relations with Hebrew, “‘Christ will reward him on Judgement Day with the Jews and eternal hell fire’” (54).
V.A.D.
The Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) was a group of civilians formed in 1909 to help injured military personnel. By the summer of 1914, it had grown rapidly in response to World War I: there were 2500 Voluntary Aid Detachments in Britain, with 74,000 volunteer members, and two-thirds of these volunteers were women. They served near the Western Front and in Mesopotamia, Gallipoli, and in most large towns in Britain.
Dysentery
(noun) infection of the intestines resulting in severe diarrhea with the presence of blood and mucus in the feces.
Lyon
Sometimes also spelled “Lyon” in English, this is a city in east-central France that sits at the intersection of the Rhone and Saone rivers. Sources: https://www.britannica.com/place/Lyon-France
This is a photo of what Lyons would have looked like in Hemingway’s day:
Image Source:
https://monovisions.com/historic-bw-photos-of-lyon-france-in-19th-century/
Morning papers
(noun) A paper published the night before so that it will be distributed the next morning
Nouvelle Revue Francaise 🇫🇷
“La Nouvelle Revue française, leading French review of literature and the other arts. It was founded in February 1909 (after a false start in November 1908) by a group that included André Gide, Jacques Copeau, and Jean Schlumberger” (Britannica).
Chapter 6 Annotations
PLM Fontaibleu... Montereau
The PLM stands for Paris-Lyon-Mediterranee: Created in 1857, it was a railway linking Paris and the Cote d’Azur, otherwise known as the French Riveria, a popular tourist destination. A good archive of original advertisements can be found online, an important repository on tourism of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Advertisement by PLM, showcasing tennis in Monte-Carlo.
“Pile of saucers”
One of the definitions of saucer is “A small round shallow vessel, usually with concave sides and flat at the bottom, used for supporting a cup (esp. a tea or coffee cup), and catching any liquid that may be spilled from it." It can also be “any small shallow dish or deep plate of circular shape,” but Harvey Stone, who has “a pile of saucers in front of him,” admits that he has not eaten for five days – implying that the saucers in front of him are not being used to hold food but rather drinks (OED; Hemingway 35).
Lourdes
Lourdes is in the Occitanie region of southwestern France. It is most well known as an important site of religious tourism. In 1858, a peasant girl named Bernadette Soubirous claimed to have several visions of the Madonna there in a grotto, what are called “Marian apparitions.” People come from all over the world to pay homage and acquire holy water from this location. Here, Frances is ironically comparing her “vision” of why Cohn refuses to marry her to a religious epiphany, and claims that similarly, people in the future will put up a tablet in the Cafe to commemorate her awakening regarding her painful breakup.
[Thomas] Hardy
Thomas Hardy was a renowned poet and novelist who lived in the county of Dorset for most of his life, and this provided him inspiration for his works. He called his novels the Wessex Novels, named after one of the Anglo-Saxon British kingdoms. Hardy’s career extended through the Victorian and modern eras, and his work had great influence over notable writers like Robert Frost and Ezra Pound.
The poet Thomas Hardy influenced modernist writers such as Robert Frost and Ezra Pound
Image Source:www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/thomas-hardy
Anatole France
Anatole France was a French writer primarily known for being a novelist and storyteller, although he explored many literary genres including poetry and journalism. In his later years, France included more social critiques in his writings, protesting the Dreyfus verdict, developing sympathy for socialism, and immersing himself in childhood memories due to the trauma of World War I.
Anatole France in 1921
Image Source:https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1921/france/facts/
French war bonds
During the 1920s, there was a possibility of Britain holding French war bonds, making it more difficult for the two countries to agree on intergovernmental war debts while also creating greater friction and suspicion between London and Paris.
[Suzanne] Lenglen
Suzanne Lenglen was a French tennis player renowned for both her impressive record and daring personality. Over the span of twelve years, she won a combined 34 major titles in singles, doubles, and mixed doubles. Both on and off the court, she had an “eccentric personality that blurred the lines between superstar athlete and diva.” Lenglen also wore fur coats, her black hair in a short bob, and bright red lipstick.
Hoffenheimer
In a blog post for Architecture Here and There, David Brussat writes: ““Hoffenheimer” may be an erroneous or disguised reference to the writer Joseph Hergesheimer, a friend of [H.L] Mencken’s who, I would think, is more likely to have been accurately characterized as a womanizer than Mencken, who decidedly was not.” Here the author is referring to the description of Menken as a ‘garter-snapper.’
Suzanne Lenglen, pictured with both her tennis rackets and her jazz age sense of style.
Image Source:https://www.tennisfame.com/hall-of-famers/inductees/suzanne-lenglen
Garter snapper
(noun) A man who sleeps with lots of women or has many one night stands.
“Hello you bums…hello you chaps”
One of the definitions for the word “bum” that was popular during this time period involves “A person who frequents a specified type of place to engage in a pastime” (“Bum, n.6”). However, it is also worth noting that in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, “bum” was also used to refer to “a drinking spree,” “a sexually promiscuous woman,” “a worthless or contemptible person; a lazy or irresponsible person,” and “an unskilled or second-rate boxer” (“Bum, n.6”). Since Brett uses the word “bums” to refer to her friends like Jake, she most likely means it in the friendly, colloquial manner, but it is interesting to note how one term can have many different meanings depending on whom Brett is regarding. Meanwhile, a “chap” simply refers to a “fellow, lad,” typically applied to a young man (“Chap, n.3”).
Alexander Hamilton Institute, See also here, Brussat
“The Alexander Hamilton Institute was a business school in New York City founded in 1909 and dissolved circa 1980. What is meant by ‘reading’ it I have no idea.” To this we add that there appears to have been a publication issued by the Alexander Hamilton Institute called Forging Ahead in Business (1915), and it may be this to which the characters are referring. Regardless, the fact that so many illusions are incomplete to the point of being nearly indecipherable is in keeping with the book’s division of its characters into various groups, of those in on the joke, and those who are left out.
[H.L.] Mencken
Henry Louis Mencken was a conversationalist, journalist, and literary critic who largely influenced U.S. fiction throughout the 1920s. He was famous for having a “caustic view of life” that was prominent in his writing and for criticizing American social weaknesses and writers whom he believed did not earn their success.
The frontispiece from Alexander Hamilton Institute’s Forging Ahead in Business
Image Source:https://www.google.com/books/edition/Forging_Ahead_in_Business/rwU3AAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=complete+policy+handbook+alexander+hamilton+institute&printsec=frontcover
H.L. Mencken pictured working on his typewriter. Mencken was a well-known literary critic and journalist during Stein's "Lost Generation" of the 1920s.
Image Source:https://www.britannica.com/biography/H-L-Mencken