In our fourth episode celebrating the centenary of The Sun Also Rises, we examine the theme of religion and its role in the novel.

From the title, the epigraphs, the pilgrims on the train, Jake’s self-conscious prayer, the festival of San Fermin, and the idea of fishing as a religious experience, Larry Grimes guides us through this vast topic and shows Hemingway’s religious design in The Sun Also Rises. Grimes shows us how the minor roles of Harris and Montoya contribute to how Hemingway presents religious concepts and explains why Jake is such a rotten Catholic.

Listening to Larry Grimes discussing this crucial topic in this great novel is our idea of a divine pleasure. We hope you’ll enjoy it, too!

As always in these Sun Also Rises episodes, we enjoy the legendary actor William Hurt reading from Jake’s fascinating prayer in chapter 10, courtesy of our friends at Simon & Schuster Audio.

Audio excerpt courtesy of Simon & Schuster Audio from The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway, read by William Hurt. Copyright © 1926 by Charles Scribner’s Sons. Used with permission of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

Thank you for supporting One True Podcast, from Mark and Michael (each with a hell of a Biblical name!)

Legendary scholar Jackson Bryer joins us once again, this time to discuss one controversial moment in Hemingway’s career, his vicious “poor Scott Fitzgerald” swipe in the original publication of “The Snows of Kilimanjaro.”

We discuss the publication history of this graceless insult, what it says about Hemingway and what it says about Fitzgerald. We go on to discuss “The Snows of Kilimanjaro” as a story and the ways that wealth emerges as one of Fitzgerald’s central themes. We explore the nature of the Hemingway-Fitzgerald relationship in the 1930s, Fitzgerald’s “The Rich Boy,” and other works where the very rich emerge as important characters.

Join us in our romantic awe of Jackson Bryer as he guides us through this notorious moment in Hemingway’s career!

In the midst of our centenary festivities around The Sun Also Rises, One True Podcast takes an opportunity to celebrate another Hemingway work published in 1926: The Torrents of Spring.

Elena Zolotariov, author of "'Black and Red Laughter': Subverting Whiteness in Hemingway’s The Torrents of Spring" (from the Fall 2023 issue of the Hemingway Review), joins us to offer an exploration and even defense of Hemingway's neglected satire. In this episode, we talk about how and why Hemingway satirizes Sherwood Anderson's Dark Laughter, examine the plot of Hemingway's novella and the characters we meet along the way, and finally discuss its legacy.

At the end of the episode, enjoy Garnet Ungar's rendition of Chopin's Étude Op. 10, No. 4 (Torrent). For even more on The Torrents of Spring and its publication history, also check out our episode with Ross K. Tangedal on Hemingway in 1926.