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Plot summary

The novel explores the lives and values of the so-called "Lost Generation," chronicling the experiences of Jake Barnes and several acquaintances on their pilgrimage to Pamplona for the annual San Fermin festival and bull fights, known more commonly as the Running of the Bulls. Jake, a World War I veteran, is unable to consummate a sexual relationship with Brett Ashley because of a severe wound he suffered on the Italian Front, leaving him emasculated. However, he is still attracted to and in love with her. The story follows Jake and his various companions across France and Spain. Initially, Jake seeks peace away from Brett by taking a fishing trip to Burguete, deep within the Spanish hills, with companion Bill Gorton. The fiesta in Pamplona is the setting for the eventual meeting of all the characters, who play out their various desires and anxieties, alongside a great deal of drinking.

Some of the plot is based on real-life people and events. In 1925, Hemingway and some of his friends -- including Lady Duff Twysden (who even wore her hair like Brett Ashley), her Scottish fiancé, and also her one-time lover, Harold Loeb, who had been the first Jewish student to box while at Princeton -- went fishing near Burguete and then went to the San Fermin fiesta at Pamplona, where they drank and quarreled^[4]