1. "You are all a lost
generation."
p. 7
The first of two epigraphs
to the book, attributed to Gertrude Stein. It suggests the ambitious goal for
the novel of describing the concerns of a generation.
2. "Robert Cohn was once
middleweight boxing champion of Princeton. Do not think that I am very much
impressed by that as a boxing title, but it meant a lot to Cohn."
p. 11
The opening lines of the
book that establish both a key to Cohn's character and the narrator's attitude
toward him.
3. "Nobody ever lives their
life all the way up except bull-fighters."
p. 18
A famous comment made by
Jake, in an early conversation with Cohn about Cohn's unhappiness with life in
Paris, about how most people don't live their lives fully,
4. "I was very angry.
Somehow they always made me angry. I know they are supposed to be amusing, and
you should be tolerant, but I wanted to swing on one, any one, anything to
shatter that superior, simpering composure."
p. 28
A comment Jake makes to
himself in the narrative about Brett's crowd of homosexual companions at the
bal musette.
5. "No," I said. "Nobody
ever knows anything."
p. 35
Something that Jake says to
Brett, alone in the taxi with her early in the book, talking about his wound
and the injustice of being in love and unable to act on it.
6. "It is awfully easy to
be hard-boiled about everything in the daytime, but at night it is another
thing."
p. 42
Jake says this after Brett
has been up to see him and he has been thinking about her.
7. "What's the
matter?"
"I don't know.
I just feel terribly."
".." the drummer
chanted. Then turned to his sticks.
"Want to go?"
I had the
feeling as in a nightmare of it all being something repeated, something I had
been through and that now I must go through again.
".." the drummer
sang softly.
"Let's go," said
Brett. "You don't mind."
".." the drummer
shouted and grinned at Brett.
"All right," I
said. We got out from the crowd. Brett went to the dressing room.
pp. 70-71
The exchange that Brett and
Jake have on the dance floor at the jazz club, just before she leaves for San
Sebastian where she has her liaison with Cohn. The drummer is African, and the
six dots or double-ellipses appear to represent jazz singing.
8. "I'm damned bad for a
religious atmosphere," Brett said. "I've the wrong type of face."
p. 212
Brett speaks on the last day
of the fiesta, the morning after Cohn's fistfight with Romero, and just before
Romero's last bullfight at the Pamplona fiesta. Jake and Brett have just left
the church after trying to pray for Romero's success.
9. "The crowd was the boys,
the dancers, and the drunks. Romero turned and tried to get through the
crowd. They were all around him trying to lift him and put him on their
shoulders. He fought and twisted away, and started running, in the midst of
them, toward the exit. He did not want to be carried on people's shoulders.
But they held him and lifted him. It was uncomfortable and his legs were
spraddled and his body was very sore. They were lifting him and all running
toward the gate. He had his hand on somebody's shoulder. He looked around at
us apologetically. The crowd, running, went out the gate with him."
pp. 224-25
The moment after Romero's
third bull on the last day of the fiesta, just after he has been awarded the
honor of an ear of the bull and presented that ear to Brett. He is an
unequivocal hero, and the crowd surges into the ring to carry him away and
celebrate with him.
10. "Oh, Jake," Brett
said, "we could have had such a damned good time together."
Ahead was a
mounted policeman in khaki directing traffic. He raised his baton. The car
slowed suddenly pressing Brett against me.
"Yes," I said.
"Isn't it pretty to think so?"
p. 251
The last lines of the book,
after Jake shows up in Madrid to take Brett away from the scene of Romero's
departure from her, and after a few drinks and a lunch in Madrid. They are
riding around Madrid in a taxi, waiting for the departure of their evening
train.
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