Hemingway has written nothing so beautiful as this brief tale, and nowhere, I think, has his vision of the historic scars of life been so surely realised.
The hero is a Cuban fisherman, an old man starved of luck and alone in the world but for a boy who loves him, and his adversary is a giant marlin whose strength, in the illumination of a poet's vision, seems as noble as the courage and resolution of the old man who kills it. The story is told with an art that serves its purpose as closely as a skin, and like the bright skin of a fish makes it shine with a natural splendour, and gives death the fleeting colours of a rainbow.
It is a little book in space, but read it three times and it grows in the mind like an old story of one's childhood: so certain it is, so satisfying are its pains and valiancy.
Take from the inner flapper, written by Eric Linklater
Details
Hardcover with Dust Jacket (acceptable, signs of wear and tear)
Condition: Very good, turquoise cloth with silver guilded letters, no notes stamps or stickers.
Illustrated by C.F. Tunnicliffe and Raymond Sheppard
