Death in the Afternoon

This nonfiction work is Ernest Hemingway's comprehensive treatise on the Spanish bullfight, blending technical instruction, personal memoir, historical analysis, and philosophical reflection on death, art, and courage. Hemingway frames the book as an honest, unapologetic account of what he has found to be true about bullfighting, addressed partly to skeptical readers and partly to aspiring aficionados, or devoted followers of bullfighting.

Hemingway opens with the memory of his first bullfight, noting that he expected to be horrified by the horses, since most prior writers either condemned the spectacle outright or apologized for it. He connects his interest in bullfighting to his ambitions as a young writer: After World War I, the bull ring was the only place to witness violent death firsthand, and he wanted to study it to learn how to convey it accurately on the page, believing most writers failed at this because they looked away at the critical moment. He found the bullfight far more complex than anticipated and could not write about it adequately for five years.

He establishes his personal moral framework early: What is moral is what you feel good after, and by this measure the bullfight is moral to him, producing a feeling of life, death, mortality, and immortality. He addresses the controversial role of the horses, arguing that their death tends to be comic rather than tragic, with the true tragedy centered on the bull and the man. He defines the bullfight not as a sport but as a tragedy in which the bull's death is certain and the man may increase or decrease danger by working closer to or farther from the horns.

Hemingway then lays out the formal structure of the corrida de toros, the Spanish bullfight. Six bulls are killed by three matadors, each killing two. Each matador employs a cuadrilla, or team, consisting of three banderilleros (assistants who place barbed sticks in the bull's neck) and two picadors (mounted lancers). He explains the morning sorting of bulls, the layout of the ring, seating distinctions between sun and shade, and practical advice for spectators. He recommends Madrid as the best starting point and profiles other Spanish towns and their ferias, or festival bullfight series, offering vivid sketches of Aranjuez, Ronda, Seville, Bilbao, and Valencia.

A substantial portion of the book analyzes the three acts of each bull's fight. The first act, the suerte de varas, involves the bull charging the mounted picadors, whose lances tire the bull's neck muscles. The second act is the placing of banderillas, pairs of barbed sticks driven into the bull's withers to regulate the carriage of his head. The third act is the faena, the matador's work with the muleta (a small scarlet cloth draped over a stick), culminating in the kill. Hemingway compares this progression to trial, sentencing, and execution. He argues that bullfighting, like singing and dance, is an impermanent art: When the performer is gone, the art exists only in memory.

He provides a natural history of the fighting bull: bred from wild strains, raised on vast ranges with minimal human contact, possessing extraordinary speed, power, and courage. He describes the testing of young bulls for bravery, the branding process, and regional differences in quality across Spain. He explains the concept of querencia, a spot in the ring where the bull feels secure and fights entirely on the defensive, becoming almost impossible to kill properly.

The book's longest sections profile individual matadors, tracing a narrative of artistic decline. Hemingway identifies a golden age when two geniuses dominated: Juan Belmonte, who invented the revolutionary close-in technique out of physical necessity, and Joselito (José Gómez y Ortega), who possessed supreme athleticism and intuitive knowledge of bulls. Together they elevated bullfighting while simultaneously encouraging breeders to produce smaller, easier bulls. When Joselito was killed in the ring in 1920 and Belmonte subsequently retired, the art was left with a decadent method, bred-down bulls, and a generation of fighters lacking knowledge, courage, or genius.

Hemingway profiles dozens of matadors from this period of decline. He devotes admiring passages to Manuel García, known as Maera, who fought through the final year of his life with tuberculosis, and to Manuel Granero, a violinist turned bullfighter killed at age 20 in Madrid. He recounts the rise and fall of Niño de la Palma (Cayetano Ordóñez), who was magnificent in his first season but lost all valor after a severe goring. He introduces the concept of pundonor, a Spanish word encompassing honor, courage, self-respect, and pride, arguing that once a bullfighter has unmistakably shown cowardice, his honor is gone. He evaluates Marcial Lalanda as the most complete scientific bullfighter of the era and expresses skepticism about supposed saviors like Domingo Ortega.

The technical heart of the book analyzes cape work, muleta passes, and killing. Hemingway explains the veronica, the fundamental cape pass named after Saint Veronica, and argues that modern cape work has become the emotional centerpiece of bullfighting. He describes the natural pass with the muleta as the most dangerous and beautiful maneuver, requiring the matador to hold the small cloth low in his left hand and swing it slowly ahead of the charging bull. He details the two proper methods of killing: recibiendo, in which the matador stands still and takes the charging bull on his sword, and the volapié, in which the matador advances on the stationary bull. He argues that a truly great killer must possess a spiritual enjoyment of the moment and a sense of honor beyond the ordinary, and he condemns the many ways killing is faked.

Throughout the book, Hemingway maintains a running dialogue with a fictional "Old Lady" who asks questions and expresses impatience. This device allows him to shift tone, introduce anecdotes, and address likely objections. He also inserts "A Natural History of the Dead," a mordant wartime essay on the appearance and circumstances of corpses. He eventually dismisses the Old Lady character about two-thirds through the book.

Hemingway articulates his theory of prose, responding to Aldous Huxley's criticism that he avoids intellectual subjects. He argues that "Prose is architecture, not interior decoration, and the Baroque is over" (191), and that a writer who omits things he truly knows will produce stronger work than one who displays everything, likening good prose to an iceberg with only one-eighth visible above water.

The book closes with a lyrical chapter in which Hemingway catalogues memories of Spain: the Prado's sprinklers on summer mornings, the forest of the Irati River, the taste of horchata (a sweet Valencian drink), and darker images of political violence. He concludes that "The great thing is to last and get your work done and see and hear and learn and understand; and write when there is something that you know" (278). Supplementary sections include over 90 photographs with extended captions, a comprehensive glossary of bullfighting terms, a calendar of fight dates across Spain and the Americas, recorded reactions of individuals to their first bullfights, and an appraisal of the American matador Sidney Franklin.