Death in the Afternoon

Death in the Afternoon is Ernest Hemingway’s nonfiction study of Spanish bullfighting, written from years spent attending corridas across Spain. He explains the breeding and behaviour of fighting bulls, the roles of picadors, banderilleros and matadors, the three formal stages of the contest, and the technique required to control, dominate and finally kill the bull.

The book is also a highly personal critical history of modern bullfighting. Hemingway compares courage, artistry, fear and failure through bullfighters including Juan Belmonte and José Gómez Ortega, known as Joselito, while an argumentative dialogue with the fictional “Old Lady” allows him to challenge both admirers and opponents of the spectacle. Technical description, portraits, photographs and a glossary combine in an inquiry into ritual violence, spectatorship and the unstable boundary between skill and death.