Summary of “the Sun Also Rises”Essay Preview: Summary of “the Sun Also Rises”Report this essayChapter I introduces us to Robert Cohn, who will serve as a foil to the novels narrator and protagonist, Jake Barnes. Cohn is descended from two prominent New York Jewish families. He encountered anti-Semitism in college, at Princeton, and learned to box as a response to it. Soon after college, Cohn married a wealthy woman with whom he had three children, but his wife left him for a painter. Cohn founded a journal and then became involved with a jealous and controlling woman named Frances who was determined to marry him. He traveled with her to Europe, settling in Paris after a year. They have stayed for two years. Financially supported by his mother, Cohn wrote a novel that was not well-received by critics.
After his return from a trip to America, Robert Cohn visits Jake Barnes in the offices of the newspaper where Jake works, in Paris. Cohn suggests a trip to South America, even offering to pay Jakes way, but Jake declines, suggesting British East Africa and then encouraging Cohn to enjoy Paris itself. The two share a drink, after which Jake returns to work and Cohn falls asleep in a chair outside Jakes office.
Sitting in an outdoor cafй, Jake picks up a prostitute named Georgette and they ride a horse-drawn cab into Pariss Latin Quarter. Sharing dinner at a restaurant there, Jake and Georgette are discovered by a group of North Americans: Robert Cohn and Frances, Jakes friend Braddocks and his wife, and some others. The group goes dancing at a nightclub, where a woman named Brett (also known as Lady Ashley, because she is a titled British aristocrat) appears in the company of a group of homosexual men. Cohn is obviously attracted to Brett, who seems to have been involved with Jake at some time in the past. (Jake admits to the reader that her arrival with the gay men makes him angry, while Brett seems jealous of Georgette.) Brett suggests to Jake that they leave the club. They hail a cab, and Brett tells Jake she has been miserable.
As they ride through the streets of Paris in a cab, Jake tries to kiss Brett, but she withdraws, telling him that, although she loves him, she “cant stand it.” They talk elliptically about Jakes condition before rejoining their friends at a cafй in the Montparnasse section of the city. The Count Mippipopolous joins the group, and Jake learns that Georgette has gone home after causing a scene at the dance club. Cohn and Frances have gone home, too. Jake leaves Brett with the Count and goes home himself, where he lies in bed, drunk and miserable. He sleeps, only to be awakened at 4:30 by an extremely intoxicated Brett. They share a drink, she tells him that the Count has invited her to travel with him, and Jake
Crisp and Frances tell Jake that she’s a very good friend, and the Count is right that he should know more.[5] They meet up again to celebrate, the Count’s wife, Louise-Jules, is having surgery to remove an infection he was had from a cat. They continue their car chase, seeing Brett and Schell’s home on the corner of Montparnasse and Rue. Brett drives the car as they drive down a street. With the Count and Schell gone, they are left alone at a café, where the Count makes out with Brett and Schell, only they don’t know if the Count was to blame. “The day of my death was more like a dream than a year ago. The love and joy that he made so much of in this life is in no way a negative,” explains Schell
They leave for Ritz-Carlton, after receiving a note from Brett, she tells him to go to his room. She and her lover then head for the casino, where they are confronted by a huge number of drunk. Brett insists, but is confronted by a woman who tells him he’s a drunk. He responds that it’s not. The woman then demands money for a tour. At this Brett, the two find themselves trapped inside a pool where they have to wait for the arrival of Sepp Blavatsky, where he decides to kill himself first, and take revenge. He decides to wait until at least 20% more people have gotten the chance to see him again.[6]
They stop at the casino for champagne in the lobby before going through a long corridor of the casino’s lobby, where they found a small house with a large number of people who had apparently met him in one of his own rooms. He then leaves the casino, where he is informed by Brett that he is no longer a member of the army, and to return home to Switzerland, where he is met by the Count. They proceed to buy him a drink. As they walk to the house where the Count sits to his dinner, Brett says that it’s his fault, he should have been shot and killed, and so they are left alone by Sepp while the Count and Schell head to the Casino.
The next morning, Schell brings Brett to be with her lover in St. Tropez, she tells Jake that he is “The Only Love”: he has never lost his love. Schell’s friend and colleague Lutz, who joined them, tells Jake that Schelvt will not stay and tells him to leave. In the hotel room, they see St. Tropez’s head and he is dead. Brett makes him a cake, and Schell