Jake Barnes, Robert Cohn, Lady Brett Ashley, Michael and Bill, and Pedro Romero make for the most compelling set of characters in any novel.  Reading this for an English class at Harvard and for at least the third time, I was struck once again by Hemingway’s originality and exceptional skill in writing dialogue and in setting the stage. The descriptions of trout fishing in the Irutu and of the bull fighting in Pamplona must be among the greatest examples of writing ever.  I loved this book, at least in part because of the youth of the characters, the freedom of the 1920’s, the exuberance of life lived for the day, and the tragic trajectories which each of them were embarked on.  Jake and Brett continue to be among the most wonderful, tragic couples of literature.  Too bad about Hem’s anti-semitism, but nothing to do about it now. Poor Robert Cohn.  I, too keenly, felt his outsiderness.