The Sun Also Rises - Unabridged characters

Appears from the start

An American journalist living in Paris after serving in the First World War. Jake narrates the story with a restrained, observant manner and moves easily among the expatriate bars, cafés, and friendships that structure his life. He is close to Robert Cohn but often impatient with him.

Appears from the start

An American expatriate writer and former college boxer. Raised in a wealthy Jewish family, Cohn gained confidence through boxing and later drifted into literary life. He is sensitive about insults, restless with his circumstances, and eager for the sort of adventure he has encountered in fiction.

First appears in chapter 2

Cohn's older partner, an aspiring writer who helped organize his life and literary magazine. She is sharp, socially confident, and increasingly frustrated that he has not married her. When she senses him pulling away, she uses public wit and private pressure to try to hold their relationship together.

Also known as Lady Brett Ashley

First appears in chapter 3

A charismatic English aristocrat at the center of Jake's Paris circle. Brett is stylish, direct, and accustomed to attracting attention, yet her exuberant social life conceals emotional strain. She and Jake share an immediate intimacy that is complicated by circumstances neither can simply change.

First appears in chapter 3

A young woman Jake meets in a Paris café and takes out for the evening. She works as a prostitute and is wary of eating because she fears gaining weight. Her presence shows Jake moving through nightlife without finding much connection in it.

First appears in chapter 6

A hard-drinking member of the expatriate circle whose money has nearly run out. Harvey speaks with cutting bluntness, especially toward Cohn, and represents the idleness and bitterness that often lie beneath the group's sociability.

Also known as the Count

First appears in chapter 7

A wealthy Greek count who accompanies Brett in Paris. Older than most of the group and marked by wartime experience, he enjoys fine drink and speaks openly about the values he has formed through living intensely.

First appears in chapter 8

Jake's American friend and fellow writer, newly returned from Budapest. Bill is humorous and affectionate, using jokes to deflect seriousness, but he is also one of Jake's steadier companions. He joins Jake for the fishing trip in northern Spain.

First appears in chapter 12

An English veteran encountered during Jake and Bill's fishing stay at Burguete. Harris values their brief companionship and shares the quiet pleasures of fishing, food, and drink without the rivalry troubling the larger party.

First appears in chapter 13

Brett's Scottish fiancé, a bankrupt veteran who drinks heavily and masks insecurity with abrasive jokes. Mike readily joins the fiesta party, but his resentment toward Cohn is already close to the surface.

First appears in chapter 13

The proprietor of Jake's preferred hotel in Pamplona and a serious devotee of bullfighting. Montoya respects Jake as someone who understands the ritual rather than treating it as fashionable entertainment.

First appears in chapter 15

A remarkably young Spanish matador whose calm, precise work in the ring embodies the disciplined tradition Montoya values. His talent and self-possession immediately distinguish him from the spectators and tourists surrounding the fiesta.

First appears in chapter 18

A famous older matador returning to the ring after years away. His reputation remains immense, but age and the crowd's shifting allegiance make his appearance a contrast with Romero's effortless youth.