The Sun Also Rises , published in 1926, is Ernest Hemingway's first novel. It portrays American and British expatriates who travel from Paris to the Festival of San Fermín in Pamplona to watch the running of the bulls and the bullfights. It received mixed reviews upon publication but is now recognized as one of his best. The novel's characters are based on real people in Hemingway's circle, and the action is based on real events, particularly Hemingway's life in Paris in the 1920s and a trip to Spain in 1925 for the Pamplona festival and fishing in the Pyrenees. Hemingway investigates the themes of love and death, the revivifying power of nature, and the concept of masculinity.