Ernest Hemingway wrote a novel called The Sun Also Rises (1926), his literary debut, and a fine account of The Sun tabloid newspaper in the UK.
What’s not as well known is his sequel to that work, which launched in 1925 (a year before the launch of his debut novel—that makes sense when you think about it a little) and was called The Daily Express ALSO Rises.
A superb account of tabloid newspaper life, it tells the tale of a tabloid newspaper rising in the sky each morn to blast its rays of tawdry filth across the land. It’s one of our favourite novels.
The Salacious World of The Daily Express ALSO Rises
“It is awfully easy to be hard-boiled about everything in the daytime, but at night it is another thing. That is why I read The Daily Express, Britain’s GREATEST ever newspaper.”
It’s clear Hemingway’s devotion to The Daily Express was so extreme he was willing to write a 355,000 word novel about it.
True to form, much of the work does that thing tabloids do of STICKING CERTAIN WORDS IN ALL CAPS SO AS TO HIGHLIGHT WHEN TO BE OUTRAGED ABOUT SOMETHING.
Thus, The Daily Express ALSO Rises sets out its sensationalist literary stall and, with cool drunken aplomb, Hemingway delivered a terse masterclass in moral panics and other casual hysteria. All provided by the enormous tabloid rising each morning to blast its demented news stories across the land.
All with that famous. Stop start writing style. That. He. Did use.
“The giant tabloid rose. It did. It rose high and the news was disseminated. Commuters cocked heads to listen. The news was bad. It was always bad. The communists were coming. They want geese and employment rights. It is wrong and poor. The tabloid LOUDLY ANNOUNCED IT ALL. Some commuters fell to their knees. They wept. One bloke even shat himself. He is called Derek. Today, his colleagues will call him Mr. Poopy Pants. Derek. His anger is at one with the tabloid sun. With that, he knew he could never be immortal.”
Hemingway confidently steers the narrative from one salacious news item to the next, the “commuters” he keeps mentioning becoming more and more lost in a series of endless moral panics. These include:
- Communism
- Political correctness
- Communists
- Politically correct communists
- Socialism
- Politically correct socialists
- The wrong type of snow
- Youth gangs
- Youths
- Gangs
- Socialist youth gangs
- Communist youth gangs
- Politically correct youth gangs
- Heavy metal music with a politically correct agenda
- Vegan cheese
- Politically correct vegan cheese
- Satanism
- Politically correct Satanism
The Daily Express ALSO Rises is an intensely boring novel. We much prefer The Sun Also Rises, although modern prints of the work have the Page 3 Girl removed due to 1920s era political correctness.
Other than that, the book is okay. Just boring.
By the time you reach the third chapter, the endless focus on mindless hysteria and moral panicking about complete non-issues leaves the reader wishing for more interesting topics.
Pompous Literary Critics Interpretations of The Daily Express ALSO Rises
Over the last century, there has been much debate about the intended meaning behind Hemingway’s obscure work.
The general consensus is that the novel was probably written whilst Hemingway was utterly wasted on wine. Thus, the meaning is a drunken one and relates to the nature of tabloid news, CAPPED WORDS, and marmalade (inexplicably, chapters 33-37 are dedicated to a rambling discourse about the fruit preserve).
The inclusion of marmalade alongside chapters about the horrors of politically correct geese have led some literary scholars to assume Hemingway used a ghost writer for the work. Or was drunk. Or both.
Other critics have noted there’s no logical connection between tabloid newspapers and marmalade. Thus, as of 2025 the latest editions of the work have a truncated section about fruit preserves. This removal has been dubbed an attack on freedom of speech and triggered nationwide riots.
