Described by one critic as a “consciously created chaos stemming from the polyphony of interconnections between styles, genres and topics”, Death in the Afternoon is one of Ernest Hemingway’s defining books, at once a meditation on both a blood sport and art. Bull fighting may no longer be palatable to modern tastes, but the way in which it infuses and invigorates Hemingway’s writings, both fictional and non-fictional, is analysed and its legacy discussed.