Ernest Hemingway novel slapped with woke warning over ‘graphic fishing scenes’

A CLASSIC novel has been slapped with a woke warning over its “graphic” fishing scenes.

Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea tells of an ageing angler’s struggle to land a marlin and his battle with sharks set on eating it.

TV and film adaptions of the 1952 Pulitzer prizewinner have been given U and PG certificates.

But the University of the Highlands and Islands based in Inverness, Scotland — an area famous for fishing — has issued a “content warning”.

Students can skip the book if they think it will upset them.

Mary Dearborn, author of Ernest Hemingway, A Biography, said: "This is total nonsense. It blows my mind.

"The world is a violent place and it is counterproductive to pretend otherwise. Much of the violence in the story is that rooted in the natural world. It is the law of nature.”

Prof Jeremy Black, at the University of Exeter, added: “Many great works have included references to fishing, whaling, or hunting. Is the university seriously suggesting that all of this literature is ringed with warnings?”

The university has also flagged Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel Frankenstein plus Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet.

It said: “The content warnings are there to enable the students to make informed choices.

“Our students engage widely with classic works across all levels of the degree.”