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The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway
THE ONLY COMPLETE COLLECTION BY THE NOBEL PRIZE-WINNING AUTHOR
In this definitive collection of Ernest Hemingway's short stories, readers will delight in the author's most beloved classics such as "The Snows of Kilimanjaro," "Hills Like White Elephants," and "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place," and will discover seven new tales published for the first time in this collection. For Hemingway fans The Complete Short Stories is an invaluable treasury.
In this definitive collection of Ernest Hemingway's short stories, readers will delight in the author's most beloved classics such as "The Snows of Kilimanjaro," "Hills Like White Elephants," and "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place," and will discover seven new tales published for the first time in this collection. For Hemingway fans The Complete Short Stories is an invaluable treasury.
650 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1987
About the author
Ernest Hemingway
1,810 books29.3k followersTerse literary style of Ernest Miller Hemingway, an American writer, ambulance driver of World War I , journalist, and expatriate in Paris during the 1920s, marks short stories and novels, such as
The Sun Also Rises
(1926) and
The Old Man and the Sea
(1952), which concern courageous, lonely characters, and he won the Nobel Prize of 1954 for literature.
Economical and understated style of Hemingway strongly influenced 20th-century fiction, whereas his life of adventure and his public image influenced later generations. Hemingway produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the mid-1950s. He published seven novels, six short story collections and two nonfiction works. Survivors published posthumously three novels, four collections of short stories, and three nonfiction works. People consider many of these classics.
After high school, Hemingway reported for a few months for the Kansas City Star before leaving for the Italian front to enlist. In 1918, someone seriously wounded him, who returned home. His wartime experiences formed the basis for his novel A Farewell to Arms . In 1922, he married Hadley Richardson, the first of his four wives. The couple moved, and he worked as a foreign correspondent and fell under the influence of the modernist writers and artists of the expatriate community of the "lost generation" of 1920s.
After his divorce of 1927 from Hadley Richardson, Hemingway married Pauline Pfeiffer. At the Spanish civil war, he acted as a journalist; afterward, they divorced, and he wrote For Whom the Bell Tolls . Hemingway maintained permanent residences in Key West, Florida, and Cuba during the 1930s and 1940s.
Martha Gellhorn served as third wife of Hemingway in 1940. When he met Mary Welsh in London during World War II, they separated; he presently witnessed at the Normandy landings and liberation of Paris.
Shortly after 1952, Hemingway went on safari to Africa, where two plane crashes almost killed him and left him in pain and ill health for much of the rest of his life. Nevertheless, in 1959, he moved from Cuba to Ketchum, Idaho, where he committed suicide in the summer of 1961.
Economical and understated style of Hemingway strongly influenced 20th-century fiction, whereas his life of adventure and his public image influenced later generations. Hemingway produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the mid-1950s. He published seven novels, six short story collections and two nonfiction works. Survivors published posthumously three novels, four collections of short stories, and three nonfiction works. People consider many of these classics.
After high school, Hemingway reported for a few months for the Kansas City Star before leaving for the Italian front to enlist. In 1918, someone seriously wounded him, who returned home. His wartime experiences formed the basis for his novel A Farewell to Arms . In 1922, he married Hadley Richardson, the first of his four wives. The couple moved, and he worked as a foreign correspondent and fell under the influence of the modernist writers and artists of the expatriate community of the "lost generation" of 1920s.
After his divorce of 1927 from Hadley Richardson, Hemingway married Pauline Pfeiffer. At the Spanish civil war, he acted as a journalist; afterward, they divorced, and he wrote For Whom the Bell Tolls . Hemingway maintained permanent residences in Key West, Florida, and Cuba during the 1930s and 1940s.
Martha Gellhorn served as third wife of Hemingway in 1940. When he met Mary Welsh in London during World War II, they separated; he presently witnessed at the Normandy landings and liberation of Paris.
Shortly after 1952, Hemingway went on safari to Africa, where two plane crashes almost killed him and left him in pain and ill health for much of the rest of his life. Nevertheless, in 1959, he moved from Cuba to Ketchum, Idaho, where he committed suicide in the summer of 1961.
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September 18, 2021
The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway, Ernest Hemingway
In this definitive collection of Ernest Hemingway's short stories, readers will delight in the author's most beloved classics such as "The Snows of Kilimanjaro," "Hills Like White Elephants," and "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place," and will discover seven new tales published for the first time in this collection. For Hemingway fans The Complete Short Stories is an invaluable treasury.
تاریخ نخستین خوانش: روز هفدهم ماه نوامبر سال 2006میلادی
عنوان: بهترین داستانهای کوتاه ارنست میلر همینگوی؛ نویسنده: ارنست همینگوی؛ برگزینش، ترجمه و مقدمه احمد گلشیری؛ تهران، نگله، 1385، در438ص؛ شابک 9643512967؛ چاپ پنجم 1392؛ موضوع داستانهای کوتاه از نویسندگان ایالات متحده امریکا - سده 20م
فهرست: مقدمه مترجم؛ از مجموعه در زمان ما: اردوگاه سرخپوستان؛ خانه سرباز؛ دکتر و همسر دکتر؛ پایان یک ماجرا؛ طوفان سه روزه؛ گربه زیر باران؛
از مجموعه مردان بدون زنان: تپه هایی چون فیلهای سفید؛ ده نفر سرخپوست؛ قناری سوغاتی؛ در سرزمین دیگر؛ شکست ناخورده؛ آدمکشها؛ پنجاه هزار دلار؛
از مجموعه برنده سهمی نمیبرد: یک گوشه پاک و پرنور؛ پیرمرد بر سر پل؛ دگرگونی دریا؛ زندگی خوش و کوتاه فرانسیس مکومبر؛ قمارباز راهبه و رادیو؛
و برفهای کلیمانجارو؛
این کتاب شامل «هجده داستان برگزیده» از سه مجموعه ی «در زمان ما (سال 1925میلادی)»، «مردان بدون زنان (سال 1927میلادی)» و «برنده سهمی نمیبرد (سال 1933میلادی)»، و نیز داستان کوتاه و نام آشنای «برفهای کلیمانجارو» است؛ بسیاری از داستان‌ها، پیشتر با چند ترجمه ی گوناگون منتشر شده اند، اما چاپ این کتاب، که می‌توان آن را عصاره ی سال‌های سال تلاش «ارنست همینگوی»، در عرصه ی داستان کوتاه دانست، فرصتی است، برای بازخوانی «همینگوی»، و آموختن شگردهایی که نثر، و سبک ایشان را، برای همگان پر خواستار کرده، و بر داستان‌نویسی نسل پس از جنگ جهانی دوم، تاثیری شگرف بگذاشته است؛ «همینگوی» نویسنده ای بودند، که بیشتر داستانهای ایشان از تجربیات و خواسته های شخصی خود ایشان، مایه بگرفته اند؛ شاید یکی از رموز موفقیتش نیز همین باشد؛ ایشان از چیزهایی می‌نویسند، که با پوست و ��ستخوان خویش تجربه شان کرده، و شناخت کافی از آن‌ها دارند؛ ناآشنایی با بیوگرافی، و زندگی پرفراز و نشیب «همینگوی»، چیزی از جذابیت داستانهای ایشان کم نمی‌کند، اما به یقین، شناخت ایشان نیز، بر لذت خوانش داستان‌هایش می‌افزاید، و بسا که برای دریافت گوشه و کنایه های نهفته، در زیر لایه ی برخی از نوشتارهای ایشان نیز، شرط لازم باشد؛
تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 09/08/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ 26/06/1400هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی
In this definitive collection of Ernest Hemingway's short stories, readers will delight in the author's most beloved classics such as "The Snows of Kilimanjaro," "Hills Like White Elephants," and "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place," and will discover seven new tales published for the first time in this collection. For Hemingway fans The Complete Short Stories is an invaluable treasury.
تاریخ نخستین خوانش: روز هفدهم ماه نوامبر سال 2006میلادی
عنوان: بهترین داستانهای کوتاه ارنست میلر همینگوی؛ نویسنده: ارنست همینگوی؛ برگزینش، ترجمه و مقدمه احمد گلشیری؛ تهران، نگله، 1385، در438ص؛ شابک 9643512967؛ چاپ پنجم 1392؛ موضوع داستانهای کوتاه از نویسندگان ایالات متحده امریکا - سده 20م
فهرست: مقدمه مترجم؛ از مجموعه در زمان ما: اردوگاه سرخپوستان؛ خانه سرباز؛ دکتر و همسر دکتر؛ پایان یک ماجرا؛ طوفان سه روزه؛ گربه زیر باران؛
از مجموعه مردان بدون زنان: تپه هایی چون فیلهای سفید؛ ده نفر سرخپوست؛ قناری سوغاتی؛ در سرزمین دیگر؛ شکست ناخورده؛ آدمکشها؛ پنجاه هزار دلار؛
از مجموعه برنده سهمی نمیبرد: یک گوشه پاک و پرنور؛ پیرمرد بر سر پل؛ دگرگونی دریا؛ زندگی خوش و کوتاه فرانسیس مکومبر؛ قمارباز راهبه و رادیو؛
و برفهای کلیمانجارو؛
این کتاب شامل «هجده داستان برگزیده» از سه مجموعه ی «در زمان ما (سال 1925میلادی)»، «مردان بدون زنان (سال 1927میلادی)» و «برنده سهمی نمیبرد (سال 1933میلادی)»، و نیز داستان کوتاه و نام آشنای «برفهای کلیمانجارو» است؛ بسیاری از داستان‌ها، پیشتر با چند ترجمه ی گوناگون منتشر شده اند، اما چاپ این کتاب، که می‌توان آن را عصاره ی سال‌های سال تلاش «ارنست همینگوی»، در عرصه ی داستان کوتاه دانست، فرصتی است، برای بازخوانی «همینگوی»، و آموختن شگردهایی که نثر، و سبک ایشان را، برای همگان پر خواستار کرده، و بر داستان‌نویسی نسل پس از جنگ جهانی دوم، تاثیری شگرف بگذاشته است؛ «همینگوی» نویسنده ای بودند، که بیشتر داستانهای ایشان از تجربیات و خواسته های شخصی خود ایشان، مایه بگرفته اند؛ شاید یکی از رموز موفقیتش نیز همین باشد؛ ایشان از چیزهایی می‌نویسند، که با پوست و ��ستخوان خویش تجربه شان کرده، و شناخت کافی از آن‌ها دارند؛ ناآشنایی با بیوگرافی، و زندگی پرفراز و نشیب «همینگوی»، چیزی از جذابیت داستانهای ایشان کم نمی‌کند، اما به یقین، شناخت ایشان نیز، بر لذت خوانش داستان‌هایش می‌افزاید، و بسا که برای دریافت گوشه و کنایه های نهفته، در زیر لایه ی برخی از نوشتارهای ایشان نیز، شرط لازم باشد؛
تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 09/08/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ 26/06/1400هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی
October 1, 2022
This Finca Vigía edition of the Complete Short Stories includes every former collection, from In Our Time (1925), to Men Without Women (1927), to Winner Take Nothing (1933), and other late or previously unpublished works of short fiction (e.g., “Three Shots”, the removed first section of “Indian Camp”).
Many of these stories deal with recurring themes: chiefly the violence and traumas of the Great War (“A Very Short Story”, “Soldier’s Home”, “In Another Country”, “A Way You’ll Never Be”) and the complicated and often unhappy romantic relationships (“The End of Something”, “Out of Season”, “Cat in the Rain”, “Hills Like White Elephants”, “A Canary for One”, “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber”). Other significant subjects include physical, often borderline masochistic, activities, like hunting (“The Snows of Kilimanjaro”, “The Short Happy Life”), fishing (“Indian Camp”, “Big Two-Hearted River”), bullfighting (the inset vignettes from In Our Time), boxing (“The Battler”, “The Killers”, “Fifty Grands”), skiing (“Cross-Country Snow”), horse-riding (“My Old Man”), or binge drinking (“The Three-Day Blow”, “A Clean Well-Lighted Place”).
One of the primary trademarks of Hemingway’s stories is that they encapsulate a moment, a tranche de vie, often semi-autobiographical; Nick Adams, the author’s alter ego is a recurring character. But, contrary to a common preconception, Hemingway’s protagonists aren’t the burly alpha males one might expect; these men are broken, wounded, weak, even a bit daft, and try to find refuge in sports, the outdoors, male camaraderie, and drinking. The female characters, however, are often relatively more assertive and level-headed, if not castrating and predatory (e.g., the mother in “Soldier’s Home”, Margot in “The Short Happy Life”).
As everyone knows, Hemingway’s style is uncomplicated, economical, “journalistic”, flat, almost ascetic—in line with the works of Stephen Crane, Jack London or Isaac Babel, for instance. The stories often begin in medias res, lack any plot, and end ambiguously—perhaps like a literary equivalent to Edward Hopper’s melancholic pictures of anonymous common people.
Still, simplicity of expression doesn’t necessarily equate with clarity of intention. Another essential aspect of Hemingway’s writing technique is the use of “objective correlatives” (external focalisation and concrete imagery instead of the description of feelings) and his “theory of omission” or “iceberg theory”:
Hemingway was probably pushed in that direction by his early mentors, Ezra Pound and Gertrude Stein, and used it persistently in his stories. Hence, presumably, his decision to edit “Three Shots” out of “Indian Camp”, thus cloaking the initial topic of the protagonist’s fear of death in the final anecdote and elevating the story to a mini-masterpiece. Ditto with the magnificent “Big Two-Hearted River”, where Nick Adams’ attempt to heal his war traumas is literally submerged in the detailed description of physical, tactile sensations throughout his fishing expedition in the wilderness. Such a technique has been incredibly influential on American writers since then (e.g., Cormac McCarthy’s The Road).
This “beating about the bush”, so to speak, by focusing on incidental facts, inconsequential conversations, and concrete imagery while avoiding the essential point, demonstrates a sense of self-restraint, understatement, and constant sobriety on the author’s part. It can do wonders when the underlying subject matter is brutal, as is sometimes the case. Yet, it doesn’t always work with the same degree of success: in “Hills Like White Elephant”, the couple’s conversation is unintelligible and frankly frustrating if one doesn’t guess that they are talking about abortion—it’s like eavesdropping on a random conversation in a public space. Similarly, the reader may wonder what the point actually is in a story like “A Canary for One”. In cases like these, one cannot but remember what Nietzsche said of poets: “they all muddle their water that it may seem deep.” (Thus Spoke Zarathustra, II,39).
Many of these stories deal with recurring themes: chiefly the violence and traumas of the Great War (“A Very Short Story”, “Soldier’s Home”, “In Another Country”, “A Way You’ll Never Be”) and the complicated and often unhappy romantic relationships (“The End of Something”, “Out of Season”, “Cat in the Rain”, “Hills Like White Elephants”, “A Canary for One”, “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber”). Other significant subjects include physical, often borderline masochistic, activities, like hunting (“The Snows of Kilimanjaro”, “The Short Happy Life”), fishing (“Indian Camp”, “Big Two-Hearted River”), bullfighting (the inset vignettes from In Our Time), boxing (“The Battler”, “The Killers”, “Fifty Grands”), skiing (“Cross-Country Snow”), horse-riding (“My Old Man”), or binge drinking (“The Three-Day Blow”, “A Clean Well-Lighted Place”).
One of the primary trademarks of Hemingway’s stories is that they encapsulate a moment, a tranche de vie, often semi-autobiographical; Nick Adams, the author’s alter ego is a recurring character. But, contrary to a common preconception, Hemingway’s protagonists aren’t the burly alpha males one might expect; these men are broken, wounded, weak, even a bit daft, and try to find refuge in sports, the outdoors, male camaraderie, and drinking. The female characters, however, are often relatively more assertive and level-headed, if not castrating and predatory (e.g., the mother in “Soldier’s Home”, Margot in “The Short Happy Life”).
As everyone knows, Hemingway’s style is uncomplicated, economical, “journalistic”, flat, almost ascetic—in line with the works of Stephen Crane, Jack London or Isaac Babel, for instance. The stories often begin in medias res, lack any plot, and end ambiguously—perhaps like a literary equivalent to Edward Hopper’s melancholic pictures of anonymous common people.
Still, simplicity of expression doesn’t necessarily equate with clarity of intention. Another essential aspect of Hemingway’s writing technique is the use of “objective correlatives” (external focalisation and concrete imagery instead of the description of feelings) and his “theory of omission” or “iceberg theory”:
If a writer of prose knows enough of what he is writing about he may omit things that he knows and the reader, if the writer is writing truly enough, will have a feeling of those things as strongly as though the writer had stated them. The dignity of movement of an iceberg is due to only one-eighth of it being above water.
(Death in the Afternoon)
Hemingway was probably pushed in that direction by his early mentors, Ezra Pound and Gertrude Stein, and used it persistently in his stories. Hence, presumably, his decision to edit “Three Shots” out of “Indian Camp”, thus cloaking the initial topic of the protagonist’s fear of death in the final anecdote and elevating the story to a mini-masterpiece. Ditto with the magnificent “Big Two-Hearted River”, where Nick Adams’ attempt to heal his war traumas is literally submerged in the detailed description of physical, tactile sensations throughout his fishing expedition in the wilderness. Such a technique has been incredibly influential on American writers since then (e.g., Cormac McCarthy’s The Road).
This “beating about the bush”, so to speak, by focusing on incidental facts, inconsequential conversations, and concrete imagery while avoiding the essential point, demonstrates a sense of self-restraint, understatement, and constant sobriety on the author’s part. It can do wonders when the underlying subject matter is brutal, as is sometimes the case. Yet, it doesn’t always work with the same degree of success: in “Hills Like White Elephant”, the couple’s conversation is unintelligible and frankly frustrating if one doesn’t guess that they are talking about abortion—it’s like eavesdropping on a random conversation in a public space. Similarly, the reader may wonder what the point actually is in a story like “A Canary for One”. In cases like these, one cannot but remember what Nietzsche said of poets: “they all muddle their water that it may seem deep.” (Thus Spoke Zarathustra, II,39).
August 2, 2019
Nobody does short stories like Hemingway. Moving between African savannahs, Spanish and French cities and various American settings, he always gets to the point. Human hope and happiness followed by disappointment and loss.
January 19, 2020
One time there was a bull and his name was not Ferdinand and he cared nothing for flowers.
Hemingway’s reputation precedes him: a misogynistic, alcoholic, macho author whose maximum sentence length was five words. Given all this, it is difficult to understand why feminist, vegetarian, and highbrow folks often end up reading and enjoying his work—as I’ve seen happen. Clearly there is more to Hemingway than his myth; but separating the man from his reputation is especially difficult in his case, since the myth, however simplifying, has a substantial grain of truth.
The best place to begin this disentanglement may be his short stories. Hemingway was an excellent writer of short stories, perhaps even better than he was a novelist, and these stories display his qualities in concentrated form. More than that, the succession of tales allows the reader to see Hemingway in all his favorite attitudes, which makes this an ideal place for the critic to set to work.
The most conspicuous aspect of Hemingway’s writing is his style. He was, above all, a stylist; and his prose has probably been the most influential of the previous century. He uses simple words and avoids grammatical subordination; instead of commas, parentheses, or semicolons he simply uses the word “and.” The final affect is staccato, lean, and blunt: the sentences tumble forward in a series of broken images, accumulating into a disjointed pile. The tone is deadpan: neither rising to a crescendo nor ascending into lyricism. One imagines most lines read by someone who has been hypnotized, in a subdued monotone.
On the level of story and structure, too, Hemingway is a stylist. He developed characteristic ways of omitting material and splicing scenes to disorient the reader. Between two lines of conversation, for example, many minutes may have elapsed. Characters typically talk around the issue, only eluding vaguely to the principle event that determined the story, thus leaving readers to grasp at straws. The most famous example of this may be “Hills Like White Elephants,” a sparse conversation between a couple in which they make (or don't) a decision to do something (or other).
Hemingway’s most typical plot strategy is to fill a story with atmospheric descriptions and seemingly pointless conversations until everything suddenly explodes right before the end. My favorite example of this is “The Capital of the World,” which is hardly a story at all until the final moments. His protagonists (who are, to my knowledge, exclusively male) are most often harboring some traumatic memory and find themselves drifting towards the next traumatic event that ends the narrative. The uncomfortable darkness surrounding their past creates an anxious sense of foreboding about their future (which the events usually justify)—and this is how Hemingway keeps up the tension that gets readers to the end.
Hemingway is certainly not a writer of characters. An experiment will make this very clear. Read the dialogue of any of his protagonists out loud, and even Hemingway fans will have difficulty saying who is doing the talking. In short, all of his protagonists sound the same—like Hemingway himself. You might say that Hemingway had one big character with many different manifestations. Luckily this character is compelling—damaged but tough, proud but sensitive, capable of both callousness and tenderness—and, most important, highly original. A much underappreciated aspect of this character, by the way, is the humor. Hemingway had a dry and occasionally absurdist comedic sense, which can be seen most clearly in this collection in “The Good Lion” (a story about a lion who only eats Italian food).
His stories circle tightly around the same subjects: war, boxing, bullfighting, fishing, hunting, and desperate love affairs—with alcohol ever-present. Without doubt Hemingway was attracted to violence. But he is not a Tarantino, an aficionado of the aesthetics of violence. Rather, violence for Hemingway is not beautiful in itself but a kind of necessary crucible to reduce life to its barest elements. For with life, like prose, Hemingway was a minimalist and a purist. And the essential question of life, for him, was what a man did when faced with an overpowering force—whether this came in the form of a bull, a marlin, a war, or nature itself. And the typical Hemingway response to this conundrum is to go down swinging with a kind of grim resolve, even if you’d rather just not bother with the whole ordeal.
Nature plays an interesting double role in Hemingway’s fiction: as adversary and comforter. Sometimes characters escape into nature, like Nick Adams going fishing. Other times they must face it down, like Francis Macomber with his buffalo. Yet nature is never to be passively enjoyed, as a bird watcher or a naturalist, but must always be engaged with—as either predator or prey. Of course you always end up as the prey in the end; that’s not the question. The question is whether these roles are performed with dignity—bravery, resolve, skill—or without. Writing itself, for him, is a kind of hunting, a hunting inside of yourself for the cold truth, and must also be done bravely or the writer will end up producing rubbish. And even the writer ends up prey in the end—eaten by his own demons.
This, as far as I can tell, is Hemingway’s insistent theme—the central thread that ties his other interests together. And one's final reaction to his work will thus rest on the extent to which one thinks that this view encapsulates reality. For me, and I believe for many readers, Hemingway at his best does capture an essential part of life, one that is usually missed or ignored. But such a universally cannibalistic world is difficult to stomach in large doses.
Even within the boundaries of his own style, Hemingway has some notable defects. He most often gets into trouble nowadays for his portrayal of women. And it is true that none of them, to my memory, are three-dimensional. What most puts me off is the cloyingly subordinate way that many of the women speak to their partners. But what I found even more uncomfortable was Hemingway’s racist treatment of black characters, which was hard to take at times. And as I mentioned in another review, I can also do with fewer mentions of food and drink.
These criticisms are just small sample of what can be lodged at him. Yet even the harshest critic, if they are a sensitive reader, must admit that he is a writer who cuts deeply. When Hemingway’s story and his style hit their stride, the effect is powerful and unforgettable. My personal favorite is the paragraphs in “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber,” when the narration switches to the lion’s point of view:
Macomber stepped out of the curved opening at the side of the front seat, onto the step and down onto the ground. The lion still stood looking majestically and coolly toward this object that his eyes only showed in silhouette, bulking like some super-rhino. There was no man smell carried toward him and he watched the object, moving his great head a little from side to side. Then watching the object, not afraid, but hesitating before going down the bank to drink with such a thing opposite him, he saw a man figure detach itself from it and he turned his heavy head and swung away toward the cover of the trees as he heard a cracking crash and felt the slam of a .30-06 220-grain solid bullet that bit his flank and ripped in sudden hot scalding nausea through his stomach.
July 18, 2021
It is hard to overstate how absolutely wonderful and powerful a writer of short stories that Hemingway was. This collection contains so many wonderful sketches full of spit, vinegar, blood, and whiskey stains. Through them we experience attempted murder on a train, the Spanish Civil War in Madrid, the First and Second World Wars in Italy and France respectively, fishing, hunting, fucking, and drinking. The prose is always terse but incredibly saturated in description and meaning. Who else could describe sex thus:
“In the dark he went into the strange country and it was very strange indeed, hard to enter, suddenly perilously difficult, then blindingly, happily, safely, encompassed; free of all doubts, all perils and all dreads, held unholdingly, to hold, to hold increasingly, unholdingly still to hold, taking away all things before, and all to come, bringing the beginning of bright happiness in darkness, closer, closer, closer now closer and ever closer, to go on past all belief, longer, finer, further, finer higher and higher to drive towards happiness suddenly, scaldingly achieved.” (p. 615)
I am reading Meyers' masterful biography Hemingway: A Biography and it is fascinating to see how each of these stories encapsulates a piece of Hemingway's personal experience. His life was particularly exciting and turbulent: WWI ambulance driver (where he met John Dos Passos), Parisian journalist, Parisian bohemian writer, Spanish Civil War participant, bull-fighting aficionado, big game hunter, sport fisherman, and inveterate ladies' man, these stories all pull from his catalog of sensations and memories. It is important to note going in that in his writing technique, Hemingway felt that it was equally important to leave out some information so that the reader has to fill in the blanks. He thought of stories as icebergs with 90% of the content left unsaid. This leaves a considerable amount of ambiguity to many of the stories because no moral conclusion is drawn; his goal is to dive as deep into the experience itself so that the reader feels personally involved in the story.
If you have never read Hemingway, it is possible to start here before heading on San Fermin to Basque Country where The Sun Also Rises. But if you have read his novels, please don’t miss the opportunity to revel on his stupendous writing. He might be the US’ all-time greatest writer of short stories. They are nothing less than marvelous.
Don't miss my review of the Meyer biography of Hemingway: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
“In the dark he went into the strange country and it was very strange indeed, hard to enter, suddenly perilously difficult, then blindingly, happily, safely, encompassed; free of all doubts, all perils and all dreads, held unholdingly, to hold, to hold increasingly, unholdingly still to hold, taking away all things before, and all to come, bringing the beginning of bright happiness in darkness, closer, closer, closer now closer and ever closer, to go on past all belief, longer, finer, further, finer higher and higher to drive towards happiness suddenly, scaldingly achieved.” (p. 615)
I am reading Meyers' masterful biography Hemingway: A Biography and it is fascinating to see how each of these stories encapsulates a piece of Hemingway's personal experience. His life was particularly exciting and turbulent: WWI ambulance driver (where he met John Dos Passos), Parisian journalist, Parisian bohemian writer, Spanish Civil War participant, bull-fighting aficionado, big game hunter, sport fisherman, and inveterate ladies' man, these stories all pull from his catalog of sensations and memories. It is important to note going in that in his writing technique, Hemingway felt that it was equally important to leave out some information so that the reader has to fill in the blanks. He thought of stories as icebergs with 90% of the content left unsaid. This leaves a considerable amount of ambiguity to many of the stories because no moral conclusion is drawn; his goal is to dive as deep into the experience itself so that the reader feels personally involved in the story.
If you have never read Hemingway, it is possible to start here before heading on San Fermin to Basque Country where The Sun Also Rises. But if you have read his novels, please don’t miss the opportunity to revel on his stupendous writing. He might be the US’ all-time greatest writer of short stories. They are nothing less than marvelous.
Don't miss my review of the Meyer biography of Hemingway: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
March 21, 2009
Night Before Battle -- I was thinking last night, while we were watching M*A*S*H*, about Hemingway's preoccupation with war.
There is an episode of M*A*S*H*, not the one we were watching, where they make a thinly veiled attack on Hemingway's war writing. A famous journalist/author with a red beard and huge physical presence comes to the 4077th and has a run in of philosophy with Hawkeye and BJ (I think it was BJ), and he's written off as a bloodthirsty exploiter of warfare.
As a take on Hemingway, I think M*A*S*H* was pretty unfair, but it has made me seriously consider -- both in the past and again last night -- what Hemingway saw in war that made it such an important part of his writing.
And I think we see much of what motivates Hemingway in "Night Before Battle." Hemingway is interested, above all things, on what motivates people's emotions, and there are few more powerful settings for overwhelming emotion than war. And since war is an experience that Hemingway was familiar with at first hand (he was a genuine hero in the First World War, after all), it makes sense that Hemingway would focus on war and its aftermath as the background upon which to set his examinations of human emotion.
In "Night Before Battle," Hemingway is dealing most poignantly with the emotions of Al Wagner, the Tank Commander who's convinced he will die the next day in an attack that he knows should not be made. Al moves from feeling "wet," sure that he will die and genuinely afraid of what's to come, to an acceptance of his fate. But all around Al swirls a cast of wounded people making their way the best they can while fighting what most of them know is a lost cause. We get glimpses of the emotional lives of a number of people: the divisive Comrade in the bar, Manolita, a Spanish girl flirting with the English newspaperman, Baldy, the drunken pilot, and Henry the filmmaker. None are as thoroughly drawn as Wagner, but they're all dealing with their own emotional despairs in whatever way they can.
For a man who so many people imagine as the very symbol of American masculinity, Hemingway's stories reveal a sensitivity to emotions and understanding of pain that is unparalleled by his peers. He just happens to use war as the touchstone for his examination of emotion, and it is difficult for me, in the face of a story like "Night Before Battle," to see his work as a glorification of war.
Hemingway didn't love war, he just happened to know it. What Hemingway loved was how people responded to the horrors of war, so...if anything...he's glorifying the human spirit in times of adversity.
There is an episode of M*A*S*H*, not the one we were watching, where they make a thinly veiled attack on Hemingway's war writing. A famous journalist/author with a red beard and huge physical presence comes to the 4077th and has a run in of philosophy with Hawkeye and BJ (I think it was BJ), and he's written off as a bloodthirsty exploiter of warfare.
As a take on Hemingway, I think M*A*S*H* was pretty unfair, but it has made me seriously consider -- both in the past and again last night -- what Hemingway saw in war that made it such an important part of his writing.
And I think we see much of what motivates Hemingway in "Night Before Battle." Hemingway is interested, above all things, on what motivates people's emotions, and there are few more powerful settings for overwhelming emotion than war. And since war is an experience that Hemingway was familiar with at first hand (he was a genuine hero in the First World War, after all), it makes sense that Hemingway would focus on war and its aftermath as the background upon which to set his examinations of human emotion.
In "Night Before Battle," Hemingway is dealing most poignantly with the emotions of Al Wagner, the Tank Commander who's convinced he will die the next day in an attack that he knows should not be made. Al moves from feeling "wet," sure that he will die and genuinely afraid of what's to come, to an acceptance of his fate. But all around Al swirls a cast of wounded people making their way the best they can while fighting what most of them know is a lost cause. We get glimpses of the emotional lives of a number of people: the divisive Comrade in the bar, Manolita, a Spanish girl flirting with the English newspaperman, Baldy, the drunken pilot, and Henry the filmmaker. None are as thoroughly drawn as Wagner, but they're all dealing with their own emotional despairs in whatever way they can.
For a man who so many people imagine as the very symbol of American masculinity, Hemingway's stories reveal a sensitivity to emotions and understanding of pain that is unparalleled by his peers. He just happens to use war as the touchstone for his examination of emotion, and it is difficult for me, in the face of a story like "Night Before Battle," to see his work as a glorification of war.
Hemingway didn't love war, he just happened to know it. What Hemingway loved was how people responded to the horrors of war, so...if anything...he's glorifying the human spirit in times of adversity.
January 14, 2024
مجموعه ی داستان های کوتاهی بود که خیلی دوست داشتم وبیشتر از همه مقدمه‌ی جذابش ✨️😍😍📚
August 17, 2009
So, I didn’t read the Complete short stories of Hemingway. I wanted an introduction, I’d always thought of Hemingway as..well, I’d never really given him much thought. He was just someone I wasn’t interested in reading. Lord help me, I can be dense.
I’ve read about a dozen of the stories in this anthology. I asked my husband for his opinion on which ones I should start with and I think that I’ve read a fair sampling, I’ll probably continue to pick this up every now and then and throw another one down. Some of these stories are what I expected of Hemingway. When I think of him, I see a large man, with a gun and a cigar and hell bent on killing something. I see wilderness and war, I see the old sea captain and the disillusioned writer in the euro café. And sometimes I see my grandfather but that just might be the Gary Cooper influence.
I was expecting the hunting, fishing, wilderness angle and The Big Two Hearted River Part I & II delivered with a yawn. The morality of The Good Lion and The Faithful Bull was fine and dandy and the cleverness of Homage to Switzerland wasn't lacking. These stories didn't give me that jaw dropping, must read everything effect that I so often hope for, but they were well written and entertaining.. Mostly, they were short and bearable.
Now the ones that I can truly say blew my Havana lovin', Zelda hatin', Hemingway image apart were A Day's Wait, a quick 4 page story about a child thinking he is about to die and how he prepares for this. I was impressed with the emotion that was so quickly and brilliantly emoted. I remember when I was about six or so, I swallowed a penny and thought I was going to die. It's not a good feeling, people. I remember standing over my parent's bed trying to prep them for this. I totally relate to Schatz.
And the acerbic tone in The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber, The Seeing-Eyed Dog, Hills like White Elephants, and The Snows of Kilamanjaro were awesome. I've always been down with the cynical, the mean-spiritedness, and this somewhat frightens me that I'm so attracted to it, because I'm really trying to be a better person. Hell if I can't enjoy some of the nastiness.
My favorite of the bunch is the first story that I was told to read.. A Clean, Well-Lighted Place. I'm sure many of you goodreaders are already aware of this gem, but I have to say even late to the game, I was just stunned by it. So short and so poignant. So beautiful. It makes me want to take on a sugar daddy so I can sit in European cafés mumbling nada y pues nada y nada y pues nada.
I'm such a girl.
I’ve read about a dozen of the stories in this anthology. I asked my husband for his opinion on which ones I should start with and I think that I’ve read a fair sampling, I’ll probably continue to pick this up every now and then and throw another one down. Some of these stories are what I expected of Hemingway. When I think of him, I see a large man, with a gun and a cigar and hell bent on killing something. I see wilderness and war, I see the old sea captain and the disillusioned writer in the euro café. And sometimes I see my grandfather but that just might be the Gary Cooper influence.
I was expecting the hunting, fishing, wilderness angle and The Big Two Hearted River Part I & II delivered with a yawn. The morality of The Good Lion and The Faithful Bull was fine and dandy and the cleverness of Homage to Switzerland wasn't lacking. These stories didn't give me that jaw dropping, must read everything effect that I so often hope for, but they were well written and entertaining.. Mostly, they were short and bearable.
Now the ones that I can truly say blew my Havana lovin', Zelda hatin', Hemingway image apart were A Day's Wait, a quick 4 page story about a child thinking he is about to die and how he prepares for this. I was impressed with the emotion that was so quickly and brilliantly emoted. I remember when I was about six or so, I swallowed a penny and thought I was going to die. It's not a good feeling, people. I remember standing over my parent's bed trying to prep them for this. I totally relate to Schatz.
And the acerbic tone in The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber, The Seeing-Eyed Dog, Hills like White Elephants, and The Snows of Kilamanjaro were awesome. I've always been down with the cynical, the mean-spiritedness, and this somewhat frightens me that I'm so attracted to it, because I'm really trying to be a better person. Hell if I can't enjoy some of the nastiness.
My favorite of the bunch is the first story that I was told to read.. A Clean, Well-Lighted Place. I'm sure many of you goodreaders are already aware of this gem, but I have to say even late to the game, I was just stunned by it. So short and so poignant. So beautiful. It makes me want to take on a sugar daddy so I can sit in European cafés mumbling nada y pues nada y nada y pues nada.
I'm such a girl.
February 5, 2024
Rereading the In Our Time portion here. Funny, while all the stories are in their proper order, the editors do not add an extra page to name the collection. Nor is it separated out in the TOC. Doesn't this omit an authorial decision? The stories are knockouts, but that packaging call is bad. By the way, I've always been intrigued by the interstitial fragments that appear in italics between the stories.
March 26, 2020
مجموعه‌ای از داستانهای کوتاه همینگوی به انتخاب و ترجمه احمد گلشیری.
نکته‌ی خوب این کتاب، زندگی‌نامه کاملیه که گلشیری اول کتاب اورده. حدود ۱۰۰ صفحه فقط زندگی‌نامه کامل و با جزئیات همینگوی رو داریم که وقتی خوندمش خیلی هیجان‌زده شدم. و چیزهایی هم برام روشن شد. وقتی خوندم که چه زندگی پرهیجان و پرماجرایی داشته، که چقدر از این ور به اون ور رفته، فهمیدم که نثرش، سبک نوشتنش از کجا اومده. دیدم که چقدر چیز دیده و اون چیزها تبدیل شدن به این داستان‌ها.
طبیعت رو توی داستان‌هاش خیلی دوست دارم. و چون توصیف‌کننده خوبی هم هست، با خوندن داستان‌ها فضاها سریع توی ذهنم شکل می گرفتن و می‌رفتم توی جنگل یا آفریقا یا رودخونه.
داستان‌ها هم همه جذاب بودن. نمی‌دونم بقیه داستانهای همینگوی هم همینقدر خوبن یا این مجموعه چون از بین خوب‌ها انتخاب شده این‌طوریه.
تنها داستانی که کمتر باهاش حال کردم،«قمارباز، راهبه، رادیو» بود. باقی داستان‌ها به نظرم همه جذاب بودن.
داستان‌هایی که حول آدم‌ها یا طبیعت می‌گذشت رو بیشتر از دو داستانی که درباره مسابق��ت مشت‌زنی و گاوبازی بود دوست داشتم.
این دو داستان بیشتر شبیه گزارش‌هایی بودن از مسابقات. اما بقیه داستان‌هاش مایه‌ها و موضوعاتی جذاب‌تر و موقعیت‌هایی دراما-دار-تر داشتند و مساله‌های مشترک بیشتری باهاشون حس می‌کردم.
کمی خاطره:
دقیقا چهارسال پیش بود که این کتاب رو شروع کردم. گذاشته بودمش توی ماشین، بغل در، که هروقت تو ماشین منتظرم یه داستان بخونم. یکی دو یا سه تا داستان خوندم و بعد دیگه کتاب دست‌نخورده باقی‌موند. تا این که امسال شد و شروع کردم به خوندنش. اول زندگی‌نامه رو خوندم و بسیار به هیجان اومدم و مشتاق شدم که بقیه داستان‌ها رو بخونم. تا این ��ه اصلا نفهمیدم چطوری تموم شد. کتابی که بخاطر حجمش شاید کمتر می‌رفتم سمت‌اش و همیشه می‌گفتم بعدا خواهم خوند.
ترجمه:
ترجمه خوبی داشت. من به ندرت حس می‌کردم که متوجه نشدم جایی رو، و متن اصلی رو چک می‌کردم و اکثرا مشکلی از نظر ترجمه نداشت. از لحاظ سانسور هم داستان‌هایی رو که فکر می‌کردم ممکنه سانسور کرده باشن رو از روی متن اصلی می‌خوندم و جالب اینجا بود که اصلا سانسور نداشت. در نتیجه تا جایی که من بررسی کردم سانسور نداشت، و در کل ۵۰۰ صفحه یک غلط توی ترجمه پیدا کردم که معنی رو کمی عوض می‌کرد و احتمالا از زیر دست مترجم در رفته بود.
در نهایت:
این کتاب رو خیلی پیشنهاد می‌کنم به علاقه‌مندها به داستان کوتاه. داستان‌هاش از موقعیت‌های ظریف ساخته شدن، موقعیت‌هایی خیلی درونی و واکنش‌های خیلی انسانی و ناخودآگاه، که در نهایت منجر به «مساله» می‌شن. مثلا، مردی که موقع شکار شیر ��هو می‌ترسه و فرار می‌کنه و زنش این رو می‌بینه و این روی رابطه‌شون تاثیر می‌ذاره.
یا موقعیت‌های خیلی ساکت‌ترِ دیگه، مثل داستان معروف «یک گوشه پاک پرنور» که یه پیرمردی توی یه کافه‌ست و کل داستان در هاله‌ای از سکوت و نورِ آباژورمانند می‌گذره.
نکته‌ی خوب این کتاب، زندگی‌نامه کاملیه که گلشیری اول کتاب اورده. حدود ۱۰۰ صفحه فقط زندگی‌نامه کامل و با جزئیات همینگوی رو داریم که وقتی خوندمش خیلی هیجان‌زده شدم. و چیزهایی هم برام روشن شد. وقتی خوندم که چه زندگی پرهیجان و پرماجرایی داشته، که چقدر از این ور به اون ور رفته، فهمیدم که نثرش، سبک نوشتنش از کجا اومده. دیدم که چقدر چیز دیده و اون چیزها تبدیل شدن به این داستان‌ها.
طبیعت رو توی داستان‌هاش خیلی دوست دارم. و چون توصیف‌کننده خوبی هم هست، با خوندن داستان‌ها فضاها سریع توی ذهنم شکل می گرفتن و می‌رفتم توی جنگل یا آفریقا یا رودخونه.
داستان‌ها هم همه جذاب بودن. نمی‌دونم بقیه داستانهای همینگوی هم همینقدر خوبن یا این مجموعه چون از بین خوب‌ها انتخاب شده این‌طوریه.
تنها داستانی که کمتر باهاش حال کردم،«قمارباز، راهبه، رادیو» بود. باقی داستان‌ها به نظرم همه جذاب بودن.
داستان‌هایی که حول آدم‌ها یا طبیعت می‌گذشت رو بیشتر از دو داستانی که درباره مسابق��ت مشت‌زنی و گاوبازی بود دوست داشتم.
این دو داستان بیشتر شبیه گزارش‌هایی بودن از مسابقات. اما بقیه داستان‌هاش مایه‌ها و موضوعاتی جذاب‌تر و موقعیت‌هایی دراما-دار-تر داشتند و مساله‌های مشترک بیشتری باهاشون حس می‌کردم.
کمی خاطره:
دقیقا چهارسال پیش بود که این کتاب رو شروع کردم. گذاشته بودمش توی ماشین، بغل در، که هروقت تو ماشین منتظرم یه داستان بخونم. یکی دو یا سه تا داستان خوندم و بعد دیگه کتاب دست‌نخورده باقی‌موند. تا این که امسال شد و شروع کردم به خوندنش. اول زندگی‌نامه رو خوندم و بسیار به هیجان اومدم و مشتاق شدم که بقیه داستان‌ها رو بخونم. تا این ��ه اصلا نفهمیدم چطوری تموم شد. کتابی که بخاطر حجمش شاید کمتر می‌رفتم سمت‌اش و همیشه می‌گفتم بعدا خواهم خوند.
ترجمه:
ترجمه خوبی داشت. من به ندرت حس می‌کردم که متوجه نشدم جایی رو، و متن اصلی رو چک می‌کردم و اکثرا مشکلی از نظر ترجمه نداشت. از لحاظ سانسور هم داستان‌هایی رو که فکر می‌کردم ممکنه سانسور کرده باشن رو از روی متن اصلی می‌خوندم و جالب اینجا بود که اصلا سانسور نداشت. در نتیجه تا جایی که من بررسی کردم سانسور نداشت، و در کل ۵۰۰ صفحه یک غلط توی ترجمه پیدا کردم که معنی رو کمی عوض می‌کرد و احتمالا از زیر دست مترجم در رفته بود.
در نهایت:
این کتاب رو خیلی پیشنهاد می‌کنم به علاقه‌مندها به داستان کوتاه. داستان‌هاش از موقعیت‌های ظریف ساخته شدن، موقعیت‌هایی خیلی درونی و واکنش‌های خیلی انسانی و ناخودآگاه، که در نهایت منجر به «مساله» می‌شن. مثلا، مردی که موقع شکار شیر ��هو می‌ترسه و فرار می‌کنه و زنش این رو می‌بینه و این روی رابطه‌شون تاثیر می‌ذاره.
یا موقعیت‌های خیلی ساکت‌ترِ دیگه، مثل داستان معروف «یک گوشه پاک پرنور» که یه پیرمردی توی یه کافه‌ست و کل داستان در هاله‌ای از سکوت و نورِ آباژورمانند می‌گذره.
January 28, 2011
In a way, it's almost an injustice to read these stories straight through, from cover-to-cover. Each story offers a unique experience in transforming words into imagery in a way that is unique to Hemingway. To simply read one story and then continue on to the next without time for reflection deprives the reader of some Top-Chef caliber, food-for-thought. Even now, my initial reading of this collection comes back to haunt me, from time-to-time, with ah-ha moments.
March 4, 2018
Gelmiş geçmiş en büyüklerden biridir Hemingway. Taklit edilemez, yaptığı bir daha yapılamaz. Onunla başlamış ve bitmiştir. İlk okuyuşumuzda çoğumuz "peh, bu mu yani?" der. Araya yıllar ve bambaşka yazarlar girer. Sonra bir dürtü ile Hemingway tekrar okunur. Hissettiğimiz, yıllar önce asi ve küstah bir genç olarak evin kapısını çarpıp giden ve yıllar sonra başı utançla hafif öne eğik bir şekilde geri dönen kişinin hissettiğine yakındır.
July 21, 2023
In going where you have to go, and doing what you have to do, and seeing what you have to see, you dull and blunt the instrument you write with. But I would rather have it bent and dull and know I had to put it on the grindstone again and hammer it into shape and put a whetstone to it, and know that I had something to write about, than to have it bright and shining and nothing to say, or smooth and well-oiled in the closet, but unused.
Now it is necessary to get to the grindstone again. I would like to live long enough to write three more novels and twenty-five more stories. I know some pretty good ones.
With his natural, clear, direct and terse prose, Hemingway is one of the greatest short story writers.
Now it is necessary to get to the grindstone again. I would like to live long enough to write three more novels and twenty-five more stories. I know some pretty good ones.
With his natural, clear, direct and terse prose, Hemingway is one of the greatest short story writers.
July 31, 2022
The Germans we saw coming now were on bicycles. There were four of them and they were in a hurry too but they were very tired. They were not cyclist troops. They were just Germans on stolen bicycles. The leading rider saw the fresh blood on the road and then he turned his head and saw the vehicle and he put his weight hard down on his right pedal with his right boot and we opened on him and on the others. A man shot off a bicycle is always a sad thing to see, although not as sad as a horse shot with a man riding him nor a milk cow gut-shot when she walks into a fire fight
Of course it’s Hemingway so there are lots of great stories in this comprehensive collection and I certainly gained a greater appreciation of his writing style. Some of the best stories were published posthumously and his early stories still feel pretty fresh even after 80 years since their first publication.
Here are the stories from this collection that I enjoyed most.
1. The Snows of Kilimanjaro
Perhaps Hemingway’s most famous short story and for good reason. This story feels both personal and visceral as we witness a man dealing with the advanced stages of gangrene - all in the shadow of Africa’s highest peak.
2. On the Quai at Smyrna
This terror filled sketch doubles as a history lesson. It takes place over a few hours on the Quai as Greek citizens are being evacuated in 1922 from Smyrna after they were abandoned by the Allies and defeated in their war with Turkey.
3. Indian Camp
A well known Nick Adams story. When Nick is young an Indian man approaches his father for help. They all travel by canoe to find out what has happened at the Indian village. Nick’s father is not happy with what he finds at the camp. A coming of age story.
4. Big Two-Hearted River Part I and II
Hemingway’s most beautiful story although really more of a sketch. A man is fly fishing in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and is trying to escape his PTSD. It is almost as if this story was written by a naturalist. Hemingway takes great care in his writing to describe both the landscape and fly fishing in minute detail.
5. The Killers
Possibly the most dramatic short story in the collection and one of Hemingway’s most imaginative. This was required reading in my high school lit class and I was on the edge of my seat from the time the killers first walked into the diner.
6. The Denunciation
Takes place during Spain’s Civil War which Hemingway saw first hand. In this story the protagonist meets a friend at a Republican bar. While chatting the protagonist notices that there is an also an old schoolmate who is there in disguise and the man is one of Franco's fascists. So the protagonist is faced with a dilemma of whether to report his old classmate to the authorities. If he does the man will most likely be shot .
7. Under the Ridge
Also set in the Spanish Civil War, this story involves a Spanish soldier who doesn’t like any foreigners including the American who is fighting along side him against the Fascists.
8. Black Ass at the Crossroads
An American platoon sets up an ambush against Germans at a road crossing. Graphic story that takes place near the end of WWII.
I recently upgraded my rating to 5 stars (originally 4 stars). Many of these stories are too special.
5 stars
Of course it’s Hemingway so there are lots of great stories in this comprehensive collection and I certainly gained a greater appreciation of his writing style. Some of the best stories were published posthumously and his early stories still feel pretty fresh even after 80 years since their first publication.
Here are the stories from this collection that I enjoyed most.
1. The Snows of Kilimanjaro
Perhaps Hemingway’s most famous short story and for good reason. This story feels both personal and visceral as we witness a man dealing with the advanced stages of gangrene - all in the shadow of Africa’s highest peak.
2. On the Quai at Smyrna
This terror filled sketch doubles as a history lesson. It takes place over a few hours on the Quai as Greek citizens are being evacuated in 1922 from Smyrna after they were abandoned by the Allies and defeated in their war with Turkey.
3. Indian Camp
A well known Nick Adams story. When Nick is young an Indian man approaches his father for help. They all travel by canoe to find out what has happened at the Indian village. Nick’s father is not happy with what he finds at the camp. A coming of age story.
4. Big Two-Hearted River Part I and II
Hemingway’s most beautiful story although really more of a sketch. A man is fly fishing in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and is trying to escape his PTSD. It is almost as if this story was written by a naturalist. Hemingway takes great care in his writing to describe both the landscape and fly fishing in minute detail.
5. The Killers
Possibly the most dramatic short story in the collection and one of Hemingway’s most imaginative. This was required reading in my high school lit class and I was on the edge of my seat from the time the killers first walked into the diner.
6. The Denunciation
Takes place during Spain’s Civil War which Hemingway saw first hand. In this story the protagonist meets a friend at a Republican bar. While chatting the protagonist notices that there is an also an old schoolmate who is there in disguise and the man is one of Franco's fascists. So the protagonist is faced with a dilemma of whether to report his old classmate to the authorities. If he does the man will most likely be shot .
7. Under the Ridge
Also set in the Spanish Civil War, this story involves a Spanish soldier who doesn’t like any foreigners including the American who is fighting along side him against the Fascists.
8. Black Ass at the Crossroads
An American platoon sets up an ambush against Germans at a road crossing. Graphic story that takes place near the end of WWII.
I recently upgraded my rating to 5 stars (originally 4 stars). Many of these stories are too special.
5 stars
March 15, 2017
***Review of short story "Cat in the Rain", which record Goodreads has merged with the complete short stories--don't ask me why.***
I'm not sure why this story affects me so much more than anything else by Hemingway I've read. There isn't much to it--just a brief conversation that is barely any conversation at all, a passing encounter with a hotel owner and a maid, a stray cat out in the rain. And yet there is also a world of loneliness and displacement and isolation there, never explicit but bleeding between the lines so heavily that one can taste it. As always with Hemingway, the impact of the story lies in the accumulation of little details. The unnamed "American Girl" doesn't know any other guests--she and her husband are the only Americans (and presumably the only English-speakers; being abroad has taught me how isolating that is, even if one speaks the local language).
Add to that displacement the fact that she expresses great fondness for a near stranger, the elderly hotel owner, but all interactions with her young husband (are they on their honeymoon?) are decidedly cold--their marriage in a nutshell right there. There is something about that image of the "poor little kitty," out in the rain, trying to stay dry, which somehow sums up all that loneliness and near-despair, and it's more than she can handle, more than I can handle. Wanting to bring that cat in out of the rain quickly moves beyond an act of pity (and, perhaps, boredom) as that lost cat becomes a symbol of everything the American girl desperately desires.
"‘I want to pull my hair back tight and smooth and make a big knot at the back that I can feel,’ she said. ‘I want to have a kitty to sit on my lap and purr when I stroke her... And I want to eat at a table with my own silver and I want candles. And I want it to be spring and I want to brush my hair out in front of a mirror and I want a kitty and I want some new clothes.’
‘Oh, shut up and get something to read,’ George said. He was reading again."
I've seen this outburst interpreted as an expression of American materialism, but I don't think that's it at all. She doesn't really just want silverware and candles and clothes; these are the trappings of the quiet, old-fashioned domesticity that she has done away with when she cut her hair short and went to Italy, but that now seems a haven. To wear her hair in a heavy bun the way her mother and grandmother did, to have a house of her own to rule over and something small and warm to cuddle: this is to have an established Place, a sense of belonging somewhere.
To be deprived of all this and be stuck in a strange place with a husband who doesn't hear her is bad enough; to lose the cat, who would bring some small comfort, on top of it all just seems cruelly unfair. "I want a cat. I want a cat now. If I can’t have long hair or any fun, I can have a cat."
It is beautiful that the story ends with the maid bringing in the tortoise-shell cat, before we see how either of the Americans react, because it leaves the question dangling--does having a cat actually make the sadness go away?
When I first read this story in college, during a peculiarly lonely time for me, it was like a lightning bolt through my soul. Because I GET what the American Wife is feeling. I want to go and get that kitty out of the rain and bring it inside and feel it purr when I stroke it; and somehow, it seems, that will make everything all better.
I'm not sure why this story affects me so much more than anything else by Hemingway I've read. There isn't much to it--just a brief conversation that is barely any conversation at all, a passing encounter with a hotel owner and a maid, a stray cat out in the rain. And yet there is also a world of loneliness and displacement and isolation there, never explicit but bleeding between the lines so heavily that one can taste it. As always with Hemingway, the impact of the story lies in the accumulation of little details. The unnamed "American Girl" doesn't know any other guests--she and her husband are the only Americans (and presumably the only English-speakers; being abroad has taught me how isolating that is, even if one speaks the local language).
Add to that displacement the fact that she expresses great fondness for a near stranger, the elderly hotel owner, but all interactions with her young husband (are they on their honeymoon?) are decidedly cold--their marriage in a nutshell right there. There is something about that image of the "poor little kitty," out in the rain, trying to stay dry, which somehow sums up all that loneliness and near-despair, and it's more than she can handle, more than I can handle. Wanting to bring that cat in out of the rain quickly moves beyond an act of pity (and, perhaps, boredom) as that lost cat becomes a symbol of everything the American girl desperately desires.
"‘I want to pull my hair back tight and smooth and make a big knot at the back that I can feel,’ she said. ‘I want to have a kitty to sit on my lap and purr when I stroke her... And I want to eat at a table with my own silver and I want candles. And I want it to be spring and I want to brush my hair out in front of a mirror and I want a kitty and I want some new clothes.’
‘Oh, shut up and get something to read,’ George said. He was reading again."
I've seen this outburst interpreted as an expression of American materialism, but I don't think that's it at all. She doesn't really just want silverware and candles and clothes; these are the trappings of the quiet, old-fashioned domesticity that she has done away with when she cut her hair short and went to Italy, but that now seems a haven. To wear her hair in a heavy bun the way her mother and grandmother did, to have a house of her own to rule over and something small and warm to cuddle: this is to have an established Place, a sense of belonging somewhere.
To be deprived of all this and be stuck in a strange place with a husband who doesn't hear her is bad enough; to lose the cat, who would bring some small comfort, on top of it all just seems cruelly unfair. "I want a cat. I want a cat now. If I can’t have long hair or any fun, I can have a cat."
It is beautiful that the story ends with the maid bringing in the tortoise-shell cat, before we see how either of the Americans react, because it leaves the question dangling--does having a cat actually make the sadness go away?
When I first read this story in college, during a peculiarly lonely time for me, it was like a lightning bolt through my soul. Because I GET what the American Wife is feeling. I want to go and get that kitty out of the rain and bring it inside and feel it purr when I stroke it; and somehow, it seems, that will make everything all better.
June 1, 2016
Away from Romance and Walter Scott through Twain to Ernest Hemingway, who was/is a main influence on the generation of writers trying to escape or outdo him.
Harsh, brutal, accurate, stylistically pure to himself.
Sometimes pleasant to read and sometimes unbearable. I think his style, sometimes so simple, at those times emphasizes the horror of humans as perpetual children, seeing war and corruption.
Harsh, brutal, accurate, stylistically pure to himself.
Sometimes pleasant to read and sometimes unbearable. I think his style, sometimes so simple, at those times emphasizes the horror of humans as perpetual children, seeing war and corruption.
July 6, 2022
This is Hemingway at his best: pointed, witty, captivating a complex world in a few pages, and very suggestive. He offers a wide variety of topics: war stories without heroism, and heroism without frills, adolescents on the loose, and especially nuptial emptiness. And of course, sarcasm and cynicism are all around. I liked this even more than his novels. (3.5 stars)
October 14, 2020
Ah, yes. Ernest Hemingway. The writer with "economical and understated style," who "did more to change the style of English prose than any other writer in the 20th century," and who "wrote in short, declarative sentences and was known for his tough, terse prose." When you read about Ernest Hemingway it's never the quality of his stories you'll see praised, or his brilliant characters, or his creativity, or his intelligence, or his imaginative worlds, or his ability to pull you into a distant land, or his thoughtful philosophy, or his engaging style, or his brilliant plots, or his visionary concepts, or his biting wit, or his insightful nature, or his challenging ideas, or his evocative sense of reality. No, because none of this at all describes Ernest Hemingway. The only thing you'll read about him is that his supposedly groundbreaking prose makes him an important writer. That's too bad, because of all the bad things that can be said about Hemingway, his dry, formulaic, boring, absolutely uninteresting prose is perhaps the thing most easily criticized. If his dull and lifeless narration doesn't put you to sleep, the dialogue of his utilitarian, flat characters might make you laugh. Not because it's funny, but because it's stupid and unbelievable.
Many of his readers try to find deep meaning in his stories the same way a conspiracy theorist finds threats of mind-control and blood poisoning in the clouds in the sky. If you enjoy theorizing and speculating about the presence of imagined deeper meaning in his work, that is fine. It's even fine to grasp at straws to force together a contrived interpretation that no one will agree on unless they've all read the same literary critic synopsis of the work. But unlike a conspiracy theorist, some just see the clouds as masses of droplets of water and other harmless atmospheric chemicals, and aren't interested in doing Hemingway's work for him.
I could go on about Hemingway's insipid prose forever. I'll leave it alone and move on to the rest.
When I read fiction I look for at least one of the following traits to keep me interested: Piercing of the soul, examination of reality and unreality, an exploration of human and inhuman concerns, enticing plot, exciting ideas, imaginative and creative concepts, worlds I can feel and experience, alluring and interesting characters, stimulating action, finely crafted suspense or mystery or tension, capable humor, captivating dialogue, great prose, emotional turmoil, mind-opening perspectives, some kind of payoff or satisfying resolution or hard-hitting finale, insightful commentary, a significant, resonating idea, a new way of looking at something, a lyrical delivery, and a few other things not on the top of my head. Any of these things. Something worth writing will have some of these traits.
Hemingway offers none of these features in any of his stories. Not one. Even his fans will surely admit this. Many say the "understated" and dry, dull nature of Hemingway's writing is part of his appeal, and that a more attentive, thoughtful reading is required to fully digest it. This is false. A more attentive reading will reveal only too plainly the uninspired vapidity below Hemingway's words, and will open to any thoughtful reader a hundred hidden doorways of personal interpretation that Hemingway never intended, but that all work just as well because his writing wasn't direct and wasn't put together in a way to craft a real meaning. Shallow ideas, shallow characters, shallow everything, all covered over with a trick style designed to imply there's more to it than the writer put in. Hemingway is in no way a thinking-man's writer, nor does his understated, formulaic prose make his writing worthwhile. This is the illusion he crafted and perpetuated, giving nothing in the hope that readers would assume there's more to it, saving him the trouble of actually developing anything on his own. While this isn't the easiest form of writing, it's a lot easier than actually writing content and thinking through your story.
When you read a work of fiction, you enter the imagination of the author. If one has made a career of writing, or even has a serious passion about it, it should be expected that the imagination you're entering should be worth entering, and should show you things you wouldn't have seen on your own. Such is not the case with Hemingway. When you read his work and are sucked into his head, you find you're right back in the world around you, only it's more staged, colorless, less interesting, and without purpose. Not a hint of imaginative invention awaits you, not a glimpse of adventure or enchantment or excitement or thought provoking content greets you. You are in a head more boring than your own, less observant than your own, with a delirious fixation on machismo and posturing and flatness that seem like a sad step down. You rightfully feel cheated for it. You interact with cardboard cutouts who try to pass as people, you spend your time on a beach looking at waves and talking about vague things. You sip on your beer and you wonder why any of this exists. It may be that you enjoy slice of life fiction. In that case, you're better off sticking to life, not entering the unimpressive imagination of America's dullest prose-etician.
There are millions of books to read, and hundreds of millions of stories to explore. There are no more hours in my life I can afford to waste on Hemingway. Even the most trite trash out there has more to offer than Hemingway. At least something that makes me laugh or scrunch up my face in revulsion gets a response out of me that's stronger than a yawn.
If you're interested in Hemingway for his prose, there are others who did it first, who did it better, and who had more to offer. Ambrose Bierce, John Steinbeck, Dashiell Hammett. Go to them. The reason you don't hear about their 'terse, tight prose' that predated Hemingway is because there was a lot more to these authors than their prose, despite their prose also being quite good, and those things are what you will hear about instead. It's the same reason you don't hear about the winning touchdown in the last high school football game of professional athletes, but you'll hear all about it from men whose athletics never took them past that point.
If you're interested in Hemingway for his actual stories, there are others who sometimes wrote on similar topics or themes, but did it a lot better, did it first, and had a lot more to offer. Guy de Maupassant, Herman Melville, Nikolai Gogol, Franz Kafka. Go to them. They also had excellent prose, which in many cases became a living part of the story, a means of immersion and involvement and insight that Hemingway never achieved with his words.
This is the perfect collection to drop you into the delicate confines of slumber.
Many of his readers try to find deep meaning in his stories the same way a conspiracy theorist finds threats of mind-control and blood poisoning in the clouds in the sky. If you enjoy theorizing and speculating about the presence of imagined deeper meaning in his work, that is fine. It's even fine to grasp at straws to force together a contrived interpretation that no one will agree on unless they've all read the same literary critic synopsis of the work. But unlike a conspiracy theorist, some just see the clouds as masses of droplets of water and other harmless atmospheric chemicals, and aren't interested in doing Hemingway's work for him.
I could go on about Hemingway's insipid prose forever. I'll leave it alone and move on to the rest.
When I read fiction I look for at least one of the following traits to keep me interested: Piercing of the soul, examination of reality and unreality, an exploration of human and inhuman concerns, enticing plot, exciting ideas, imaginative and creative concepts, worlds I can feel and experience, alluring and interesting characters, stimulating action, finely crafted suspense or mystery or tension, capable humor, captivating dialogue, great prose, emotional turmoil, mind-opening perspectives, some kind of payoff or satisfying resolution or hard-hitting finale, insightful commentary, a significant, resonating idea, a new way of looking at something, a lyrical delivery, and a few other things not on the top of my head. Any of these things. Something worth writing will have some of these traits.
Hemingway offers none of these features in any of his stories. Not one. Even his fans will surely admit this. Many say the "understated" and dry, dull nature of Hemingway's writing is part of his appeal, and that a more attentive, thoughtful reading is required to fully digest it. This is false. A more attentive reading will reveal only too plainly the uninspired vapidity below Hemingway's words, and will open to any thoughtful reader a hundred hidden doorways of personal interpretation that Hemingway never intended, but that all work just as well because his writing wasn't direct and wasn't put together in a way to craft a real meaning. Shallow ideas, shallow characters, shallow everything, all covered over with a trick style designed to imply there's more to it than the writer put in. Hemingway is in no way a thinking-man's writer, nor does his understated, formulaic prose make his writing worthwhile. This is the illusion he crafted and perpetuated, giving nothing in the hope that readers would assume there's more to it, saving him the trouble of actually developing anything on his own. While this isn't the easiest form of writing, it's a lot easier than actually writing content and thinking through your story.
When you read a work of fiction, you enter the imagination of the author. If one has made a career of writing, or even has a serious passion about it, it should be expected that the imagination you're entering should be worth entering, and should show you things you wouldn't have seen on your own. Such is not the case with Hemingway. When you read his work and are sucked into his head, you find you're right back in the world around you, only it's more staged, colorless, less interesting, and without purpose. Not a hint of imaginative invention awaits you, not a glimpse of adventure or enchantment or excitement or thought provoking content greets you. You are in a head more boring than your own, less observant than your own, with a delirious fixation on machismo and posturing and flatness that seem like a sad step down. You rightfully feel cheated for it. You interact with cardboard cutouts who try to pass as people, you spend your time on a beach looking at waves and talking about vague things. You sip on your beer and you wonder why any of this exists. It may be that you enjoy slice of life fiction. In that case, you're better off sticking to life, not entering the unimpressive imagination of America's dullest prose-etician.
There are millions of books to read, and hundreds of millions of stories to explore. There are no more hours in my life I can afford to waste on Hemingway. Even the most trite trash out there has more to offer than Hemingway. At least something that makes me laugh or scrunch up my face in revulsion gets a response out of me that's stronger than a yawn.
If you're interested in Hemingway for his prose, there are others who did it first, who did it better, and who had more to offer. Ambrose Bierce, John Steinbeck, Dashiell Hammett. Go to them. The reason you don't hear about their 'terse, tight prose' that predated Hemingway is because there was a lot more to these authors than their prose, despite their prose also being quite good, and those things are what you will hear about instead. It's the same reason you don't hear about the winning touchdown in the last high school football game of professional athletes, but you'll hear all about it from men whose athletics never took them past that point.
If you're interested in Hemingway for his actual stories, there are others who sometimes wrote on similar topics or themes, but did it a lot better, did it first, and had a lot more to offer. Guy de Maupassant, Herman Melville, Nikolai Gogol, Franz Kafka. Go to them. They also had excellent prose, which in many cases became a living part of the story, a means of immersion and involvement and insight that Hemingway never achieved with his words.
This is the perfect collection to drop you into the delicate confines of slumber.
February 19, 2012
As I begin this immense work, I feel as Philippe Petit must have felt as he began the high wire walk between the Twin Towers on August 7, 1974: I know I can do it but it surely is a long way. But, as has been said many times, “The longest journey begins with a single step.” So I begin.
I am not a bull fighting kind of person. Watching a bull tortured and killed for the pleasure of the crowd is not my idea of a good time. "In Our Time" is an early story that includes bullfighting and bullfighters. If I am going to read much Hemingway, maybe I will have to learn something about men fighting bulls.
It is hard to admit it, but I do not remember ever reading any Hemingway in my 65 years. To run through the well known titles of some of his stories makes it even more amazing (or distressing). So to begin reading Hemingway with his Collected Stories might seem odd. My rationale is that I enjoy short stories and it seems one way to take Hemingway a little bit at a time. But I understand that there is a lot packed into even the shortest of his stories.
Sports play a role in many Hemingway stories: bullfighting, fishing, skiing, steeplechase, boxing, bicycle racing, big-game hunting. He usually has more to say about the participants than the sport itself. However, in the short story "Undefeated" (written in 1925-26) there are twenty-five pages of bloody bullfighting. You can watch some bullfighting on YouTube, but I don’t recommend it. Hemingway’s description of bullfighting here is just as unsettling to me as the video. On the other hand, his descriptions of the people associated with bullfighting are interesting to me. It is a negative factor to me that the author Hemingway has a love of bullfighting and that he presents it as something noble. I would say the same thing about his love of big-game hunting. Gross.
In 1932 Hemingway’s Death in the Afternoon , a non-fiction book about bullfighting, was published. Bullfighting is also prominently featured in The Sun Also Rises .
This is not to say that I object to writers dealing with things I find abhorrent. Or even the graphic description of those things. But I do get to decide what I read. It is easy to decide to skip bullfighting.
Speaking of abhorrent, Hemingway has another topic that he loves: war. A “Natural History of the Dead” is an eight page short story that is somewhere between humor and horror. It is Jonathan Swift.
This is just the tip of the iceberg, a phrase that those who know Hemingway are wont to send in his direction. He must have gotten very tired of this.
When you read the short story "The Gambler, the Nun, and the Radio," you are confronted with more Hemingway humor. It is a story about a Mexican who is shot and in a hospital. Doesn’t sound funny to you?
Like Hemingway said, It was very funny then. You might find yourself laughing out loud! N.B. The radio has seven tubes in it. Does anyone remember when radios had tubes? So there it is: humor and nostalgia. It makes me smile just to think about it.
“The Snows of Kilimanjaro” was first published in 1936 in Esquire magazine. I have known this title seemingly my entire life without knowing the story. Now I have finally read it. It is the story of a man on safari in Africa who is slowly dying from gangrene of a leg. He spars with death and with his wife, recalling events of his life and feeling that he has not managed to live his life as he intended.
*********************************************************************
The Spanish Civil War was from July 1936 through March 1939.
The Hemingway short stories that involved this war:
The Denunciation 1938
The Butterfly and the Tank 1938
Night before Battle 1939
Under the Ridge 1939
The war in a nutshell: The socialists clearly won an election in 1936 to govern Spain. The right wing Nationalists attempted to overthrow the elected government and was successful in taking over some cities where the government Civil Guard was not strong. Mussolini and Hitler aided the Nationalists; the Soviet Union supported the Republican government militia. International Brigades fought on the side of the Republicans. France provided some support, the British none. The Republican army was defeated in their strongholds of Barcelona, Catalonia, Valencia and Madrid by the end of March 1939. The right wing Nationalists had won and the Franco rein began.
********************************************************************
Although some of the topics (bullfighting, boxing, big-game hunting) in this book were not to my liking, the writing shines through almost everywhere. I thought I would read some of the stories in The Collected Stories but now that I think about it I am not sure how I would have decided which stories to read. But it will be easier to go back one day and reread the ones I need to spend more time with: “The Strange Country” would have to be at the top of that list. But, then, the more I think about it, I could spend more time with any one of Hemingway’s short stories. And then there are always the many books about Hemingway. Much more about the author at http://www.ernest.hemingway.com/ .
I give The Collected Stories four stars. Many individual stories would rate five stars and none would be lower than three. The lower ratings are more due to the topics rather than the writing. I have to admit to being somewhat star struck by this most famous author whom I have never managed to read before this.
I am not a bull fighting kind of person. Watching a bull tortured and killed for the pleasure of the crowd is not my idea of a good time. "In Our Time" is an early story that includes bullfighting and bullfighters. If I am going to read much Hemingway, maybe I will have to learn something about men fighting bulls.
It is hard to admit it, but I do not remember ever reading any Hemingway in my 65 years. To run through the well known titles of some of his stories makes it even more amazing (or distressing). So to begin reading Hemingway with his Collected Stories might seem odd. My rationale is that I enjoy short stories and it seems one way to take Hemingway a little bit at a time. But I understand that there is a lot packed into even the shortest of his stories.
Sports play a role in many Hemingway stories: bullfighting, fishing, skiing, steeplechase, boxing, bicycle racing, big-game hunting. He usually has more to say about the participants than the sport itself. However, in the short story "Undefeated" (written in 1925-26) there are twenty-five pages of bloody bullfighting. You can watch some bullfighting on YouTube, but I don’t recommend it. Hemingway’s description of bullfighting here is just as unsettling to me as the video. On the other hand, his descriptions of the people associated with bullfighting are interesting to me. It is a negative factor to me that the author Hemingway has a love of bullfighting and that he presents it as something noble. I would say the same thing about his love of big-game hunting. Gross.
When Hemingway saw his first bullfight in Pamplona in 1923, he brought his wife Hadley along because he hoped the event would have a positive influence on the unborn son she then carried. The sport certainly affected the budding writer. It became one of the reigning passions of his life.
Source: http://www.pbs.org/hemingwayadventure...
In 1932 Hemingway’s Death in the Afternoon , a non-fiction book about bullfighting, was published. Bullfighting is also prominently featured in The Sun Also Rises .
This is not to say that I object to writers dealing with things I find abhorrent. Or even the graphic description of those things. But I do get to decide what I read. It is easy to decide to skip bullfighting.
Speaking of abhorrent, Hemingway has another topic that he loves: war. A “Natural History of the Dead” is an eight page short story that is somewhere between humor and horror. It is Jonathan Swift.
An interesting aspect of war, too, is that it is only there that the naturalist has an opportunity to observe the dead of mules. In twenty years of observation in civil life I had never seen a dead mule and had begun to entertain doubts as to whether these animals were really mortal.
This is just the tip of the iceberg, a phrase that those who know Hemingway are wont to send in his direction. He must have gotten very tired of this.
When you read the short story "The Gambler, the Nun, and the Radio," you are confronted with more Hemingway humor. It is a story about a Mexican who is shot and in a hospital. Doesn’t sound funny to you?
One morning the doctor wanted to show Mr. Frazer two pheasants that were out there in the snow, and pulling the bed toward the window, the reading light fell off the iron bedstead and hit Mr. Frazer on the head. This does not sound so funny now but it was very funny then.
Like Hemingway said, It was very funny then. You might find yourself laughing out loud! N.B. The radio has seven tubes in it. Does anyone remember when radios had tubes? So there it is: humor and nostalgia. It makes me smile just to think about it.
“The Snows of Kilimanjaro” was first published in 1936 in Esquire magazine. I have known this title seemingly my entire life without knowing the story. Now I have finally read it. It is the story of a man on safari in Africa who is slowly dying from gangrene of a leg. He spars with death and with his wife, recalling events of his life and feeling that he has not managed to live his life as he intended.
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The Spanish Civil War was from July 1936 through March 1939.
The Hemingway short stories that involved this war:
The Denunciation 1938
The Butterfly and the Tank 1938
Night before Battle 1939
Under the Ridge 1939
The war in a nutshell: The socialists clearly won an election in 1936 to govern Spain. The right wing Nationalists attempted to overthrow the elected government and was successful in taking over some cities where the government Civil Guard was not strong. Mussolini and Hitler aided the Nationalists; the Soviet Union supported the Republican government militia. International Brigades fought on the side of the Republicans. France provided some support, the British none. The Republican army was defeated in their strongholds of Barcelona, Catalonia, Valencia and Madrid by the end of March 1939. The right wing Nationalists had won and the Franco rein began.
********************************************************************
Although some of the topics (bullfighting, boxing, big-game hunting) in this book were not to my liking, the writing shines through almost everywhere. I thought I would read some of the stories in The Collected Stories but now that I think about it I am not sure how I would have decided which stories to read. But it will be easier to go back one day and reread the ones I need to spend more time with: “The Strange Country” would have to be at the top of that list. But, then, the more I think about it, I could spend more time with any one of Hemingway’s short stories. And then there are always the many books about Hemingway. Much more about the author at http://www.ernest.hemingway.com/ .
I give The Collected Stories four stars. Many individual stories would rate five stars and none would be lower than three. The lower ratings are more due to the topics rather than the writing. I have to admit to being somewhat star struck by this most famous author whom I have never managed to read before this.
December 24, 2020
I took it slowly, reading a few stories in between a novel, to keep this feast forever going. Today I've read the last story of this brilliant collection of a book. And I just realized it has been exactly a year since I opened this gem. And along the way, I've finished 34 books this year, not that numbers matter, but for a novice reader like myself this is impressive.
February 24, 2023
⛰️ Superb. He was a master of the short story. Treat yourself. Though they do pack a visceral punch for sure. Try The Short Happy Life, The Snows of Kilimanjaro, any of the Nick Adams stories, and Big Two Hearted River. You will feel it.
Read
March 5, 20238/10 Overall
This old man on the sea fares somewhat better than I thought he would, and somewhat worse. Like Dickens, or Hemingway himself, I'm of two minds on everything -- certainly on every single story that I've read here. I will also repeat myself, repeatedly, if you'll forgive me, because, again like Hemingway, that seems to be the only way to get a point across.
What works best in Hemingway is that the reader is required to engage fully, or you'll miss the boat, if you'll forgive the watery metaphor that Old H usesquite too often. You can't ignore a word, not a syllable -- not even a grammatical anomaly, because as sparingly as he writes, everything is worth something, and everything reminds you of something. Let your mind wander, even briefly, at your own peril in H's works because sure as the sun (also) rises, you'll regret it 10 pages in, and you'll have to go back to check if he really said what you thought he said.
Pay attention. He requires it. Even if it's just about a cat in the rain.
H offered his own guide, much like the ones who drove him and his mates across the savannahs: "I'm cool. I'm so cool, in fact, I'm like an iceberg." Everything happens on the tippy top of every story. The rest, folks, you'll have to dig out for yourselves. Careful, though. Lots of buried landmines. If you don't watch out, you'll have the whole thing explode in your face.
He tears my heart out at every turn; he bores me senseless on some trips; he enrages me to the very roots of my hair on others.
In One Trip Across for instance, I wanted to set fire to him, his narrator, his ship, his crew, and sail merrily away into the sunset, whistling. This disgusting racist pig was writing one of the best short stories written in the 20th century, and we had praised him for it. I'd never read the story, only watched the film To Have and Have Not (which was based on this story, along with The Tradesman's Return,) and so had no idea of the undercurrent that swirled around this particular iceberg.
Therein lies the duality, the complexity of my relationship with Hemingway. The racism, the bigotry, the misogyny all rear their ugly heads in various stories; side by side with moments of extreme tenderness and friendship, humanity and compassion. If that's what raged in his soul ... ! Can you imagine? If that's what raged in my own soul, ... !
I may never learn to reconcile the two Hemingways in my head, so it seems I may be doomed forever like Sisyphus, to keep trying until I reach the top.
I don't know how to stop reading him.
Stories in UpperCase are 10/10. The rest are rated accordingly, along with one anomalous "wth?".
THE SHORT HAPPY LIFE OF FRANCIS MACOMBER
THE CAPITAL OF THE WORLD
THE SNOWS OF KILIMANJARO
OLD MAN AT THE BRIDGE
5/10 Up in Michigan
8/10 On the Quai at Smyrna
8/10 Indian Camp
7.5/10 The Doctor and The Doctor's Wife
7.5/10 The End of Something
7.5/10 The Three Day Blow
THE BATTLER
8/10 A very Short Story
SOLDIER'S HOME
8/10 The Revolutionist
8/10 Mr. and Mrs Elliot
9/10 Cat In The Rain
7.5/10 Out of Season
8/10 Cross-Country Snow
7/10 My Old Man
9/10 Big Two-Hearted River I
9/10 Big Two Hearted River II
THE UNDEFEATED
IN ANOTHER COUNTRY
8/10 Hills Like White Elephants
9/10 The Killers
CHE TI DICE LA PATRIA
5/10 Fifty Grand
A SIMPLE ENQUIRY
8/10 Ten Indians
A CANARY FOR ONE
wth? An Alpine Idyll*
8/10 A Pursuit Race
8/10 Today is Friday
7/10 Banal Story
8/10 Now I Lay Me
9/10 After The Storm
A CLEAN, WELL-LIGHTED PLACE
8/10 The Light of the World
GOD REST YOU MERRY, GENTLEMEN
5/10 The Sea Change
A WAY YOU'LL NEVER BE
8/10 The Mother of a Queen
8/10 One Reader Writes
8/10 Homage to Switzerland
8/10 A Day's Wait
A NATURAL HISTORY OF THE DEAD
9/10 Wine of Wyoming
9/10 The Gambler, The Nun and the Radio
FATHERS AND SONS
5/10 One Trip Across
5/10 The Tradesman's Return
7/10 The Denunciation
7/10 The Butterfly and the Tank
NIGHT BEFORE BATTLE
UNDER THE RIDGE
NOBODY EVER DIES
8/10 The Good Lion
8/10 The Faithful Bull
9/10 Get a Seeing-Eyed Dog
8/10 A Man of the World
7/10 Summer People
9/10 The Last Good Country
8/10 An African Story**
7/10 A Train Trip
THE PORTER
8/10 Black Ass at the Cross Roads
8/10 Landscape with Figures
I GUESS EVERYTHING REMINDS YOU OF SOMETHING
8/10 Great News from the Mainland
7/10 The Strange Country
* bizarre, even for Hemingway
**0/10 for content
This old man on the sea fares somewhat better than I thought he would, and somewhat worse. Like Dickens, or Hemingway himself, I'm of two minds on everything -- certainly on every single story that I've read here. I will also repeat myself, repeatedly, if you'll forgive me, because, again like Hemingway, that seems to be the only way to get a point across.
What works best in Hemingway is that the reader is required to engage fully, or you'll miss the boat, if you'll forgive the watery metaphor that Old H uses
Pay attention. He requires it. Even if it's just about a cat in the rain.
H offered his own guide, much like the ones who drove him and his mates across the savannahs: "I'm cool. I'm so cool, in fact, I'm like an iceberg." Everything happens on the tippy top of every story. The rest, folks, you'll have to dig out for yourselves. Careful, though. Lots of buried landmines. If you don't watch out, you'll have the whole thing explode in your face.
He tears my heart out at every turn; he bores me senseless on some trips; he enrages me to the very roots of my hair on others.
In One Trip Across for instance, I wanted to set fire to him, his narrator, his ship, his crew, and sail merrily away into the sunset, whistling. This disgusting racist pig was writing one of the best short stories written in the 20th century, and we had praised him for it. I'd never read the story, only watched the film To Have and Have Not (which was based on this story, along with The Tradesman's Return,) and so had no idea of the undercurrent that swirled around this particular iceberg.
Therein lies the duality, the complexity of my relationship with Hemingway. The racism, the bigotry, the misogyny all rear their ugly heads in various stories; side by side with moments of extreme tenderness and friendship, humanity and compassion. If that's what raged in his soul ... ! Can you imagine? If that's what raged in my own soul, ... !
I may never learn to reconcile the two Hemingways in my head, so it seems I may be doomed forever like Sisyphus, to keep trying until I reach the top.
I don't know how to stop reading him.
Stories in UpperCase are 10/10. The rest are rated accordingly, along with one anomalous "wth?".
THE SHORT HAPPY LIFE OF FRANCIS MACOMBER
THE CAPITAL OF THE WORLD
THE SNOWS OF KILIMANJARO
OLD MAN AT THE BRIDGE
5/10 Up in Michigan
8/10 On the Quai at Smyrna
8/10 Indian Camp
7.5/10 The Doctor and The Doctor's Wife
7.5/10 The End of Something
7.5/10 The Three Day Blow
THE BATTLER
8/10 A very Short Story
SOLDIER'S HOME
8/10 The Revolutionist
8/10 Mr. and Mrs Elliot
9/10 Cat In The Rain
7.5/10 Out of Season
8/10 Cross-Country Snow
7/10 My Old Man
9/10 Big Two-Hearted River I
9/10 Big Two Hearted River II
THE UNDEFEATED
IN ANOTHER COUNTRY
8/10 Hills Like White Elephants
9/10 The Killers
CHE TI DICE LA PATRIA
5/10 Fifty Grand
A SIMPLE ENQUIRY
8/10 Ten Indians
A CANARY FOR ONE
wth? An Alpine Idyll*
8/10 A Pursuit Race
8/10 Today is Friday
7/10 Banal Story
8/10 Now I Lay Me
9/10 After The Storm
A CLEAN, WELL-LIGHTED PLACE
8/10 The Light of the World
GOD REST YOU MERRY, GENTLEMEN
5/10 The Sea Change
A WAY YOU'LL NEVER BE
8/10 The Mother of a Queen
8/10 One Reader Writes
8/10 Homage to Switzerland
8/10 A Day's Wait
A NATURAL HISTORY OF THE DEAD
9/10 Wine of Wyoming
9/10 The Gambler, The Nun and the Radio
FATHERS AND SONS
5/10 One Trip Across
5/10 The Tradesman's Return
7/10 The Denunciation
7/10 The Butterfly and the Tank
NIGHT BEFORE BATTLE
UNDER THE RIDGE
NOBODY EVER DIES
8/10 The Good Lion
8/10 The Faithful Bull
9/10 Get a Seeing-Eyed Dog
8/10 A Man of the World
7/10 Summer People
9/10 The Last Good Country
8/10 An African Story**
7/10 A Train Trip
THE PORTER
8/10 Black Ass at the Cross Roads
8/10 Landscape with Figures
I GUESS EVERYTHING REMINDS YOU OF SOMETHING
8/10 Great News from the Mainland
7/10 The Strange Country
* bizarre, even for Hemingway
**0/10 for content
November 30, 2021
ارنست قصّه‌ها
همینگوی هیچ‌گاه نویسندۀ محبوبم نبوده است و خودم هم چندان دلیلش را نمی‌دانم (شاید به خاطر نوع نگاهی باشد که به زندگی دارد.) امّا عدم محبوبیّت او دلیل نمی‌شود که به استاد بودنش در داستان‌نویسی اذعان نداشته باشم. قبلاً هم در مرورم بر مجموعه داستانش «در زمان ما» نوشته بودم که آنچه نثر همینگوی را از دیگران متمایز می‌سازد این است که با این که جملات را خیلی ساده و بی‌آلایش کنار هم ردیف می‌کند، تقلید از او کار دشواری است. طبیعتاً وقتی تقلید از کسی دشوار باشد و به راحتی نتوان آثاری مانند آثار او را خلق کرد، آثار او خود‌به‌خود نایاب می‌شوند و ارزشمند. به نظرم سرّ استادی همینگوی در همین است.
امّا این مجموعه‌داستان برگزیدۀ داستانهای همینگوی است که گلشیری آن را انتخاب و ترجمه کرده است. بااین‌حال، درخشان‌تر از انتخاب و ترجمه‌ای که او انجام داده، مقدّمۀ بی‌نظیری است که در ابتدای کتاب آورده. یک بیوگرافی داستانی از همینگوی با روایتی غیرخطّی که علاوه بر نشان دادن کامل زیروبم زندگی او خسته‌کننده نیست و خواننده را صد و بیست صفحه به‌راحتی با خود همراه می‌سازد. اگر کتاب جز همینگوی حاوی آثار نویسندۀ دیگری بود، قطعاً می‌گفتم تمام کتاب یک طرف و مقدّمۀ مترجم آن یک طرف. بنابراین پیشنهاد اکید می‌کنم به هیچ عنوان این مقدّمه را از دست ندهید.
داستانهای کتاب (به جز برفهای کلیمانجارو) از سه مجموعه‌داستان «در زمان ما،» « مردان بدون زنان» و «برنده سهمی نمیبرد» همینگوی انتخاب شده‌اند. از این مجموعه‌ها قبلاً تنها «در زمان ما» را خوانده بودم و با خواندن همان مجموعه بود که به قوّت قلم همینگوی پی برده بودم (حتّی بیش از پیرمرد و دریا.) نکته‌ای که دربارۀ این مجموعه وجود دارد این است که اکثر مرورهایی که بر آن خوانده‌ام اصرار بر لزوم پیوستگی پی‌رنگ داستانهای آن (خصوصاً داستانهای نیک) داشته‌اند. برای مثال داستانی مثل «طوفان سه‌روزه» را دنباله‌ای از داستان «پایان یک ماجرا» می‌دانستند و آن دو را در امتداد یک‌دیگر تفسیر می‌کردند. من نظری متفاوت دارم. به نظرم صرف هم‌نامی شخصیّت داستان‌ها و حتّی اتّحاد وجودی‌شان دلیلی بر این نیست که لزوماً داستانهای متوالی حاوی آن‌ها را با همان توالی در ارتباط و مکمّل یک‌دیگر بدانیم. با چه مبنایی باید لزوماً اذعان داشت که «طوفان سه‌روزه» پس از «پایان یک ماجرا» رخ داده است؟ چون اوّلی در صفحۀ بیست آمده و دوّمی در صفحۀ بیست و پنج؟ به‌هرحال با این نگاه می‌توان برداشت‌های متفاوتی از داستان‌ها داشت و همین خود به زیبایی آن‌ها می‌افزاید و اصلاً طراوت ادبیّات در همین است.
با نگاهی کلّی به داستانهای این مجموعه می‌توان به حضور همینگوی در بطن جامعۀ خود پی برد. توصیفات داستانی در ریزبه‌ریز وقایع زندگی انسان‌ها نشان از یک مشاهدۀ عمیق و همه‌جانبه توسّط نویسنده دارد. و البتّه تمام این‌ها را از مقدّمۀ کتاب نیز می‌توان دریافت. جدا از نگاهی که نویسنده برای برخی پدیده‌های اجتماعی و رفتاری (مانند آنچه در داستان «شکست‌ناخورده» دیده می‌شود) دارد، حوادث و وقایع به‌خوبی توسّط او به تصویر کشیده شده‌اند. همینگوی حامی حیوانات نیست، از تماشای گاوبازی اسپانیایی لذّت می‌برد، آن را نه یک نوع وحشی‌گری و خشونت علیه حیوانات، که یک هنر تمام‌عیار می‌پندارد و این جانب‌داری یک‌طرفۀ او کاملاً در «شکست‌ناخورده» مشهود است. امّا به صراحت می‌توان گفت کسی جز او نمی‌توانست به‌نحوی داستانی با زمینۀ گاوبازی بنویسد که تمام خوانندگانش، حتّی آن‌ها که یک بار هم در چنان جوّی نبوده‌اند، گاوبازی را به عینه تجربه کنند. بماند که در همین داستان حرف اصلی نویسنده طرد شدن سال‌خوردگان و مستهلکان جامعه توسّط نوپایان است که می‌توانست با تغییر نگاه همینگوی به رفتار با حیوانات کاملاً شکل و محتوای متفاوتی داشته باشد.
ردّ پای خود حقیقی نویسنده را، با توجّه به حوادث زندگی شخصی‌اش، می‌توان در اغلب (اگر نگوییم همه) داستان‌هایش مشاهده کرد. چه داستان‌هایی که از جنگ می‌گویند (خانۀ سرباز، در سرزمین دیگر، پیرمرد بر سر پل،) چه داستان‌هایی که در کشورهای خارجی می‌گذرند (شکست‌ناخورده، تپّه‌هایی چون فیلهای سفید، در سرزمین دیگر، برفهای کلیمانجارو و ...) چه آن‌ها که زمینۀ شکار و ماهی‌گیری دارند (پایان یک ماجرا، زندگی خوش و کوتاه فرانسیس مکومبر، برفهای کلیمانجارو) و چه آن‌ها که روابط زناشویی زوج‌ها را به چالش می‌کشند (دکتر و همسر دکتر، گربه زیر باران، زندگی خوش و کوتاه فرانسیس مکومبر، برفهای کلیمانجارو). از همین روست که می‌توان تقریباً اذعان داشت، اگر این تجربه‌های زیسته در زندگی همینگوی وجود نداشت شاید چیز دیگری برای ارائه در داستان‌هایش نداشت. این نه بدان معناست که قدرت خلق او زیر سؤال برود، بلکه بدین معناست که حکم بر معدوم ناممکن است.
با تمام این‌ها ادبیّات داستانی از آثار همینگوی به هیچ عنوان مستغنی نیست و خواندن داستانهای او به تمام داستان‌خوانان و داستان‌نویسان توصیۀ اکید می‌شود. داستان‌خوانان بخوانند و لذّت ببرند و داستان‌نویسان رونویسی و تقلید کنند و یاد بگیرند و سبک خود را به‌تدریج از سبک استاد بیرون بیاورند.
داستانهای برتر:
اردوگاه سرخپوستان
خانۀ سرباز
طوفان سه‌روزه
گربه زیر باران
تپّه‌هایی چون فیلهای سفید
شکست‌ناخورده
آدمکشها
پنجاه هزار دلار
زندگی خوش و کوتاه فرانسیس مکومبر
برفهای کلیمانجارو
همینگوی هیچ‌گاه نویسندۀ محبوبم نبوده است و خودم هم چندان دلیلش را نمی‌دانم (شاید به خاطر نوع نگاهی باشد که به زندگی دارد.) امّا عدم محبوبیّت او دلیل نمی‌شود که به استاد بودنش در داستان‌نویسی اذعان نداشته باشم. قبلاً هم در مرورم بر مجموعه داستانش «در زمان ما» نوشته بودم که آنچه نثر همینگوی را از دیگران متمایز می‌سازد این است که با این که جملات را خیلی ساده و بی‌آلایش کنار هم ردیف می‌کند، تقلید از او کار دشواری است. طبیعتاً وقتی تقلید از کسی دشوار باشد و به راحتی نتوان آثاری مانند آثار او را خلق کرد، آثار او خود‌به‌خود نایاب می‌شوند و ارزشمند. به نظرم سرّ استادی همینگوی در همین است.
امّا این مجموعه‌داستان برگزیدۀ داستانهای همینگوی است که گلشیری آن را انتخاب و ترجمه کرده است. بااین‌حال، درخشان‌تر از انتخاب و ترجمه‌ای که او انجام داده، مقدّمۀ بی‌نظیری است که در ابتدای کتاب آورده. یک بیوگرافی داستانی از همینگوی با روایتی غیرخطّی که علاوه بر نشان دادن کامل زیروبم زندگی او خسته‌کننده نیست و خواننده را صد و بیست صفحه به‌راحتی با خود همراه می‌سازد. اگر کتاب جز همینگوی حاوی آثار نویسندۀ دیگری بود، قطعاً می‌گفتم تمام کتاب یک طرف و مقدّمۀ مترجم آن یک طرف. بنابراین پیشنهاد اکید می‌کنم به هیچ عنوان این مقدّمه را از دست ندهید.
داستانهای کتاب (به جز برفهای کلیمانجارو) از سه مجموعه‌داستان «در زمان ما،» « مردان بدون زنان» و «برنده سهمی نمیبرد» همینگوی انتخاب شده‌اند. از این مجموعه‌ها قبلاً تنها «در زمان ما» را خوانده بودم و با خواندن همان مجموعه بود که به قوّت قلم همینگوی پی برده بودم (حتّی بیش از پیرمرد و دریا.) نکته‌ای که دربارۀ این مجموعه وجود دارد این است که اکثر مرورهایی که بر آن خوانده‌ام اصرار بر لزوم پیوستگی پی‌رنگ داستانهای آن (خصوصاً داستانهای نیک) داشته‌اند. برای مثال داستانی مثل «طوفان سه‌روزه» را دنباله‌ای از داستان «پایان یک ماجرا» می‌دانستند و آن دو را در امتداد یک‌دیگر تفسیر می‌کردند. من نظری متفاوت دارم. به نظرم صرف هم‌نامی شخصیّت داستان‌ها و حتّی اتّحاد وجودی‌شان دلیلی بر این نیست که لزوماً داستانهای متوالی حاوی آن‌ها را با همان توالی در ارتباط و مکمّل یک‌دیگر بدانیم. با چه مبنایی باید لزوماً اذعان داشت که «طوفان سه‌روزه» پس از «پایان یک ماجرا» رخ داده است؟ چون اوّلی در صفحۀ بیست آمده و دوّمی در صفحۀ بیست و پنج؟ به‌هرحال با این نگاه می‌توان برداشت‌های متفاوتی از داستان‌ها داشت و همین خود به زیبایی آن‌ها می‌افزاید و اصلاً طراوت ادبیّات در همین است.
با نگاهی کلّی به داستانهای این مجموعه می‌توان به حضور همینگوی در بطن جامعۀ خود پی برد. توصیفات داستانی در ریزبه‌ریز وقایع زندگی انسان‌ها نشان از یک مشاهدۀ عمیق و همه‌جانبه توسّط نویسنده دارد. و البتّه تمام این‌ها را از مقدّمۀ کتاب نیز می‌توان دریافت. جدا از نگاهی که نویسنده برای برخی پدیده‌های اجتماعی و رفتاری (مانند آنچه در داستان «شکست‌ناخورده» دیده می‌شود) دارد، حوادث و وقایع به‌خوبی توسّط او به تصویر کشیده شده‌اند. همینگوی حامی حیوانات نیست، از تماشای گاوبازی اسپانیایی لذّت می‌برد، آن را نه یک نوع وحشی‌گری و خشونت علیه حیوانات، که یک هنر تمام‌عیار می‌پندارد و این جانب‌داری یک‌طرفۀ او کاملاً در «شکست‌ناخورده» مشهود است. امّا به صراحت می‌توان گفت کسی جز او نمی‌توانست به‌نحوی داستانی با زمینۀ گاوبازی بنویسد که تمام خوانندگانش، حتّی آن‌ها که یک بار هم در چنان جوّی نبوده‌اند، گاوبازی را به عینه تجربه کنند. بماند که در همین داستان حرف اصلی نویسنده طرد شدن سال‌خوردگان و مستهلکان جامعه توسّط نوپایان است که می‌توانست با تغییر نگاه همینگوی به رفتار با حیوانات کاملاً شکل و محتوای متفاوتی داشته باشد.
ردّ پای خود حقیقی نویسنده را، با توجّه به حوادث زندگی شخصی‌اش، می‌توان در اغلب (اگر نگوییم همه) داستان‌هایش مشاهده کرد. چه داستان‌هایی که از جنگ می‌گویند (خانۀ سرباز، در سرزمین دیگر، پیرمرد بر سر پل،) چه داستان‌هایی که در کشورهای خارجی می‌گذرند (شکست‌ناخورده، تپّه‌هایی چون فیلهای سفید، در سرزمین دیگر، برفهای کلیمانجارو و ...) چه آن‌ها که زمینۀ شکار و ماهی‌گیری دارند (پایان یک ماجرا، زندگی خوش و کوتاه فرانسیس مکومبر، برفهای کلیمانجارو) و چه آن‌ها که روابط زناشویی زوج‌ها را به چالش می‌کشند (دکتر و همسر دکتر، گربه زیر باران، زندگی خوش و کوتاه فرانسیس مکومبر، برفهای کلیمانجارو). از همین روست که می‌توان تقریباً اذعان داشت، اگر این تجربه‌های زیسته در زندگی همینگوی وجود نداشت شاید چیز دیگری برای ارائه در داستان‌هایش نداشت. این نه بدان معناست که قدرت خلق او زیر سؤال برود، بلکه بدین معناست که حکم بر معدوم ناممکن است.
با تمام این‌ها ادبیّات داستانی از آثار همینگوی به هیچ عنوان مستغنی نیست و خواندن داستانهای او به تمام داستان‌خوانان و داستان‌نویسان توصیۀ اکید می‌شود. داستان‌خوانان بخوانند و لذّت ببرند و داستان‌نویسان رونویسی و تقلید کنند و یاد بگیرند و سبک خود را به‌تدریج از سبک استاد بیرون بیاورند.
داستانهای برتر:
اردوگاه سرخپوستان
خانۀ سرباز
طوفان سه‌روزه
گربه زیر باران
تپّه‌هایی چون فیلهای سفید
شکست‌ناخورده
آدمکشها
پنجاه هزار دلار
زندگی خوش و کوتاه فرانسیس مکومبر
برفهای کلیمانجارو
July 31, 2009
I read this from cover to cover on a beach in Aruba, which was just weird, because somebody dies every ten pages or so. It wasn't really in keeping with the carefree beach vibe we were going for. But you really can't deny Hemingway. I realize the man was a terrible husband and father, that his writing suffered in the end and that he didn't have the most highly evolved views of gender. But despite all that, in his prime, he wrote dozens of truly great stories.
At the small Midwestern evangelical liberal arts college that I attended, there was a lit professor who made the statement that Hemingway couldn't write emotion. We were reading "A Farewell to Arms," and the majority of students in the class (mostly young women who were aspiring elementary school teachers) agreed with her. I spent class after class defending Hemingway to these heartless women, who read "A Farewell to Arms" as some sort of failed romance novel. After reading through his short stories, I haven't changed my opinion. Hemingway writes emotion beautifully. His restraint makes it possible for him to convey the emotions of characters who for one reason or another don't demonstrate their emotions in obvious ways, much like huge segments of the human population. Not everybody breaks down and cries like a girl as soon as something goes wrong. I do, but not everybody.
At the small Midwestern evangelical liberal arts college that I attended, there was a lit professor who made the statement that Hemingway couldn't write emotion. We were reading "A Farewell to Arms," and the majority of students in the class (mostly young women who were aspiring elementary school teachers) agreed with her. I spent class after class defending Hemingway to these heartless women, who read "A Farewell to Arms" as some sort of failed romance novel. After reading through his short stories, I haven't changed my opinion. Hemingway writes emotion beautifully. His restraint makes it possible for him to convey the emotions of characters who for one reason or another don't demonstrate their emotions in obvious ways, much like huge segments of the human population. Not everybody breaks down and cries like a girl as soon as something goes wrong. I do, but not everybody.
February 3, 2012
I'm a huge fan of all of Hemingway's works, but this one takes the top. The stories in here are so moving, so real, vividly portraying all kinds of manifestations of human nature. Could talk about these works forever. Each story has so much meaning packed as densely as possible into every bit of text. Any one could easily be analyzed for an entire semester in a college literature class. I'd love to suggest one, but to I wouldn't want to take away from any of the others; each story has something new to tell.
These works are an extensive philosophy and commentary on human nature. They are sobering, brutal, tragic, poignant and beautiful. You will learn more about yourself from reading these. As an even greater value, these works are a series of windows into Hemingway's mind and soul. You can here him in every character's dialog, feel his thrall with every irony.
I highly suggest this compilation for anyone, but especially for someone trying to better understand Hemingway, his contemporaries, or 20th century western culture.
These works are an extensive philosophy and commentary on human nature. They are sobering, brutal, tragic, poignant and beautiful. You will learn more about yourself from reading these. As an even greater value, these works are a series of windows into Hemingway's mind and soul. You can here him in every character's dialog, feel his thrall with every irony.
I highly suggest this compilation for anyone, but especially for someone trying to better understand Hemingway, his contemporaries, or 20th century western culture.
September 5, 2015
Fishing. Shooting. Bull-fighting. Boxing. Smuggling. War. Murder. Skiing. Big game hunting. Love-making.
Hemingway did most of these things. Some of them he just observed with a keen eye. In every case, his experience and/or observation pays off.
This is just a wonderful collection of stories. Even the unfinished pieces are well worth reading.
Hemingway did most of these things. Some of them he just observed with a keen eye. In every case, his experience and/or observation pays off.
This is just a wonderful collection of stories. Even the unfinished pieces are well worth reading.
May 14, 2021
190202 from ???: ... now where is it? ah, found again. are you ready to read everything by the man? i like his short stories better than any of his novels, except maybe farewell to arms... by now i can appreciate some feminist criticism of his rampant misogyny, but then i read him as an innocent young man, i read him because i knew his rep, i did not know his persona (really? yes) and in later years (decades..) i have very much come to sympathize with this man who desperately endlessly performs his masculinity because he does not trust his masculinity... i know many men who do more or less the same things for similar reasons, and maybe this is more why he still speaks to the boy inside the man more than any woman..
there is his early work. there is his stylistic aspirations to clarity equals simplicity equals truth. there is the ‘just do it’ buried philosophical assertions, before nike corrupts it, there is that very male way of not talking when you have nothing to say until by default if becomes not talking when you have everything to say. not trusting words is hard when you live by words and there is that masculinist belief that words never say what is important so why say them. i think my absolute favorite hemingway is ‘a clean, well lighted place’ and in my usual lonely pondering as i would not sleep but wander the night streets the way only young big enough men can ever do, looking for that place... i never forget that three characters, three pages, so sad, so true short short story... this alone makes the collection worthwhile...
do i like bleak existential fables? do i think, contra say Jane eyr (or is it Austen?), that everything happens not over dinner parties but hanging and shooting the shit with the guys some lazy afternoon fishing, when you do not care what you catch...
there is his early work. there is his stylistic aspirations to clarity equals simplicity equals truth. there is the ‘just do it’ buried philosophical assertions, before nike corrupts it, there is that very male way of not talking when you have nothing to say until by default if becomes not talking when you have everything to say. not trusting words is hard when you live by words and there is that masculinist belief that words never say what is important so why say them. i think my absolute favorite hemingway is ‘a clean, well lighted place’ and in my usual lonely pondering as i would not sleep but wander the night streets the way only young big enough men can ever do, looking for that place... i never forget that three characters, three pages, so sad, so true short short story... this alone makes the collection worthwhile...
do i like bleak existential fables? do i think, contra say Jane eyr (or is it Austen?), that everything happens not over dinner parties but hanging and shooting the shit with the guys some lazy afternoon fishing, when you do not care what you catch...
August 7, 2020
Hemingway is known for his novels, but he is in fact an excellent short story writer, and is probably in fact even better at this form than he is at the novel. Hemingway's tendency towards paucity and short phrases works to his favour in a short form. Stories like "Snows of Kilimanjaro" and "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place," capture a wide sense of atmosphere, while also revealing small tidbits about relatively average people, resulting in an extreme range of insight in a short space. My version of Complete Stories for example has highlights and circles all over the place, around those sentences where Hemingway did amazing things in just a few words, or in a set of dialogue. For anyone who hasn't gotten to Hemingway yet, or has been turned off due to the toxic masculinity of his persona, I'd recommend you turning through the pages of the complete stories, and trying your hardest to find at least one story that doesn't interest you. I think the breadth of topics, range of narratives, and accessibility of Hemingway's style would make it unlikely to be the case.
May 29, 2021
The story in this collection is very much of the time which they were writing. This is both a good and bad thing, as the way people look at one another in that day was far from perfect.
Past that, the stories gave a detailed look at how life was in Hemingway’s day. The stories we unique and original. It was easy to get a hook on each story and lost in the book going from one story to the next always wanting more!
Past that, the stories gave a detailed look at how life was in Hemingway’s day. The stories we unique and original. It was easy to get a hook on each story and lost in the book going from one story to the next always wanting more!
July 21, 2018
Hem. writes wonderfully, wouldn't it be pretty to read so? And so I did and pretty fast too. How can these stories so rife w/racial epithets (Italians, Jews, Mexicans, African-Americans, Asians, etc.) pass those eliding censors of P.C. etiquette today? And even for its time F__you's & cock sucker! Atta boy Hem., tell it to us slant ol' sod! Now I know where Jim Harrison got his hankering for onion sandwiches. He even took a poke at Fitzgerald calling him a smoothie. Of course Zelda has him at odds saying about him 'a fairy with hair on his chest' & 'phony as a rubber check' haha!
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