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The Complete Short Stories

4.3 of 5 stars 4.30 · rating details · 15,936 ratings · 414 reviews

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. Fo...more

Paperback, Finca Vigia, 650 pages

Published August 3rd 1998 by Scribner (first published 1938)

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Mar 21, 2009 Brad rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: faves, short-story, to-read-again, hemingway

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...more 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.(less)

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Aug 17, 2009 Kim rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to Kim by: Maurice

Shelves: maurice, short-stories

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...more

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May 24, 2013 Tharwat rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

اشتريت هذا الكتاب في معرض الكتاب الماضي بالقاهرة، كنت قد دخلت جناح المجلس الوطني الكويتي، وهالني ما تبقى من عناوين لترجمات متقنة يصدرها المجلس، لم أنتبه إلا بعد أسبوع من بداية المعرض لهذا الجناح، كان الكل قد تسابق لسحب النسخ المميزة والترجمات المتقنة التي كان يبيعون النسخة منها بخمسة جنيهات، كلها بخمسة جنيهات، كتاب مترجم بطباعة جيدة وترجمة متقنة وغلاف صلب نوعًا ما بخمسة جينهات.. هذا حلم الجوعان في سوق اللحم، أشتريت مجموعة إرنست همنجواي القصصية ثلاثة أجزاء ورواية النمر الأبيض لآرافيند أديجا.. منذ...more اشتريت هذا الكتاب في معرض الكتاب الماضي بالقاهرة، كنت قد دخلت جناح المجلس الوطني الكويتي، وهالني ما تبقى من عناوين لترجمات متقنة يصدرها المجلس، لم أنتبه إلا بعد أسبوع من بداية المعرض لهذا الجناح، كان الكل قد تسابق لسحب النسخ المميزة والترجمات المتقنة التي كان يبيعون النسخة منها بخمسة جنيهات، كلها بخمسة جنيهات، كتاب مترجم بطباعة جيدة وترجمة متقنة وغلاف صلب نوعًا ما بخمسة جينهات.. هذا حلم الجوعان في سوق اللحم، أشتريت مجموعة إرنست همنجواي القصصية ثلاثة أجزاء ورواية النمر الأبيض لآرافيند أديجا.. منذ أسبوع مضى قررت البدء في القراءة، أنا منذ أشهر كلما ذهبت لمكان أشتريت كتابًا وركنته في المكتبة على أمل قرائته، أقرأ في المترو في ذهابي وإيابي، في المواصلات، عند "الحلاق" في انتظار دوري، للأسف لم أعد أستطيع القراءة في البيت ولا العمل، في مكتب العمل الحكومي الضوضاء شديدة وأحاول إقناع نفسي بالقراءة بينما أنا أقرأ جملة من الكتاب وأنظر للناس ثم أنساها تمامًا مشتت الذهن، في البيت غلبني جهاز الحاسوب والإنترنت، إلى جانب أني بالطبع كصفة أغلب موظفي الحكومة لا أكتفي بعملي الذي آخذ عليه قروش قليلة فأعمل عمل آخر في البيت يأخذ مني ما تبقى من وقت، الآن لابد أن أقرأ ثانية.. أخرجت الأكياس ولبثت زمنًا أقلب في الكتب، الحقيقة أنا أفرح بالكتب وملمسها، أحس بالفخر وأنا أهمس لنفسي هل أشتريت كل هذا بالفعل؟ أنا قتور للغاية، كيف غلبني حبي للكتب على حبي للنقود لشراء كل هذا، ألبث زمنًا أقلب في الكتب وأغلفتها وفهارسها.. وأنا في حبور عظيم، دومًا تعلوني الابتسامة وأنا أنظر لكتبي، أتذكر أني أقرضت عبده كتابًا جيدًا، بكري أخذ كتابًا كنت أريده أن يقرأه ليحس بنفس النشوة التي سرت في جسدي عقب قرائته، ثروت الأكبر أيضًا أخذ كتابين غصبًا من مكتبته القديمة التي تركها لي بعد زواجه بحجة أنه عاد مرة أخرى للقراءة، أف.. كيف أفرط في كتبي بهذه السهولة، تعلو وجهي قتامة من جديد، لابد أن أسترد هذه الكتب في أقرب فرصة قادمة، أعود ثانية لمطالعة الكتب في الأكياس، عبأتها بشكل آمن تمامًا في أكياس بلاستيكية ووضعتها بجانب المكتبة، الكتاب الذي أقرأه أضعه في المكتبة في مكان ما، لم يعد هناك مكان، لكني أضعه في مكان ما.. لابد أن أصنع مكتبة خشبية جديدة لي، ستتكلف ألفين أو أكثر، لكن لا يهم! مكتبة تمتد من السقف حتى الأرضية بطول الجدار، ضخمة لابتلاع كتبي والمطالبة بالمزيد، أتذكر نصيحة أيمن ذوالغنى، قالها له شيخه، يا ولدي عندما تشتري كتابًا لا تضعه في مكتبتك قبل أن تفعل عدة أشياء، مراجعة الكتاب عند الكاتب والنظر في صفحاته فربما كان فيه عيب، وتقييد تاريخ شرائه وثمن شرائه على الغلاف الداخلي من أعلى، ثم إن تعذرت مطالعته فلا تضعه في المكتبة قبل أن تقرأ ثلاثة أشياء: المقدمة والخاتمة وفهرس المحتويات، ثم أنت حر بعدها.. نصائح جيدة للغاية، أطالع بعضًا مما حوته كتبي، ستة أكياس كبرى ملأى بالكتب متنوعة الأحجام والعناوين، بحث دؤوب طوال أيام عملي بالمعرض، لحظات كنت أقتنصها وأترك رفيقي في دار العرض لأقتنص المزيد من الكتب التي أعود بها كل مساء وأنا راض تمامًا عن حياتي البوهيمية.. للحظة تطالع عيني اسم همنجواي، كنت قد قرأت لهمنجواي في سن مبكرة رواية مترجمة عن دار الهلال اسمها الجريمة لم أعد أتذكر منها شيئًا، لكن بالطبع الترجمة لم تكن جيدة، الشاهد في الأعمال المترجمة جودة الترجمة، غير ذلك فأنت تضيع وقتك في قراءة تلك القصص، الدنيا ملأى بالترجمات التجارية، صعب أن تجد ترجمة جيدة بسعر بخس، قرأت له أيضًا ترجمة القاسمي العبقرية لرواية "وليمة متنقلة" أنصح لكل من يريد البدء بقراءة همنجواي أن يبدأ بقراءة هذه السيرة الروائية، صدرت ضمن إصدارات مكتبة الأسرة في 2012 ربما، أو 2013، لا أتذكر حقيقةً، أسلوب همنجواي البسيط الأخاذ، هذا الرجل ملئ بالخبرات الحياتية، جرب كل شيء، قلمه ينضح بكل ما تعلمه، كل ما فعله القاسمي هو أن جعل نفسه خادمًا لتعبير همنجواي وحاول نقله للعربية كما هو، أواه أواه.. هذه هي الترجمة، هذا الأسلوب الساحر أستغواني تمامًا، أنسجم عندما أقرأ كتابًا جيدًا، ولولا أنفتي من الكتابة لكتبت عن كل ما قرأت بأريحية ولكن التسويف ومزاجي المتقلب يجعلني أقرأ وأنسى تمامًا ما قرأت ومن ثم تدخل كل هذه القراءات في قبر ذاكرتي، الآن وأنا أتحسس مجكوعة همنجواي هل أبدأ في قراءة هذا المشروع الترجمي لهذا المترجم ذي الاسم الغريب: "موسى الحالول".. قراءة كتب ذات أجزاء ومطولات يجعلني أتقاعس عن البدء بهذه المشروعات الطويلة للقراءة، كنت قد بدأت مشروعًا لقراءة كل روايات دوستويفسكي التي أشتريتها، مع التقدم في القراءة كنت أشعر بالفخر مع شيء من الألم لكونه واجب عليّ أن أكمل ما بدأته، حتى القراءة صارت عمل لدي، لذلك أدركت عدم فاعلية هذا النمط من القراءة، لابد أن أستمتع وإلا فلا، أنا ما زلت في حيرة من أمري.. هل أقرأ المجموعة القصصية لهمنجواي أم لا، أخذتها معي وبدأت بالمقدمة في اليوم التالي وأنا أركب "الميكروباص".. أدركت ورطة البدء بالمقدمة وإفسادها الجو العام للتشوق لتلك القصص الجميلة إلى جانب عنوانها الغريب: هل آن لهمنجواي أن يلبس السترة والعقال؟ فتجاوزتها لأول قصة، جلست ربع ساعة في العمل أحاول التركيز في الحوار العفوي الذي تعوده همنجواي في قصصه بأسلوب بسيط عذب، لكن للأسف لم أفهم شيئًا، أعدت قراءة القصة من جديد، قلت في نفسي لقد أشتريت ا"لتروماي"، الترجمة سيئة، أليس كذلك يا ثروت، لكني تذكرت تجارب مشابهة في القراءة، لابد من الصبر يا ثروت في القراءة، وسبر الترجمة، فربما كان العيب في استعدادك للعمل، قرأت الثانية ثم الثالثة، في خلال ساعتين ثلاثة كنت قد أتممت خمسين صفحة من الجزء الأول، على مدى أسبوع كنت أقتنص أرباع الساعات وأنصافها لقراءة تلك المجموعة من القصص الدرامية العجيبة، حقيقة أنا معجب بهذا القاص، إرنست همنجواي، هو مثال للأديب الأمريكي الحديث، سلاسة حكائية عجيبة، وتفاصيل سردية لا تهم القارئ في شيء إلا أن همنجواي هو الذي كتبها، لذا فقيمتها من قيمة همنجواي الذي عايش آلاف التجارب الحياتية وأتى ليكتب عنها، هناك قصة مذهلة عن مصارعة الثيران، تحبس الأنفاس.. أنا الآن أتممت الجزء الأول راضي العين قرير البال حائر القلم في إتمام هذه المراجعة، لكن لماذا أحصر نفسي في هذه الكلمات، هناك جزآن آخران.. انتظروني قليلًا حتى أعود للكتابة عن ذلك الهمنجواي وإلا فعايشوا التجربة بأنفسكم.. اللهم بلغت اللهم فاشهد!(less)

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Nov 07, 2012 Ethan Miller rated it 5 of 5 stars

It's been a while since I've read Hemingway and I wanted to revisit some of the classics ("The Short and Happy Life of...", "The Snows of Kilimanjaro and especially the Nick Adams stories) and see how they held up for me. I wanted to see if they still moved me the way they did when I was a young man deeply impressed and obsessed with Mailer, HST, Bukowski, Hemingway---the larger than life American literary alphas with their brash prose, the booze, the guns, the women, the big game hunt for the...more It's been a while since I've read Hemingway and I wanted to revisit some of the classics ("The Short and Happy Life of...", "The Snows of Kilimanjaro and especially the Nick Adams stories) and see how they held up for me. I wanted to see if they still moved me the way they did when I was a young man deeply impressed and obsessed with Mailer, HST, Bukowski, Hemingway---the larger than life American literary alphas with their brash prose, the booze, the guns, the women, the big game hunt for the perfect boiled down line of whiskey-soaked, testosterone-fueled bravado.
Hemingway's writing read a lot different to me now at 35 then it did at 19. The subject matter did not magically change over time; guns, booze, machismo and women but there is a lot more going on here than just that. Things that I couldn't have seen between the lines with much less life under my belt at age 19 or 20. The sorrow of failed relationships, the difficult ladders and pitfalls that people climb, descend and confuse when navigating the treacherous territory of pride, dignity, disgrace and regret, the sinking of the spirit to fully have lived in and of the world of your time and then witness it changing before your eyes into something you comprehend less and less.
When I was younger the prose seemed like a bold and masculine statement, an angry and burning defiance against the world, now they seem elegant and clean, a sorrowful reduced wisdom almost like minimalist poetry or Haiku. I found the author's heart to be much more open, melancholy and freely given in the white of the page between the black exacting lines of text. Perhaps I am simply more able to read "deeply" now than I was at 20, I'm sure that is true but Hemingway's work has also been so enduring in part because of this reflective quality. A work that you can come back to throughout your life and consistently find different kinds of wisdom in each time must surely be the watermark of a genius.
The Nick Adams stories are a timeless, collective masterpiece. They and much of the collected work here are a magical portal into another time in the world. The last moments of "the old world" before the 20th century grinds up to the speed of light. Most of the stories were written and set in the 20s and 30s before World War 2. From our vantage point in the 21st century they seem charged with the electricity of world-wide historical and cultural change that is welling up above them in an unseen tidal wave about to block out their particular sun and then crash down and wipe everything that came before clean and roaring into "a new world". The tales of growing up in the wild and barely settled territory of turn of the century Midwest America, of hunting charging Bull Elephants head-on with a rifle, jet setting in prop planes and ocean liners with great young artists and writers, the bull fights, the war trenches, mariticide in exotic locations, the adventures through "old Europe"--it's all so distant from the plugged in, dialed up, speed of light world we live in that in Hemingway's deep, still, clear water prose the locations and the subject matter feel almost like myth or magic now. It's a beautiful trip into another world, almost another dimension. (less)

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Aug 19, 2010 Rick rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2010-short

The story takes place at a train station in the Ebro River valley of Spain. The year is not given, but is almost certainly contemporary to the composition (1920s). This particular day is oppressively hot and dry, and the scenery in the valley is barren and ugly for the most part. The two main characters are a man (referred to only as "the American") and his female companion, whom he calls Jig.

While waiting for the train to Madrid, the American and Jig drink beer and a liquor called Anís del Toro...more

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Nov 16, 2008 Martin rated it 1 of 5 stars

I've been reading Hemingway's complete short stories just to see if I'd been judging him too harshly all these years. It appears I haven't been judging him harshly enough. What kind of mass hypnosis are the people under who insist Hemingway innovated a lean, economical style--'the Iceberg style', which was named 'multum in parvo' in Ancient Rome and described a style thousands of years old even then? 'A Reader Writes' is one and three quarter pages long, and only the letter embedded in it is ne...more

I've been reading Hemingway's complete short stories just to see if I'd been judging him too harshly all these years. It appears I haven't been judging him harshly enough. What kind of mass hypnosis are the people under who insist Hemingway innovated a lean, economical style--'the Iceberg style', which was named 'multum in parvo' in Ancient Rome and described a style thousands of years old even then? 'A Reader Writes' is one and three quarter pages long, and only the letter embedded in it is necessary to tell the story; the frame device is a laborious description of the letter writer deciding to write to an advice columnist in the newspaper, followed by an even more laborious account of her thoughts after writing the letter, none of which adds anything to the thought process already revealed in the letter. It would be a slight enough story even at half a page, but that's its correct length, and it's typical of the percentagest in more serious, and lengthier, stories such as The Snows of Kilimanjaro and The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber. On average his best stories are about twice as long as they should be if his aim is any degree of concision.

I'll grant you though that it's hard to say in some cases how much overwritten a story is because his other consuming vice, a persistent mislaying of tone and emphasis, makes it difficult to know what was intended, and therefore what the natural length of the story might have been. 'A Natural History of the Dead' starts out promising, and might have turned out remarkable if he'd kept to his initial idea--describing the battlefields he's witnessed from the laconic, emotionless perspective of a scientist, a satiric technique that if well handled produces a mood the opposite of detachment (see Swift's A Modest Proposal). Alas, unlike Swift, Hemingway is concerned to make it impossible for literal-minded readers to think badly of him as coldblooded, so he keeps breaking in with sentimental effusions. The flaccid floundering this occasions is not pretty to watch:

"Most of those mules that I saw dead were along mountain roads or lying at the foot of steep declivities whence they had been pushed to rid the road of their encumbrance. They seemed a fitting enough sight in the mountains where one is accustomed to their presence and looked less incongruous there than they did later, at Smyrna, where the Greeks broke the legs of all their baggage animals and pushed them off the quay into the shallow water to drown. The numbers of broken-legged mules and horses drowning in the shallow water called for a Goya to depict them. Although, speaking literally, one can hardly say that they called for a Goya, since there has been only one Goya, long dead, and it is extremely doubtful if these animals, were they able to call, would call for pictorial representation of their plight but, more likely, would, if they were articulate, call for some one to alleviate their condition."

The sentimental overwriting, far from taking you viscerally into the pity and horror of the scene, has the opposite effect--blocking even an effective picture arising in the mind's eye (sure, I can do Ernest bloated too).

Goya understood multum in parvo far better than Hemingway ever did. Find a well-printed copy of 'Los Caprichios' and take your mind off this bloated nonsense.

(less)

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Rajasmasala Hemingway's prose does do a lot of work for the receptive reader precisely because of what you feel are blocks to the real content of the story. Part...more
May 20, 2010 05:21am

Martin Our age didn't invent the Menippean game, and I don't think either Joyce or Hemingway played it nearly as well as Swift, who can show you a personalit...more
May 20, 2010 08:04pm

BukkRogerrs You've summed up Hemingway wonderfully and more accurately than anyone else. He's a "classic" author in whom I find no redeeming qualities.
Dec 11, 2012 01:16pm

Jul 07, 2011 Alex rated it 4 of 5 stars

I am only commenting here on "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber".

Why happy moments in ones life are so cruelly short and why this happiness for some is difficult to keep ?
Why price to pay for those few happy moments yet is so deadly steep ?

While Hemingway was in love-hate *relationship* with Lady Brett Ashly ("Fiesta"), here the wife of Francis Macomber is presented as the *final* Hemingway's outlook on the typical woman's character: domineering, lusty bitch, which enjoyed humiliating he...more

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Apr 13, 2012 Robb Todd added it

Shelves: 2012, short-stories, mind-explosion

I began this book several years ago and chipped away at it while between novels and deciding what to read next. It's refreshing to know that he can write a bad story. There are a few in here. It was also surprising that he wrote what today is dismissively called "flash fiction." Having all of the stories compiled in the same place, especially the lesser known ones, helps his objects become more clear, the things he returns to over and over again. It's unavoidable for an artist, isn't it? I prefe...more

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Feb 03, 2012 Brenton rated it 5 of 5 stars

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...more

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Nov 10, 2011 Soviet rated it 4 of 5 stars

Hemingway is that dude. He'd probably beat most of these hating ass niggas in a fight. Word to the god. Now, this here Nick, dude's alright. These short stories are on some masterful shit. Way dude describes food and cooking, shit'll make you hungry, nahmean? I grabbed me some Doritos when reading. That terse iceberg shit flies well in these short stories. There's some shit about three whores, one of them being bigger than a mother. But her voice nice and all that, and the other whore might be a...more

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May 06, 2011 Erik Graff rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Hemingway fans

Recommended to Erik by: Linda Sue Harrington

Shelves: literature

It is likely impossible to go through the public schools in the U.S.A. without being exposed to Ernest Hemingway. I no longer recall which was the first of his stories I read, but by the time I was buying my own books in high school I was already having trouble keeping track of which had been read--usually in anthologies, which hadn't.

The longer pieces began to be assigned in high school, beginning in the freshman year with, of course, The Old Man and the Sea. Since then I've read many, but cert...more

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Sep 17, 2010 Chantal rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

"It was now lunch time and they were all sitting under the double green fly of the dining tent pretending that nothing had happened.
'Will you have a lime juice or lemon squash?' Macomber asked.
'I’ll have a gimlet,' Robert Wilson told him.
'I’ll have a gimlet too. I need something,' Macomber’s wife said.
'I suppose it’s the thing to do,' Macomber agreed.

Hemingway accomplishes so much with so little page in "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber". To say that the opening sentence is captiv...more

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Aug 22, 2010 Marianna Beadles rated it 3 of 5 stars

There's the old idea that the Monster that we don't see (or can't see) is the one that scares us most. Hemingway's writing is defined as the "Iceburg" principle; he would write about only the surface elements of a situation, the very tip of the iceburg that you could see above the water, so to speak. He would only hint at the much more massive goings-on happening beneath the surface, leaving you to fill in those blanks yourself. He didn't tell you what to feel, and I think that's why Hemingway's...more

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Jul 31, 2009 Andy rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 20th-century-american

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 l...more

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Dec 13, 2012 BukkRogerrs rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: classics, fiction

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 brilliant plots. No, because none of t...more 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 brilliant plots. 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. But unlike a conspiracy theorist, some just see the clouds as masses of droplets of water and other harmless atmospheric chemicals

I could go on about Hemingway's insipid prose forever. I'll leave it alone and move on to the rest.

(Hemingway has a rabid cult of devoted followers, eager to defend him at all costs. Keeping this in mind, I've explained below what causes us to disagree in order to grant the earnest Hemingwaysians some perspective.)

When I read fiction I look for at least one of the following traits to keep me interested: Enticing plot, exciting ideas, imaginative and creative concepts, alluring and interesting characters, stimulating action, finely crafted suspense, good humor, captivating dialogue, delightful prose, evoked emotional response, mind-opening perspectives, some kind of payoff or satisfying resolution, insightful commentary, a significant, resonating message, and a few other things not on the top of my head.

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. Hemingway is in no way a thinking-man's writer, nor does his understated, formulaic prose make his writing worthwhile. 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. (less)

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Feb 15, 2011 D. Hilliard rated it 5 of 5 stars

This collection is probably the best way to become acquainted with the style and mastery that is Ernest Hemingway. I think any aspiring writer should read him, even if he doesn't write in their preferred genre. His economical word use, and the way he often uses dialogue to carry a story are still examples that many modern writers could profit from.

The one drawback to these stories is that the modern reader could find them rather inaccessible due to the time and settings they portray. Few America...more

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Oct 29, 2009 Barbara marked it as to-read

Shelves: 2009, short-stories, i-put-it-on-the-hold-shelf-for-now

This is my first voyage into Hemmingway's work since my days in college. It is amazing how much more they means as an adult and without an English professor waiting to hear and "destroy" your interpretation of his work. I read Fathers and Sons first and feel that I need to read it another time or two before I can comment. There is a lot packed into a few short pages.

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May 22, 2013 Mark Sacha added it

The impression I get from Hemingway's writing is that he writes about various subjects, foreign to the bulk of American readers, with a combination of absolute self-assured authority and deprecation. It's something that works in some instances and is unsettling in others. For instance, his characters, who are often overt stand-ins for himself, will participate in something - the Spanish Civil War and African big game hunting come to mind - and report on it in a tone that conveys that they know e...more The impression I get from Hemingway's writing is that he writes about various subjects, foreign to the bulk of American readers, with a combination of absolute self-assured authority and deprecation. It's something that works in some instances and is unsettling in others. For instance, his characters, who are often overt stand-ins for himself, will participate in something - the Spanish Civil War and African big game hunting come to mind - and report on it in a tone that conveys that they know everything about the topic at hand, and that it is somewhat magical but primarily stupid. This disregard is concentrated on the native players in the given struggle (with the exception of bullfighters, who he likes, so he imbues them with his dominant protagonist persona). This presumption and its relevant disdain are the things that bother me the most about Hemingway's fiction.

Otherwise, he writes some pretty strong stories. This is probably an understatement but I don't care, since I'm writing about the guy who built an entire prose style on understatement. I'm reading him relatively late, I feel, having skipped him on my high school and college syllabi, and as a result have read a lot of things in between that were much more engaging and much stronger. However, I've been able to overcome the marked disappointment of my expectations since his stories are really a pleasure to read. There's nothing in here remotely as fatuous as The Old Man and the Sea, and the Nick Adams series of stories in particular is very cohesive and emotionally affecting. There are stretches where it seems the writing is unremarkable, even bland, but Hemingway will get in stride and certain scenes, images, or interactions resonate with truth, ordinary but compelling. And they are often subtle. One of the things that Hemingway excels at is achieving the power of a simple description. If you read too fast or with too little attention it is easy to miss it.

As something of a survey of his fictional range, one can see in his stories where Hemingway would be something of a template for a lot of American fiction to follow. I think this is due as much to his simplicity as to his style and his frustrated romanticism. There's a reason why there are comparatively so few imitators of his contemporary, Faulkner - that man's writing is considerably more difficult to ape. In fact, Hemingway often reads much like a template. The simplicity is of course one of his elemental strengths but I think he indulges it too much, a little too lazily. Sometimes, as a result, his writing can lack voice. However, at the core of it is an honesty that is all-too rare, that I can't help but admire. And he writes to the human condition, perceptively, which means he's A-Okay in my book.(less)

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May 31, 2012 Caitie rated it 5 of 5 stars

The Complete Short Stories of Earnest Hemingway is a very great book packed full of great short stories by Earnest Hemingway. Hemingway writes great stories about nature, and people, and love. He writes in a weird way that makes for interesting stories, and great reads. A lot of the stories are weird and none of them seem to fit together, but each holds a lesson or theme that can be related to life. Some stories and creepy, and more than not they are strange. No matter how strange each stories h...more

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Aug 01, 2008 B. Zedan rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Folks who like solid and truly great short stories, a lot of them

Shelves: real-book, re-read

This is a tome. It's difficult to summarise or review short story collections, especially one so extensive as this.

So lemme just say, there is a reason that Heminway is canon. He reminds me of Chekhov, of Vonnegut—the sadness implicit in humanity's existence and the true, yet sometimes hollow joy that is found despite it.

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Aug 16, 2012 Aaron Alexius rated it 4 of 5 stars

"Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber," and "Undefeated" are great stories in this collection that aren't always on the list of shorts to read in the Hemingway cannon.

The Nick Adams stories can also be found here, but the texts aren't organized to make reading the Nick Adams stories really obvious. Reading the introduction is well worth the time as it gives insight on things such as the recurring Adams characters and the stories in which he may be found.

Obviously, the big stories of the Heming...more

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May 18, 2010 Karen rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

What can I say? I love Hemingway... I love his deceptively simple writing style in which very little is said, but very much is expressed. I love that he writes on two levels... the painfully simple story he appears to tell and the incredibly complex one he is actually sharing. I love that so much of his work is autobiographical.

If you are not a person who is willing or able to read between the lines or put the pieces of a puzzle together, Hemingway will seem like oddly simplistic literature. On...more

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May 08, 2010 Jake rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: short-stories

All of the stories in this omnibus collection are good, and many are great- among the best short stories I've ever read. Worth reading several times are: "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber", "The Snows of Kilimanjaro", and "Hills Like White Elephants"- each is a masterpiece. New to me in this volume were Hemingway's stories of the Spanish Civil War, which are a great compliment to "For Whom The Bell Tolls", and several stories he wrote later in his life- many are set in Cuba or during the...more

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Aug 16, 2012 Stephan Myers rated it 5 of 5 stars

As a writer I find reading Hemingway to be an addiction. His exquisite use of dialogue is second to none. The economy with which he wields his pen masterful, but for every word read I cannot help but reflect upon my own inadequacies. And yet like any addict I keep coming back for more.
I have my favourite Hemingway stories which I will review in time but of his collected works they are something of a mixed bag. At his worst I could not fail to give Papa 5 stars but most notable in this volume ar...more

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Dec 13, 2009 Alex Merritt rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is a fantastic collection of all of Hemingway's short stories. Reading this is very, very depressing. Hemingway treats some very dark themes. My favorite stories were: "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber," "Mr. and Mrs. Elliot," "Indian Camp," "Hills Like White Elephants," "In Another Country," "A Way You'll Never Be," and "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place." I suppose that the story that had the most profound impact on me was "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place," a very short story of an old man...more

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Sep 21, 2010 Cameron rated it 5 of 5 stars

This collection of all the short stories ever written by Ernest Hemingway is like my bible. Hemingway's symbolization and overall writing ability is above anyone elses. My favorite short stories from this collection include, "The Good Lion", "The Snows of Kilimanjaro", and "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber". Honestly, every one of these short stories is fantastic. Anybody interested in seeing just exactly "how it is done", should buy this book and just sit back and let Mr. Hemingway work...more

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Jul 29, 2011 Robert rated it 5 of 5 stars

July 2011 will be my Hemingway month. I read many of Hemingway's works like many people did, when I was young and when I was in school. But perhaps this isn't the best way or at least not the best for me because its only now, this month makes it fifty years after his death, that I can really appreciate him.

I recommend looking past Hemingway the myth and into Hemingway the writer because he was a damn good one. His short stories are some of the best he has to offer and some of the best anywhere....more

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Aug 28, 2010 Alison rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book contains some marvelous stories, including, in The First Forty-nine, a run of several that, by themselves, earn the collection four stars and support all the claims about Hemingway's mastery of the short story form. Among these stellar stories are "In Another Country" (a physical therapy story!), the much-anthologized "Hills Like White Elephants," "Che Ti Dice La Patria?" (a story about La Spezia, where we started our Italian vacation this summer!), and the lovely "Big Two-Hearted Rive...more

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Feb 13, 2010 Sean rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Hemingway fans; people interested in good literature

Recommended to Sean by: Allen Josephs

Shelves: hemingway, american-literature

A collection of masterpieces, The Finca Vigia Edition of Hemingway's short stories is a must-have for any reader's collection. Whether you are interested in his American writing, his war writing, his Africa writing, or his bull-fight writing, you will find something to sate your palate. Hemingway's short stories covered his vast and superb career, and are a constant insight into what he was striving for artistically.

While I would recommend starting with "The Short and Happy Life of Francis Macom...more

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May 20, 2009 Tony rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: awesome-books, the-best-of-the-best, essential-short-story-collections

You've heard of Hemingway...everybody has. My first encounter with him came in the form a short story called "Hills Like White Elephants" back in high school and I've been enamored with the man's work ever since. His novels are superb, but I really think he shines in the short form and this collection is as good as it gets. The only minor flaw is that despite the title, it isn't complete (the posthumous collection THE NICK ADAMS STORIES contains some previously unpublished pieces that didn't mak...more

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About Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American author and journalist. His economical and understated style had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction, while 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, and won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954. He published seven novels, six short story collec...more Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American author and journalist. His economical and understated style had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction, while 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, and won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954. He published seven novels, six short story collections and two non-fiction works. Three novels, four collections of short stories and three non-fiction works were published posthumously. Many of these are considered classics of American literature.

Hemingway was raised in Oak Park, Illinois. After high school he reported for a few months for The Kansas City Star, before leaving for the Italian front to enlist with the World War I ambulance drivers. In 1918, he was seriously wounded and 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 to Paris, where he worked as a foreign correspondent, and fell under the influence of the modernist writers and artists of the 1920s "Lost Generation" expatriate community. The Sun Also Rises, Hemingway's first novel, was published in 1926.

After his 1927 divorce from Hadley Richardson, Hemingway married Pauline Pfeiffer. They divorced after he returned from Spanish Civil War where he had acted as a journalist, and after which he wrote For Whom the Bell Tolls. Martha Gellhorn became his third wife in 1940. They separated when he met Mary Welsh in London during World War II; during which he was present at the Normandy Landings and liberation of Paris.

Shortly after the publication of The Old Man and the Sea in 1952, Hemingway went on safari to Africa, where he was almost killed in two plane crashes that left him in pain or ill-health for much of the rest of his life. Hemingway had permanent residences in Key West, Florida, and Cuba during the 1930s and 1940s, but in 1959 he moved from Cuba to Ketchum, Idaho, where he committed suicide in the summer of 1961.(less)

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