Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Publication
Scribner (1995), Edition: 1st Scribner Paperback Fiction Ed, 499 pages
Description
Forty-nine stories reflect much of the intensity of Hemingway's own life and environment.
User reviews
LibraryThing member edgeworth
I'm not the biggest fan of Ernest Hemingway, but I was in Tokyo's famous Jimbocho district and I'd finally found an English-language bookstore, a second-storey nook disconcertingly named "Bondi Books" that sold vintage and antiques, and I didn't feel like leaving empty-handed. So I picked up this
The First 49 Stories is, obviously, a collection of Hemingway's first forty-nine short stories. It is often said that he was a better short story writer than novelist, and while I've only read two of his novels I'd have to agree. Reviewing something like this is difficult, because there's not a lot that can be said about Hemingway. It's Hemingway. You either like him or you don't.
One thing I did realise while reading this is that Hemingway's stories are excellent study material for aspiring writers, because his style is so bare and dry that it strips away all the excess and leaves nothing but the exposed skeleton of the story: structure, tone, dialogue. I studied a lot of these stories quite carefully, because I've been trying and failing to write good short stories lately, and if Hemingway cannot teach me how to then nobody can. His "Iceberg Theory" is used to great effect throughout the anthology, particularly in "The Brief And Happy Life of Francis Macomber," "The Killers," "Hills Like White Elephants," "Alpine Idyll," and "The Three-Day Blow." When Hemingway is at his best he wastes not a single word or sentence, and stories running no longer than a few pages can contain great depths of symbolism, emotional depth and austere beauty. "The Three-Day Blow," for example, is only ten pages long, yet contains an examination of alcoholism, male companionship, youthful love, and uncertainty.
When I was in university I read a couple of Hemingway stories and came to the conclusion that they weren't about anything. I was wrong, of course. Much like life itself, they're about everything - as long as you pay careful attention.
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cheap Hemingway anthology, and I'm glad I did, because it was quite good and I think I'm starting to understand him as a writer.The First 49 Stories is, obviously, a collection of Hemingway's first forty-nine short stories. It is often said that he was a better short story writer than novelist, and while I've only read two of his novels I'd have to agree. Reviewing something like this is difficult, because there's not a lot that can be said about Hemingway. It's Hemingway. You either like him or you don't.
One thing I did realise while reading this is that Hemingway's stories are excellent study material for aspiring writers, because his style is so bare and dry that it strips away all the excess and leaves nothing but the exposed skeleton of the story: structure, tone, dialogue. I studied a lot of these stories quite carefully, because I've been trying and failing to write good short stories lately, and if Hemingway cannot teach me how to then nobody can. His "Iceberg Theory" is used to great effect throughout the anthology, particularly in "The Brief And Happy Life of Francis Macomber," "The Killers," "Hills Like White Elephants," "Alpine Idyll," and "The Three-Day Blow." When Hemingway is at his best he wastes not a single word or sentence, and stories running no longer than a few pages can contain great depths of symbolism, emotional depth and austere beauty. "The Three-Day Blow," for example, is only ten pages long, yet contains an examination of alcoholism, male companionship, youthful love, and uncertainty.
When I was in university I read a couple of Hemingway stories and came to the conclusion that they weren't about anything. I was wrong, of course. Much like life itself, they're about everything - as long as you pay careful attention.
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LibraryThing member justine
Including my favorite story, "Hills like White Elepants", a masterful use of brevity.
LibraryThing member sadiebooks
not any better than the novels. still very very boring.
LibraryThing member dasam
I had forgotten how good a writer the younger Hemingway was. He may have been a better short story writer than a novelist.
LibraryThing member jonbrammer
Bullfighting. Fly-fishing. Drinking. Women (misogyny?). Hunting. War. Indians. Sex with Indians. Fathers. Sons. Death.
These are the motifs running through Hemingway's work. He has his autobiographical proxies in these stories, most frequently Nick Adams. You get the sense that Hemingway is hiding
These are the motifs running through Hemingway's work. He has his autobiographical proxies in these stories, most frequently Nick Adams. You get the sense that Hemingway is hiding
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himself - his protagonists are usually the least well drawn character in the story. It is a metaphorical and written attempt at self-eradication that he literally accomplished in a cabin in Idaho in 1961. Show Less
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1938
Physical description
499 p.; 5.25 inches
ISBN
0684803348 / 9780684803340