The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway

⛰️ 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.

Hemmingway's Iceberg Theory is precisely why his best storytelling medium may be the short story. It uniquely positions him to inject every single detail and lack of detail found or not found in the sparse, detached voice of a master without completely exhausting yourself. I've been reading this collection almost the entire year to not burn myself out, and I needed every day that the timeline afforded. Despite the short length, a Hemmingway short story is likely to be incredibly dense and invites the reader to mine obsessively.

This collection contains several of what I might consider some of the most incredible short stories ever written. "Cat in the Rain" in particular is of special significance both because its secrets were taught and explained to me by my favorite writer of all time but also because I think it might be the most perfect example of finding meaning in each detail of a story multiplied by every stricken detail or non-event that you could produce. It's perfect. It's awe-inspiring. He did it constantly.

Even when he wrote in the first person or even as a kind of autobiographical stand-in for the author, Hemmingway never told stories that take place in the steam-of-consciousness psyche of his characters. Every narration always floats above the room like a ghost. Stories are arranged as a list of facts without an emotional tag that explicitly orients the reader and tells them how to feel. This might contribute to the idea that Hemmingway was a barrel-chested cheeseball you can't take seriously, but it only contributes to *my* thought that most people are wrong about the kind of writer Hemmingway was. He was not gruff and emotionless. He was deeply emotive. He understood grief, embarrassment, love, loss, selfishness, silliness, treachery, greed, and having to wrestle with his stories (and wrestle you will. There are many stories that I'm not sure I understand to completion but call me to try again, over and over for as long as I live) to find out just what he thought about these things is an incredibly satisfying challenge that is not to be passed up.

Favorites:

The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber
The Snows of Kilimanjaro
Indian Camp
Cat in the Rain
Big Two Hearted River Part I+II
In Another Country
Hills Like White Elephants
An Alpine Idyll
A Clean, Well Lighted Place
The Light of the World
God Rest You Merry, Gentleman
Wine of Wyoming
The Butterfly and the Tank

After reading The Paris Wife I started looking for the book Hemingway wrote about Hadley. Even though this is a short story this obviously fits that book's theme. He nicknamed her Cat, and she was that poor cat in the rain.... Just as she was also the very neglected and trivialised wife. Good quick follow up to The Paris Wife.

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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

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.

My favorites were the stories about Nick Adams. It was nice coming back to the same character and seeing him evolve over time. Some of the other stories were good too and others were not my cup of tea.

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.

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.
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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.

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.