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Best Ernest Hemingway Short Stories (2025 Updated)
Ernest Hemingway was an American author and journalist. His distinctive writing style is characterized by economy and understatement, and he is known for his strong influence on 20th-century fiction.
Hemingway’s short stories are widely regarded as masterpieces of the genre.
Many of Hemingway’s stories are set in the past, often during World War I, and deal with the themes of death and loss. In “A Farewell to Arms,” for example, Hemingway tells the story of an American ambulance driver who is wounded on the Italian front and falls in love with a British nurse.
The story explores the brutal realities of war and the ways in which people try to find meaning and beauty in the midst of destruction.
Hemingway’s stories often feature protagonists who are struggling to find their place in the world. In “The Snows of Kilimanjaro,” a dying writer looks back on his life and regrets the choices he has made.
In “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber,” a wealthy man goes on a safari in Africa and is forced to confront his cowardice.
Hemingway’s stories are known for their sparse, direct style. He often uses dialogue to advance the plot and develop the characters. Hemingway also employs a great deal of symbolism, often using objects or events to represent larger ideas.
Many of Hemingway’s stories have been adapted for film and television. “The Killers,” for example, was made into a film noir classic starring Burt Lancaster and Ava Gardner. “The Snows of Kilimanjaro” was adapted into a film starring Gregory Peck and Ava Gardner.
11 Best Ernest Hemingway Short Stories
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The Complete Short Stories Of Ernest Hemingway: The Finca Vigia Edition [Book]
The complete, authoritative collection of Ernest Hemingway’s short fiction, including classic stories like “The Snows of Kilimanjaro,” “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place,” and “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber,” along with seven previously unpublished stories.
In this definitive collection of the Nobel Prize-winning author’s short stories, readers will delight in Hemingway’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, totaling in sixty stories.
This collection demonstrates Hemingway’s ability to write beautiful prose for each distinct story, with plots that range from experiences of World War II to beautifully touching moments between a father and son.
For Hemingway fans, The Complete Short Stories is an invaluable treasury.
Hemingway’s style is perfect for the formula of short stories. Don’t pass this one up if you are a fan of his other works or like your reading in small doses.
First published in 1925, this collection of 32 short stories and vignettes marked Hemingway’s American publishing debut. In Our Time not only provides a key to Hemingway’s later works, but remains one of the most original short story collections in 20th-century literature.
Includes the famous Nick Adams stories. A strikingly original collection of short stories and accompanying vignettes that marked Ernest Hemingway’s American debut. When In Our Time was first published in 1925, it was widely praised for its simple and precise use of language to convey a wide range of complex emotions, and earned Hemingway a place among the most promising American writers of that period.
In Our Time contains several early Hemingway classics, including the famous Nick Adams stories “Indian Camp” and “The Three Day Blow,” and introduces readers to the hallmarks of the Hemingway style: a lean, tough prose, enlivened by an ear for the colloquial and an eye for the realistic.
His writing suggests, through the simplest of statements, a sense of moral value and a clarity of vision. Now recognized as one of the most important short story collections of twentieth-century literature, In Our Time provides key insights into Hemingway’s later works.
Proclaimed to be one of Hemingway’s best published work, but I am disappointed in the book and Hemingway to that extent. I can’t recommend it even though there are some very nice short stories in the book.
Hemingway’s Pulitzer Prize-winning classic The Old Man and the Sea is one of Hemingway’s most enduring works. Told in language of great simplicity and power, it is the story of an old Cuban fisherman, down on his luck, and his supreme ordeal — a relentless, agonizing battle with a giant marlin far out in the Gulf Stream.
Here Hemingway recasts, in strikingly contemporary style, the classic theme of courage in the face of defeat, of personal triumph won from loss. Written in 1952, this hugely successful novella confirmed his power and presence in the literary world and played a large part in his winning the 1954 Nobel Prize for literature.
Ernest Hemingway did more to change the style of English prose than any other writer in the twentieth century, and for his efforts he was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1954. Hemingway wrote in short, declarative sentences and was known for his tough, terse prose.
Publication of The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms immediately established Ernest Hemingway as one of the greatest literary lights of the twentieth century. As part of the expatriate community in 1920s Paris, the former journalist and World War I ambulance driver began a career that lead to international fame.
Hemingway was an aficionado of bullfighting and big-game hunting, and his main protagonists were always men and women of courage and conviction, who suffered unseen scars, both physical and emotional.
He covered the Spanish Civil War, portraying it in fiction in his brilliant novel For Whom the Bell Tolls, and he subsequently covered World War I. His classic novella The Old Man and the Sea won the Pulitzer Prize in 1953.
My first time reading Hemingway, I was disappointed, not with the style nor content, but because it was too short. The story left me wanting more. When Santiago is out in his boat, I could feel the heat of the Sun, smell the salty sea and the waves making me rise and fall with him.
Most acutely, I felt his experience of aloneness and eagerness to land the giant fish that pulled him farther and farther away from land. I now live in anticipation of reading more from this great author, and completely recommend this short, but powerful, literary masterpiece.
My journalist father was 4 years younger than Hemingway. There’s a story that they met at some point, but I have no details. When I was a high school senior, Dad gave me “The Old Man and the Sea”, saying, “This is how it’s done” – a high compliment from my very exacting word-crafting father.
I’ve read all of Hemingway’s books, this one more than once. “The Old Man and the Sea” is classic, then and now. The title almost, but not quite, says it all. Enjoy.
Like Hemingway’s writing style to convey interesting ideas with few words. I felt like I was in the boat with the old fisherman, living his life experience.
This masterpiece of time and place tells a profound and timeless story of courage and commitment, love and loss, that takes place over a fleeting 72 hours. Drawing on Hemingway’s own involvement in the Spanish Civil War, For Whom the Bell Tolls reflects his passionate feelings about the nature of war and the meaning of loyalty.
Ernest Hemingway’s masterpiece on war, love, loyalty, and honor tells the story of Robert Jordan, an antifascist American fighting in the Spanish Civil War. In 1937 Ernest Hemingway traveled to Spain to cover the civil war there for the North American Newspaper Alliance.
Three years later he completed the greatest novel to emerge from “the good fight” and one of the foremost classics of war literature. For Whom the Bell Tolls tells of loyalty and courage, love and defeat, and the tragic death of an ideal.
Robert Jordan, a young American in the International Brigades, is attached to an antifascist guerilla unit in the mountains of Spain. In his portrayal of Jordan’s love for the beautiful Maria and his superb account of a guerilla leader’s last stand, Hemingway creates a work at once rare and beautiful, strong and brutal, compassionate, moving, and wise.
Greater in power, broader in scope, and more intensely emotional than any of the author’s previous works, For Whom the Bell Tolls stands as one of the best war novels ever written.
For the reader looking for an entertaining and suspenseful read, for Whom the Bell Tolls fits the bill. For those who probe multilayered underpinnings, they will find the writing deeply rooted. This is a classic worth reading and rereading.
I revisited this book in my early 40’s and came away resold on Hemingway as one of America’s greatest writers and an artist who stands the test of time. It’s a shame, in fact, that Hemingway’s caricature-friendly persona, life and writing style have sometimes obsured his work.
Forget the macho image and the stories of drinking and hunting. He is an artist of the first order. For Whom. is a novel about the important things — life, love, death, fear, the attraction and horror of war.
What struck me throughout was how innocent the characters are and how genuinely Hemingway depicts the most difficult subjects, be it war (in this case the Spanish Civil War) or the love between Maria and Robert Jordan.
Hemingway is a writer we need in our times. He focuses on the big, important issues without cynicism, and never shies from exposing what is in our hearts and minds. A classics.
Ernest Hemingway’s classic memoir of Paris in the 1920s, now available in a restored edition, includes the original manuscript along with insightful recollections and unfinished sketches. Published posthumously in 1964, A Moveable Feast remains one of Ernest Hemingway’s most enduring works.
Since Hemingway’s personal papers were released in 1979, scholars have examined the changes made to the text before publication. Now, this special restored edition presents the original manuscript as the author prepared it to be published.
Featuring a personal foreword by Patrick Hemingway, Ernest’s sole surviving son, and an introduction by grandson of the author, Seán Hemingway, editor of this edition, the book also includes a number of unfinished, never-before-published Paris sketches revealing experiences that Hemingway had with his son, Jack, and his first wife Hadley.
Also included are irreverent portraits of literary luminaries, such as F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ford Maddox Ford, and insightful recollections of Hemingway’s own early experiments with his craft. Widely celebrated and debated by critics and readers everywhere, the restored edition of A Moveable Feast brilliantly evokes the exuberant mood of Paris after World War I and the unbridled creativity and unquenchable enthusiasm that Hemingway himself epitomized.
Hemingway wrote this off and on from 1957-60, after purportedly finding two trunks containing manuscripts in storage at the Ritz Hotel in Paris in1956. It’s mostly about his life with first wife Hadley Richardson from 1922-26.
He does a number on two old friends: F. Scott Fitzgerald and Gertrude Stein. An easy, enjoyable read.
While this is one of Hemingway’s most loved books, I had a very hard time getting through to the end. It was a lot like reading his personal diary during a time when he lived in Paris, because there was no consistent plot it made it easy to put down and not come back to for a while.
I have to admire his writing style however. There are few authors today who can write with the same prose at Hemingway. His insight was interesting, but I have to admit I’m just not a fan of him personally.
The definitive edition of the classic novel of love during wartime, featuring all of the alternate endings: “Fascinating…serves as an artifact of a bygone craft, with handwritten notes and long passages crossed out, giving readers a sense of an author’s process” (The New York Times).
Written when Ernest Hemingway was thirty years old and lauded as the best American novel to emerge from World War I, A Farewell to Arms is the unforgettable story of an American ambulance driver on the Italian front and his passion for a beautiful English nurse.
Set against the looming horrors of the battlefield—weary, demoralized men marching in the rain during the German attack on Caporetto; the profound struggle between loyalty and desertion—this gripping, semiautobiographical work captures the harsh realities of war and the pain of lovers caught in its inexorable sweep.
Ernest Hemingway famously said that he rewrote the ending to A Farewell to Arms thirty-nine times to get the words right. This edition collects all of the alternative endings together for the first time, along with early drafts of other essential passages, offering new insight into Hemingway’s craft and creative process and the evolution of one of the greatest novels of the twentieth century.
Featuring Hemingway’s own 1948 introduction to an illustrated reissue of the novel, a personal foreword by the author’s son Patrick Hemingway, and a new introduction by the author’s grandson Seán Hemingway, this edition of A Farewell to Arms is truly a celebration.
It’s good material for studying writing craft. Characters I can relate to in a compelling situation that is resolved in a way that makes me reflect on the human condition in a productive way.
Ernest Hemingway’s most beloved and popular novel ever, with millions of copies sold—now featuring early drafts and supplementary material as well as a personal foreword by the only living son of the author, Patrick Hemingway, and an introduction by the author’s grandson Seán Hemingway.
The last novel Ernest Hemingway saw published, The Old Man and the Sea has proved itself to be one of the enduring works of American fiction. It is the story of an old Cuban fisherman, down on his luck, and his supreme ordeal: a relentless, agonizing battle with a giant marlin far out in the Gulf Stream.
Using the simple, powerful language of a fable, Hemingway takes the timeless themes of courage in the face of defeat and personal triumph won from loss and transforms them into a magnificent twentieth-century classic.
Written in 1952, this hugely successful novel confirmed his power and presence in the literary world and played a large part in his winning the 1954 Nobel Prize for Literature.
Ernest Hemingway did more to change the style of English prose than any other writer in the twentieth century, and for his efforts he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954. Hemingway wrote in short, declarative sentences and was known for his tough, terse prose.
Publication of The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms immediately established Ernest Hemingway as one of the greatest literary lights of the twentieth century. As part of the expatriate community in 1920s Paris, the former journalist and World War I ambulance driver began a career that led to international fame.
Hemingway was an aficionado of bullfighting and big-game hunting, and his main protagonists were always men and women of courage and conviction, who suffered unseen scars, both physical and mental. He covered the Spanish Civil War, portraying it in fiction in For Whom the Bell Tolls, and he also covered World War II.
His classic novella The Old Man and the Sea won the Pulitzer Prize in 1953. He died in 1961.
This book is very very good. It is a story about an American in the Italian army and his love for a British nurse. They fall in love and get together. It shows the lengths people go to so that they can be together.
The book is very descriptive and can almost make you feel like if you’re in Italy during this time. I almost could not have put it down. The ending is also amazing as you experience a shocking twist.
The last novel Ernest Hemingway saw published, “The Old Man and the Sea” has proved itself to be one of the enduring works of American fiction. It is the story of an old Cuban fisherman and his supreme ordeal: a relentless, agonizing battle with a giant marlin far out in the Gulf Stream.
Using the simple. powerful language of a fable, Hemingway takes the timeless themes of courage in the face of defeat and personal triumph won from loss and transforms them into a magnificnet twentieth-century classic.
Reviews These dual Hemingways are the latest volumes in the Scribner Paperback Fiction series (Classic Returns, February 15, p. 187). They offer quality trade size editions, featuring attractive covers and easily readable type size.
Two of the greats. About the Author Ernest Hemingway did more to influence the style of English prose than any other writer of his time. He has been called “the most important author since Shakespeare,” by John O’Hara in The New York Times Book Review.
The publication of The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms immediately established him as one of the greatest literary lights of the 20th century. His classic novella The Old Man and the Sea won the Pulitzer Prize in 1953.
Hemingway was also awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954. His life and accomplishments are explored in-depth in the PBS documentary film from Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, Hemingway. He died in 1961.
These are beautiful editions of Hemingway’s work that faithfully reproduce the typefaces and drawings from the first editions. Such timeless works merit this faithful, reverential treatment.
I bought this book as a gift. It is a must read. We all face difficulties sometimes and perseverance is the key. You gotta fight for what you are believing for.
I really like this story, it’s a story about perseverance and courage. You really want that fish! Everyone should read this, enjoyable and I like the easy, no fluff writing style.
Hemingway’s Pulitzer Prize-winning classic The Old Man and the Sea is one of Hemingway’s most enduring works. Told in language of great simplicity and power, it is the story of an old Cuban fisherman, down on his luck, and his supreme ordeal — a relentless, agonizing battle with a giant marlin far out in the Gulf Stream.
Here Hemingway recasts, in strikingly contemporary style, the classic theme of courage in the face of defeat, of personal triumph won from loss. Written in 1952, this hugely successful novella confirmed his power and presence in the literary world and played a large part in his winning the 1954 Nobel Prize for literature.
Ernest Hemingway did more to change the style of English prose than any other writer in the twentieth century, and for his efforts he was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1954. Hemingway wrote in short, declarative sentences and was known for his tough, terse prose.
Publication of The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms immediately established Ernest Hemingway as one of the greatest literary lights of the twentieth century. As part of the expatriate community in 1920s Paris, the former journalist and World War I ambulance driver began a career that lead to international fame.
Hemingway was an aficionado of bullfighting and big-game hunting, and his main protagonists were always men and women of courage and conviction, who suffered unseen scars, both physical and emotional.
He covered the Spanish Civil War, portraying it in fiction in his brilliant novel For Whom the Bell Tolls, and he subsequently covered World War II. His classic novella The Old Man and the Sea won the Pulitzer Prize in 1953.
Hemingways powerful Pulitzer Prize winning novella about a poor, elderly fishermans single-handed attempt to catch and return home with an 18 marlin remains a classic portrait of courage, humility and dignity in the face of extreme adversity.
Santiago, well past his prime and under no illusions about it, his boat equipped only with fishing gear, a minimal amount of food and water and rudimentary weapons, sails far out into the Gulf Stream.
There he goes one-on-one with a giant fish and outwits and lands it, only to lose its valuable meat to a pack of sharks as he heads, bloodied and exhausted, back towards the Cuban coastline. This is not, however, a story of failure but of quiet achievement, and most appropriately, Donald Sutherland avoids the sort of expressive dramatic reading which would serve only to showcase the fishermans struggle against the elements.
Rather his sensitive low-keyed performance is designed to bring out the character of the old man, to touch us with his simplicity, patience, inner strength and sense of purpose, and to demonstrate that personal triumph can sometimes flow more meaningfully from physical loss than from public acclaim.
TranslateShow in original languageEn till omfånget tunn bok som beskriver en mycket gammal mans resa ut på havet för att fånga sitt livs fisk. Späckad till bredden av symbolik, beskriver kanske Hemingway sitt eget liv och hans kamp om upprättelse under den här tiden av sitt liv.
Vill man läsa en klassisk Hemingway bok rekommenderar jag inte den här boken, då många av Hemingways traditionella element saknas. Men vill man ha något att analysera och fundera över kan det här vara en passande bok.
Ernest Hemingway did more to change the style of English prose than any other writer in the twentieth century, and for his efforts he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954. Hemingway wrote in short, declarative sentences, and was known for his tough, terse prose.
Publication of The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms immediately established Ernest Hemingway as one of the greatest literary lights of the twentieth century. Part of the expatriate community in the 1920s in Paris, the former journalist and WW I ambulance driver began a career of international fame.
An aficionado of bullfighting and big-game hunting, Hemingway created protagonists who were always men and women of courage and conviction, who suffered unseen scars, both physical and mental. He covered the Spanish Civil War, writing For Whom the Bell Tolls, the book some consider his true literary masterpiece, and he also covered WW II.
Hemingway wrote the book. Excellent story. Book had words written in pencil on lots of pages. Didnt expect that. Otherwise it was a good book at a fair price.
When I truly needed it most, I got my AP Literature book. It was quite an interesting book since it covers some intense topics but overall I liked it. And as an added bonus it came quickly.
Promised myself I would now read all the classics I was suppose to read in school, (not just the crib notes. ) Honestly don’t know what all the fuss is about. While not a bad read, I can think of several authors that can hold me much better.
Giving him credit for when it was written I’d rate a peg above average. Oh well, on to” Travels with Charley”.
The conclusion of Ernest Hemingway’s short stories typically feature a twist or an unexpected turn of events. This is seen in stories like “The End of Something” and “The Snows of Kilimanjaro. ” In both of these stories, the protagonist is faced with a situation that is not what it seems.
In “The End of Something,” the protagonist is faced with the end of his relationship with his girlfriend. In “The Snows of Kilimanjaro,” the protagonist is faced with his own death. In both cases, the protagonist is forced to confront the reality of their situation.
The conclusion of Hemingway’s short stories typically leave the reader with a sense of unease or suspense.