Clean Well Lighted Place (Creative Short Stories) [Library Binding]

Ernest Hemingway (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1990 | ISBN-10: 0886823455 | ISBN-13: 978-0886823450

As a Spanish cafâe closes for the night, two waiters and a lonely customer confront the concept of nothingness.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Much-anthologized short story by Ernest Hemingway, first published in Scribner's Magazine in March 1933 and later that year in the collection Winner Take Nothing. Late one night two waiters in a cafe wait for their last customer, an old man who has recently attempted suicide, to leave. The younger waiter, eager to get home to his wife, turns the old man out, but the older waiter is sympathetic to the human need for a clean, well-lighted place, an outpost in the darkness. The story is a powerful existential statement about the insufficiency of religion as a source of comfort, and it contains an often cited version of the Lord's Prayer that substitutes the Spanish word nada ("nothing") for most of the prayer's nouns. -- The Merriam-Webster Encylopedia of Literature

Product Details

• Library Binding: 30 pages
• Publisher: Creative Co (Sd) (June 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0886823455
• ISBN-13: 978-0886823450
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,571,245 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Ernest Hemingway ranks as the most famous of twentieth-century American writers; like Mark Twain, Hemingway is one of those rare authors most people know about, whether they have read him or not. The difference is that Twain, with his white suit, ubiquitous cigar, and easy wit, survives in the public imagination as a basically, lovable figure, while the deeply imprinted image of Hemingway as rugged and macho has been much less universally admired, for all his fame. Hemingway has been regarded less as a writer dedicated to his craft than as a man of action who happened to be afflicted with genius. When he won the Nobel Prize in 1954, Time magazine reported the news under Heroes rather than Books and went on to describe the author as "a globe-trotting expert on bullfights, booze, women, wars, big game hunting, deep sea fishing, and courage." Hemingway did in fact address all those subjects in his books, and he acquired his expertise through well-reported acts of participation as well as of observation; by going to all the wars of his time, hunting and fishing for great beasts, marrying four times, occasionally getting into fistfights, drinking too much, and becoming, in the end, a worldwide celebrity recognizable for his signature beard and challenging physical pursuits.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The conflict in society., May 13, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Clean Well Lighted Place (Creative Short Stories) (Library Binding)

To me, the story has so many meanings; I just have analyzed the story in my reading class. The whole story at first will give the readers a sight of boring, but after the readers involve in it and analyze it; it turn out that the story has so many meaning. First, just looks at the old waiter; he is not the main character, but you can see the way that old man live right now will be the way that the old waiter will. As you can see, the old man didn't have friend; his wife has died a long times ago, and he is so lonely, but looks at the old waiter; you will see the same situation the the old waiter will go through in the next couples of years; he has the same situation but just becasue he has job now. In the long run, when time goes by, he will be old and can not work and feel so lonely because of lacking friends. You can see the old waiter doesn't want to go home at night; he also want to stay because his life is the same with the old man: he has no friend; he wants a well lighted place to enjoy to cover his darkness, and because his life is lonely too. In the big picture, you can see the conflict in society; when some one gets older, they may feel lonely and boring . It likes the process of the society to eliminate the elders out of society's activity. The more some one getting old, the more he (or she ) is isolated.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hemingway's Finest, October 3, 2003

By 

"markroeze" (Minnesota) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Clean Well Lighted Place (Creative Short Stories) (Library Binding)

Hemingway's cool, sardonic short story "A Clean Well Lighted Place" is one of the best shory stories EVER written. Most of the themes that Hemingway wrote about in his many classics are represented in this 2,000 word story. It only takes a few minutes to read, and each time leaves the reader with a stinging feeling. Also, indicitave of Hemingway's philosphy: nada y nada.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars symbolism throughout, November 14, 2001

By 

katie zhang (Iowa) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Clean Well Lighted Place (Creative Short Stories) (Library Binding)

I read this book for my college class and found it extremely interesting with a lot of symbolism throughout. There was a lot of intense imagery used by Hemingway such as the darkness of the night outside. As well, the old man's deafness is also a powerful image used in the story. Deafness shuts the old man out from the rest of the world. In the day, everything must be a reminder to him of his disconnection from the world. The busy streets, the marketplace, the chatter in the cafes along the street, the animals, and the motor vehicles fill the town with noise all day long. There are also imagery about nothing or "nada" which the old man was suffreing. Overall, this story is incredibly deep and was a bit hard to understand.