The Snows of Kilimanjaro and Other Stories [Hardcover]

Ernest Hemingway (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1987

In these Hemingway stories, which are partly autobiographical, men and women of passion live, fight, love and die in scenes of dramatic intensity. They range from hauntingly tragedy on the snow-capped peak of Kilimanjaro, to brutal America with its deceptive calm, and war-ravaged Europe.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Returning from a Kenyan safari in 1932, Ernest Hemingway quickly devised a literary trophy to add to his stash of buffalo hides and rhino horns. To this day, Green Hills of Africa seems an almost perverse paean to the thrills of bloodshed, in which the author cuts one notch after another in his gun barrel and declares, "I did not mind killing anything." Four years later, however, Hemingway came up with a more accomplished spin on his African experiences--a pair of them, in fact, which he collected with eight other tales in The Snows of Kilimanjaro. The title story is a meditation on corruption and mortality, two subjects that were already beginning to preoccupy the 37-year-old author. As the protagonist perishes of gangrene out in the bush, he recognizes his own failure of nerve as a writer:

Now he would never write the things that he had saved to write until he knew enough to write them well. Well, he would not have to fail at trying to write them either. Maybe you could never write them, and that was why you put them off and delayed the starting. Well he would never know, now.

In the story, at least, the hero gets some points for stoic acceptance, as well as an epiphanic vision of Kilimanjaro's summit, "wide as all the world, great, high, and unbelievably white in the sun." (The movie version is another matter: Gregory Peck makes it back to the hospital, loses a leg, and is a better person for it.) But Hemingway's other great white hunter, in "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber," is granted a less dignified exit. This time the issue is cowardice, another of Papa's bugaboos: poor Francis is too wimpy to face down a wounded lion, let alone satisfy his treacherous wife in bed. Yet he does manage a last-minute triumph before dying--an absolute assertion of courage--which makes the title a hair less ironic than it initially seems. No wonder these are two of the highest-caliber (so to speak) tales in the Hemingway canon. --Bob Brandeis --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

About the Author

Ernest Hemingway was born in Chicago in 1899, the second of six children. In 1917, he joined the Kansas City Star as a cub reporter. The following year, he volunteered as an ambulance driver on the Italian front, where he was badly wounded but decorated for his services. He returned to America in 1919, and married in 1921. In 1922, he reported on the Greco-Turkish war before resigning from journalism to devote himself to fiction. He settled in Paris, associating with other expatriates like Ezra Pound and Gertrude Stein. He was passionately involved with bullfighting, big-game hunting and deep-sea fishing. Recognition of his position in contemporary literature came in 1954 when he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, following the publication of The Old Man and the Sea. He died in 1961. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 154 pages
• Publisher: Macmillan Pub Co (May 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0025509403
• ISBN-13: 978-0025509405
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,586,925 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

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A quick fix of Hemingway., October 15, 1997

By 

[e-mail] (El Paso, TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Snows of Kilimanjaro and Other Stories (Paperback)

"The Snows of Kilimanjaro" contains some of Hemingway's finer short stories. And like many of his works, they resemble his life. Everything from his childhood to his later years in Africa are material for these tales. The stories of Hemingway's recurrent character, Nick Adams, who some say is Hemingway himself, are contained in this book also. All the works bear his distinct imprint, even though many are under ten pages in length. "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber" is what I consider Hemingway's most potent short story of all. This collection is a great primer for those who are unacquainted with Hemingway's work and wish to discover his talent.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars You may want to buy The Complete Short Stories..., August 25, 2004

By 

JR Pinto (New Jersey) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Snows of Kilimanjaro and Other Stories (Paperback)

This very short little volume serves as the perfect introduction to the work and style of Ernest Hemmingway. It contains ten of his most popular short stories. THIS IS BY NO MEANS A COMPLETE COLLECTION OF HIS GREATEST HITS. Notably absent from this collection is "Hills Like White Elephants." However, it does contain such perennial favorites as "The Killers," "A Clean Well-Lighted Place," and "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber." Ultimately, the consumer (like myself) will be tempted to buy The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemmingway, which is not much more expensive.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Death and Drink, War and lllness, April 24, 2004

By 

Plume45 "kitka12345" (Westchester, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Snows of Kilimanjaro and Other Stories (Paperback)

The editors at Scribners have chosen ten of Hemingway's short stories for this Paperback edition. Set both in America and
abroad, the subjects of these tales deal with some of his favorite--albeit morbid--literary interests: death, drink, war and illness. Possibly influenced by Anderson's anthology, WINESBURG OHIO, the author actually chooses one character, Nick Adams, to appear in several unrelated stories. Ranging in length from 3 - 33 pages these stories are the offspring of the imagination and morality of a Man's author. His protagonists include a solider, boxer, gambler, game hunters--even simple waiters. Set in Africa, Italy, France and the Chicago environs, this collection will transport readers back to the era of the Lost Generation, when personal choices were often painfully wrong, resulting in social and moral disaster. Vintage Heminway, with subtle hints of his interest in suicide.