In the previous post of this series, I wrote about American classical literature, commenting on Mark Twain’s books and works about him available in Kindle edition. Today I’ll continue with the classics, namely, Ernest Hemingway, popular not only in the USA, but also through out the world.
The Old Man and the Sea written in Cuba in 1951 brought the Pulitzer Prize to the writer in 1953. The novella recounts a battle between an aging fisherman Santiago and a giant marlin far out in the Gulf Stream. The story is told in a simple manner, which is quite typical of Hemingway. Still, the seeming simplicity only emphasizes the complexity of ideas the story brings to the surface – about a strong spirit and courage of a man, who fights the fish with the limits of his body and mind. “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.”
The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway: The Finca Vigia Edition is a treasure for Hemingway’s admirers. “The Finca Vigia” refers to the home owned by the writer in Cuba from 1939 to 1959. The book is unique in the way that it contains not only The First Forty Nine Stories, but also additional 14 not included in the previous edition, as well as 7 others unpublished before.
Ernest Hemingway on Writing is a collection of the writer’s thoughts on the subject, compiled from his letters, interviews and an unpublished manuscript by Larry W. Phillips. “Sometimes ponderous, other times offhand, these thoughts form a portrait of a man driven to create not solely the best writing he could, but the best writing, period.” A nice book for Hemingway’s fans and writers.
A man’s got to take a lot of punishment to write a really funny book.
-Ernest Hemingway
