Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.
To Have and Have Not  By  cover art

To Have and Have Not

By: Ernest Hemingway
Narrated by: Will Patton
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $13.46

Buy for $13.46

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Publisher's summary

To Have and Have Not is the dramatic story of Harry Morgan, an honest man who is forced into running contraband between Cuba and Key West as a means of keeping his crumbling family financially afloat. His adventures lead him into the world of wealthy and dissipated yachtsmen who throng the region, and involve him in a strange and unlikely love affair.

Harsh, realistic, yet with one of the most subtle and moving relationships in the Hemingway oeuvre, To Have and Have Not is literary high adventure at its finest.

©1937 Ernest Hemingway. Copyright renewed 1965 Mary Hemingway. 1934 Hearst Magazine, Inc. Copyright renewed 1962 Mary Hemingway. All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form (P)2006 Simon & Schuster Inc. All rights reserved

Critic reviews

"A truly classic author." (Library Journal)

What listeners say about To Have and Have Not

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    533
  • 4 Stars
    329
  • 3 Stars
    169
  • 2 Stars
    49
  • 1 Stars
    29
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    582
  • 4 Stars
    221
  • 3 Stars
    65
  • 2 Stars
    20
  • 1 Stars
    11
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    417
  • 4 Stars
    239
  • 3 Stars
    164
  • 2 Stars
    49
  • 1 Stars
    33

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Love Hemingway, Patton not so much

while I applaud the notion behind getting "name" actors to honor Hemingway by narrating his works, there is a problem that arises too often: good actors are not automatically good narrators. not only did i tire quickly of Patton's breathy whisper which he applies to almost every facet of this novel, it is so passive that it is completely wrong for the prose style and the action. the temperament of the characters, Morgan especially, all seem to blend together into boredom. there is little emotion in any speech, and the poetry in narrative passages is lost into a big homogenous sameness. there are moments when Patton gets more into it, some passages near the end stand out as his better moments of narration, but on the whole the vigor is missing. I felt very much the same way with Hurt's work on Sun Also Rises; it's as though they feel that to give this important writer proper reading they must add gravity to the prose by speaking slowly and quietly. the crispness and vitality of the prose doesn't need their improvement, it just needs a proper reading. again i find myself thinking back to Adams narrations from Books on Tape, I don't remember ever feeling like he was bored with the project; nice to have variation in theory, but give me his vitality. (Campbell Scott is much the same way as Hurt and Patton, and let's not start on Sutherland)

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

14 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

A Good Reading of a Bleak Novel

To Have and Have Not is a difficult book to love, despite this well-handled reading of the text. The story is bleak, violent and pessimistic in tone, set as it is during the Great Depression, and leaves little room for hope to redeem its bleakness. The novel also jumps between points of views and characters instead of sticking with one narrator or protagonist. This creates a novel with less unity, though Hemingway's intent seems to be to give readers a look at both the wealthy and the poor and the troubles endured by both. However, this omniscient point of view is less popular with modern readers and many will interpret these passages as digressions. Hemingway himself is said to have regarded it as his least successful novel. Still, it is an eye-opening look into a now half-forgotten era.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

14 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Nostalgic read.

We just saw the movie and recently visited Key West where we toured Hemingway's home. "To Have and Have Not" was discussed during the tour so we thought we would reread (hear) a book we read in high school. Great listen -- colorful characters and a visit to history we have long forgotten. A little uncomfortable at the beginning with descriptions of African-Americans and terms we do not hear today.
Recommend this highly.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

13 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Not Humphrey Bogart ...

I was curious to read the novel with the same name as the Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall movie. Mostly, I'm disappointed, but probably because of my uninformed expectations. About the only elements the book and movie have in common are a few of the characters and small-boat sailing of the Caribbean. The movie changed the setting (both time and place) and provided a much different story arc.
Hemingway wrote this book as a series of vignettes around the "protagonist," Harry Morgan. Harry's antagonist is Fate. And he looses. Harry is a skilled sailor in the 1930's operating a small boat between Key West and Cuba. As times grow harder and Fate contrives against him, he is forced to take less savory jobs to support his wife and daughters in Key West. (Yep, no slim blond girl to fall in love with. Sorry Lauren Bacall.) He personifies the "Have Not" regular guy.
Threads of other characters shape the "Have" side of the title. People who are more well-to-do, but with less courage and morality than Harry. These characters display pitiful traits and feel sorry for themselves. They provide the social dichotomy that seems the point of the book.
Hemingway's story is very much a product of his time (the Depression) and probably his own experiences in the Spanish civil war. It is gritty, unsparing details of injury and pain. As Harry's narrator, Hemingway uses racist labels freely, but in a weird way does not act bigoted. The best parts of the writing were the loving details given to the waters between Cuba and the Keys, and the fishing and boating.
Noteworthy narration: Will Patton's performance was very, very good. Accents, tone, pacing, and intensity ... He truly made this audible book worth listening to.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Move Over Dostoyevsky, You Have a Comrade:

Your New Comrade Though Just Writes a Little More to the Point.

Where have I been? I have read at least six Hemingway novels, and not until “To Have and Have Not” did I ever consider him an existentialist. Harry Morgan suffers through his Hemingway given chores (Morgan’s thoughts and actions in carrying out the story) being totally disorientated by all the absurd and harmful threats the world throws at him. Yet, in an unrelentingly vicious manner he reacts and responds. It is those four or five episodes of Harry Morgan’s venal acts – he will do anything to servive and to provide for his Depression suffering family - that make this novel a bewildering but memorable tale. And yes, there is the Hemingway style of writing. Simplistically poignant.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Rambling Ernest at his best

No doubt Ernest Hemingway looked at life in a clear plain way. This story gets you inside the heads of many characters. Not really going anywhere, in no particular order, is the beauty of it. Simplicity and clarity of voice is the trademark, and what makes this another great listen from the man himself.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Moving story, great narrator

Would you consider the audio edition of To Have and Have Not to be better than the print version?

Yes

What was one of the most memorable moments of To Have and Have Not?

I was moved when Hemingway had multiple people, that were unrelated to the main characters in the story, expose their nightly bedtime thoughts, worries, and general perceptions. It's good to be pulled up from a story you are so embedded in and reminded that life is going on around your primary characters.

What does Will Patton bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Will Patton does an excellent job with accents and inflections in just the right places. Hemingway's sentences can get pretty long and descriptive, but Patton never misses a beat.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

When Harry Morgan is trying his hardest to get his last, dying words out. And when he finally does, the crew around him thinks it jibberish, but you as the reader, with an inside view, know the truth.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Wonderful!'

What made the experience of listening to To Have and Have Not the most enjoyable?

Will Patton did such an amazing job! He had the characters perfectly!

What did you like best about this story?

Of course Hemingways style. He wrote so descriptively. You feel as if you are there!

What does Will Patton bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

He was able to give each character a distinct personality.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes!

Any additional comments?

A must listen!!!!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Good Read

Enjoyed this very much...easy to listen and follow. Wonderfully read and awesome story line by fabulous writer.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Good story, Good reading

Would you consider the audio edition of To Have and Have Not to be better than the print version?

i never read the print version

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

it is thought provoking.

Any additional comments?

Good sound recording. Good Narration and story telling.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful