The Short Stories, Volume I

By: Ernest Hemingway

Narrated by: Stacy Keach

Length: 5 hrs and 5 mins

Publisher's summary

Before he gained wide fame as a novelist, Ernest Hemingway established his literary reputation with his short stories. Set in the varied landscapes of Spain, Africa, and the American Midwest, this definitive audio collection traces the development and maturation of Hemingway's distinct and revolutionary storytelling style - from the plain bald language of his first story to his mastery of seamless prose that contained a spare, eloquent pathos, as well as a sense of expansive solitude. These stories showcase the singular talent of a master, the most important American writer of the 20th century.

The Short Stories, Volume 1 features Stacy Keach reading favorites including:

The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber

The Capital of the World

The Snows of Kilimanjaro

Old Man at the Bridge

Up in Michigan

On the Quai at Smyrna

Indian Camp

The Doctor and the Doctor's Wife

The End of Something

The Three-Day Blow

The Battler

A Very Short Story

Soldier's Home

The Revolutionist

Mr. and Mrs. Elliot

Cat in the Rain

Out of Season

Cross-Country Snow

©1953 Ernest Hemingway, All Rights Reserved (P)2002 Simon & Schuster Inc., All Rights Reserved, AUDIOWORKS Is an Imprint of Simon & Schuster Audio Division, Simon & Schuster Inc.

Kill the music

The music is too long and it’s annoying and it’s unnecessary. Wish the chapters were labeled...

Great reader - sounds like a Hemingway guy

Some great, most really good. The reader’s voice is terrific. Indian Camp was my favorite.

Detailed

Great story. I put my full review in the Guided review, but the computer did not take it and erased it, so I am not writing it again.

Beautiful stories and excellent narration

It was a wonderful book to just listen to as a meditative means. Hemingways stories are amazing

Superb

Clear, concise and compelling. I couldn’t put it down. I now understand the phrase, “words come alive!”

Stacy Keach fades on sentences

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Brilliant book by brilliant author.

What didn’t you like about Stacy Keach’s performance?

Stacy Keach fades on many sentences, thus making it impossible to hear. This is particularly noticed in an automobile environment. The quiet passages are impossible to hear. This dynamic range is appropriate for the stage but NOT for reading a book. Narrow the dynamic range, Stacy, we are listening to Hemingway not you!

Liking Hemingway much more as a short story author

I'm hot and cold on Hemingway. I loved the Sun Also Rises. For Whom the Bell Tolls was ok, more enjoyable than not. Hated The Old Man and the Sea.

These short stories are *awesome* and really demonstrate why he came to prominence in the first place.
In this format, Hemingway's weaknesses as a writer aren't as glaring (i.e. his well known inability to write female characters or avoid complex emotions). The format almost forces him to move things along which helps the story telling tremendously.

Beware: If you like things tied up into neat packages at the end, this collection isn't for you. These short stories will hit a crescendo and just end leaving plot line open and the reader dangling. And that's what I like so much about it. You the reader are left to ponder and fill in the details on your own. These stories could be used as prompts in creative writing classes.

One note about the audiobook: I can't believe Audible hasn't fixed this, but starting around halfway through the collection the end of each track has paragraphs from Hemingway's other short story collection "5th Column" spliced into it. You'll hear the end of the short story. Then the narrator will say "Chapter 3" and there will be a paragraph or two from a completely unrelated story. This is not your player messing up, this is an error with the compilation of the audio book.

Papa wouldn't have like this recording.

Papa was pretty particular and sometimes labored over a sentence, let alone a paragraph, for hours at a time and his great forte as perhaps the greatest author of prose in the English language in the 20th century was his literary style, his sparce descriptions, what the rain felt like, looked like, and perhaps what it portended. This is an excellent group of short stories, representative of Hemingway's finer works, with only a few obvious omissions (I'm referring to both Vol 1 and II). They are, however, generally well done and the narrator is capable. But Hemingway is not about "the story" or the theme or the plot of whatever he's writing. My rating of this at 4 stars reflects the disappointment any serious reader of Hemingway will have in not having the written pages before him/her, to read that delightful first sentence which inevitablish introduces each chapter of a novel or a story. Not Hemingway at his best, but if the listener wants a taste these two volumes are a good place to start. But for heavens sake, dear God, please read the written stories too. These make a nice companion for a weekend with a bit of interruption. Listen to one on your iPod and stop, then pick it up and be ready for the next.

Technical aspects need work

I thought for 90% of this book that there was something wrong with the editing because at the end of the later stories, the reader would announce a chapter number and then read a few sentences from something completely unrelated to the story that just ended. I almost gave up but at the last minute decided to consult my hard copy of Hemingway’s short stories… nope, that’s how he wrote them. There’s a nice little intro in my print copy that says “I wrote these at such and such time and place and also at the same time began writing snippets of my novels…” In the print version, these snippets are separated from the preceding story and so very obviously align with Hemingway’s own introduction.
Unfortunately in the audio version, the chapter snippets are the same audio segment as the preceding story. Very confusing AND the story titles aren’t listed on the recording menu, it just says “Chapter 6” and you have to listen or consult the buried Audible description for the story titles, and then at the end of whatever story Chapter 6 is, there’s a pause and the reader says “Chapter 2” and begins the draft novel snippet.
Ugh!
Also the volume is really inconsistent.

Refreshed my familiarity with his work.

After reading Klinkenborg’s writing tutorial I thought it would be interesting to read a short story Master. I wasn’t disappointed.

Hemingway can create a mood and the characters that fit it with just a few well wrought sentences. He can write about anything and place the Reader in the scene with no wasted descriptive phrases. Fishing villages, Bull Rings or African Veldt, he takes us there.

I enjoyed rereading these stories. Four Stars and Five for Stacy Keach’s flexible narration. ****