25 Best Ernest Hemingway Books

Ernest Hemingway is one of the most influential authors of all time. His work has been translated into forty languages and his novels have sold over a hundred million copies.

Ernest Hemingway is one of the most celebrated American writers in history. His books are timeless pieces of literature that continue to be cherished by readers all over the world. His books have not only influenced some of the greatest authors, but also some of the greatest leaders and social activists.

If you’re looking for a new book to read, I would highly recommend any novel written by Ernest Hemingway. In this blog post, we will take a look at the 25 best books written by Ernest Hemingway and their benefits.

List of the 25 Best Books of Ernest Hemingway

This is the story of an old Cuban fisherman called Santiago. He has gone 84 days without catching a fish and he sets out for one last adventure before going back home to his wife, only to catch a giant marlin on his way. With all hope lost, Santiago battles with this enormous fish until it’s too much work even for him. It’s a story about friendship, determination, and bravery.

This is one of the most popular novels written by Ernest Hemingway. This book has been adapted into an Academy Award-winning movie, which was directed by John Sturges and starred Spencer Tracy as Santiago. The Old Man And The Sea shows readers how to keep their spirits up in times of struggle or adversity. It’s a must-read for anyone who needs some motivation in life!

This is a novel that explores what it means to fight for one’s country during World War II. He follows Robert Jordan who is American fighting with the Republicans against Francisco Franco’s Nationalist forces during the Spanish Civil War. Hemingway shows how challenging this war can be on both sides by showing their emotional struggles throughout this journey while they try to maintain their dignity despite being pushed into desperate situations over and over again. he uses his experience from having fought in  War I to create a true-to-life depiction of what it means to go into war and how challenging it can be on one’s mental state.

The story of an American soldier, Frederic Henry who falls for his English nurse during World War I only for her to get pregnant with their illegitimate child. As Frederic fights in the war, nurse Catherine Barkley stays by his side and gets to suffer through all hardships that come their way.

This is one of Hemingway’s earlier novels, written after he returned from World War I injured and traumatized with PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder). The Sun Also Rises focuses on Jake Barnes, an American veteran who is unable to have sexual relationships with women. He goes off on a trip to Europe where he meets up with other Americans and British friends that are all trying hard to forget the war they went through together.

This book was published posthumously and it consists of a series of memories from Hemingway’s life in Paris. It is about his time as an ex-pat writer living in Europe, where he gets to meet many other writers including F. Scott Fitzgerald and James Joyce, who would become some of his closest friends throughout the years.

6. The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway

This book consists of a series of short stories written by Hemingway throughout his entire career as a writer. They have been put together in chronological order, with each story being set at different points throughout his life, which allows you to see how much his writing style evolved over the years. This book will give you a good overview of the various styles Hemingway used throughout his career.

7. To Have and Have Not

This book was considered to be one of Hemingway’s more political novels. It revolves around Harry Morgan, a fishing boat captain who has chosen to go against the law by transporting African-Americans back and forth from Cuba for money. While he is smuggling these people out of Cuba, they are often faced with danger as their lives are at risk. this book reveals Hemingway’s strong political beliefs.

8. The Garden of Eden

Hemingway’s final work, this book is a much more experimental novel compared to his earlier works. It tells the story of David and Catherine Bourne who travel from America to France after their marriage falls apart because of her adultery with another man named Robert Wilson. This leads them into a complicated relationship which ends up becoming an erotic triangle when they meet another couple who seduce them.

9. Death in the Afternoon

This book is a nonfiction piece where Hemingway talks about the art of bullfighting. It takes on a very different tone from his earlier works and instead focuses on its more artistic elements, analyzing the ritual that goes into this sport as well as some of its history. This gives readers an insight into Hemingway’s perspective as a writer and shows different sides to his personality.

10. Islands in the Stream

This book is a short novel that was published posthumously after being finished by Hemingway’s fourth wife, Mary. It tells the story of three generations of men who are all connected through fishing and war experiences. this book is much more experimental in its style and it focuses on the lives of these three men, rather than being a historical war novel.

11. Across the River and Into the Trees

This short novel is set during World War II and follows a group of American soldiers in Italy. It stars Colonel Richard Cantwell, an aging officer who has been wounded but continues to fight on the front lines. This book was initially met with major criticism by critics, which led Hemingway into depression and he began having health issues soon after.

12. On Writing

This is a non-fiction book where Hemingway talks about the art of writing. It was written towards the end of his life, and it focuses on how he developed as a writer through his various experiences in life that would help him become one of America’s greatest writers. This book can also be seen as an autobiography because it talks about various parts of Hemingway’s life and how they impacted him as a writer.

13. True at First Light

This is a nonfiction book where Hemingway talks about his experiences in Africa. It was written during the last years of Hemingway’s life, and it focuses on his time spent hunting with professional Kenyan game hunters. This can be seen as an autobiography because he also reflects on some other events that had happened to him throughout his life and how they impacted his personality and relationships with people.

14. The Torrents of Spring

This is a satirical novel where Hemingway parodies Sherwood Anderson’s writing style. It was developed during his time spent in Paris, and it tells the story of two Americans who travel to Europe with hopes of becoming successful writers but end up not being able to adjust well to their new environment. this book helped establish him as one of the major writers of his time, which led to him being able to develop friendships with other famous writers such as F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ezra Pound.

15. The Dangerous Summer

This is a nonfiction book where Hemingway talks about the events of an actual bull-fighting season in Spain. He was close friends with many famous bullfighters, and this led to him writing about his experiences as well as some advice that he would give these people throughout their careers as bullfighters. In this book, he also talks about the emotional and personal challenges that they faced throughout their careers as well as some advice on how to deal with them.

16. The Essential Hemingway

This is a short story collection where Hemingway takes on various themes and genres. It contains many of his best-known pieces, including “The Killers” which was published in the 1927 edition of Men Without Women. This book has some experimental styles that were not present in his earlier works, but it still captures some major aspects of Hemingway’s writing style such as the economical use of words to get across powerful emotions for the reader to experience while reading these stories.

17. Men Without Women

This is a short story collection where Hemingway writes about people who live at the edge of life, away from society and its standards. The major themes that he explores in this book are love and death which eventually culminate into their forms of masculinity, such as living wild lives with his friends to prove themselves worthy against women or facing death head-on when they can no longer challenge their existence anymore. In this book, Hemingway also shows his ability to vary between different styles of writing as he does not stick with one particular genre or style throughout the whole collection.

18. The Nick Adams Stories

This is a short story collection where Hemingway writes about Nick Adams, an alter ego of his own. There are various themes that he explores in these stories, but the main ones include innocence and experience which shows how one matures throughout their lives. He also captures some aspects of American life during different decades such as World War I or The Great Depression which contribute to defining what it means to be an American man during those times.

19. The Hemingway Reader

This is a short story collection where Hemingway takes on various genres from different decades of his life. It contains many of his best-known pieces, such as “The Old Man and the Sea” which won him the Pulitzer Prize in 1953. This book showcases how he evolved throughout time to end up becoming one of the most influential American writers for generations upon generations.

20. The Fifth Column and Four Stories of the Spanish Civil War

This is a short story collection that explores the Spanish Civil War from Hemingway’s perspective. He captures how it affected him as well as some of their experiences during this time, which makes it an important historical document of what one man experienced during this crucial moment in history. This book also contains some of his best-known pieces, such as “The Snows of Kilimanjaro” which was published in The Fifth Column and Four Stories of the Spanish Civil War.

21. The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber

The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber is a  short story written by Ernest Hemingway set in Africa. It was published in the September 1936 issue of Cosmopolitan magazine and also appeared in the collection Winner Take Nothing (1933). The story is told from a third-person limited point of view. Although published in the September 1936 issue of Cosmopolitan, the story was written and published in Key West, Florida. To date, it is his most popular short story.

22. The Killers

The Killers is a short story by Ernest Hemingway. It was written in 1928, first published in the April 26, 1929 issue of Scribner’s Magazine, and included in his collection Men Without Women. The story is about Nick Adams who wanders into a lunchroom late at night to have dinner only to discover that there is trouble waiting for him in the form of two gangsters.

23. Hill Like White Elephants

This is a short story told in the second person which focuses on a couple sitting at a train station who are talking about an unidentified operation that the woman has to undergo and the man’s desire for her to consider not having it. The first draft of this was called “The Kill” and then he changed it to “Hills Like White Elephants” which is a line from the Ernest Hemingway novel A Farewell to Arms. It received the O. Henry Award for short stories in 1929.

24. Big Two-Hearted River

Big Two-Hearted River is a two-part short story written by American author Ernest Hemingway. The first part was published in the July 1924 edition of “Transatlantic Review” and the second part, under the title “The Big Two-Hearted River: Part I”, was published in the August 1924 edition of “This Quarter”. The story, part of Hemingway’s “Nick Adams” series, is about 17-year-old Nick returning from war and fishing alone in the woods of Michigan. it shows Nick’s discovery of solitude and his initiation into the rites of manhood.

25. Dateline: Toronto

Dateline: Toronto is a collection of various journalism pieces by Ernest Hemingway. The book was published in October 1966 and contains mostly articles written for the Toronto Star when Hemingway lived in that city during the 1920s. This book is an important source for information on Hemingway’s early career, 1923–1925. this book contains Hemingway’s first articles on boxing, bullfighting, and big game hunting which would be his major passions throughout his life.

Final Words

Ernest Hemingway was a celebrated American author and journalist. He is best known for his short stories, novels, and non-fiction work about World War I. His writing style has been characterized as economical with words that are sparse yet evocative of the period in which he lived. When you read his work it’s easy to see why so many people consider him one of America’s most influential short story writer. We hope this blog post has helped bring some more knowledge on Ernest Hemingway to your attention.

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