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Ciaran Rafferty investigates the science of book classification
A Farewell to Arms
Probably the most testosterone-friendly love story ever written, it follows the romance of an American soldier and an English nurse in Italy. Hemingway’s descriptions of the Italian landscape, which are further developed in Across the River and Into the Trees, provide even the most casual of readers with a sensation of colour and scent and the taste of 1913 Italian air. Meanwhile the graphic detail of the war and the feelings of the novel’s hero for the nurse make their escape across the border disturbingly convincing.
The Snows of Kilimanjaro
The main story of the collection of the same name, the writing is the exemplary style that the American author developed so well in his old age creating the most wonderful concoction of bittersweet. Graham Greene was clearly a large influence here but by this point Hemingway was beyond influences relying largely on the brilliance of his own experiences to create a story. This is perhaps confessed in The Old Man and The Sea when taking a beer from a boy is something that the hero is able to do with dignity after years of being young.
Death in the Afternoon
Although much of Hemingway’s literature shows relaxed attitudes towards violence and hunting, Death in the Afternoon is both a wonderful description and an excellent defence of Spanish bullfighting. This exemplary work of non-fiction, like much of Hemingway’s fictional pugilist stories, portrays what at first may be seen as a violent sport as a graceful art-form. Very often well-informed and even better defended Death in the Afternoon is perhaps the most important book on bullfighting ever produced.
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