Whole Story Audio Books

Price: £14.99

In these Hemingway stories, which are partly autobiographical, men and women of passion live, fight, love and die in scenes of dramatic intensity. They range from hauntingly tragedy on the snow-capped peak of Kilimanjaro, to brutal America with its deceptive calm, and war-ravaged Europe.

Synopsis

In The Snows of Kilimanjaro Ernest Hemingway presents the story of a writer at the end of his life. While on a safari in Africa, Harry, the protagonist, is scratched on the leg by a thorn, and the infection becomes gangrenous and eventually kills him. Where most of Hemingway's stories feature protagonists who speak little and reflect nothing at all about their motivations and inner lives, in this story the main character "sees his life flash before his eyes" as he realises that he is dying.

Many readers have seen Harry as a self-portrait of Hemingway himself. Reading the story this way, the reader can look into Hemingway's struggles with himself: his insecurities, his machismo, his need and disdain for women. But it is not necessary to read the story through the lens of Hemingway's biography. The story is a gripping look at a man who is facing death and regretting many of the choices he has made in his life, as well as being a memorable glimpse inside the head of a writer who is reflecting on his craft and the demands it has made on him.

This recording is unabridged. Typically abridged audiobooks are not more than 60% of the author's work and as low as 30% with characters and plotlines removed.

About The Author

Ernest Hemingway was born in Chicago in 1899, the second of six children. In 1917 he joined the Kansas City Star as a cub reporter. The following year he volunteered as an ambulance driver on the Italian front, where he was badly wounded but decorated for his services. He returned to America in 1919 and married in 1921. In 1922 he reported on the Greco-Turkish war before resigning from journalism to devote himself to writing fiction.

Hemingway settled in Paris, associating with other expatriates like Ezra Pound and Gertrude Stein. He was passionately involved with bullfighting, big-game hunting and deep-sea fishing. Recognition of his position in contemporary literature came in 1954 when he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, following the publication of The Old Man and the Sea. He died in 1961.

Reviews and Press Quotes

The Daily Telegraph

“An excellent story-teller, intense and skilful in planning and bringing off his effects.”

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