Art Matters: Hemingway, Craft, and the Creation of the Modern Short Story

by Robert Paul Lamb

In Art Matters, Robert Paul Lamb provides the definitive study of Ernest Hemingway's short story aesthetics. Lamb locates Hemingway's art in literary historical contexts and explains what he learned from earlier artists, including Edgar Allan Poe, Paul Cezanne, Henry James, Guy de Maupassant, Anton Chekhov, Stephen Crane, Gertrude Stein, James Joyce, and Ezra Pound. Examining how Hemingway developed this inheritance, Lamb insightfully charts the evolution of the unique style and innovative techniques that would forever change the nature of short fiction. Art Matters opens with an analysis of the authorial effacement Hemingway learned from Maupassant and Chekhov, followed by fresh perspectives on the author's famous use of concision and omission. Redefining literary impressionism and expressionism as alternative modes for depicting modern consciousness, Lamb demonstrates how Hemingway and Willa Cather learned these techniques from Crane and made them the foundation of their respective aesthetics. After examining the development of Hemingway's art of focalization, he clarifies what Hemingway really learned from Stein and delineates their different uses of repetition. Turning from techniques to formal elements, Art Matters anatomizes Hemingway's story openings and endings, analyzes how he created an entirely unprecedented role for fictional dialogue, explores his methods of characterization, and categorizes his settings in the fifty-three stories that comprise his most important work in the genre.
A major contribution to Hemingway scholarship and to the study of modernist fiction, Art Matters shows exactly how Hemingway's craft functions and argues persuasively for the importance of studies of articulated technique to any meaningful understanding of fiction and literary history. The book also develops vital new ways of understanding the short story genre as Lamb constructs a critical apparatus for analyzing the short story, introduces to a larger audience ideas taken from practicing storywriters, theorists, and critics, and coins new terms and concepts that enrich our understanding of the field.

Genres: Writing, Nonfiction

296 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

Reviews

[John Keahey · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent book by an academic about the art of the short story with an emphasis on the stories of Ernest Hemingway. The general, nonacademic reader will find it most approachable. Lamb looks at stories by de Maupassant, Willa Cather, Chekov, James, and others in light of their influence on young Hemingway. Budding short-story writers would be well advised to look at this book as an inspiration about how to approach narrative, etc. When I finished, I launched into a major re-read of Hemingway's 50-plus short stories, as well as many by de Maupassant, one of my literary heros. Marvelous reading all around.

[Zeke · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read many books on writing, too many to count. And this book stands as the greatest I've read on the subject. I felt like Lamb took me in behind the curtain where the wizard lived, worked, and played. Amazing!

[Elizabeth Boyd · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an amazing book. It's beautifully written and incredibly interesting. I've read so much on Hemingway, but no one has ever really explained how his fiction works before now. Re-reading Hemingway's stories, I saw and understood them so much better after reading this book. I wish more people could write literary criticism like this. This book is a real treasure and I'ds recommend it to anyone who cares about Hemingway, or about fiction, especially the short story. And it's absolutely a must read for anyone who writes fiction. It will make you a much better writer. Just a great book.

[Brian Page · Rating 1 out of 5]

About halfway through Art Matters: Hemingway, Craft, and the Creation of the Modern Short Story, I was ready to write the book off as nothing more than Robert Paul Lamb’s effort to accrue academic brownie points by coining new jargon for the already jargon-overloaded field of literary criticism. But I relent, and admit that the study has value if you can tolerate (or better yet, avoid) the jargon and navel gazing. My suggestion is to skip chapters 3, 4, 6, & 8. You’ll be left with an insightful commentary on the structure of Hemingway’s craft that, in my case at least, deepens my understanding and appreciation of Papa’s short stories. I find the appendix of particular value. It is a list of the short stories in chronological order by the date each was composed, along with first publication, and first collection. I am now inspired to read the stories in chronological order. Otherwise, what Paul has to say could have been said better, more concisely, and in a text less jargon loaded.

[Debbie Jacob · Rating 4 out of 5]

It never ceases to amaze me how many books there are on the theory of writing or the craft of writing. This one has fascinating chapters, particularly the one on Hemingway's use of dialogue, but some of the chapters are so heavy they are difficult to swallow. This is not merely theory. Lamb often includes writing samples from Hemingway and other writers to prove his point.

[LOL_BOOKS]

BOOKS YOU'RE CURRENTLY READING, JUST FINISHED OR WILL READ NEXT.