Ready Reference Treatise: In Our Time

By Raja Sharma

“In Our Time” by Ernest Hemingway was first published in 1925. It happens to be the author’s first collection of short stories. The title of the book has been derived from, “Give us peace in our time, O Lord,” from the English Book of Common Prayer.

The book had a complex publication history. For the 1923 edition of the book, the author had selected six prove vignettes composed by Ezra Pound. Eventually, in the following year, the author added twelve vignettes more in the edition that was printed in Paris.

Ready Reference Treatise: In Our Time
Copyright
Chapter One: Introduction
Chapter Two: Plot Overview
Chapter Three: Major Characters
Chapter Four: Structure and Style
Chapter Five: Complete Summary
Chapter Six: Thematic Analysis

• Language: English
• Publisher: Raja Sharma
• Release date: Feb 16, 2016
• ISBN: 9781310410109

Raja Sharma

Raja Sharma is a retired college lecturer.He has taught English Literature to University students for more than two decades.His students are scattered all over the world, and it is noticeable that he is in contact with more than ninety thousand of his students.

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Ready Reference Treatise: In Our Time

Copyright

Ready Reference Treatise: In our Time

Raja Sharma

Copyright@2016 Raja Sharma

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Chapter One: Introduction

In Our Time by Ernest Hemingway was first published in 1925. It happens to be the author’s first collection of short stories. The title of the book has been derived from, Give us peace in our time, O Lord, from the English Book of Common Prayer.

The book had a complex publication history. For the 1923 edition of the book, the author had selected six prove vignettes composed by Ezra Pound. Eventually, in the following year, the author added twelve vignettes more in the edition that was printed in Paris.

In this edition, the author added fourteen short stories to the book, which included the short story Indian Camp and Big Two-Headed River. Eventually, the final edition of the book included On the Quai at Smyrna for the later edition that was published in the year 1930.

Grief, separation, loss, and alienation, etc. are some of the common themes of these stories. The stories also include the descriptions of acts of war, bullfighting, and the current events.

The author has very skilfully presented the oblique depiction of emotion in these stories. However, Hemingway’s critics and biographers often say that none of his works are with so many contradictions as the present work In Our Time.

It is noticeable that Earnest Hemingway was only nineteen years old in the year 1918 when he was posted to the Italian Front as a Red Cross ambulance driver.

On the battlefield, he had to sustain a severe wound from mortar fire. He spent the following six months in a hospital, recovering from his wound. He recuperated in a Milan hospital.

During that period in the hospital, Hemingway fell in love with a nurse named Agnes von Korowsky. When he came back to the United States, Agnes informed him that she was engaged to an Italian military officer. Hemingway forgot all about it soon and turned to journalism. He got involved in journalism very actively.

In the year 1921, Hemingway married Hadley Richardson. Soon after his marriage, he was posted to Paris as international correspondent for ‘The Toronto Star.’ He was sent there to report on the Greco-Turkish War. He was also told to cover certain sporting events in Germany and Spain.

During his stay in Paris, Hemingway made a few new friends that included Ezra Pound, F. Scott Fitzgerald, James Joyce, Ford Madox Ford, and John Dos Passos. However, his relationship with Ezra pound became very strong with the passage of time.

Hemingway was highly influenced by Ezra Pound. It helped him as the young author. Pound helped Hemingway, and consequently six of Hemingway’s poems were published in Poetry Magazine.

In the month of August, in the same year, Ezra Pound told Hemingway to contribute a small volume to the modernist series that he was editing. With that assignment, Hemingway began to think seriously about fiction writing. It had a great impact on Hemingway to become a great fiction writer in future.

Unfortunately, on 2nd of December, 1922, Hemingway lost all his early writing that included his juvenilia and apprentice fiction.

Actually, he had been given an assignment to cover the Conference of Lausanne, leaving Hadley behind, because he was sick with cold. He stayed behind in Paris.

Hemingway spent several days in Lausanne, covering the conference. In the evenings, he would drink with Lincoln Steffens. Hadley, on the other hand, decided to meet Hemingway in Switzerland.

He packed all his manuscripts into a briefcase which was stolen at the train station in Paris. Hemingway was obviously very angry with Hadley, but he went with Hadley to Chamby to ski. He did not try to recover the lost valise and did not