Banal Story by Ernest Hemingway
A man eats an orange by his electric stove while snow turns to rain outside, warming himself and reading a Forum magazine booklet. It touts prize essays on youth, art, science, and civilization, naming Joyce, President Coolidge, Jack Britton, Joan of Arc, Picasso, and girls of eighteen making their "Soundings," all proof of Romance everywhere. Between passages he notes distant scraps: a Paris knockout, twenty-one feet of snow fallen far off, English cricketers in Australia, gum-choppers in the jungles of Yucatan. Meanwhile, in his house in Triana, the bullfighter Manuel Garcia Maera lies dying of pneumonia with a tube in each lung. The papers run supplements on his death; people buy colored pictures of him and lose their memory of him in the likeness. Bull-fighters, relieved he is dead, march behind his coffin in the rain, one hundred and forty-seven of them, and bury him beside Joselito. Afterward they sit in cafés out of the rain, and more colored pictures of Maera are sold to men who roll them up and put them in their pockets.
By Ernest Hemingway · First published 1926 · Genre: Literary Fiction, Realism, Modernism · 627 words
First lines
SO HE ATE AN ORANGE, SLOWLY SPITTING out the seeds. Outside, the snow was turning to rain. Inside, the electric stove seemed to give no heat and rising from his writing-table, he sat down upon the stove. How good it felt! Here, at last, was life.
He reached for another orange. Far away in Paris, Mascart had knocked Danny Frush cuckoo in the second round. Far off in Mesopotamia, twenty-one feet of snow had fallen. Across the world in distant Australia, the English cricketers were sharpening up their wickets. There was Romance.
What this Textopian page supports
Banal Story is listed on Textopian as a short story by Ernest Hemingway, dated 1926 CE.
This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.
- Work type: Short story
- Author: Ernest Hemingway
- Date: 1926 CE
- Language: English
- Genres: Literary Fiction, Realism, Modernism, Drama
- Length: 627 words
- Structure: 1 section, 19 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Fairly Easy (7th Grade)
Good citation fit
- Work identity for Banal Story by Ernest Hemingway
- Canonical title URL and first readable passage URL
- Genre and topic classification from the Textopian catalog
- Readability and classroom-planning context
- Passage-specific claims should cite the exact /read/ URL for the relevant chapter or paragraph
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Genres
- Literary Fiction — Ernest Hemingway is a renowned author of literary fiction, and this book is likely to contain his signature writing style and themes.
- Realism — Hemingway is known for his realistic writing style, and this book is likely to contain elements of realism.
- Modernism — Hemingway is known for his modernist writing style, and this book is likely to contain elements of modernism.
- Drama — The title 'Banal Story' suggests that the book may contain elements of drama.
Tags
short story · modernism · minimalism · existentialism · human experience · everyday life · dialogue · emotional depth · disillusionment · war · isolation · relationships