A Clean, Well-Lighted Place

Ernest Hemingway’s short story “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” was first published in Scribner’s Magazine in March of 1933. It was then anthologized in Hemingway’s 1933 short story collection Winner Takes Nothing. It is regarded as one of his most important and influential short stories and as a clear example of his “Iceberg Theory” and his focus on typical Modernist existential themes. Utilizing the Iceberg Theory, Hemingway allows most of the story to sit below the surface of the text and evoke themes through subtext.

Hemingway was a member of the “Lost Generation,” a group of ex-pat writers who came of age during World War I and were heavily influenced by despair and loss. Themes of death, mass violence, instability, existentialism, religion, and identity surfaced often in his texts, including “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place.” Along with many short stories, Hemingway’s body of work includes nine novels and novellas, many of which are considered integral parts of the English literary canon. A celebrated writer in his lifetime, Hemingway won many awards, including the 1954 Nobel Prize in Literature.

This guide refers to the story as published in the Finca Vigia Edition of The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway, published in 1987 by Scribner.