Cat in the Rain

“Cat in the Rain,” a short story by American author Ernest Hemingway, was first published in the 1925 collection In Our Time. Hemingway’s story, like much of his work, is semi-autobiographical and based on his experience as an expatriate in Europe after World War I. Hemingway and his first wife, Hadley, shared a love of cats, and it’s thought he wrote this story for her while they lived in Italy and France. The short story is a typical modernist work that employs literary devices such as symbolism, repetition, and descriptive imagery to express themes of gender and isolation.

This guide refers to the story as it appears in In Our Time (Boni and Liveright, 1925).

Summary

The story opens with an American couple visiting a hotel in Italy; they are the only two Americans staying there. Their room faces the sea, a public garden, and a war monument. Normally, the square is busy with artists and visitors to the war monument, but on this rainy evening it is deserted. While this view is described as one that would often serve as inspiration for local artists, in this scene the view is obscured by a heavy rain that falls throughout the evening.