An Alpine Ddyll by Hemingway

Hemingway’s writing style is concise, simple, and never laborious. He writes only necessary matters and facts as you see them. “An Alpine Idyll” is one such short story.

This is a black humor story. The two skiers come down from a month-long ski life in the mountains. They drink beer at an inn. The innkeeper is disgusted with a peasant, who says he had hung his lantern from his frozen wife’s open mouth while he cut out the big wood. The story is simple. It does not move your heart. The contrast between the ill-natured deed of the peasant and the drinking beer under the bright May sunlight is big.