In Our Time

In Our Time is a collection of eighteen vignettes written by Ernest Hemingway and first published in 1924. This edition is based on the original publication, other compilations having been published later.

Arranged as a mosaic, it interleaves full stories with brief, violent interchapters, moving from war fronts and bullrings to rivers and small towns. The juxtapositions create a rhythm of shock and stillness, setting public upheaval against private rites of passage.

The book helped define his spare, declarative style, where precision and omission carry emotional weight. Across these pieces, Hemingway probes the aftermath of war, the edges of youth and disillusionment, and the uneasy ties between violence and tenderness. Dialogue is pared to the bone; the meaning often resides in silence so that what remains unsaid shapes what is felt.

Compact yet resonant, In Our Time stands as a landmark of modernist short fiction, mapping how ordinary scenes can hold wounds, courage, and the stubborn work of going on.

"Everybody was drunk. The whole battery was drunk going along the road in the dark. We were going to the Champagne. The lieutenant kept riding his horse out into the fields and saying to him, 'I’m drunk,I tell you, mon vieux. Oh, I am so soused.'"