A Simple Enquiry
{{Short description|Short story by Ernest Hemingway}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}
"A Simple Enquiry" is a short story written by Ernest Hemingway.Meyers, Jeffrey. [https://books.google.com/books?id=bYRWo6fM1WMC Ernest Hemingway: The Critical Heritage] (Psychology Press, 1997), p. 112. It was published in 1927 in the collection Men Without Women and is notable for its focus on homosexuality.{{Cite journal|last=Nolan|first=Charles J.|date=1995-03-22|title=Hemingway's Complicated "Enquiry" in 'Men without Women.'|url=https://www.questia.com/library/journal/1G1-17268511/hemingway-s-complicated-enquiry-in-men-without|journal=Studies in Short Fiction|volume=32|issue=2|pages=217|issn=0039-3789}}{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ht9SAgAAQBAJ|title=Men Without Women|last=Hemingway|first=Ernest|date=2014-05-22|publisher=Simon and Schuster|isbn=9781476770178|language=en}}
Synopsis
Three Italian soldiers are snowbound. The senior soldier, the Major, calls a 19-year-old orderly into his room and asks whether he had ever loved a woman. Most critics interpret the ensuing conversation as the major propositioning the orderly. When his questions are rebuffed, he dismisses the orderly from the room with the understanding that he will not press the issue. The major questions to himself whether the orderly was telling the truth.
Characters
- The major
- Tonani, an adjutant
- Pinin, the major's orderly
References
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External links
- {{wikisource-inline|Men without Women/A Simple Enquiry|A Simple Enquiry|single=true}}
- [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015009039069&view=1up&seq=178 Full text of "A Simple Enquiry" at HathiTrust Digital Library]
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Category:Short stories by Ernest Hemingway
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