"Mr. and Mrs. Elliot" is a short story written by

Ernest Hemingway Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style—which he termed the iceberg theory—had a strong influence on 20th-century fic ...

. The story was first published in ''

The Little Review ''The Little Review'', an American literary magazine founded by Margaret Anderson in Chicago's historic Fine Arts Building, published literary and art work from 1914 to May 1929. With the help of Jane Heap and Ezra Pound, Anderson created a maga ...

'' in 1924 and republished by

Boni & Liveright Boni & Liveright (pronounced "BONE-eye" and "LIV-right") is an American trade book publisher established in 1917 in New York City by Albert Boni and Horace Liveright. Over the next sixteen years the firm, which changed its name to Horace Live ...

in Hemingway's first American volume of short stories, ''

In Our Time In Our Time may refer to: * ''In Our Time'' (1944 film), a film starring Ida Lupino and Paul Henreid * ''In Our Time'' (1982 film), a Taiwanese anthology film featuring director Edward Yang; considered the beginning of the "New Taiwan Cinema" * ''In ...

'', in 1925.Oliver (1999), 228 The story is about a 25-year-old Harvard student who follows a "clean" life. He marries a 40-year-old clean Southern woman in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

and the next day they set off to Europe and they 'try very hard to have a baby'. They travel to

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

, then

Dijon Dijon (, , ) (dated) * it, Digione * la, Diviō or * lmo, Digion is the prefecture of the Côte-d'Or department and of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in northeastern France. the commune had a population of 156,920. The earlies ...

and finally at a chateau in

Touraine Touraine (; ) is one of the traditional provinces of France. Its capital was Tours. During the political reorganization of French territory in 1790, Touraine was divided between the departments of Indre-et-Loire, :Loir-et-Cher, Indre and Vie ...

. Eventually both become disenchanted with each other, and the wife's girlfriend moves in to live with her. The story was initially titled "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" when it first appeared in ''The Little Review''; it was reputedly based on the 1921-4 marriage of writer

Chard Powers Smith Chard Powers Smith (born Watertown, New York, Watertown, New York (state), New York, November 1, 1894; died Williamstown, Massachusetts, Williamstown, Massachusetts, October 31, 1977) was an American writer who produced a wide range of works from ...

and his wife Olive Macdonald. Smith resented Hemingway's story for the rest of his life.https://archives.yale.edu/agents/people/67487 Chard Powers Smith papers, Yale University

References

Sources

*Baker, Carlos. American Literature, vol. 40, no. 4, 1969, pp. 572–74. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/2923238. Accessed 14 Mar. 2023. * Hemingway, Ernest. (1925/1930) ''In Our Time''. (1996 ed.) New York: Scribner. * Oliver, Charles (1999). ''Ernest Hemingway A to Z: The Essential Reference to the Life and Work''. New York: Checkmark Publishing. *Tetlow, Wendolyn E. (1992). ''Hemingway's "In Our Time": Lyrical Dimensions''. Cranbury NJ: Associated University Presses. 1924 short stories Short stories by Ernest Hemingway Works originally published in The Transatlantic Review (1924) {{1920s-story-stub