Which writing style did Hemingway PRIMARILY reject in developing his literary aesthetic?

Which writing style did Hemingway PRIMARILY reject in developing his literary aesthetic?

• A. Victorian.
• B. Romantic.
• C. Modernist.
• D. Neoclassical.

Answer: (A)

Hemingway’s writing aims at economy, precision, and restraint, a move away from the lush, moralizing prose of nineteenth-century literature. The Victorian style is known for ornate diction, elaborate description, and often didactic tone. Hemingway rejected that excess and instead stripped language down to its essentials, trusting readers to infer meaning from subtext and from what is left unsaid. This shift is a hallmark of his modernist approach: short sentences, simple, concrete diction, and an emphasis on objective observation over romantic embellishment. While he’s connected to modernism and diverges from Romantic idealism and Neoclassical polish in different ways, the strongest departure in shaping his aesthetic was from Victorian prose.

Hemingway’s writing aims at economy, precision, and restraint, a move away from the lush, moralizing prose of nineteenth-century literature. The Victorian style is known for ornate diction, elaborate description, and often didactic tone. Hemingway rejected that excess and instead stripped language down to its essentials, trusting readers to infer meaning from subtext and from what is left unsaid. This shift is a hallmark of his modernist approach: short sentences, simple, concrete diction, and an emphasis on objective observation over romantic embellishment. While he’s connected to modernism and diverges from Romantic idealism and Neoclassical polish in different ways, the strongest departure in shaping his aesthetic was from Victorian prose.