The Hemingway Bibliography
 

Title

It Was All a Pleasant Business: The Historical Context of "On the Quai at Smyrna"

Document Type

Article

Citation

Stewart, Matthew. “It Was All a Pleasant Business: The Historical Context of ‘On the Quai at Smyrna.’” Hemingway Review 23, no. 1 (Fall 2003): 58-71.

Annotation

Argues that an understanding of the story’s diplomatic and military background is key to clarifying its tone and the reasons behind the narrator’s manner of speaking. After providing a detailed historical account of the Smyrna debacle during the Greco-Turkish conflict of 1919-22, Stewart postulates that the story’s anonymous narrator is a British officer dealing with extreme guilt over his enforced inaction during the inhumane disaster.

Published in

Hemingway Review

Volume

23

Issue

1

Date

Fall 2003

Pages

58-71

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