Hemingway's development of his aesthetic involved rejecting which style?

Hemingway's development of his aesthetic involved rejecting which style?

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

Answer: (A)

Hemingway’s writing is defined by a shift away from ornate, sentiment-laden prose toward a lean, restrained style. He rejected the Victorian mode—characterized by elaborate diction, moralizing rhetoric, and florid description—in favor of a plain, economical approach that relies on concrete detail and what remains unsaid. This move fits his Modernist impulse: show through surface, not through lush ornament, and let deeper meaning emerge beneath the simple surface. That’s why the Victorian style is the best fit for what his aesthetic rejected. (He didn’t abandon Modernism—he embodied it—while Romantic and Baroque belong to earlier, more ornate traditions that aren’t the specific target of his stylistic departure.)

Hemingway’s writing is defined by a shift away from ornate, sentiment-laden prose toward a lean, restrained style. He rejected the Victorian mode—characterized by elaborate diction, moralizing rhetoric, and florid description—in favor of a plain, economical approach that relies on concrete detail and what remains unsaid. This move fits his Modernist impulse: show through surface, not through lush ornament, and let deeper meaning emerge beneath the simple surface. That’s why the Victorian style is the best fit for what his aesthetic rejected. (He didn’t abandon Modernism—he embodied it—while Romantic and Baroque belong to earlier, more ornate traditions that aren’t the specific target of his stylistic departure.)