Cat in the Rain

Ernest Miller Hemingway / Gu Lao北京真故传媒有限公司 · ChinaAug 2026

4.4

Word count: 1.9K words
Chapters: 4

Summary

On a rainy day at an Italian seaside hotel, an American wife spots a cat caught in the rain and, moved by pity, wants to take it in. Her husband is indifferent and cold, ignoring her emotions and desires. Through minimalist narration, the story serves as a metaphor for women's loneliness, repressed circumstances, and unspoken spiritual longing.

Editor's review

"Cat in the Rain" is a quintessential example of Hemingway's minimalist narration: very short, yet it renders the emotional rift between a traveling couple almost tangible. The story has almost no dramatic events: on a rainy day, the wife wants to take in a rain-soaked cat, while the husband remains cold and dismissive throughout. Hemingway hides a great deal of information in pauses in dialogue, omitted actions, and environmental description; readers must read the woman's loneliness and repression from what is "not said." This technique makes the story rewarding on every rereading and makes it an excellent text for discussing narrative gaps and gender situations. This translation by Gu Lao preserves the original's cold, restrained tone and is suited to close reading and repeated savoring. Readers are advised to follow the plot on the first reading and, on the second, to notice the evasions and silences in the dialogue, discovering the unspoken spiritual longing surging beneath the calm surface. For readers who love the art of the short story and are interested in the writing of women's inner lives, this small book deserves a place at hand for slow reading.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who enjoy Hemingway's minimalist style and the art of short-story narration
Readers concerned with themes of women's loneliness, marital coldness, and spiritual longing
Readers who need a short text for writing or narrative analysis
Literature lovers who want to closely read a classic short story in a short time

Not a good fit for

Readers expecting full plot development and a clear ending
Readers who prefer direct psychological description and are unused to narrative gaps
Readers hoping for a long story or complex character relationships

Reading tips

Read straight through the first time for atmosphere, then on the second reading focus specifically on the evasions and pauses in the couple's dialogue.
While reading, mark details of environmental description and character action, and consider how they substitute for direct psychological statement.
Read alongside other Hemingway short stories to appreciate the shared features of his "iceberg" narration.
After reading, try to sum up in one or two sentences what the wife truly wants, testing your understanding of the gaps.

About the publisher

北京真故传媒有限公司 China · Founded in 2020

Beijing Zhengu Media Co., Ltd. was established in 2020. Public information about the company is limited; based on the books in the database, its publishing focuses on foreign literature and social novels. It has a series called the Quality Library, which includes Chinese translations of classics such as Pride and Prejudice, The Brothers Karamazov, Crime and Punishment, Great Expectations, and The Grapes of Wrath. Its author resources cover foreign writers including Jane Austen, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Charles Dickens, John Steinbeck, and George Orwell, while its translators include Wang Keyi, Geng Jizhi, and Hu Zhongchi. Overall, the company mainly introduces and retranslates foreign literary classics, with attention to socially themed fiction, emphasizing translation quality and series-based presentation of classic texts.

版权信息
正文一
正文二
正文三

FAQ

This story is very short. Is it worth reading on its own?

Yes. Short length does not mean little information; Hemingway hides a great deal of emotion in pauses in dialogue and details of action, and close reading reveals layers of implication. It rewards repeated reading, and each reading may bring to notice hints previously overlooked. It is a fine model for understanding the art of short-story narration.

The story has no clear ending. Will I fail to understand it?

Don't worry. The point of this story is not the ending but the presentation of a repressed emotional state. What the wife wants is not just a cat but the desire to be seen and responded to. Accepting the gaps and attending to details will bring you closer to the work's core than pressing for an ending.

Is it suitable for writing or narrative analysis exercises?

Very suitable. The text is short with a clear structure, and its dialogue omissions and environmental description are highly valuable for analysis; it can be used to discuss narrative perspective, the technique of implication, and gender writing. Readers can annotate details paragraph by paragraph and practice inferring characters' psychology from "what is not written."

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About the author

Ernest Miller Hemingway Author · American · 1899–1961

Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) was an American novelist and journalist born in Oak Park, Illinois. After World War I he lived in Paris and became a leading writer of the Lost Generation. Known for his spare, concise "journalistic" style, he often wrote about war, adventure, and human endurance. His major works include The Sun Also Rises, A Farewell to Arms, For Whom the Bell Tolls, and The Old Man and the Sea. He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1953 and the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954. This site lists 110 of his works under categories such as foreign literature, world classics, inspirational growth, and classic works. Among them The Old Man and the Sea appears in many editions, alongside an illustrated edition of The Snows of Kilimanjaro and a complete works set, and he remains widely read by Chinese readers.

Gu Lao Author · China

Gu Lao is a Chinese literary translator about whom little public information is available; neither dates of birth and death nor educational background are clearly recorded. Judging from the existing catalogue, the focus of the work is the Chinese translation of classic foreign short stories, with ten titles listed and commonly classified under classic works, world classics and foreign literature. The translations cover several European and American writers: O. Henry's The Last Leaf, Chekhov's A Practical Joke and The Betrothed and About Love, Hemingway's Cat in the Rain and A Day's Wait, and Ring Lardner's Haircut, among others. The selections lean toward the short story, touching on humor and satire, women's growth and everyday emotion, and serve Chinese readers' access to world classics. The related e-books are mostly distributed by platforms under China Literature.