The French Connection: Some Visual and Literary Sources for the French Connection in Hemingway's "The Light of the World"

Joseph Flora has called Hemingway's "The Light of the World" "perhaps the most 'literary' of the Nick Adams stories." This is true on multiple levels. Hemingway's story is in constant dialogue with many sources from French literature, including work by Maupassant, Zola, and Baudelaire. "The Light of the World" also owes a debt to a number of visual sources from French art, including works by Manet and Gervex. Mapping these French kinships in various media helps to show Hemingway's very deep connection to a story that many have seen as simply disconnected.