The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber" is a short story by Ernest Hemingway. Set in Africa, it was published in the September 1936 issue of "Cosmopolitan" magazine concurrently with "The Snows of Kilimanjaro". The story was eventually adapted to the screen as the Zoltan Korda film "The Macomber Affair" (1947). "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber" is a third person omniscient narrative with moments of unreliable interior monologue presented mainly through the points of view of the two leading, male characters, Francis Macomber and Robert Wilson. Francis and his wife, Margot,
The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber are on a big-game safari in generalized Africa. We know that the "gun-bearers" and "personal boys" speak Swahili and sometimes receive illegal lashings, as described by the white, professional hunter and guide, Robert Wilson. Earlier, Francis had panicked when a wounded lion charged him, and Margot mocks Macomber for this act of cowardice. Wilson is critical of Macomber, presented in interior monologue, but outwardly tries to shepherd Macomber toward a more accepted "code" practiced by experienced hunters. This is Francis' thirty-five-year-old "coming of age" story. In flashback, we experience Francis' cowardly run from his wounded and charging lion. We also