For Whom the Bell Tolls (Unabridged) [Audio Download]

For Whom The Bell Tolls is a novel of incredible intensity and power. Although the prose is relatively simple (in typical Hemingway style), it belies a work of uncompromising power, which will stay in the mind long after the reader has reached it's electrifying conclusion. Here, Hemingway gives us a number of inter-woven ideas, each of which has been argued as being the central theme of the novel. On the one hand, we have a simple tale of the attempt by a group of partisans, over a four day period, to blow up a facist-held bridge. Wthin this, Hemingway also effectively develops a very moving love story between the central character, Robert Jordan, and Maria. The back-drop to all this is a thought provoking account of the brutality and tragedy of the Spanish Civil War. It is very much the combination of these three threads which make For Whom The Bell Tolls such a fine and captivating work. The characterisation is impressive throughout, and the reader cannot help but feel a gret sense of empathy and understanding for those caught up in this tale. As the novel surges to it's explosive finale, Hemingway succeeds in creating a number of very mixed emotions in the reader's mind. Indeed, these feelings are only intensified by the inevitable completion of the text. Hemingway may have had his critics, but this is a work that even his most ardent detractors cannot fail to be moved by. A relatively easy and certainly enjoyable introduction to the Hemingway style, this is a novel to be read, savoured, and returned to again and again. Be warned though, new readers might just find this to be the beginning of a lengthy and compulsive Heminway adventure. A true masterpiece.

I found For Whom the Bell Tolls brilliant and moving but also incredibly frustrating. This book is undoubtedly a classic piece of literature, the writing is Hemingway at his best and there are excellent characters who at times I really cared about.

While I can totally understand why so many people give it five star reviews and I don't want to put anyone off from reading this, for me the book was ruined when it frequently replaced historical fact with Stalinist propaganda. As someone who has a keen interest in the Spanish civil war I was annoyed that every time the beautiful writing started to draw me back into the story it would lapse back into propaganda.

This book is a story about an American volunteer fighting fascism in Spain with a small band of guerrillas who he must persuade to undertake a dangerous mission. The problem is that the background events against which this story are set are riddled with inaccuracy and bias.

Hemingway really travelled to Spain during the civil war, at a time when the small Soviet backed Communist Party was seizing control of the republican government and persecuting the other factions. Many of the lies they fabricated at the time to justify their behaviour have made their way into this novel as though they really happened. For example the anarchist and syndicalist militias who formed the majority of the republican forces in the civil war are consistently portrayed as incompetent drunks harming the war effort in this novel.

While I appreciate that the majority of readers will probably not be as interested in the Spanish Civil War background so will not have this problem, for me once I realised how distorted a portrayal of Spain this was it ruined a lot of the book. Imagine how you would feel reading a story set in World War 2 that was filled with drama, romance and expert storytelling, but was also written by someone who assumed that the Americans single-handedly fought the entire war while the incompetent or treacherous British and Russians just got in their way. If that wouldn't bother you then you will appreciate this book.

For anyone who is interested in a more accurate portrayal of the Spanish Civil War, I recommend George Orwell's amazing autobiographical account 'Homage to Catalonia' or any of Anthony Beevor's books on the subject. Probably the best fictional portrayal of the war can be found in Ken Loach's film 'Land and Freedom' which I also highly recommend.

This is an entertaining book that has everything: military action, history/politics, memorable characters, a love story and a suspenseful plot. The characters are very true-to-life and it paints a vivid picture of what life was like for combatants in the Spanish Civil War. The love story is also extremely well done and moving. What makes it a classic, however, is the way it so effectively explores a number of profound themes including the futility of war and the significance of duty, honour, love and death. The writing style is also very interesting. The dialogue is provided in literal translations from Spanish, with Spanish sentence structures and formal words like "thou" to reflect the formal and informal usages in the Spanish language. This makes the dialogue feel very authentic, as if the characters were actually speaking Spanish. Hemingway is known for writing with simple language, but the description of the scenery and military action was very vivid. On the negative side, the first half of the book is quite slow. But the story really picks up at about the half-way point. Overall, this is a true classic that should not be missed.