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Ernest Hemingway

A Farewell to Arms: Ernest Hemingway (Arrow classic) Paperback – 18 Aug. 1994

by Ernest Hemingway (Author)

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In 1918 Ernest Hemingway went to war, to the 'war to end all wars'. He volunteered for ambulance service in Italy, was wounded and twice decorated. Out of his experiences came his early masterpiece, A Farewell to Arms.

In an unforgettable depiction of war, Hemingway recreates the fear, the comradeship, the courage of his young American volunteers and the men and women he encounters along the way with conviction and brutal honesty. A love story of immense drama and uncompromising passion, A Farewell to Arms offers a unique and unflinching view of the world and people, by the winner of the 1954 Nobel Prize for Literature.

Print length

304 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Arrow
Publication date

18 Aug. 1994
Dimensions

11.1 x 2 x 17.8 cm
ISBN-10

0099910101
ISBN-13

978-0099910107
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Product description

Review

Flawless... such mastery of narrative, imagery and feeling, the prerequisites for great prose ― Guardian

It seems such simple and straightforward language, but it isn't. The first chapter of A Farewell to Arms is only two and a bit pages but there is almost every variety of sentence structure. It is incredibly artful writing, and part of the art is disguising that it is artful ― Guardian

There is something so complete in Mr. Hemingway's achievement in A Farewell to Arms that one is left speculating as to whether another novel will follow in this manner, and whether it does not complete both a period and a phase...crisply natural and convincing ― Guardian, 1929 Published On: 1929-12-13

A novel of great power ― Times Literary Supplement

Essential Hemingway...a gripping account of the life of an American volunteer in the Italian army and a poignant love story ― Daily Express

From the Back Cover

'A novel of great power' TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT
In 1918 Ernest Hemingway enlisted to fight in the 'war to end all wars'. He volunteered for ambulance service in Italy, was wounded and twice decorated. Out of his experiences came A Farewell to Arms.
In an unforgettable depiction of war, Hemingway recreates the fear, the comradeship, the courage of his young American volunteers and the men and women he encounters along the way with conviction and brutal honesty. A love story of immense drama and uncompromising passion, A Farewell to Arms is a testament to Hemingway's unique and unflinching view of the world and the people around him.
'Hard, almost metallic, glittering, blinding by the reflections of its hard surface, utterly free of sentimentality' ARNOLD BENNETT
'A most beautiful, moving and humane book' VITA SACKVILLE-WEST

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Arrow; 1st edition (18 Aug. 1994)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 304 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0099910101
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0099910107
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 11.1 x 2 x 17.8 cm

Best Sellers Rank: 7,534 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 10 in Civil War Biographies
- 84 in Biographical Fiction (Books)
- 535 in Fiction Classics (Books)

Customer reviews:
5,068 ratings

About the author

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Ernest Hemingway

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Ernest Hemingway was born in 1899. His father was a doctor and he was the second of six children. Their home was at Oak Park, a Chicago suburb.

In 1917, Hemingway joined the Kansas City Star as a cub reporter. The following year, he volunteered as an ambulance driver on the Italian front, where he was badly wounded but decorated for his services. He returned to America in 1919, and married in 1921. In 1922, he reported on the Greco-Turkish war before resigning from journalism to devote himself to fiction. He settled in Paris where he renewed his earlier friendships with such fellow-American expatriates as Ezra Pound and Gertrude Stein. Their encouragement and criticism were to play a valuable part in the formation of his style.

Hemingway's first two published works were Three Stories and Ten Poems and In Our Time but it was the satirical novel, The Torrents of Spring, that established his name more widely. His international reputation was firmly secured by his next three books; Fiesta, Men Without Women and A Farewell to Arms.

He was passionately involved with bullfighting, big-game hunting and deep-sea fishing and his writing reflected this. He visited Spain during the Civil War and described his experiences in the bestseller, For Whom the Bell Tolls.

His direct and deceptively simple style of writing spawned generations of imitators but no equals. Recognition of his position in contemporary literature came in 1954 when he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, following the publication of The Old Man and the Sea. He died in 1961.

Customer reviews

5 star		57%
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3 star		13%
2 star		3%
1 star		4%

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A Great Read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 15 January 2022

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This Scribner/ Simon and Schuster edition has so much more than just the actual story, what with photos of the draft and the alterations that Hemingway made, as well as the alternate endings and changes that he made to the text in text format. We can get therefore a clear idea of a famous author at work and honing his craft. Hemingway’s biggest influence on writing of course has been on the short story in America, and it does have to be admitted that a few of those stories of his have surpassed this novel, and indeed his ultimate masterpiece, The Old Man and the Sea is only a novella, but when it comes to his novels, then this is his best.

It has to be remembered that Hemingway started his literary career as a journalist, and as with many other such writers he took across what he learnt from writing for papers and magazines into his stories, thus cutting down on extraneous pieces and concentrating on the immediate. He was to come to call this the iceberg theory, where the story remains relatively simple on top, with all the meanings and other elements that you can take away from a novel buried under the surface. His aim was to create tales that were visceral and immediate and took you straight into the scenes and feel them, in effect virtual reality in book form.

In this novel then the author used his own experiences from being a Red Cross ambulance driver in Italy in the First World War and embellishing that with things that he had heard or had known about. There was quite a bit of research then whilst creating this story, even including checking on the weather reports and communications with others who also served in the country. Here then we meet American Lieutenant Frederic Henry, who whilst recuperating in hospital after sustaining injuries falls in love with English nurse Catherine Barkley. We do know who some of the characters here were based on, and although having a dalliance with a nurse whilst suffering injuries, Hemingway was spurned by her when he wanted to marry her, unlike in this story. We can thus see certain semi-autobiographical elements being used as inspiration and a starting point for some of the things that happen here.

As we follow the tale we have scenes of romance as well as war, with explosions, death, shootings and trying to stay alive, along with medical drama, bravery, cowardice and the meaning of loyalty, and even a childbirth. This novel then encompasses so much more than just a simple war experience, and that has helped it remain so popular and worth reading. The writing is simplistic as such, with some great descriptions of the landscape and the weather, with the main elements not gone into in great detail, thus leaving us as readers to experience them more intimately and obviously the more you have lived the greater the effect. As we can also see in the appendices, Hemingway had great difficulty in coming up with a satisfactory ending, but the one he ultimately used I believe was the best one, as it leaves an indelible impression on you long after you have finished the book.

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Mithrandir

Fatalism and Futility

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 22 June 2015

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In a world riven by conflict, a fact that truly threatens to define humanity, Hemingway’s masterpiece remains as poignant and wrenching as ever.

Utterly beautiful in its literary poeticism, utterly heartbreaking in its moral, it is understandable why this was lauded as the greatest American novel of the 20th century. Hemingway's style of writing is as unique as JD Salinger's or Joyce's. It is very sparse, purposeful and reserved. In the introduction his grandson writes that Hemingway wrote "on the principle of the iceberg. For the part that shows there are seven-eighths more underwater."

The story follows Frederic Henry, an American lieutenant serving as an ambulance driver on the Italian front in WWI. He is wounded while eating cheese in a trench, gets a medal for bravery, and falls in love with a typically beautiful, devoted and idealistic English nurse while he is recovering. In their resultant journey, both physically and emotionally, Hemingway masterfully portrays the sheer futility of war and the ultimate truth of existence, that life marches inexorably on even after the most shattering of tragedies. It is an enlightened novel, a true exploration of the human condition. In the end there is always death.

Henry's daring journey across the Italian countryside is my favourite part (as well as when he rows all night through the storm down the lake to try and cross the Swiss border before dawn - the image of him using his umbrella as a sail is so comic and desperate and perfect). But one of the most powerful moments takes place when Henry gazes into the fire. Hundreds of ants on a log are trying to escape the flames. He contemplates being a “messiah” and lifting them from their deaths, but after a moment, he simply empties his water glass on them so he can fill it with whisky. The water only makes the ants burn and sizzle faster.

This book also has possibly the most shocking and abrupt ending to a novel I have ever read. Hemingway’s style of writing is indeed unique: very sparse, purposeful, reserved and intensely powerful. In the very opening paragraphs his technique emerges. If Emily Bronte’s writing was a blossom tree in full bloom, Hemingway’s would be a sparse acacia on a barren plain. He creates a rich and exquisite scene by continually returning to several powerful sensory images that root us firmly in the moment: the dusty leaves, the marching troops, all distilled beneath a clear, hot sky. There is almost a whispering undercurrent of assonance to the words through the repetition of ‘leaves’ and ‘river’ and ‘trees’ and ‘dust’ and ‘troops'. It is hypnotic. And this introduces us to the setting throughout the novel, the war-ravaged orchards and towns of Italy in summer.

But the rain, oh the rain. It was perhaps a few chapters into the novel that I realised how Hemingway was using the rain to directly convey the events. Whenever the rain started, something bad happened. This got so extreme that as soon as the sky clouded over dread descended upon me. But we must interpret Frederic Henry’s narrative while bearing in mind that there are in fact two Henry’s, the man living out the events and the man recounting them an unknown number of years later (as it is first person past tense). So we see the world through a lens of bitterness and pain, lending a slightly detached and cold air to his words.

Ultimately this is an anti-war novel. I have had a year or so now to recover from the end and to try to work out why this most heartbreaking and bitter of novels is such a national treasure. I have decided it is not the intensely powerful literary poeticism that makes the novel so raw and painful and hypnotic and perfect, but how it enlighteningly explores the human condition and exposes the brutal reality of war and the sheer inevitability of death. In the end there is always death, merely death and oblivion. From the moment Henry gets that pointless wound while eating cheese in a trench to the moment Catherine begins hemorrhaging I was captivated and tortured in equal measure. Alongside the meaningless slaughter of millions life goes on and by definition so does tragedy, of even the most natural kind. It will leave you feeling hollow, but it is one of those necessary reads.

Fatalism and futility, that’s what I got from this novel. But is there any hope in this abyss? Perhaps it is indeed that life simply marches inexorably on, and ultimately by allowing it to break us we become stronger at the broken places.

"If people bring so much courage to this world the world has to kill them to break them, so of course it kills them. The world breaks every one and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these you can be sure it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry."

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richjfran

what are my thoughts?

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 30 April 2022

Verified Purchase

I think some sections of the book flow very easily. But overall a rather tedious narrative and very lightweight compared to For Whom the Bell Tolls.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 13 February 2022

Verified Purchase

I didn’t get on as well with this as with some of Hemingway’s other novels.

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