A Farewell To Arms
by Ernest Hemingway
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Book Reviews of A Farewell To Arms
Book Review: The Powers of Love and the Destruction of War
Summary: 3 Stars
This book has its goods and bads. The good thing of this book is that Hemingway makes it what it is by incorporating the dramatic dealings with love and war into it. I don't think that anybody could of told his story any better since love and war together can be pretty tough topics. Anyways, Hemingway shows how WWI is by giving the reader an up close view on what is happening either with the war as a whole or with Henry. Hemingways also displays the powers of love one can have for another and how they can consume one. The bad thing of this book, though, is in the end Henry ends up like he was before he ever met Catherine. But hey, what can you say. Some stories have to end bad while really to come to think of it, still making the book interesting.The main character, Henry, is in an American who is an ambulance driver for the side of Italy during WWI. After a while of going through the hardships of war he realizes that war itself is not a game and believes that he is in the wrong place. While out on a run Henry's leg get injured by a mind so he goes to a hospital and recooperates from his surgery. During that time he meets a British nurse and immediatly falls in love. Henry months later goes back to the war, and decides to runaway and come back to the one he loves because his love for Catherine is so great, and he knows it is the same for her. Plus, he knows she is pregnant, which makes him want to be there to comfort her in anyway. They somehow meet up and make the decision to escape the surroundings they are in. Although, that is not the whole ending, the reader will have to read what else happens to find out for themselves. Surely one will be shocked hungry for more to read towards the end.
The book is very good, don't get me wrong. I just wish and I am sure others wish that there could have been a happier ending, rather than what it was. I believe that if you are a reader looking for a good love story with a little war in the mix its for you but otherwise I wouldn't suggest one to read it just to read it.
Book Review: A great American Classic!
Summary: 5 Stars
I only started reading Hemingway a couple of years ago, yet I have become a huge fan of Papa Hemingway. His brutally economic writing style is simply fascinating. A masterful command of the English language!"A farewell to arms" is the unforgettable story of this novella's protagonist, Lt. Frederic Henry (often referred to as Tenente). He was an American who during the World War I volunteered to serve for the Italian Army Ambulance Corps. He becomes the first American to be wounded in the war, and later receives the "Medal of Valor" for his deeds. Co-protagonist, Catherine Barkley, a beautiful British nurse, was working at the hospital where Tenente was later admitted after getting injured in the war.
Shortly after Catherine and Tenente met, they started their affair. In the beginning of their affair, Henry was thinking of this purely as a way to pass time, and did not plan to get serious at all. But we all know that feelings can't be planned nor controlled, and soon enough their affair turned serious for both of them.
Seldom is there a more hazardous combination than love and war. It is the love story that drives this novel forward, combined with the account of the war. It is easy to detect Hemingway's first hand familiarity with the World War I. This is Hemingsway's story, his endeavour to put into words the emotions he experienced, the environment that he was surrounded by, and the people he got to know.
All characters are very well developed. The fact that every character is so very well developed with Hemingway's brutally spare style, makes it even more impressive. One of my favourites is Henry's friend, the priest Rinaldi whom believes in traditional values and who constantly suffers from the other soldier's teasing because of his beliefs.
This novel represents a landmark in the genre of war fiction. It held my attention from beginning to end. It is a timeless classic, and I couldn't recommend it higher!
A great read!
Book Review: Boring Dialogue but a Good Story
Summary: 4 Stars
Hemingway's "A Farewell to Arms" is one of 20th Century literature's most heralded books. Essentially a story about love in the midst of war, this novel tells the story of an American (Lt. Fred Henry) fighting for (and in) Italy in WWI and his romantic relationship with English nurse, Catherine Barkley. Henry meets Catherine through his roommate and the romance begins rather quickly. The story follows this romance and is interspersed with carefully wrought (albeit brief) descriptions of battles, Henry's injury, his hospital stay, return to the front, retreat and desertion, and the standard Hemingway (i.e., miserable) ending. Hemingway's scenic descriptions are as good as they get and the battlefield is vividly brought to life throughout the story. The major failing in this book is the dialogue and character development (this complaint is nothing new to Hemingway's work, but is most evident in this novel). Aside from some physical descriptions, little is known about what is inside the major characters in this novel (and even less about the surrounding cast--but make no mistake, this is a novel about Henry and Catherine). Psychological development is essentially non-existent. In other words, it is tough to figure out what makes these main characters act the way they act. The romance blossoms almost instantly and major decisions are often made with little indication to the thought process that led to them. Henry and Barkley aren't unlikeable, just difficult to get to know.
Perhaps more of a complaint rests with the stilted, brief dialogue (almost all conversation is of the one-sentence variety). Clipped conversation rules the day and again, reveals very little about the characters doing the talking. And this takes away from what is a very engaging story.
All in all, a good (and fairly quick) read, but not as emotionally powerful as it could have been and somewhat short on interesting dialogue. Recommended reading.
Book Review: The names of cities, the dates of battles
Summary: 4 Stars
I am in love with Hemingway's prose. His style, though often copied or imitated, is that of a master -- never duplicated. I almost believe he could write about the most mundane of things and it would be prose more worth reading than a good 75% of the books published. Here is a story about love and war. Old subjects, and thank God the writer knows that, and treats them as such. Back the the prose thing again.
To dig just a bit deeper, Hemingway gives us a harsh and ugly world full of beautiful people. The war is senseless and awful, to be escaped, it seems the entire nature of the universe is to break and kill beautiful things. But inside of that, there are good people. Everywhere our hero goes, he finds decent, honest, giving, selfless people worth knowing, maybe even worth dying for. Maybe this is called existentialism. Personally, I disagree -- I see a beautiful, inherently good world full of selfish and broken people -- but Hemingway's worldview is, to say the least, poetic.
There are a lot of different reasons to read books. One legit one is to escape -- but few, if any, would read, say, Dostoyevsky to escape. I usually read fantasy or sci-fi to escape. But I found this book, mostly because of Hemingway's enchanting prose (I just can't shut up about it) as an incredible mechanism to escape.
A sample of that amazing prose:
"I could remember Catherine but I knew I would get crazy if I thought about her when I was not sure yet I would see her, so I would not think about her, only about her a little, only about her with the car going slowly and clickingly, and some light through the canvas and my lying with Catherine on the floor of the car. Hard as the floor of the car to lie not thinking only feeling, having been away too long, the clothes wet and the floor moving only a little each time and lonesome inside and alone with wet clothing and hard floor for a wife."
Book Review: A Farewell to Arms Book Review
Summary: 3 Stars
A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemmingway was not one of my favorite books to read, however, it was not the worst. It had a well developed theme, but I did not like the pace or the ending of the book. First, let me tell you what I liked about this book.Basically this book is about an American in the Ialian army(Lieutenant Henry)who falls in love with an English Nurse(Catherine Berkley). Henry and Catherine both enjoy their jobs but when they fall in love, their work makes it hard for them to see each other. This theme is a combination of two elements: love and war. These two elements battle each other in the novel. Henry and Catherine want to be together but the war often separates them. This is a well developed theme which occurs throughout the whole book. A good example of this is after Henry's knee heals up, he is ordered back to the front. Neither Henry nor Catherine want to leave each other but Henry must get on the train to the front. Henry and Catherine end up not seeing each other for many days. However not being able to see each other leads to Henry and Catherine abandoning the war and running away to Switzerland.
What I personally didn't like about the book was the pace and the ending. While reading it I often was bored. I felt that there could have been more events that happened to Lieutenant Henry. I also felt that what took Hemmingway a couple pages to write could have been summed up in a paragraph or two. I thought that Hemmingway dragged the story out. I also did not like the ending. I'm sure everyone wanted the story to end happily but of course it didn't.
Overall, I would say that this was just an "ok" book. It did not hold my attention and I would have liked it to have had another ending as most people probably would have liked. However, Hemmingway does a great job of portraying the theme of love and war in this book.