Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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45 of 48 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A classic novel of WWI, June 29, 2002
A FAREWELL TO ARMS is one of Hemingway's earliest novels. With much of the material loosely based on his own personal experiences as an ambulance driver during World War I, the story captures in great detail the conflict in all of its horror and barbarism. The book invites us to imagine all of the brave soldiers who went into the war in search of glory. What they found instead was the endless stalemate and hideous prospect of trench warfare. Perhaps more than any other war in the history of warfare, the first World War changed the traditional paradigms of how wars were fought and what the objectives of engagements were. Hemingway, who was there himself, serves as a perfect instrument to portray what it was really like. The plot centers around Frederick Henry, an American ambulance driver for the Italian army (a job Hemingway performed himself). Henry is a typical masculine Hemingway male persona who falls in love with a beautiful, long-haired & impetuous British nurse named Catherine Barkley. Henry is an exemplar of the WWI soldier who gets more than he bargains for in the war; betrayal and ignominious soldiering of the Italians in the wake of defeat. The tragic irony of this novel is what makes it so memorable. Henry, as a wounded man who withdraws from the battle, as well as the whims of the Italian Army. However, he does so only to find that life is full of tragedy whether you're in a war or not. I would highly recommend this novel to all fans of Hemingway, American literature and World War I period historical and literary works. It is with the subtle prose of Heminway that we can be effectively transported back to that epoch of our world history.
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52 of 63 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful Anti-War Novel By Hemingway In His Prime!, March 28, 2001
This wonderful story by a young early Hemingway is perhaps, along with "For Whom The Bell Tolls", one of the finest anti-war novels ever written. In it we are introduced to a young and idealistic man, Frederick Henry, who, through love, experience and existential circumstance, comes to see the folly, waste, and irony of war, and attempts to make his own peace outside the confines of traditional conformity. For all of his obvious excesses, Hemingway was an artist compelled to delve deliberately into painful truths, and he attempted to do so with a style of writing that cut away all of the frills and artifice, so that at its heart this novel is meant as a exploration into what it means to confront the world of convention and deliberately decide to choose for what one feels in his heart as opposed to what one is expected to do. Of course, in so doing, the young ambulance driver becomes a full-grown adult, facing his trials with grace and courage. Still, what we are left with is a modern tragedy, one in which the characters must somehow attempt to resolve the irresolvable. Yet in all this emotional turmoil and existential 'sturm-und-drang' of two star-crossed lovers caught in the contradictions, deceptions, and brutality of the First World War, we are also treated to Hemingway's amazing powers of exposition at the peak of his prowess. Indeed, as with other Hemingway novels, it is Hemingway's imaginative and spare use of the language itself that wins the reader over. Unlike his predecessors, he sought a lean narrative style that cut away at all the flowery description and endless adjectives. In the process of parsing away the excesses, Hemingway created a clear, simple and quite declarative prose style that was truly both modern and revolutionary. In what may be one of the most quoted passages in modern fiction, in "A Farewell to Arms" Hemingway gives us his personal view of the world's inevitable negative impact on all of us: "If a person brings so much courage into the world that the world must kill him to break him, so of course it kills him. The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those it cannot break it will kill. It kills the very good, the very gentle, and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these things the world will kill you too but there will be no special hurry." Here the human beings are caught in the murderous crossfire of brutal forces fighting to death, and they must flee to save themselves and their hopes for a better future away from the madness. Their journey towards safety is full of the poignancy of all such fragile ventures, and someone must pay the cost of their bravery, gentleness, and love. What one encounters as a result is a story seemingly stripped to its barest essentials, superficially more like the newspaper man's pantheon of who, what, where, when, and why, and yet somehow transformed into a much more accurate and imaginative effort, one leaving the reader with a much more artful account of what is going on. One reads Hemingway quickly, at least at first, when one learns to slow down and drink in every word and every detail as it is related. For me and for millions of others, the true genius of Hemingway is to be found in his artful use of language. This book was one of Hemingway's finest successful forays into the world of letters, and the result of his collected works truly changed the face of modern fiction. Enjoy!
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18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
On the idealism of youth, May 20, 2002
By A Customer
I had a misfortune to listen to the "A Farewell to Arms" audiobook before I attempted to read the novel itself. Unfortunately, a bad speaker is apt to spoil the otherwise good novel, as this case indicates. That should also teach me to never attempt to listen to the book if I am not aware of the contents. Ever since, I follow the first things first strategy. As far as this particular book by Hemingway goes, I think the title is one of the most charming, ever. Set in the last years of World War I in Italy, "A Farewell to Arms" is a classic novel about the side effects the war imposes on the young, 'beardless warriors', to borrow a phrase from Richard Matheson. Apart from those who find combat their duty they can't shirk from, there are young, idealistic men who are attracted to the idea of the war as a symbol of a point in timespace that will allow them to show the qualities they possess, anywhere from patriotism to bravery out of range. It is a truism that many of those young volunteers have been scarred for life by the war experiences, if they happened to outlive their enemies, that is. While "A Farewell to Arms" does not center on the psychological aspects of combat, it does emphasize the phenomenon of young people's naïveté, and how fast they mature in the circumstances. Needless to say, their idealistic spirit, while being not entirely compatible with the wartime conditions, makes them easy prey for both the enemy, when they let themselves involved in situations they are not able to handle on their own, and to young women who accompanied the army. Rarely is there a more dangerous mix than love and war, as this novel beautifully illustrates. If not for minor quirks specific to Hemingway's style of writing, and A Farewell to Arms is one of the best examples of this style at work - one might regard this novel as a grand wartime love story. Unfortunately, considered as such, it does not really hold a candle to Erich Maria Remarque's wartime novels, and "Arch of Triumph" in particular. When a young, idealistic protagonist finds himself in a hospital, his beloved takes care of him often enough in addition to the miniature army of nurses, and perhaps it's the fault of the audiobook I listened to, I admit, but the dialogues, the verbal lovemaking and twirling they exchange couldn't appear more artificial. Is that how people in love behave? Are they also so cold, frosty, even? I seriously doubt so. There is no passion between these two young people, not that I could detect any. But perhaps it's just me, and I demand a little bit more from love. These little unimportant quirks notwithstanding, I heartily recommend "A Farewell to Arms" for a few reasons. It's a good way to approach Hemingway's larger works of prose, it's a good way to introduce yourself to the literature of the 1920s, where the memories of the World War I were still fresh, and not overshadowed by the monstrosity of what happened just a decade later. The next major World War changed the world much more than it is usually perceived, another major event of this type in recent history might be only the Anti-French Revolution and the following Napoleonic Pax Franca. Last, but not least, as indicated above, this novel provides a very interesting outlook on the idealism of the youth. All things considered, if you are in your teens, I recommend this book with a firm conviction, and if you are older and have not yet explored Hemingway beyond some short stories, or not even that, "A Farewell to Arms" will be a good point of entry to the Papa's World.
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