I feel like awarding the great Hemingway only two stars has officially consigned me to the seventh circle of literary hell. But I must be honest. By this website's criteria two stars indicates that a book is "okay" - and to me that describes this work perfectly.Hemingway himself is undeniably gifted. I love his succinct style (though at times it degenerates to downright caveman-speak), his honest diction and his wonderful sense of humor. That being said, he gets away with utterly ignoring most r [...]

The old joke proves itself upon reading.Q: Why did the chicken cross the road?A (Hemingway): To die. In the rain.

(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter:]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted here illegally.)The CCLaP 100: In which I read a hundred so-called "classics" for the first time, then write reports on whether or not they deserve the labelBook #17: A Farewell to Arms, by Ernest Hemingway (1929)The story in a nutshell:Published in the late 1920s, right when Modernism was first starting to become a com [...]

I'm not a Hemingway guy. I yearn for internal dialogue, various and ladened spiritual questioning, and deep psychology in my characters. I prefer writing that is smooth and philosophical. Hemingway gives me little of this.But the settings of this book were beautiful, and the dialogue between characters, poignant. By the end, I found that Hemingway had craftily fucked with me to the point of my complete immersion into the novel. It made me cry.

War is BoringHemingway’s narrator writes not as a soldier but as a journalist-soldier, channeling Hemingway himself, recording with precision and apparent objectivity the things that happen around him and to him - practical and prosaic and always pragmatic about everything. People die and bombs explode in the same paragraph as the one where breakfast was considered with equal interest, and he takes it all in his stride.As best as I can tell, the action of A Farewell to Arms takes place from 19 [...]

I just finished it, and I'm disappointed. And not only disappointed; I'm also bothered by it. I guess I shouldn't be surprised at Hemingway's one-dimensional, sexist portrayal of Catherine Barker, having read much of his other work, but somehow I still am. Put simply, Catherine is a ridiculous figure, and it's no fault of her own. Hemingway gives her no opportunity to sound like anything more than a half-crazy, desperate, fawning caricature with no real desires or opinions of her own. How many t [...]

In the fall of that year we rented a house in the mountains that looked down across the river to the village below. The water of the river was turquoise and the village had a pretty campanile and beyond it rose more mountains and beyond them still more. The man who owned our cottage lived next door and made his own dry cured sausage and we would go round and eat it by the fire and talk about how fine the sausage tasted. On the hills all around there were deer, and in the evenings we would sit on [...]

Well, that was disappointing.For several months I've been focused on reading more classic literature, mostly as a way to dig deep and enrich my life during these trying political times. Until now, it has been an incredibly rewarding experience. This Hemingway novel was my first dud. I wanted to like this book. I've been reading more on World War I this past year and thought A Farewell to Arms would fit both my WWI interest and my goal of appreciating classics. But ol' Hem (as I learned to call h [...]

این کتاب زاویه دید متفاوتی از جنگ را روایت میکنهو البته باز قهرمان کتاب مردی است با شخصیتی خاصافسری آمریکایی در ایتالیا و در بحبوبه جنگ درگیر عشق با پرستاری انگلیسی می شودصحنه جنگی هم در کتاب کم نیست و همچنین نشان دادن واقعیت جنگسربازان و سرگردانی که دنبال فرصتی اند که از جنگ [...]

Once, there was a time when I would have struggled through this one, convinced that since it was a "classic", there must be some redeeming quality to it. I'd have struggled to the bitter end, hating it more and more, and I'd have been disappointed by it even if there was something worthwhile at the end. Because getting there was tedious, boring, painful, and annoying. This book has a lot of very varied reviews and opinions. Lots of people loved it, lots of people hated it. I can see why. It's a [...]

An American studying architecture in Rome, Frederick Henry, is transformed into a Lt. in the Italian Army, when World War I starts. He volunteers even though America doesn't enter , the Great War, for another 3 years ! Why? He probably can't say, himself , but young men want excitement in their dull lives. He joins the ambulance corps on the northern front , in charge of four drivers , and a few motorcars, picking up the badly wounded soldiers, when feasible, the dead are carried outside the veh [...]

It is a strong story, beautiful and sad at the same time. It is a novel of war; a novel of men who question, drink, go to the brothel of the front, who fight, who die or are seriously wounded, who try to understand where it leads them. It is a love story that lasts an hour, a night, a life; which fills the void of man's solitude with the horror of war; which grows in the face of the absurdity of great words such as "duty and honor".A rich vocabulary and a very particular rhythm made of small sen [...]

663. A Farewell to Arms, Ernest HemingwayA Farewell to Arms is a novel by Ernest Hemingway set during the Italian campaign of World War I. The book, published in 1929, is a first-person account of American Frederic Henry, serving as a lieutenant ("tenente") in the ambulance corps of the Italian Army. The title is taken from a poem by 16th-century English dramatist George Peele. A Farewell to Arms is about a love affair between the expatriate American Frederic Henry and Catherine Barkley against [...]

My second book by Ernest Hemingway. I liked this so much that I cried while finally closing the book.It must be the way Hemingway used his magic: the vivid descriptions of his locale. The war torn Italian picturesque villa and the use of rain as metaphor for hardship. The ying-yang kind of story: the "man's man" virile American Tenente and the whimsical English-woman Catherine. The contrast between these two lovers is so opposite that's akin to the sun and moon that sometimes exist together in a [...]

I've never read any Hemingway, so I thought to myself, 'Self, that is probably something you should remedy.' And now there are a couple of hours of my life that I will never get back. The macho posturing, the awful dialogue (if it were possible to have excised every word he put into the mouth of Catherine, I would have done so), the misogyny, the sometimes bizarre interactions between people whatever the hell he was trying to do, for me it read as if everyone was either: 1) Certifiably insane, 2 [...]

Ernest Hemingway takes a lame story, and then he tells it in a boring way.

"Tell me exactly what happened. Did you do any heroic acts?""No," I said. "I was blown up while we were eating cheese."What can I say that hasn't already been said?Yes, the man/woman stuff is awkward as hell, with all the "Darlings" and "Say you love me" coming off as so much bad movie dialogue.But, I loved hearing all the characters give their opinions on the war. The action sequences are compelling, and frequently disturbing.And, Henry's repartee with Rinaldi is absolutely priceless!Plus, cons [...]

A Farewell to Arms sort of gives you the inkling that Hemingway's death will probably involve a shotgun. It's just that sad. Front to back, this is one of the more mournful novels I've read. It's about Henry, an ambulance driver in World War I. He is wounded and falls in love with Catherine, a nurse. They exchange odd banter. They fall in love in love during a summer in Milan (but who wouldn't?). He knocks Catherine up, then returns to the front. Unfortunately for him, he is fighting with Italia [...]

I first read this book in high school. Maybe because I was young, maybe because it was summer reading, or maybe because I read it immediately following The Invisible Man (intense!), I more or less just slid through the book, enjoying the love story and not dwelling long enough in the war episodes to feel much of anything.The second time I read it, I didn't make it past the time in Milan. I couldn't settle into the prose and, more importantly, I couldn't handle Catherine: "I'll say just what you [...]

I finally read something more from Hemingway besides the damn fish book! For some reason I was prepared to be bored and/or annoyed, but other than some corny period dialogue and a doormat leading lady, I found this to be cynical, suspenseful and poignant. As in war, there can be no happy endings in life, and the catastrophic fall that I felt was coming for these people from very early in the novel came fast and hard and it got to me. In the end I felt as gutted as the aftermath of a battle. That [...]

"Adio, arme!" este povestea autorului însuşi care, trimis ca "voluntar" pe frontul din Italia (Primul Razboi Mondial), se îndrăgosteşte de o asistentă a Crucii Roşii. Patosul cu care este descrisă iubirea în cea de-a două parte a romanului şi tragicul final al acestuia (care l-a făcut pe Hemingway să se retragă în singurătate) reprezintă o experienţă profundă, o experienţă a cărei urmare a fost încolţirea nimbului artistic. Stilul lui Hemingway este succint şi arareori [...]

(Spoilers ahead.)THE DOUBLE DATEDramatis Personae:Henry, protagonist of A Farewell to Arms, ex-soldier.Catherine, wife of Henry, an ex-nurse for wounded soldiers.Michael, book "reviewer," handsome and devilish rogue.Joy,Michael's wife. She'll cut a bitch.The Waiter, self-explanatory.Distressed Customer #1, Only has one line.Dying Man, just proposed to his girlfriend.Dying Man's Fiance, happy, but frightened her dude will croak before they tie the knot.Harold Bloom, assholeENE 1: The DateCatherin [...]

This book is incredible. I completely understand why it is a classic. Hemingway is a masterful writer. There is so much to absolutely love about this novel. Hemingway paints the landscape and setting like a painter. Each setting is so beautifully and carefully described, recalling such detail. The humor and wit involved had me laughing aloud. He so articulately characterizes and ascribes characteristics to those within his novel. You can feel the personalities and love them as he must have in cr [...]

"British ambulance drivers were killed sometimes. Well, I knew I would not be killed. Not in this war. It did not have anything to do with me. It seemed no more dangerous to me myself than war in the movies. I wished to God it was over though."Frederic Henry (who, for all intents and purposes is Ernest Hemingway) is a volunteer in the Italian Army in World War I. He's wounded in battle and has to spend time recuperating in a hospital after his leg is operated on, and while there he falls in love [...]

Observational tragedy. Bloke falls for sub-moron during war. *petitions friendly bombs*Hemmingway absolves language of beauty. And then the world. His intent was to expose war's mundanity. His method rendered art menial.*sarcastic applause*

There were many words that you could not stand to hear and finally only the names of places had dignity.If Voltaire had read Hemingway’s famous war novel, I’d wager that he would pronounce that it is neither about war nor a novel. Compared to All Quiet on the Western Front, for example, the descriptions of war in this book are ludicrously tame. The vast majority of the time the narrator is not even at the front; and when he is, he is far behind the front lines, driving an ambulance. The bulk [...]

I have put off reviewing this book because I didn't know exactly what to say. Looking over my "Year in Books" on I noticed that while I gave this 4 stars Mason & Dixon only got 3. Was this book really a whole star better than Pychon's quinteseintial American novel?No, I don't believe so. But I do believe that this book is worthy of 4 stars and that M&D only gained 3 in my reading.They are different and maybe this star system is flawed because it treats every book the same. There is no s [...]

La saggezza dei vecchi è una leggenda. Non diventano saggi, diventano solo prudentiChe stranezza la rilettura di questo libro. Dentro ci sono delle cose che avevo dimenticato, loro invece non si sono mai scordate di me. La pagina di cui parlavo nel precedente commento è ancora al suo posto. Per quella pagina cinque stelle sono poche, va aggiunta una cometa. Al libro non le avrei assegnate se questa fosse stata la prima lettura. Le confermo solo perché mi è vissuto dentro a mia insaputa. La p [...]

There is something so fulfilling 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.The story begins with such beautiful mannerisms which is a subtle way to undertake a book where the centre stage is that of war, with the love-making between the young American hero, Henry, a volunteer in the Italian Ambulance Service, and Catherine Barkley, an English [...]

This is the story of an American serving as a non-combatant ambulance driver in the Italian army during the Great War, the injury he suffered, his lengthy convalescence, relationships and experiences of that war. A story which is inspired by (at least in part) if not exactly portraying Hemingway’s own experiences fulfilling the same role. Apparently this was a period which Hemingway viewed as one of the most formative experiences of his life.This is the only Hemingway that I have read thus far [...]