Sep 06, 2004 01:24 PM
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(Updated Sep 06, 2004 01:57 PM)
Farewell To Arms was written by Ernest Hemingway in 1929. The book was banned in most cities, including Boston. This book was made into a movie 3 years later.
Knowing Hemingway background, I wonder if this was an embellished story of his life.
.:My Review:.
The time is at the beginning of WW I. Lieutenant Henry narrates the story.
Lieutenant Henry, an American officer, is the main character, and this book is about when he was wounded during a battle in Italy, (1918).
The book begins, ''In the late summer of that year we lived in a house in a village.'' He doesn't tell us what village.
He volunteers to fight for the Italian Army, even though he is an American.
While he was in the hospital he began to write about his relationship with one of the British nurses, (Catherine Barkley). It didn't end happily.
A few years later he became a free lance writer, in Greece and Turkey.
He saw the Greek army retreating and the Greek Citizens following then.
Put these experiences all together, and what do you have? You have a book called A Farewell To Arms!
.:What I Thought:.
One of my favourite parts of this book is when Henry hides in a train compartment.
I enjoyed most were the stream-of-consciousness passages, for which Hemingway has a fabulous talent. The genius in these passages are that Frederick Henry's drunken stream-of-consciousness is written much differently than his sleepy stream-of-consciousness.
Hemingway shows us how a young man, almost a boy, feels when he goes to War.
His description of the German attack on Caporetto is one of the best description I have read.
I felt that Henry was still a shallow man, without any gumption to take any action, in his love affair.
I had to read Cliff's Notes, to understand the hidden symbols in the book.
In spite of that I think this was Hemingway best book.
.:The Author:.
Ernest Hemingway was the second child of his parents, (his father was a doctor and his mother a singer). He was born in Oak Park, Illinois . He left home when he was quite young, and became a reporter in Kansas City.
His first book was published in 1916, it was written for his high school Anthology class.
During WW I he joined the Italian Red Cross, and worked as an ambulance driver.
He was injured when a mortar shell hit him. He was sent to a hospital in Milan. He fell in love with a Red Cross nurse, Agnes von Kurowsky.
After the war in he went back to the United States for a while, but decided he would rather lived in France, Italy, Spain and Cuba. He was married a number of times and had a couple of children.
He wrote the Sun Also Rises, (1926), and The Old Man And The Sea,(1954). He won the Nobel Peace Prize for Literature in 1954.
Like his father he was always depressed and he committed suicide in 1961. He was 62 and he didn't leave a note, so no one knows why.
.:Other Information:.
My mother owned a first edition book that was published in 1923. I loved the book, but with all of our moves, I lost it. One day I was looking through a second hand store and found a copy of it.
I bought the paperback, that was reissued from the original book), and published by Scriber Publishers. I paid $2.00 CAD for my copy.
ISBN: 0684801469
It has about 336 pages.
If you like to read classic books you can't beat this one. It's an oldie but a goodie.
Thank you for reading my review.
I write on more than one site and this review may be posted on them.
©LL2004
