Rating:  Summary: Must Read Review: A Farewell to Arms reads fairly easily and is a breeze to follow along with. Hemingways writing style is fresh and dream-like.The story follows the bitterweet romance of an ambulance driver and a brave, young nurse. The book focuses in on the brutal truth of war, separating it apart from hundreds of other glorified war-romance books. Symbolism and meaning are clear, not too hard to grasp onto. Overall, this book is thoughtfully and beautifully crafted.
Rating:  Summary: Touching and Beautiful Review: I just finished reading "A Farewell To Arms" last night, and this was my second book by Hemingway. I am a total fan of his work! This particular story is moving and touching, and the characters have the potential to continue to haunt one's imagination. Hemingway wrote in a style that is hard to get used to. He didn't write in a way that involved a lot of over-descriptive phrases or indepth character studies. It seems he left his readers to use their imaginations and not be told every single detail of a story. For some people this works and for others it doesn't. But if it works for you, then this story will envelope you and take you to a distant time and place. Even though we are not told very much about Fred Henry and Catherine Barkley, the two seem to become very intimate and familiar. Perhaps from developing them in one's own mind. Perhaps the storyline could be considered somewhat tired. What wartime romance isn't? However, Hemingway wrote this book in the 50s, and it is easy to get the feel that he was writing about himself. (Hemingway was an ambulance driver in Italy during WWI) That touch of possibly revealing himself to the reader makes this book even more touching. I would not recommend this book if it is the first Hemingway some one is to read. Start with one of his shorter works or his short stories to get used to his style of writing. Work your way up to this book and you most likely won't be disappointed!
Rating:  Summary: Brilliant Review: If I had the money, I would go out and buy a copy of this book for everybody I know. To date, this is one of the finest Hemingway novels I have read. More than just a war-torn romance story, it's a very real depiction of the horrors of battle. While this formula has been come to be viewed as vintage Hemingway, those reading the book for the first time will see it as a fresh and original story. I had no idea what would happen from one chapter to the next and the ending of the books comes as a harsh surprise (although a throughly logical one.) This is one of the most important novels about World War 1 and the effects it had on the people involved with it.
Rating:  Summary: Why are the famous ones always bad? Review: Hemingway is supposed to be one of the greatest authors of the 21st century, right? I read A Farewell to Arms this summer, and I thought it had to be one of the worst books I've ever read, and that's saying quite a bit. His brief descriptions and simple dialogue bored me. And his description of love! It wasn't love, it was sex. Clearly written from an immoral man's perspective, it was impossible for me to relate to the characters. And the ending, well, it was just stupid. There was no lesson to be learned, no happy ending, nothing that makes a great book great. The entire focus of the book was one man's unrelenting self-pity that eventually cost him everything he held dear.
Rating:  Summary: Hello to Charms Review: I read this book when I was real little--maybe ten or eleven, or even younger--but the beauty of it has still stuck. Hemingway's style is pure and simple, but its amazing the pictures he paints with his words. The characters are more real, and more human than those conjured up by any other writer. Heminway's writing depicts life uncluttered, transcended, and purified into something clear and beautiful--yet still REAL. It's like an Ansel Adams photograph--the photo of a true master--except what's really amazing is that Heminway does it all with words (and not many of them!) Read it, if only to SEE the world in a clear focus, in a sharp directed color. I am thankful to have Farewell to Arms floating around in my memories because I have not only seen beauty, I've read it.
Rating:  Summary: Tragic yet beautiful Review: I am in the middle of an attempt to cultivate my interest in literature. Hemingway's 'A farewell to arms' is rich and simple. Not only will you be able to relate with the characters but feel every emotion they experience too. It's a wonderful book to read, it will make you appreciate more the people you love around you. It made me cry.
Rating:  Summary: not what expected Review: I'm a Spanish language speaker, but I decided to buy some books in their original language (english), and A farewell to arms was one of these. I found the story not much involved with the world war 1, neither presented to me as a great love story, since the love that arises is quite infantil. The rest of the characters appear in a too second plane, without further involvement. I think the worst part of the novel is definitively the dialogues between the couple: they seem to be the conversation of two 15 year old kids, who the only thing they can say to each other is the nicest and sweetest things ever; all they say to each other is "you are awfully nice to me" and stuff like that, and that, at least to me, lacks of interest to the reader. The story could have been much better, much more delightful, if this aspect had been more polished. The best is the end, and the inner thoughts of Henry, though is not the end we would have wanted to read.
Rating:  Summary: Classic story of war, love, loss Review: Classic Hemingway: terse, good story, straight-forward writing, courage and grace in the face of pessimism, sad ending. It's the story, based on Hemingway's own experiences as an ambulance driver in France during WWI, of the love affair between an American lieutenant,Henry, and a British nurse, Catherine. Both already altered by what they've seen and experienced, they drift into a relationship that neither intended to become serious. But serious it does become, to the point that Henry becomes a deserter to be with his pregnant lover. Things go steadily downhill after that...and the ending becomes inevitable. A classic war story with the Hemingway signature.
Rating:  Summary: Salutation of a Soldier Review: Growing up I heard many people talk about Enerst Hemmingway being one of the great authors of our time. After reading A Farewell to Arms and many other I truly believe he is. In the novel the main characters life follows closely that of Hemmingways life. The main character is Lieutenant Frederic Henrey who is an American ambulence driver for the Italian Army in World War I. It begins in the late summer before winter comes, so battles are winding down. He goes out in tours Italy until Spring arrives and he comes back to the front of the war. He then meets Catherine Barkley, an English nurse who is the love interest of his friend Rinaldi. Though Rinaldi fades out of the picture as the story goes on and an intriguing game of seduction forms between Henrey and Catherine. This started to show the conflict of love during time of war. To add gas to the fire Hemmingway tells that Catherine had a fiance who died the year before in the war. Catherine is confused and longs to feel love again even if she just has to pretend, but the war has left Henry cold and detached that he'll settle for anything. Over time the love becomes real and conquers all in this tale. There are not many bright points throughout this novel, but thats how some people few life as being. Thats not to mention the tragic ending, which I found typical for most of Hemmingways writings. That was just negative I guess you can say besides not relating to any one character. It gives a great depicition of man's will and courage under pressure countless ways, while facing so much loss at such a little cost. Nevertheless, I see it as being a token of respect to the value of human life and love throughout the world.
Rating:  Summary: Hemingway¿s Intense Call for Peace Review: I think at times the comprehensive relationship between Catherine and Henry bogs down Hemingway's overall objective of the novel. He wants to leave the reader with a feeling that war is wrong and that history shouldn't repeat itself. It is important for him to show how love and war coexist with each other and how they shape each other. But sometimes, in the book, the love affair gets boring to the reader, and we lose sight of Hemingway's anti-war message. There is a deeply underlying theme of diversity in this book that is very interesting. It certainly would aid the entitlement of the Nobel Prize. This diversity exists in several different ways throughout the novel, and one must think about the fact that World War I is the time period. Henry is an American who joined the Italian army who falls in love with Catherine, who is British. Catherine's best friend in the novel is Helen Ferguson, a Scot, who expresses in the beginning of the novel how Scottish people do not like the British. There is also a priest who Henry befriends, even though Henry is unemotional and not a very religious person. In conclusion, throughout the novel Hemingway puts an awful emphasis on tragedy and destruction. We see the brutality from the Italian military police, and the destruction from the different battles. Hemingway's perspective on the Italian front in World War I is certainly a uniquely interesting one, posed from a very neutral angle. This neutrality in the book is shown more when Catherine and Henry move to Switzerland; it being the only neutral country in Europe. With the depressing themes of death and war in A Farewell to Arms, after reading it one could definitely be left with a bad taste in one's mouth. This is not an uplifting book in any way, shape or form, but this is exactly Hemingway's point. Like I said before, this book is a historical account of what war can do to people and their relationships. After reading it, it certainly makes me have anti-war feelings. Overall, A Farewell to Arms is a book that makes you think and makes you wonder about the world's future. It really makes you wonder what could happen in the world if we don't stop and think about what has happened. It is those underlying themes and Hemingway's ability to show them in such an intricate manner that warrants Ernest Hemingway a Nobel Prize winning author.
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