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Farewell To Arms (平装)
by Farewell To Arms
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Fiction |
| Market price: ¥ 168.00
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¥ 148.00
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| MSL Pointer Review:
A realistic depiction of war's carnage and confusion, a compelling adventure, and a beautiful war-time romance. |
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AllReviews |
1 Total 1 pages 8 items |
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Leslie Lanier (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-05 00:00>
A Farewell to Arms, written by Ernest Hemingway, classically combines love, misery, seduction, and sorrow all in one historic novel. This wonderful novel depicts the harsh realities of war among two lovers entangled in the mist. The main character, Lieutenant Frederic Henry, and his lover, Nurse Catherine Barkley, initially have a relationship consisting of games, illusions, and fantasies. This cleverly ties in with the war that currently encompasses Henry, World War I. The blending of these aspects results in one of Hemingway’s greatest novels.
Lieutenant Henry lives his daily life as an ambulance driver for the army. Disillusioned by the war, he meets an English nurse, Barkley, who mourns for her dead fiance. They commence a game of seduction, each with their own reasons for playing it. Barkley, psychologically damaged from the death of her fiance, struggles to push the history behind her while Henry tries to stay as far away from the war as possible. After a little while together, Barkley brings up the game they play by saying, “This is rotten game we play, isn’t it” (31) Henry retorts that he has treated seeing Catherine very lightly (41).
Embodying the stereotype of the testosterone-fed male, Henry also looks for sex from Miss Barkley. He yearns for pleasure in a world filled with despair and death. As the novel progresses, his accounts of the war decline in quality and quantity. Accounts of the war decrease and become less detailed, showing that he continually bothers less with the war. Henry changes from a man living with the war to a man only interested in himself and anything directly related, including Catherine Barkley.
The relationship between the two lovers changes as time passes by as well. Their relationship progresses from an illusion to actual feelings of love. “We were never lonely and never afraid when we were together.” (249) Apparently Henry believed love existed when two people felt as they did together. It indirectly affects the war for Henry because as the relationship consumes more of his life, his unwilling grip to war weakens. The importance of it decreases as Barkley’s significance increases to him. As time goes on, Henry turns into a man who prioritizes a greater love for Catherine. He throws away his integrity and runs from the army, showing the shifts in his list of priorities. War only existed as something in his way.
This anti-war novel clearly convinces all about the unsympathetic truths of World War I or, more simply, war in general. “The West front did not sound so good, I did not see how it could go on.” (118). Throughout the course of the novel, Henry faces the deaths of many of his companions. Upon realizing his love, Catherine Barkley, now must stand at the brink of death, Lieutenant Henry grimly accepts the truth. “They killed you in the end. You could count on that. Stay around and they would kill you.” (327). In all his days in the war, he never realizes the death surrounding him until the person he cares for most begins to slip from his grasp.
Hemingway, in his novel, teaches others the psychological features of people, interweaving it with the innuendos of the darkness of war so readers cannot forget the environment and setting that the two main characters feel trapped in. He gives others a refreshing breath from society by denouncing materialism. The idea of denouncing materialism ideally fits in psychologically with the ongoing war. He urges others to reconsider their materialistic priorities for something more genuine. Hemingway never made these materialistic possessions important. Nature, one of the things he embraced, clearly shows its importance when he felt it necessary to write, “The first cool nights came, then the days were cool and the leaves on the trees in the park began to turn color.” (133). He felt it necessary to describe the colored canvas produced by the changing of the surrounding trees as autumn came.
As Richard Schickel once said, “A great novel is concerned primarily with the interior lives of its characters as they respond to the inconvenient narratives that fate imposes on them.” Throughout the novel, Hemingway remains constant in keeping up the realistic atmosphere he introduces in the beginning and how it affects Henry’s life. This romantic literature never ceases to be unfair to the readers’ high expectations of works by Ernest Hemingway. As a highly popular and recommended novel, it lives up to the just raves. Pick up a copy of this thoughtful, beautifully written novel. Another book I need to recommend - completely unrelated to Hemingway, but very much on my mind since I purchased a "used" copy off Amazon is The Losers' Club: Complete Restored Edition, a somewhat raw, but oddly engaging little novel I can't stop thinking about.
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Beth Barton (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-05 00:00>
Frederick Henry is an American enlisted with the Italians as an ambulance driver on the front lines when he meets Scottish born Catherine Barkley working in the hospital where he is stationed. Their love story juxtaposed against the deprecations of war and the injustices of life goes a long way towards explaining Hemingway himself. How could a man hold up under these kinds of circumstances?
could never get into The Old man and the Sea ... both times I got to page 15 and was distracted away from it. Imagine my surprise when, after only about half an hour I had read 78 pages of Farewell to Arms. This is an easy, fast paced book to read and I have really come to appreciate his writing style. More than that, I have come to appreciate the dark cloud that I have always seemed to associate with him.
Classic Hemingway: "That is what you did. You died. You did not know what it was about. You never had time to learn. They threw you in and told you the rules and the first time they caught you off base they killed you. Or killed you gratuitously..."
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Schwartz (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-05 00:00>
I love Ernest Hemingway's writing, and have read a number of his books. This is probably one of the books that he is most well-known for. The story is set on the Italian front of World War I, and it tells the story of two star-crossed lovers. Hemingway's themes for each of his books are so realistic because he experienced a lot of the things he wrote about himself. That's what makes his books so wonderful. Hemingway did not have a good opinion of war, and these thoughts come through loud and clear in this book. The story is about Lieutenant Frederic Henry, an American who has volunteered to serve with an Italian ambulance unit during World War I. Catherine Barkley is the nurse whom Frederic nicknames "Cat", and who he falls in love with. Hemingway's other characters are all equally well-drawn. His plot and his description of scenes is also wonderful Hemingway uses his descriptions of place as allegories to human well-being and luck. Hemingway associates the plains and rains with death, disease and sorrow, and the mountains and the snow with life, health and happiness. His two lovers experience happiness and safety in the mountains, but they cannot stay there indefinitely, so when they go back to the plains, bad things happen to them. A Farewell to Arms appears to be a bleak tale, but it delineates probably more than any other of Hemingway's works his fatalistic attitude to life and death. Hemingway is a wonderful author, and his works are well worth reading. |
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Keith Stuckeman (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-05 00:00>
Growing up I heard many people talk about Enerst Hemmingway being one of the great authors of our time. After reading 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 that’s how some people few life as being. That’s 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. |
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An American reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-05 00:00>
This was one of the most boring books I've read recently. I'd only read a few of Hemingway's short stories before this, and I liked them, so I wasn't prepared for his novels to be such a step down. I'm not denying he was brilliant, but at short stories, not the longer form. I'm even willing to read more of his books to see if it's true that not all of his books are as flat and boring as this one and certain others. I think the most advanced word in this book is "silhouette"; the rest reads like a story a third grader could have come up with, though even a third grader could write a more complex story, with more complex words and emotions. The only exciting and involving part of the book for me was after page 200, when Henry is escaping from being shot together with the other soldiers, holding on to the piece of driftwood and floating through the river. After he reached the hotel it got boring again, and there were still a bit over a hundred pages left to go.
I felt absolutely nothing for these people. They had about as much depth as paper dolls, and it doesn't help matters any that they rarely say more than ten words at a time to one another. Catherine talks like a two year old, "Ooh, I love you, do you love me? I love you, darling. Why don't we get married?" Even a Barbie doll would have more depth of emotion if it came to life! At best I felt bad for the baby for maybe five seconds at most. A thirteen year old couple in love could do a better and more mature job of expressing their feelings for one another. And the prose just drags; nearly every passage reads something like "It was cold. It was dark. It was raining again. The train began to move. I was cold. I poured myself a tenth glass of cognac." Not exactly prose that leaps off of the page and makes you feel emotionally involved with the characters.
The love story was also a far stretch. Wasn't Catherine going with Henry's pal Rinaldi when they first met? And already on their first excuse of a date they're declaring they love one another, even though Henry admits to himself he doesn't really love her. I rolled my eyes; not another love story lacking discernable motivation, like the ones in 'Anna Karenina' or 'Doctor Zhivago'! (Although at least I felt emotionally involved with those characters, even though their love stories weren't given much explanation in the way of motivation.) God forbid there might have been any sexual or romantic tension instead of having characters fall into one another's arms after barely saying five words to one another.
There are some nice descriptive pieces in here, and I really liked the part where Henry is escaping, but other than that it just falls flat. After this disappointment, it will be awhile before I choke down another Hemingway novel. I hope it's true that not all of his books are as boring and lifeless as this one was. |
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Chris Salzer (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-05 00:00>
Hemingway never ceases to amaze. His simplistic, yet profound prose proves to be a paradox in and of itself. While the sheer simplicity of his laconic dialogue may disappoint those hoping for some intensely complex and bombastic verbiage, it does, however, impress those among us who can appreciate the genius expressly confined in such brevity. What his often maligned simplicity lacks in its… well... complexity, Hemingway more than makes up for in his customary singular proclivity for superlative dialogue. Hemingway, in effect, revolutionized the art of dialogue in American literature - and, after reading A Farewell to Arms, it's easy to see why.
Farewell to Arms emanates forth the perplexing and provocative dualities of war and peace, true love and sex, hope and despair, & idealism and cynicism - to name a few. Tenente (as I prefer to call him over Frederick) is, of course, a rough transference of Hemingway himself onto paper. One can, without a doubt, see a lot of Hemingway's characteristic brusque gruffness in the protagonist throughout the novel. Tenente undergoes a stark and rather pronounced transformation, or epiphany if you will, that undoubtedly makes Farewell to Arms one of the truly memorable works of the 20th Century.
Although I wanted to throw the book against the wall after the tragic ending, I nonetheless refuse to denounce Hemingway's undeniable greatness as witnessed in Farewell to Arms.
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Blankenship (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-05 00:00>
This book is well worth owning and reading even if you only read the opening paragraph (one of tbe best paragraphs ever written, I feel.) But to stop there would be a pity as this is one of Hemingways best works and one of the better works created by an American author in the past 100 years or so. The novel, which is indeed semi-autobiographical, takes a hard look at war and a hard look at young love. From my own point of view though, the story is secondary. Hemingways style and skill as a writer is the true allure of this work. Hemingway stated that American literature started with Mark Twain. That may be true, but it certainly got a strong shot in the arm when Hemingway himself came along. Much of the writing we see even to this day has been strongly influenced by Mr. Hemingway. I cannot recommend this work high enough. Recently it has become an "in thing" to bash both Hemingway the man and Hemingway the author. I am note sure why or what is going on here, but I do not that most of those that are throwing the stones would be lucky to get job writng Wal-Mart ads in a local paper. Do purchase and do read this work. You will be much richer for the expierence. |
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Sean (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-05 00:00>
Both a love story and a war story, Hemingway manages to mesh the two opposing ideals in a powerful novel. The protagonist, Henry, is surely no hero. His existentialist outlook on life and his rejection of ideals of honor and glory contrast sharply with a typical romanticized war hero. Heny is neither an eternal optimist nor pessimist, yet his stark, realistic outlook on love and war are both refreshing, as well as depressing. In the end, it seems, the world will either break you or kill you, be it in love or war. There is no happy ending in life, for life is just a sequence of events, seemingly without rhyme or reason.
Hemingway uses a direct, no-nonsense approach in his writing. There is neither flowery prose nor endless paragraphs of illustrative descriptions. Hemingway's words are power-packed and provide the most poignant imagery in the least amount of words. From his almost journalistic account of his lover's last breath, to his detached depiction of a land ravaged by war, Hemingway does not mince words. It is his direct style that is, perhaps, his greatest asset, and that which has gained him fame.
This novel is at its best in the war chapters, especially in detailing the Italian retreat from the Austrian border. In these chapters, Hemingway masterfully describes the ravages of war in simple, yet powerful, words. The grim reality of war, devoid of any grandiose ideals, permeates into the soul of the reader. There may be a worthwhile cause to war at times, but certainly not in this war, and certainly not for the lives lost.
The weak point of the novel, though, would be the depiction of his relationship with his lover, Catherine. Although she does convey some feelings of hopelessness and despair for the war, she is overly melodramatic toward Henry. Her self-deprecating manner and vapid comments prove to be a distraction. In contrast with the chapters focused on the war, the love story is slow-moving and tedious. Fortunately, the war chapters are intermixed with the love story. But then again, I shouldn't fault Hemingway for not portraying their relationship as compelling as the drama of the war.
The bottom line: if you are looking for a gripping World War I novel, choose All Quiet on the Western Front, for Remarque's work is superior to Hemingway in describing the horrors and meaningless of this war. However, if you are looking for a war novel plus a love story, then you can't go wrong with A Farewell to Arms.
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1 Total 1 pages 8 items |
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