and capable of conveying great irony through understatement. Hemingway's
use of dialogue was similarly fresh, simple, and natural-sounding. The
influence of this style was felt worldwide wherever novels were written,
particularly from the 1930s through the '50s.A consummately contradictory
man, Hemingway achieved a fame surpassed by few, if any, American authors
of the 20th century. The virile nature of his writing, which attempted to
re-create the exact physical sensations he experienced in wartime, big-game
hunting, and bullfighting, in fact masked an aesthetic sensibility of great
delicacy. He was a celebrity long before he reached middle age, but his
popularity continues to be validated by serious critical opinion.
Context
Ernest Hemingway was born in Oak Park, Illinois, in the summer of 1899.
As a young man, he left home to become a newspaper writer in Kansas City.
Early in 1918, he joined the Italian Red Cross and became an ambulance
driver in Italy, serving in the battlefield in the First World War, in
which the Italians allied with the British, the French, and the Americans,
against Germany and Austria-Hungary. In Italy, he observed the carnage and
the brutality of the Great War firsthand. On July 8, 1918, a trench mortar
shell struck him while he crouched beyond the front lines with three
Italian soldiers.
Though Hemingway embellished the story of his wounding over the years,
this much is certain: he was transferred to a hospital in Milan, where he
fell in love with a Red Cross nurse named Agnes von Kurowsky. Scholars are
divided over Agnes' role in Hemingway's life and writing, but there is
little doubt that his affair with her provided the background for A
Farewell to Arms, which many critics consider to be Hemingway's greatest
novel.
Published in 1929, A Farewell to Arms tells the story of Frederic
Henry, a young American ambulance driver and first lieutenant ("Tenente")
in the Italian army. Hit in the leg by a trench mortar shell in the
fighting between Italy and Austria-Hungary, Henry is transferred to a
hospital in Milan, where he falls in love with an English Red Cross nurse
named Catherine Barkley. The similarities to Hemingway's own life are
obvious.
After the war, when he had published several novels and become a famous
writer, Hemingway claimed that the account of Henry's wounding in A
Farewell to Arms was the most accurate version of his own wounding he had
ever written. Hemingway's life certainly gave the novel a trenchant
urgency, and its similarity to his own experience no doubt helped him
refine the terse, realistic, descriptive style for which he became famous,
and which made him one of the most influential American writers of the
twentieth century.
SUMMARY
Book I, Chapters 1-6
Frederic Henry begins his story by describing his situation: he is an
American in the Italian army near the front with Austria-Hungary, a mile
from the fighting. Every day he sees troops marching and hears gunfire;
often the King rides through the town. A cholera epidemic has spread
through the army, he says, but only seven thousand die of it.
His unit moves to a town in Gorizia, further from the fighting, which
continues in the mountains beyond. His situation is relatively enjoyable;
the town is not badly damaged, with nice cafes and two brothels--one for
the officers and one for the enlisted men. One day Henry sits in the mess
hall with a group of fellow officers taunting the military priest. A
captain accuses the priest of cavorting with women, and the priest blushes;
though he is not religious, Henry treats the priest kindly. After teasing
the priest, the Italians argue over where Henry should take his leave;
because the winter is approaching, the fighting will ease, and Henry, an
ambulance driver, will be able to spend some time away from the front. The
priest encourages him to visit the cold, clear country of Abruzzo, but the
other men have other suggestions.
When he returns from his leave, Henry discusses his trip with his
roommate, the surgeon Rinaldi. Henry claims to have traveled throughout
Italy, and Rinaldi, who is obsessed with beautiful girls, tells him about a
group of new English women and claims to be in love with a Miss Barkley.
Henry loans him fifty lire (Italian money). At dinner that night, the
priest is hurt that Henry failed to visit Abruzzi. Henry feels guilty, and
tells him that he wanted to visit Abruzzi.
The next morning, Henry examines the gun batteries and quizzes the
mechanics; then he travels to visit Miss Barkley and the English nurses
with Rinaldi. He is immediately struck by Miss Barkley's beauty, and
especially by her long blonde hair. Miss Barkley tells Henry that her
fiancee was killed in the battle of the Somme, and Henry tells her he has
never loved anyone. On the way back, Rinaldi observes that Miss Barkley
liked Henry more than she liked Rinaldi, but that her friend, Helen
Ferguson, was nice too.
The next day, Henry calls on Miss Barkley again. The head nurse
expresses surprise that an American would want to join the Italian army,
and tells him that Miss Barkley is gone-- but says that Henry may come back
to see her at seven o'clock that night. Henry drives back along the
trenches, eats dinner, then returns to see Miss Barkley. He finds her
waiting with Helen Ferguson; Helen excuses herself, and Henry tries to put
his arm around her. She refuses, but allows him to kiss her. Then she
begins to cry, and Henry is annoyed. When Henry goes home, Rinaldi is
amused.
Three nights later, Henry sees Miss Barkley again; she tells him to
call her Catherine. They walk through the garden, and Henry tells Catherine
he loves her, though he knows he does not. They kiss again, and he thinks
of their relationship as an elaborate game. To his surprise, she suddenly
tells him that he plays the game very well, but that it is a rotten game.
Henry sees Rinaldi later that evening, and Rinaldi, observing Henry's
romantic confusion, feel glad that he did not become involved with a
British nurse.
Book I, Chapters 7-12
Driving back from his post, Henry picks up a soldier with a hernia;
they discuss the War, and Henry arranges a way to get the man to a
hospital. Henry thinks about the War, and realizes that he feels no danger
from it. At dinner that night, the men drink and tease the priest; Henry
nearly forgets he had promised to go see Catherine, and before he rushes
over, Rinaldi gives him some coffee to sober him up. At the nurses' villa,
Helen Ferguson tells Henry that Catherine is sick and will not see him.
Henry feels guilty and surprisingly lonely.
The next day an attack is scheduled. Henry goes to see Catherine, and
she gives him a Saint Anthony medal. He spends the day driving to the spot
where the fighting will take place.Henry and his men wait in the trenches
as the shelling begins. They are hungry, and Henry risks being shot to
fetch some cheese. As he sits down to eat it, he hears a loud noise and
sees a flash and believes he has died. A trench mortar shell has struck him
in the leg. Wounded men fall all around him.
Henry's surviving men carry him to safety; a British doctor treats him
on the field, then sends him in an ambulance to the field hospital. Henry
lies in intense pain. Rinaldi comes to visit him at the field hospital, and
tells Henry that he will get a medal. Henry shows no interest in medals.
Rinaldi leaves him a bottle of cognac and promises to send Miss Barkley to
see him soon.
At dusk, the priest comes to visit. They discuss the war, then God.
Henry tells the priest he does not love God--he says he does not love
anything much. The priest tells him he will find love, and it will make him
happy. Henry claims to have always been happy, but the priest says Henry
will know another kind of happiness when he finds it. Half delirious, Henry
thinks about Italian towns, then falls asleep.
Rinaldi and a Major from their group come to visit Henry the night
before he moves to a better hospital in Milan. Henry is still half-
delirious, and they drink profusely. After a confused conversation, Henry
falls into a drunken sleep. The next day, he is taken on a train to Milan.
Book II, Chapters 13-17
At Milan, Frederic Henry is taken to the American hospital. A young,
pretty nurse named Miss Gage makes his bed and takes his temperature. The
head nurse, Miss Van Campen, irritates Henry by not allowing him to have
wine. Henry pays some Italians to sneak wine into his room with the evening
papers.
In the morning, Miss Gage tells Henry that Miss Barkley has come to
work at the hospital--she claims not to like her, but Henry tells her she
will learn to like her. The porter brings a barber to shave Henry, but the
barber mistakes Henry for an Austrian soldier and threatens to cut his
throat. After the barber and the porter leave, Miss Barkley comes in, and
Henry realizes he is in love with her. He pulls her down into the bed with
him, and they make love for the first time.
Henry goes through a round of doctors who remove some of the shrapnel
from his leg. The doctors seem incompetent, and tell Henry he will have to
wait six months for an operation if he wants to keep his leg. He cannot
stand the thought of spending six months in bed, and asks for another
opinion; the house doctor says he will send for Dr. Valentini. When Dr.
Valentini comes, he is cheerful, energetic, and competent and says he will
perform the operation in the morning.Catherine spends the night in Henry's
room, and they see a bat. Catherine prepares him for the operation, and
warns him not to talk about their affair while under the anaesthetic.
After the operation, Henry is very sick. As he recovers, three other
patients come to the hospital--a boy from Georgia with malaria, a boy from
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