A Farewell to Arms - Wikipedia A Farewell to Arms From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to navigation Jump to search "Frederic Henry" redirects here. For the 17th-century Dutch nobleman named Frederick Henry (Frederick Hendrik), see Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange. For other uses, see A Farewell to Arms (disambiguation). 1929 novel by Ernest Hemingway A Farewell to Arms First edition Author Ernest Hemingway Cover artist Cleonike ‘Cleon’ Damianakes[1] Country USA Language English Genre Realism Published 1929 (Scribner) Media type Print (hardcover) Pages 355 A Farewell to Arms is a novel by American writer Ernest Hemingway, set during the Italian campaign of World War I. First published in 1929, it is a first-person account of an American, Frederic Henry, serving as a lieutenant ("tenente") in the ambulance corps of the Italian Army. The title is taken from a poem by the 16th-century English dramatist George Peele. The novel, set against the backdrop of World War I, describes a love affair between the expatriate Henry and an English nurse, Catherine Barkley. Its publication ensured Hemingway's place as a modern American writer of considerable stature.[2] The book became his first best-seller,[3] and has been called "the premier American war novel from that debacle World War I."[4] The novel has been adapted a number of times, initially for the stage in 1930; as a film in 1932 and again in 1957, and as a three-part television miniseries in 1966. The 1996 film In Love and War, directed by Richard Attenborough and starring Chris O'Donnell and Sandra Bullock, depicts Hemingway's life in Italy as an ambulance driver in the events prior to his writing of A Farewell to Arms. Contents 1 Characters 2 Plot summary 2.1 Book - I 2.2 Book - II 2.3 Book - III 2.4 Book - IV 2.5 Book - V 3 Background and publication history 3.1 Censorship 4 Critical reception 5 In other media 6 References 7 Sources 8 External links Characters[edit] Lieutenant Frederic Henry - An American taking part as an ambulance driver in the Italian Army. Miss Catherine Barkley - A nurse and love interest of Frederic Henry. Rinaldi - A surgeon in the Italian Army and friend of Frederic Henry. The Priest - A priest in the Italian Army, often has discussions about God and war with Frederic. Helen Ferguson - A friend and fellow nurse of Miss Catherine. Miss Van Campen - A superintendent of nurses. Miss Gage - An American nurse in Milan. Dr. Valentini - An Italian surgeon. Gino - A patriotic Italian. Bonello - An ambulance driver under Frederic Henry's command. Passini - Another ambulance driver who died in a mortar attack. Emilio - A bartender in the town of Stresa who helps them flee to Switzerland. Count Greffi - A ninety-four year old Nobleman, having some past acquaintance with Frederic. Ralph Simmons and Edgar Saunders - Two opera singers working in the Italian Army. Plot summary[edit] The novel is divided into five sections or 'books'. Frederic Henry is first person narrator of the story. Book - I[edit] Lieutenant Frederic Henry, an American paramedic, is serving in the Italian Army. The novel begins during the First World War. It is the start of winter when a Cholera epidemic kills thousands of soldiers. Frederic has a brief visit to Gorizia where he meets with other army fellows and the priest. He finds there are two brothels, one for officers and the other for lower rank soldiers. On his return, he shares his experience with his friend, Surgeon Rinaldi, quite older than him. Rinaldi is fond of beautiful women. He has fallen in love with a nurse named Catherine Barkley, though not so seriously. Rinaldi takes Frederic to a British hospital where Frederic is introduced to Catherine Barkley, an English nurse. Frederic feels attracted towards her. She tells him about her fiancé who was killed in the battle and also about her feeling uncomfortable in the rain, as it starts to rain. Frederic tries to kiss her but she slaps him; and then feels sorry. Eventually they kiss as now she feels somewhat inclined towards him. Frederic, with his fellow drivers Bonello and Passini takes the ambulance in war. Passini is killed in a mortar attack whereas Frederic is severely wounded in the knee on the Italian front and is sent to the hospital. Book - II[edit] Surgeon Rinaldi visits him in the hospital and praises him for his heroism. But Frederic denies of any display of heroism. Rinaldi also tells him that he will be shifted to a hospital in Milan soon for a better treatment. Frederic requests him to have Catherine there as a nurse. The Priest pays a visit. In a discussion again, Frederic expresses his views against war. Meanwhile, America has declared war on Germany; and the Italian army is also anxious about war against Austria. Frederic reaches an American hospital in Milan. There he is nursed by Miss Gage, Mrs Walker and their Superintendent Miss Van Campen. Miss Gage arranges wine for him. Catherine arrives there and Frederic realizes a strong sense of love and passion for her. They make love for the first time. Doctor Valentini comes to examine his injury and X-rays. This book portrays the growth of their relationship over the summer. They enjoy boating and horse races. Meanwhile, Frederic meets Helen Ferguson, a fellow nurse of Catherine. After his knee heals, Frederic is diagnosed with jaundice. A three weeks convalescent leave is sanctioned for him. Miss Van Campen discovers some empty liquor bottle in Frederic's room and takes alcoholism as the cause for his condition. She also concludes that Frederic is knowingly keeping himself ill to avoid the war front. She files a report for the cancellation of convalescent leave and Frederic is called back to the war front. Catherine informs him that she is three months pregnant. They promise to reunite and marry after his return from war. Frederic asks her to take care of 'Little Catherine'. Book - III[edit] Frederic returns to Gorizia. Rinaldi comes and examines his wounded leg. He further asks if they have married or not. The priest notices a change in Frederic and also predicts that the war will end soon. Frederic travels to Bainsizza where he meets Gino who tells him about a battery of terrifying guns that the Austrians have. Frederic realizes that Italians will not escape if the Austrians attack. It rains heavily and the bombarding begins. Frederic discovers that morale has severely dropped. Not long afterwards, the Austro-Hungarians break through the Italian lines in the Battle of Caporetto, and the Italians retreat. The houses are evacuated. Women and children are loaded in trucks. At the villa, Henry discovers that Rinaldi has taken off for the hospital; everyone else has evacuated too. There is considerable delay and chaos on the road during the retreat and Frederic, wishing to avoid a possible aerial attack while stuck on the main retreat route, decides to take an alternate path. He and his men quickly get lost and their cars are stuck in the mud, Frederic orders the two engineering sergeants riding with Bonello to help. Afraid of being overtaken by the enemy, they refuse and try to leave. Frederic draws his gun and shoots one of them; the other escapes. Several minor incidents also happen, but things only worsen as they catch up to the main retreat, Frederic is taken by the military police to a place where officers are being interrogated and executed for the "treachery" that supposedly led to the Italian defeat. Frederic escapes by jumping into a river. He heads to Milan to find Catherine. Book - IV[edit] Reaching Milan, he comes to know that Catherine has left for Stresa. He goes to visit Ralph Simmons, one of the opera singers that he encountered earlier, and asks about the procedures for traveling to Switzerland. Ralph helps him, giving him civilian clothes. Frederic feels very odd in those clothes as the people look at him scornfully. He reaches Stresa by train and goes to the hotel Isles Borromées. Emilio, a bartender, informs him that two English nurses are staying at a small hotel near the train station. Frederic meets Catherine and Helen Ferguson there. He also meets Count Greffi, a very old nobleman whom Frederic had met on his last visit to Stresa. Greffi is staying with his niece. Frederic avoids Catherine's question about the war experiences. He feels he is a criminal, a war deserter. Emilio informs him that Italian police are looking to arrest him. Catherine and Frederic plan to flee to Switzerland as Emilio makes all possible arrangements for their travel in a rowboat. Because of a storm, the waters are choppy and rough. Frederic rows the boat all night and Catherine also takes a turn rowing. Finally, they reach Switzerland. The guards verify their identity and provide them provisional visas for staying in Switzerland. Book - V[edit] Frederic and Catherine live a quiet life in the mountains. They move to a wooden house on a mountain outside the village of Montreux. They develop new acquaintance with Mr. and Mrs. Guttingen. At times, Catherine starts getting concerned about their child, especially about its health. They move to the town of Lausanne to be nearer to the hospital. Later, Catherine goes into labor and she is taken to the hospital. The doctor tells Frederic that the best solution would be a Cesarean operation. She suffers a lot of pain and finally baby boy is born but is a stillborn. Later the nurse tells him that Catherine is hemorrhaging. He is terrified. He goes to see her and she dies in his arms. He leaves the hospital and walks back to his hotel in the rain. Background and publication history[edit] The novel was based on Hemingway's own experiences serving in the Italian campaigns during the First World War. The inspiration for Catherine Barkley was Agnes von Kurowsky, a nurse who cared for Hemingway in a hospital in Milan after he had been wounded. He had planned to marry her but she spurned his love when he returned to America.[5] Kitty Cannell, a Paris-based fashion correspondent, became Helen Ferguson. The unnamed priest was based on Don Giuseppe Bianchi, the priest of the 69th and 70th regiments of the Brigata Ancona. Although the sources for Rinaldi are unknown, the character had already appeared in In Our Time. Much of the plot was written in correspondence with Frederic J. Agate. Agate, Hemingway's friend, had a collection of letters to his wife from his time in Italy, which were later used as inspiration.[6] Michael Reynolds, however, writes that Hemingway was not involved in the battles described. Because his previous novel, The Sun Also Rises, had been written as a roman à clef, readers assumed A Farewell to Arms to be autobiographical.[4] A Farewell to Arms was begun during his time at Willis M. Spear's guest ranch in Wyoming's Bighorns.[7] Some pieces of the novel were written in Piggott, Arkansas, at the home of his then-wife Pauline Pfeiffer,[8] and in Mission Hills, Kansas while she was awaiting delivery of their baby.[9] Pauline underwent a caesarean section as Hemingway was writing the scene about Catherine Barkley's childbirth.[10] Hemingway struggled with the ending. By his count, he wrote 39 of them "before I was satisfied."[11] However, a 2012 edition of the book included no less than 47 alternate endings.[11] The novel was first serialized in Scribner's Magazine in the May 1929 to October 1929 issues. The book was published in September 1929 with a first edition print-run of approximately 31,000 copies.[12] The success of A Farewell to Arms made Hemingway financially independent.[13] The Hemingway Library Edition was released in July 2012, with a dust jacket facsimile of the first edition. The newly published edition presents an appendix with the many alternate endings Hemingway wrote for the novel in addition to pieces from early draft manuscripts.[14] The JFK Library Hemingway collection has two handwritten pages with possible titles for the book. Most of the titles come from The Oxford Book of English Verse.[15] One of the possible titles Hemingway considered was In Another Country and Besides. This comes from The Jew of Malta by Christopher Marlowe. The poem Portrait of a Lady by T. S. Eliot also starts off by quoting this Marlowe work: "Thou hast committed/ Fornication: but that was in another country,/ And besides, the wench is dead." Hemingway's library included both works by Eliot and Marlowe.[16] Censorship[edit] There are at least two copies of the first edition in which Hemingway re-inserted the censored text by hand, so as to provide a corrected text. One of these copies was presented to Maurice Coindreau; the other, to James Joyce.[17] Hemingway's corrected text has not been incorporated into modern published editions of the novel; however, there are some audiobook versions that are uncensored. A Farewell to Arms was banned in the Irish Free State.[18] Also, the novel could not be published in Italy until 1948 because the Fascist regime considered it detrimental to the honor of the Armed Forces, both in its description of the Battle of Caporetto, and for a certain anti-militarism implied in the work. More than one biographer suggests that at the base of the censorship of the Fascist regime in the novel there had also been a personal antipathy between the writer and Benito Mussolini. Hemingway had interviewed him in 1923, shortly after he seized power, and in his article in the Toronto Star he poured scorn on Mussolini, calling him "the biggest bluff in Europe." But, apart from the official reactions, it is known that Mussolini did not like the article at all: Hemingway described Mussolini as trying to impress the media by pretending to be deeply absorbed in reading, while in reality holding a French-English dictionary–held upside down.[19] The Italian translation had in fact already been prepared illegally in 1943 by Fernanda Pivano, leading to her arrest in Turin. Critical reception[edit] This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (March 2018) A Farewell to Arms was met with favorable criticism and is considered one of Hemingway's best literary works.[20] Gore Vidal wrote of the text: "... a work of ambition, in which can be seen the beginning of the careful, artful, immaculate idiocy of tone that since has marked ... [Hemingway's] prose."[21] The last line of the 1929 New York Times review reads: "It is a moving and beautiful book."[22] Baker remarks on the theme of A Farewell to Arms: "After ten years of meditation and digestive of his experience, Hemingway lays before his readers a work which is far from a mere war experience, nor a store of love and death during the war." However, since publication, A Farewell to Arms has also been the target of various controversy. Upon its flimsy publication—due to the medium of its release—through Scribner's Magazine, it was banned from Boston newsstands due to accusations of a pornographic nature, despite Hemingway's deliberate exclusion of graphic descriptions of sex, using omission as a literary device.[23] In other media[edit] The novel was first adapted for the stage by Laurence Stallings in 1930,[24] then as a film in 1932, with a 1957 remake. A three-part television miniseries was made in 1966. In Sam Raimi's 1987 film Evil Dead 2, Ash's hand becomes possessed and begins attacking him. Ash amputates the offending extremity with a chainsaw and the hand escapes, roaming free around the cabin Ash is holed up in. Ash traps the disembodied hand under a pile of books; A Farewell to Arms is the book on top, humorously commenting on Ash's condition. The 1996 film In Love and War, directed by Richard Attenborough and starring Chris O'Donnell and Sandra Bullock, depicts Hemingway's life in Italy as an ambulance driver in the events prior to his writing of A Farewell to Arms. References[edit] ^ Cover stories: beautiful book-jacket designs – in pictures | Books | The Guardian Retrieved 2019-06-23. ^ Mellow (1992), 378 ^ Wagner-Martin, Linda; Reynolds, Michael (2000). "Ernest Hemingway 1899-1961: A Brief Biography". A Historical Guide to Ernest Hemingway. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 31. ISBN 0-19-512151-1. ^ a b Reynolds (2000), 31 ^ Villard, Henry Serrano & Nagel, James. Hemingway in Love and War: The Lost Diary of Agnes von Kurowsky: Her letters, and Correspondence of Ernest Hemingway ( ISBN 1-55553-057-5 H/B/ ISBN 0-340-68898-X P/B) ^ "Frederic J. Agate Papers | Rare Books and Special Collections". rbsc.princeton.edu. Retrieved July 22, 2018. ^ Spear-o-Wigwam history ^ "Hemingway-Pfeiffer Home Page". Arkansas State University. Archived from the original on February 16, 2007. Retrieved January 30, 2007. ^ "A Writer's Haunts: Where He Worked and Where He Lived" ^ Meyers (1985), 216–217 ^ a b Julie Bosman (July 4, 2012). "To Use and Use Not". The New York Times. ^ Oliver (1999), 91 ^ Meyers, Jeffrey. Hemingway: A Biography. Da Capo Press, 1999, p. 219. ^ Boseman, Julie. (July 4, 2012)."To Use and Use Not". The New York Times. Retrieved July 9, 2012 ^ Hemingway, Ernest (1929). Hemingway, Seán (ed.). A Farewell To Arms (The Special ed.). London: William Heinemann. p. XIX. ISBN 9780434022489. ^ Brasch, James D.; Sigman, Joseph (1981). Hemingway's Library: A Composite Record (PDF) (Electronic Edition John F. Kennedy Library, 2000 ed.). New York and London: Garland Pub. ISBN 0-8240-9499-9. Retrieved September 21, 2013. ^ Hemingway, Ernest. A Farewell to Arms (New York: Scribner, 1929). James Joyce Collection, the Poetry Collection (State University of New York at Buffalo), item J69.23.8 TC141 H45 F37 1929 ^ Hannah Sheehy Skeffington, "Censorship in Eire". The Saturday Review, March 18, 1939, p. 14 ^ Fernanda Pivano, Hemingway, Rusconi, Milan 1985) ( ISBN 8818701657, 9788818701654) ^ "A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway". the Guardian. August 30, 2002. ^ "The Norman Mailer Syndrome". Los Angeles Times. ^ "Hemingway's Farewell". New York Times. ^ "A Farewell to Arms Steaminess Rating". www.shmoop.com. ^ Young, Stark (1994). "A Farewell to Dramatization". Critical essays on Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms. New York: Hall [u.a.] pp. 91–95. ISBN 0-7838-0011-8. Archived from the original on May 30, 2013. Retrieved January 4, 2013. Sources[edit] Baker, Carlos (1972). Hemingway: The Writer as Artist. Princeton: Princeton UP. ISBN 978-0-691-01305-3 Mellow, James (1992). Hemingway: A Life Without Consequences. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 0-395-37777-3 Meyers, Jeffrey (1985). Hemingway: A Biography. New York: Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-333-42126-0 Oliver, Charles (1999). Ernest Hemingway A to Z: The Essential Reference to the Life and Work. New York: Checkmark Publishing. ISBN 978-0-8160-3467-3 Reynolds, Michael (2000). "Ernest Hemingway, 1899–1961: A Brief Biography". in Wagner-Martin, Linda (ed). A Historical Guide to Ernest Hemingway. New York: Oxford UP. ISBN 978-0-19-512152-0 Roy, Pinaki (2012). Hemingway's 'A Farewell to Arms': A Critical Appraisal. Kolkata: Books Way. ISBN 978-93-81672-12-9 Tyler, Lisa, ed. (2008). "Teaching Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms." Kent, OH: The Kent State UP. External links[edit] Wikiquote has quotations related to: A Farewell to Arms Hemingway Archives at the John F. Kennedy Library A Farewell to Arms at Faded Page (Canada) A Farewell To Arms Quotes with page numbers v t e Ernest Hemingway Bibliography Novels The Torrents of Spring (1926) The Sun Also Rises (1926) A Farewell to Arms (1929) To Have and Have Not (1937) For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940) Across the River and into the Trees (1950) The Old Man and the Sea (1952) Non-fiction Death in the Afternoon (1932) Green Hills of Africa (1935) Posthumous A Moveable Feast (1964) Islands in the Stream (1970) The Dangerous Summer (1985) The Garden of Eden (1986) True at First Light (1999) Under Kilimanjaro (2005) Short stories "Indian Camp" (1925) "The Doctor and the Doctor's Wife" (1925) "The End of Something" (1925) "The Three-Day Blow" (1925) "The Battler" (1925) "A Very Short Story" (1925) "Soldier's Home" (1925) "The Revolutionist" (1925) "Mr. and Mrs. Elliot" (1925) "Cat in the Rain" (1925) "Out of Season" (1925) "Cross Country Snow" (1925) "My Old Man" (1925) "Big Two-Hearted River" (1925) "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place" (1926) "A Canary for One" (1926) "Fifty Grand" (1927) "Hills Like White Elephants" (1927) "The Killers" (1927) "The Undefeated" (1927) "Che Ti Dice La Patria?" (1927) "In Another Country" (1927) "On the Quai at Smyrna" (1930) "Fathers and Sons" (1932) "A Day's Wait" (1933) "The Gambler, the Nun, and the Radio" (1933) "A Way You'll Never Be" (1933) "The Snows of Kilimanjaro" (1936) "The Capital of the World" (1936) "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber" (1936) Short story collections Three Stories and Ten Poems (1923) In Our Time (1925) Men Without Women (1927) Winner Take Nothing (1933) The Fifth Column and the First Forty-Nine Stories (1938) The Snows of Kilimanjaro (1961) The Fifth Column and Four Stories of the Spanish Civil War (1969) The Nick Adams Stories (1972) The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway (1987) Ernest Hemingway: The Collected Stories (1995) Story fragments "On Writing" Poetry 88 Poems (1979) Complete Poems Letters and journalism By-Line: Ernest Hemingway (1967) Ernest Hemingway Selected Letters 1917–1961 (1981) Dateline: Toronto (1985) The Cambridge Edition of the Letters of Ernest Hemingway (2011) Adaptations The Sun Also Rises 1957 film 1984 film Opera The Select (The Sun Also Rises) Ballet "The Killers" 1946 film 1956 film 1964 film Bukowski short story A Farewell to Arms 1932 film 1957 film 1966 TV series To Have and Have Not 1944 film The Breaking Point (1950) The Gun Runners (1958) Captain Khorshid (1987) For Whom the Bell Tolls 1943 film 1965 TV series Metallica song The Old Man and the Sea 1958 film 1990 film 1999 film Other film adaptations The Macomber Affair (1947) The Snows of Kilimanjaro (1952) Hemingway's Adventures of a Young Man (1962) Islands in the Stream (1977) After the Storm (2001) Related Nick Adams Birthplace and boyhood home Michigan cottage Key West home Hotel Ambos Mundos, Havana home Finca Vigía, Cuba home Idaho home Pilar (boat) Maxwell Perkins The Spanish Earth (1937 film) Bacall to Arms (1946 cartoon) Hello Hemingway (1990 film) In Love and War (1996 film) Midnight in Paris (2011 film) Hemingway & Gellhorn (2012 film) Cooper & Hemingway: The True Gen (2013 documentary) Papa: Hemingway in Cuba (2015 film) Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award Kennedy Library Hemingway collection Family Elizabeth Hadley Richardson (first wife) Jack Hemingway (son) Pauline Pfeiffer (second wife) Patrick Hemingway (son) Gregory Hemingway (son) Martha Gellhorn (third wife) Mary Welsh Hemingway (fourth wife) Grace Hall Hemingway (mother) Leicester Hemingway (brother) Authority control BNF: cb11943643b (data) GND: 4099228-7 Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=A_Farewell_to_Arms&oldid=997823458" Categories: 1929 American novels American autobiographical novels American novels adapted into films American war novels Anti-war novels Books by Ernest Hemingway Censored books Modernist novels Novels by Ernest Hemingway Novels first published in serial form Novels set in Italy Novels set during World War I Works originally published in Scribner's Magazine Novels set in Switzerland Hidden categories: Articles with short description Short description is different from Wikidata Use mdy dates from November 2018 Articles to be expanded from March 2018 All articles to be expanded Articles using small message boxes Articles with Project Gutenberg links Wikipedia articles with BNF identifiers Wikipedia articles with GND identifiers Navigation menu Personal tools Not logged in Talk Contributions Create account Log in Namespaces Article Talk Variants Views Read Edit View history More Search Navigation Main page Contents Current events Random article About Wikipedia Contact us Donate Contribute Help Learn to edit Community portal Recent changes Upload file Tools What links here Related changes Upload file Special pages Permanent link Page information Cite this page Wikidata item Print/export Download as PDF Printable version In other projects Wikimedia Commons Languages العربية Արեւմտահայերէն Azərbaycanca বাংলা Беларуская Български Cymraeg Dansk Deutsch Español فارسی Français 한국어 Հայերեն Hrvatski Bahasa Indonesia Íslenska Italiano עברית ქართული Kotava Кыргызча Magyar მარგალური Nederlands 日本語 Norsk bokmål ਪੰਜਾਬੀ پنجابی Polski Português Русский Slovenčina Српски / srpski Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски Suomi Svenska ไทย Türkçe Українська اردو Tiếng Việt 中文 Edit links This page was last edited on 2 January 2021, at 11:41 (UTC). Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization. Privacy policy About Wikipedia Disclaimers Contact Wikipedia Mobile view Developers Statistics Cookie statement