A Farewell to Arms
Apr 1997 · Sold by Simon and Schuster
star
19 reviews
Ebook
305
Pages
family_home
Eligible
info
About this ebook
The definitive edition of the classic World War I romance novel, featuring all of the alternate endings: “Fascinating…serves as an artifact of a bygone craft, with handwritten notes and long passages crossed out, giving readers a sense of an author’s process” (The New York Times).
Written when Ernest Hemingway was thirty years old and lauded as the best American novel to emerge from World War I, A Farewell to Arms is the unforgettable tragic story of an American ambulance driver on the Italian front and his passion for a beautiful English nurse.
Set against the looming horrors of the battlefield frontlines—weary, demoralized men marching in the rain during the German attack on Caporetto; the profound struggle between loyalty and desertion—this gripping, semiautobiographical work captures the harsh realities of war and the pain of lovers caught in its inexorable sweep.
Ernest Hemingway famously said that he rewrote the ending to A Farewell to Arms thirty-nine times to get the words right. This edition collects all the alternative endings together for the first time, along with early drafts of other essential passages, offering new insight into Hemingway’s craft and creative process and the evolution of one of the greatest novels of the twentieth century.
Featuring Hemingway’s own 1948 introduction to an illustrated reissue of the novel, a personal foreword by the author’s son Patrick Hemingway, and a new introduction by the author’s grandson Seán Hemingway, this edition of A Farewell to Arms is truly a celebration.
Written when Ernest Hemingway was thirty years old and lauded as the best American novel to emerge from World War I, A Farewell to Arms is the unforgettable tragic story of an American ambulance driver on the Italian front and his passion for a beautiful English nurse.
Set against the looming horrors of the battlefield frontlines—weary, demoralized men marching in the rain during the German attack on Caporetto; the profound struggle between loyalty and desertion—this gripping, semiautobiographical work captures the harsh realities of war and the pain of lovers caught in its inexorable sweep.
Ernest Hemingway famously said that he rewrote the ending to A Farewell to Arms thirty-nine times to get the words right. This edition collects all the alternative endings together for the first time, along with early drafts of other essential passages, offering new insight into Hemingway’s craft and creative process and the evolution of one of the greatest novels of the twentieth century.
Featuring Hemingway’s own 1948 introduction to an illustrated reissue of the novel, a personal foreword by the author’s son Patrick Hemingway, and a new introduction by the author’s grandson Seán Hemingway, this edition of A Farewell to Arms is truly a celebration.
The definitive edition of the classic World War I romance novel, featuring all of the alternate endings: “Fascinating…serves as an artifact of a bygone craft, with handwritten notes and long passages crossed out, giving readers a sense of an author’s process” (The New York Times).
Written when ...
Discover more
Ratings and reviews
19 reviews
A Google user
- Flag inappropriate
July 9, 2011
Dry. Try munching on kitty litter, and you'll understand how dry the book is. I did not enjoy this book at all.
A Farewell to Arms held my interest at moments, of course, and each sentence had weight, but it was weight that became heavy and burdensome to read. Each sentence was so incredibly blunt, short, colorless, and often times redundant, that at one point, I gave up. Yes. Literally, I gave up on Earnest Hemmingway; I put the book down by my bed and did not want to touch it again.
I decided to re-read it, and finish it. Every. Short. Worded. Sentence. Of. The f***ing way. Only to realize somewhere around page 290, the best way to go about the book was to spend the entire day drinking heavily, and then read it aloud to myself in the middle of the night, hammered drunk.
The book is a romance, written during Hemminway's earlier years as a writer. The story takes place in Italy during World War I. The main character is Lieutenant Henry, an American, serving in the Italian Army (extremely odd). Henry is some sort of medic, who doesn't really do any medical work, but instead drinks excessively and travels around Italy. Eventually he meets an English nurse, falls in love, and the next 200 pages revolve around their relationship. Henry deserts the Italians to run off with this chick and the story ends shortly after.
The ending is pretty good, very similar to the ending of The Old Man and the Sea, except with the English nurse being the giant fish... not to say she is a giant fish. Did I enjoy this book, you ask? No. Would I recommend this book, you ask? No. Could I have gone my entire life without reading this book, you ask? Yes. I will give it some credit, since it is definitely a romance novel written from a masculine perspective; a romance novel written for men.
A Google user
- Flag inappropriate
August 26, 2011
Read the book at 13. Got me hooked to Hemingway's work and to reading in general. I enjoyed the writing style, and the way the surroundings were described flawlessly into the story. For that exact reason it was not a "chore" to read, it was a pleasure. A little sad at the end, but its what makes the book.
Bianca Bernardo
- Flag inappropriate
- Show review history
November 24, 2021
Not as bad as the movie. Close.
About the author
Ernest Hemingway did more to change the style of English prose than any other writer of his time. Publication of The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms immediately established Hemingway as one of the greatest literary lights of the twentieth century. His classic novel The Old Man and the Sea won the Pulitzer Prize in 1953. Hemingway was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954. Known for his larger-than-life personality and his passions for bullfighting, fishing, and big-game hunting, he died in Ketchum, Idaho, on July 2, 1961.
Ernest Hemingway did more to change the style of English prose than any other writer of his time. Publication of The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms immediately established Hemingway as one of the greatest literary lights of the twentieth century. His classic novel The Old Man and the Sea w...
Rate this ebook
Tell us what you think.
Reading information
Smartphones and tablets
Install the Google Play Books app for Android and iPad/iPhone. It syncs automatically with your account and allows you to read online or offline wherever you are.
Laptops and computers
You can listen to audiobooks purchased on Google Play using your computer's web browser.
eReaders and other devices
To read on e-ink devices like Kobo eReaders, you'll need to download a file and transfer it to your device. Follow the detailed Help Center instructions to transfer the files to supported eReaders.
