A Farewell to Arms
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 First edition cover |
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| Author | Ernest Hemingway |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | War, Semi-autobiographical novel |
| Publisher | Scribner's Magazine |
| Released | May-October, 1929 |
| Media type | Print (Serialization) |
| Pages | 336 pp (Scribner reprint ed) |
| ISBN | ISBN 978-0-684-80146-9 (Scribner reprint ed) |
A Farewell to Arms is a semi-autobiographical novel written by Ernest Hemingway in 1929. Much of the novel was written at the home of Hemingway's in-laws in Piggott, Arkansas.
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[edit] Plot summary
The novel draws heavily on Hemingway's experiences as a young soldier. It tells the story of Lieutenant Frederic Henry, a young American ambulance driver serving in the Italian army during World War I.
Henry falls in love with the British voluntary aid detachment Catherine Barkley. After he is wounded at the front by a trench mortar shell, she tends to him in the hospital during his recuperation, and their relationship develops further. His recuperation and romance with the now pregnant Catherine ends abruptly when Henry must return to the front. Henry narrowly escapes death at the hands of fanatical Italian soldiers, who are executing officers separated from their troops during the Italians' disastrous retreat following the Battle of Caporetto.
He finds Catherine, and after a brief sojourn in an Italian resort, the couple flees to Switzerland just avoiding being arrested for desertion. In Switzerland, their child is born dead, and Catherine dies shortly after due to hemorrhages. A Farewell to Arms is an excellent example of the simple, terse prose style that made Hemingway famous.
[edit] Film, TV or theatrical adaptations
- A Farewell to Arms (1932 film)
- A film adaptation of the same name was made in 1932, and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. It was written by Oliver H.P. Garrett and Benjamin Glazer, from the Hemingway novel, was directed by Frank Borzage, and features the music of Richard Wagner. The movie stars Helen Hayes, Gary Cooper and Adolphe Menjou.
- A Farewell to Arms (1957 film)
- The film was remade with the same title in 1957, starring Jennifer Jones, Rock Hudson and Vittorio De Sica and was directed by Charles Vidor and John Huston. De Sica was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his role in this version.
- Directed by Richard Attenborough, this film is a more biographical work, based on the same background as A Farewell to Arms.
[edit] Trivia
- A scene in the James Bond film Licence To Kill is set at Ernest Hemingway House, where the final draft of this novel was completed. Bond resigns from the British Secret Service here and is requested to hand over his weapon, referencing the author's famous work as he does so: "Well, I guess it's a Farewell To Arms".
[edit] External links
- A Farewell to Arms (1932) at the Internet Movie Database
- A Farewell to Arms (1957) at the Internet Movie Database
- In Love and War (1996) at the Internet Movie Database
| Ernest Hemingway Books |
| Novels: The Torrents of Spring | The Sun Also Rises (¡Fiesta!) | A Farewell to Arms | To Have and Have Not | For Whom the Bell Tolls | Across the River and Into the Trees | The Old Man and the Sea | Adventures of a Young Man | Islands in the Stream | The Garden of Eden |
| Non-fiction: Death in the Afternoon | Green Hills of Africa | The Dangerous Summer | A Moveable Feast | Ernest Hemingway Selected Letters 1917–1961 | Under Kilimanjaro |
| Short story books: Three Stories and Ten Poems | In Our Time | Men Without Women | Winner Take Nothing | The Fifth Column and the First Forty-Nine Stories | The Snows of Kilimanjaro | The Essential Hemingway | The Hemingway Reader | The Nick Adams Stories | The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway | The Collected Stories |
