Brittany+Hemingway's+A+Farewell+to+Arms

 "I was blown up while we were eating cheese." Fredrick Henry (Hemingway 63)        __Summary__ Lieutenant Fredrick Henry is an American in the Italian army, a fact which everyone will be happy to remind him of. He is an ambulance driver in the middle of the First World War and sees the war from somewhat of an outsiders view. That is until he meets British nurse Catherine Barkley. At first, she's just another girl. It isn't until he's called off for a job that he realizes that he might actually love her. "I had treated seeing Catherine very lightly, I had gotten somewhat drunk and had nearly forgotten to come but when I could not see her there I was feeling lonely and hollow" (Hemingway 41). But the war seems to be conspiring against them and during an attack Fred is injured and sent off to a hospital, where he receives treatment for his wound and the occasional visitor. Much to his delight, Catherine begins nursing there shortly after his arrival. They spend the summer together, doing much more then a nurse and a patient ever should, but inevitably Fred gets called away fro duty. Before he leaves, however, Catherine informs him that she is pregnant, a surprise for him to say the least. Regardless, Fred goes off and is put in charge of a mission to deliver three ambulances to Pordenone as part of Italy's retreat. It is a grizzly affair and many lives are lost. To top off the horrible experience, Fred is pulled aside by a group of officers surveying the retreat because his accent is not native. "'Take him back there with the others,' the first officer said. 'You see. He speaks Italian with an accent'" (Hemingway 222). After watching the accused men before him get shot and killed, Fred decides to make a run for it and jumps into the nearby river  ,   e         ffectively escaping. He decides he's had enough of the war and goes off in search of Catherine. The life of the couple is not an easy one, considering Catherine is with child and Fred is AWOL, but they try their best to make it work. However, there is alot of heartache in life, which Fred learns the hard way.

A Farewell to Arms was a wonderfully romantic book that really highlights the life of a young couple involved with the war. The writing was classic, although the sentences rambled a bit, but the overall effect was a good one. One complaint would be that the plot was, at times, a little lost. However this book was very romantic and had brilliant descriptions that really put the reader into the story.

This book consists of five separate books and 41 chapters. It is in the point of view of Fredrick Henry. Hemingway wrote the character of Fred brilliantly, and he had a good voice for telling the story. He was sarcastic, humorous, and a very real character. It created a believable story.

__About the Author__ Ernest Hemingway was born in Illinois in 1899. His mother, apparently, dressed him as a little girl while growing up and he has never forgiven her for that. He published some of his early poems in the school newspaper and in 1917 he worked six months as a reporter for //The Kansas City Star//. After the US entered WW1, Hemingway joined the Italian army in a volunteer ambulance unit and was wounded while at the front and spent a lot of times in hospitals. Because of this, he was decorated by the Italian government. In 1960 Hemingway was hospitalized in Rochester, MN, for depression and released in 1961. On July second of that year he commited suicide with his favorite shotgun. __ View a video tribute to the 1932 movie based on this novel __: media type="youtube" key="J2TvzFKn90M" height="344" width="425"

__Citaitions__ Hemingway, Ernest. __A Farewell to Arms__. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1961. __Information about the author found at__: "Ernest Hemingway". __Nobelprize__. 2008. Oct 20th, 2008. http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1954/hemingway-bio.html "Ernest (Miller) Hemingway". __Kirjasto__. 2003. Oct 20th, 2008. http://kirjasto.sci.fi/hemingwa.htm