I'm not far in the novel, only on page 70 and so far it seems ok but I'm having a hard time reading it do to the way it's written. It seems like he's trying to give a sense of foreigners struggling to speak English.
How did you guys manage through the book?
Hemingway spent a great deal of time in Spain .....
prior to the Spanish civil war, after which he was barred from Spain by the Franco government. I don't speak Spanish, so I can't criticise the English used in the dialog written by Hemingway. I have heard Amrican students comment on the use of thee and thou as sounding biblical. I read the novel several times in my 20s and 30s, and for my part, I never had a problem with the novel. With the introduction of the more formal Spanish into the book, but in English, I can see where some might have a problem. I never did. Each time I read it, I thoroughly enjoyed it, as I have all of Hemingway's novels, but I am a Hemingway enthusiast. His prose flows, so just go with the flow, and enjoy the story of the American, Robert Jordan, and The Maria.
I read it in Icelandic unfortunately. always wanted to read it in English but I never had a problem and really loved it. sometimes it takes a while to get used to the language but when you get into it it's easy...
I hope death is joyful, and I hope I'll never return -Frida Khalo
If I seem insensitive to what you are going through, understand it's the way I am- Mr. Spock
Personally, I think that the unique and supreme delight lies in the certainty of doing 'evil'–and men and women know from birth that all pleasure lies in evil. - Baudelaire
If you keep in mind that he never says anything in Spanish that is crucial to the events going on without clearing things up in English, that may help. I finished the work for the first time a week or so ago and thought it worth the time, if that tells you anything.
I am kinder to the novel now than I was as a student, but its tone and context does have a stilted feel, like prosaic grand opera.
I read For Whom the Bell Tolls many years ago as a teenager, not as a school assigned work but just because I wanted to. I don't now have a copy on hand to look at, so I can't comment on the diction. However, I don't remember having any difficulty or concerns with readability. It might be helpful to consider that we cannot expect every book to 'sound' the same, that writers' styles vary widely, and that is one of the things that make reading literature so interesting. Try to adapt to and appreciate his prose style in this novel, and his choice of diction. Perhaps do a little research that might shed light on his use of archiac diction in this novel.
I'm hispanic, and I didn't have a problem with any of it. I've only read it in english. I kind of figured that's how an english speaker would interpret spanish. What I do know is I fell in love with the story and after a while the language wasn't a problem I was so involved in their world.
I read it in Spanish many years ago, and I don't know what the original is like, but I remember it as an enjoyable novel despite too many violent scenes. My advice is, keep on reading
I'm currently reading it myself and I think so far that it's absolutely incredible. I can't imagine any one (that speaks English fluently) having trouble with understanding the story. Part of why I love it so much is that it really is very concise at least so far. I read most of it a few years ago but took it back to the library too soon, I got this novel (as well a book of his complete short stories) for Christmas though and so I started from the beginning. Several years ago I read A Farewell To Arms and from what I remember liked it a lot. I don't want to spoil it for some one who hasn't already read it but the chapter where the "fascists" are thrown off a cliff is one of the horrific yet interesting description I've come across.
One of Hemingway's best, if not his most under-rated novel. The only awkward moment in the diction I found was his literal translation of Spanish profanity (obsenity in the milk...), which may have been a bit of a middle finger to the censors of sorts. I found the portrayal, much like Farewell to Arms at times, to be uncompromising. The pulse of Robert Jordan provides a calm to the storm, but he's humanized by love & kept honest.
The most dynamic element of the story had to be the singularity of Pablo's wife- perhaps Hemingway's most 3 dimensional female character. The spilled courage of Pablo strengthened her to a point where she almost had a paternal affect on the surrounding characters.
http://unidentifiedappellation.blogspot.com/
My favorite book by Hemingway. As far as reading and understanding it - I read it when I was 30 years old or so. I think this can have a profound impact on how one views a novel. I know if I tried to read a book like East of Eden for instance, when I was a teen, I probably would not have liked it
Hemingway's short stories were always clearly written. They are a very basic dialog. There was a short story that I read that offered a conversation between two people, but they did not talk directly about the subject. Instead they talked, and the reader had to guess what it was that they were talking about. What they were talking about was the termination of a pregnancy. Anyway, it was the most difficult form of writing but it has nothing to do with the language, and more to do with his style. I read part of this book "For Whom the Bell Tolls" but I stopped reading at about the point where the guy was climbing underneath the bridge and rigging it with explosives. It didn't interest me to read about that subject. It was too boring.Originally Posted by spookymulder93
I bought the book around 2 years ago because I hadn't read a book in about 10 years and wanted to start reading again, and I still haven't finished it. I'm almost to chapter 19 now. Easily the hardest book I've ever tried to read. Not because of the dialog though. Hopefully I'll finish it one day.
We read it in the forum book club a year or two ago. It reminded me of all those 50s, 60s and 70s war films in which a good half is scene setting and lots of talking before it finally gets going in the 2nd half. The book was ok, but I was a little disappointed with it.
Last edited by kev67; 03-27-2015 at 07:50 PM.
According to Aldous Huxley, D.H. Lawrence once said that Balzac was 'a gigantic dwarf', and in a sense the same is true of Dickens.
Charles Dickens, by George Orwell
Was one of those war films For Whom the Bell Tolls? ;-)
I finally read this last year. I quite enjoyed it, although I did find myself saying: "Isn't it time to blow that bridge already?" I also read Mailer's The Naked and the Dead for the first time last year. Compared to that one, For Whom the Bell Tolls gets right down to business.
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