A Farewell to Arms Discussion

[Dark Muse]

I am planning on reading A Farewell To Arms in November, as it seems that my November reading will be lighter than the past couple of months so I have the room and time to fit it in, and I know a while back someone else expressed an interest in reading the book in one of my blog posts, so I thought I would see if I could get a discussion going.

It will be an open discussion so you can join at any time, and as always, I only ask to please post spoiler warnings.

[dfloyd]

I would put it after 1) The sun Also Rises and 2) For Whom the Bell Tolls. After reading the book, be sure to see the 1930s movie starring Gary Cooper. Hemingway thought Cooper was the only actor who properly created his characters on screen (Farewell to Arms and For Whom the Bell Tolls). The movie also stars Adolph Menjou as the Italian doctor. Menjou was a very dapper man who was the best dressed in Hollywod for years. While he generally played men with savoir faire, he could fit into most roles as a character actor. The girl in the movie, Catherine I think (I haven't read it for 40 years), was a beautiful young lady. I say this because most will remember her as an old lady playing character roles: Helen Hayes. A remake was made in the 1950s, but it was pretty bad. Starred Rock Hudson who I can't imagine as a lover of a woman for obvious reasons.

[Dark Muse]

I really liked The Sun Also Rises, one of the reasons I want to read this book. I would love to read more Hemmingway.

[blazeofglory]

I have read this book; In fact I have read two of his books and some stories of this great writer. He is appealing to me and yet the old man and the sea is full of jargons and particularly some words he used about aquatic life are rather exasperating. I like farewell to Arms better

[Onikeflava]

This was my introduction to Hemingway. Of all the things I've read by him, this book is my least favorite. However, it is still worth your time.

[Virgil]

I used to think it was the best of the Hemingway novels, but on a reread (I think it was the third or fourth read I had of it) for our book club here a few years ago it fell flat for me. I do think The Sun Also Rises is his best. You can read my comments and others that participated in the book club read here: http://www.online-literature.com/for...ad.php?t=15203.

[ThomH]

I've read A Farewell to Arms, The Sun Also Rises and For Whom the Bell Tolls. I personally think A Farewell to Arms is his weakest of these three novels. I read the novel in about a week, and I just couldn't find anything really appealing.

The Sun Also Rises though is fantastic!

[husker du]

In terms of plot, A Farewell to Arms is the most exciting and best story out of the three big novels. In terms of an overall package, The Sun Also Rises wins out for being super concise and just brutally single-minded.

Because I don't want to spoil the story for you, I will suggest that you read A Farewell to Arms with a skeptical mindset and understand how a non-skeptic reader would take the story. The "true" message being sent by the end is pretty much opposite from what most readers will take away from it.

Hemingway is my favorite author for sure. I only wish there was more of his stuff to read. What a problem to have.

[dfloyd]

I have the complete works of Hemingway, and they amount to twenty volumes. That's a sizable amount. Granted, some are not novels: two being about bull fighting, Death in the Afternoon and The Dangerous Summer; one of his newspaper articles, By Line; and one play, The Fifth Column. The rest are novels or are autobiographical such as A Moveable Feast and Break of Day. Islands in the Stream is sort of a fictional autobiographical work. The Torrents of Spring is a parody, but many think it is just a bad novel. His short stories comprise four volumes. Aside from the three novels posted in this thread, the one generally considered to be his fourth best is To Have and Have Not, which was a real mish mash as a movie.

Hemingway always thought he needed money and when his friend, director Howard Hawks, approached him with doing a movie which was guaranteed to make money, Hemingway agreed to it. Hawks got Bogart and Bacall as stars and proceeded to shoot a movie which had little to do with the book other than the main character's name, Harry Morgan. The film did make money, but Hemingway finally learned you can't trust Hollywood.

[Helga]

I did like this book. it's not my favourite by him but it is the first one I read by him and fell for him in an instant. I have not seen this movie mentioned somewhere above but I would like to.

[LitNetIsGreat]

To me this book has an entirely different feel to it when compared to A Moveable Feast or The Sun Also Rises. Farewell to Arms feels more like a novel in the sense that it feels a little less natural than the other two and I'm not as keen on it really. Having said that it is still worth a read for sure.

[husker du]

Also, it should be noted that the beginning of this novel is auto-biographical. If anyone has ever read Hemingway's "A Very Short Story," A Farewell to Arms picks up where that story left off, and that entire story, aside from the end, is entirely auto-biographical.

[mono]

Good to hear you plan to take on A Farewell to Arms, Dark Muse - a good choice; along with For Whom the Bell Tolls and The Old Man and the Sea, I would call it my favorite Hemingway novel, and one of my favorite novels of all time. Like dfloyd mentioned, most of Ernesto's books fit into categories of a storytelling fiction, historical novels, and autobiographical novels, and A Farewell to Arms definitely goes strongly in the category of fiction, where most of his works lie, but, plotwise and in terms of storytelling attributes, I think compares well to For Whom the Bell Tolls or The Sun Also Rises. What makes this novel so unique, in my opinion? Though I have not read all of his novels (getting there!), A Farewell to Arms enveloped best for me that stylistic, raw, cut-to-the-bone emotion that popularized Hemingway, the abrasive and strong-as-iron man on the outside, as Stoic as they come, but the man with an inside as soft and sensitive as cotton, and the virtuous, adored woman who contained an equal sensitivity to his, but displayed it more, engendering a vulnerability that makes the somewhat-heroine, the practical martyr, that much more able to embrace.
Papa Hemingway wrote this novel during one of his numerous heights, in my opinion, not long after The Sun Also Rises, yet not too terribly long before For Whom the Bell Tolls, which others seem to agree appear as some of his greatest fictional works, and, if you liked the former, Dark Muse, and have read the latter, too, I feel quite sure you will enjoy this one as well.
On a personal account, this novel made me want to do four things: 1. never to fight in a war, even one not as bloody as WWI, 2. to drink, and, more importantly, 3. to fall in love, but somehow simultaneously 4. not to fall in love.

[Dark Muse]

I just started reading the book, and though I have not yet advanced very far, I have to say, I love Hemmingway's prose. It has been a while for me reading him and there is something so poetic and yet "human" within his verse. I am not quite sure how to put it, but he does make everything really seem to come to life and so vivid that it is easy to become engaged within the story.

I cannot wait to keep reading more.

[Virgil]

I just started reading the book, and though I have not yet advanced very far, I have to say, I love Hemmingway's prose. It has been a while for me reading him and there is something so poetic and yet "human" within his verse. I am not quite sure how to put it, but he does make everything really seem to come to life and so vivid that it is easy to become engaged within the story.

I cannot wait to keep reading more.

I have to say, while I do consider The Sun Also Rises his best novel, his prose in A Farewell To Arms is his absolute best.