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Summary: A Hello to Alcoholism
Review: I will not attempt a serious review of this novel. It is too revered a classic for me to have anything to add to the volumes that have already been written. I will instead concentrate on a few points that came to mind when re-reading this for the first time in over twenty years.A Farewell to Arms is regarded as the definitive American novel of WWI. Frederic Henry is an American ambulance driver serving the Italians. He falls in love with British nurse Catherine Barkley. Henry is wounded. He returns to the front after recovering and takes part in the disastrous Italian retreat. Henry is mistaken for an Austrian office in Italian uniform and barely escapes a summary execution. He deserts and runs away to Switzerland with Catherine where she dies in childbirth. Taken as a simple adventure/love story the novel is entertaining and highly readable. Some of the dialogue between the lovers is awkward but the action scenes are well written and believable. The narrator's voice is that of a modern man. Apart from such anachronisms as horse-drawn carriages, capes and puttees the story could have been set in the present day. It is this modern feel that distinguishes Hemingway from his contemporaries. To me Faulkner and Fitzgerald are dated and unreadable by comparison. It is interesting to note that the protagonist spends much of his waking hours consuming alcohol. At one point he becomes jaundiced as the result of alcohol induced liver damage. This is pathological alcoholism rather than recreational overindulgence. Hemingway presents this as a normal and healthy facet of our hero's character. This is quite a departure from what our modern sensibility expects. If written today at least half of the text would deal with touchy-feely aspects of the horrors of alcoholism. Our hero's inner dialogue would be full of the tortures of alcohol addiction. Instead, Hemingway regards this as no big deal. Some aspects of the story did not ring true. Ambulance drivers are unlikely to be officers. I believe Hemingway made Henry an officer because that would allow him to have a more exciting social life than a mere enlisted man. In real life Hemingway was not an officer and the nurse he fell in love with did not have sex with him in his hospital bed. This aspect of the story may be a heartfelt putting to paper of the authors fantasy life. Similarly, Catherine Barkley's death at the end of the novel may be his way of getting back at his real-life sweetheart's rejection of him. Agnes von Kurowsky spurned his marriage proposal; Hemingway kills off her fictional counterpart in retaliation. These minor points aside, A Farewell to Arms is deservedly regarded as a classic. It makes the point that war is hell subtly yet convincingly. Hemingway doesn't need to philosophize endlessly about abstract concepts to get the reader to agree. Henry manages to rejoin the Italian forces retreating from the Germans. Without warning he pulled from a mass of filthy dispirited soldiers marching away from the front. He is singled out for summary execution along with some other hapless officers who have been separated from their men. The smug "battle police" remorselessly interrogate and execute these men one after another with the same care and concern a meter maid would give in ticketing an expired parking meter. In just a few pages Henry goes from dedicated fighter for the cause to deserter doing all he can to stay alive. The reader makes this transition with him in a way that illustrates the pointlessness of war better than thousands of pages of text.
Rating: 
Summary: Lack of Thought and Feeling
Review: Often times an author wishes to connect his readers to his characters and envelope the reader into the book making her unable to put the book down. I didnt get this here. I thought that Hemmingway did an excellent job in setting up the story line. However, I was not involved enough in the thoughts and expressions of his characters. The book was exceptionally well written as for its historical content and knowledge of Europe. It brings the country-side into the thoughts of the reader but I had trouble feeling the life and animations of the characters.
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Summary: Great book about war, love and futility of life
Review: I thought this was a very good book. The quick and to the point prose made it easy to read while the dialog was excellent and plentiful. I don't typically give a book 5 stars just because it's considered a classic, but I thought this was very good. The setting is mainly in Italy during World War I. The main characters are Lieutenant Henry, an American ambulance driver in the Italian army and Catherine Berkley, an English Nurse who fall in love. Although this book has a love story as a central theme, it isn't the type that makes me want to retch. It's about people during WWI who happen to fall in love. It goes into philosophical detail on both war and love and the interesting juxtaposition love and war are.
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Summary: "Don't be a bloody hero."
Review: Ernest Hemingway's "A Farewell to Arms" is certainly a landmark in the genre of war fiction. The novel tells the story of Frederic Henry, an American who serves in the Italian army ambulance corps during World War I. He falls in love with Catherine Barkley, a British nurse, and has a number of traumatic experiences. "Farewell" has a somber, haunting, and quietly compelling feel to it. In its ironic, naturalistic, and decidedly nonheroic presentation of war, the book seems like a fitting companion text to "The Red Badge of Courage," another key American novel of war. Many of Hemingway's characters in this book express a dissatisfaction with or alienation from traditional notions of religion, morality, and heroism. Their outlooks are often darkly cynical, as exemplified by this quote: "The world [...] kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these you can be sure it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry." In the midst of war, however, love between two individuals remains a powerful force. There are a number of compelling secondary characters: Rinaldi, Henry's irreverent comrade; the young priest who champions "traditional" values; and more. As additional companion texts to this book, I would recommend Joseph Plumb Martin's memoir "A Narrative of a Revolutionary Soldier" and James Michener's Korean War novel "The Bridges at Toko-Ri."
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Summary: Something for everyone in this Hemingway building block
Review: After having sampled Hemingway's book of short stories, I felt well prepared to take on one of his most famous tales. The story and the way it was told served as an impetus for everlasting change in my opinions, my values, and my style of writing. Hemingway's characters are so simple that they demand scrutinization. His story line so basic, that it defies the events occuring around his characters. A fantastic book, A Farewell to Arms is a must read.
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Summary: Boring Dialogue but a Good Story
Review: Hemingway's "A Farewell to Arms" is one of 20th Century literature's most heralded books. Essentially a story about love in the midst of war, this novel tells the story of an American (Lt. Fred Henry) fighting for (and in) Italy in WWI and his romantic relationship with English nurse, Catherine Barkley. Henry meets Catherine through his roommate and the romance begins rather quickly. The story follows this romance and is interspersed with carefully wrought (albeit brief) descriptions of battles, Henry's injury, his hospital stay, return to the front, retreat and desertion, and the standard Hemingway (i.e., miserable) ending. Hemingway's scenic descriptions are as good as they get and the battlefield is vividly brought to life throughout the story. The major failing in this book is the dialogue and character development (this complaint is nothing new to Hemingway's work, but is most evident in this novel). Aside from some physical descriptions, little is known about what is inside the major characters in this novel (and even less about the surrounding cast--but make no mistake, this is a novel about Henry and Catherine). Psychological development is essentially non-existent. In other words, it is tough to figure out what makes these main characters act the way they act. The romance blossoms almost instantly and major decisions are often made with little indication to the thought process that led to them. Henry and Barkley aren't unlikeable, just difficult to get to know. Perhaps more of a complaint rests with the stilted, brief dialogue (almost all conversation is of the one-sentence variety). Clipped conversation rules the day and again, reveals very little about the characters doing the talking. And this takes away from what is a very engaging story. All in all, a good (and fairly quick) read, but not as emotionally powerful as it could have been and somewhat short on interesting dialogue. Recommended reading.
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Summary: this is one of the best books i have ever read!
Review: The book A Farewell to Arms by Earnest Hemingway was one of the most romantic realistic novels that i have ever read. The fact that the story takes place during World War One gives the reader lots of interesting facts. The details that Earnest Hemingway provided made it much easier to picture everything that was going on in the book at that time in your head as you are reading it. And then the love story between the two main charachters is timeless and irressistable. I deffinutly give this book two BIG thumbs up. Its a must read. You will not be able to put it down.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing for the Most Part
Review: An incredible story with some moving imagery, particularly of the retreat. Descriptions of the chaos, despair and the ebbing belief of the troops are particularly compelling. The dialogue was the problem, boring in the extreme and so unrealistic (unless conversation was really that different then)- It could have been amazing, but in the end it was a relief to finish the last page!
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Summary: In Love and War
Review: When I was in college, I took writing classes. In my group there was a girl who used to write very long clauses, with many whos, wheres, thats... One day, a Professor suggested her to read Hemingway paying atention to how he wrote sentences so short and at the same time so complete, with many information. So, everytime I read Hemingway, I bear this in my mind! He always gets me over! And it's very efficient. Short sentences aren't tiring or boring. I think that is one of the reasons I like and admire his work. When it comes to A Farewell to Arms, readers complain about a lack of character development - mainly before the war- and psychological analysis. And I agree. There isn't much of it through the narrative, but it seems to me this is not an accidental omission. My feeling is that the writer wanted to show us when you are at War - as the characters - it doesn't matter where you come from, what you've done, or what are your preferences. You are only one more soldier (or nurse, as he also portraits). And that's why we barely know what happen to them before the war had broken out. I liked the book both as a love story and as a war novel. The love affair between the soldier and the nurse is very touching. And it kept me rooting for them all the time. The end of the novel got me down.
Rating:
Summary: overrated
Review: I'm consistently amazed at how revered Hemingway is, and at his status in American Literature. I've read three of his books and have never cared about a single character. In this novel especially, I find the dialogue wooden and tedious, often extending to lines of blunt interchanges with no hint at the way words are expressed or received. I don't expect a character to be handed to me neatly analysed and labelled on a plate, but some key focal points from which the reader can form an interpretation are essential in creating a relationship with that character. I find the central characters in this novel impossible to visualise.
There are many more subtle and dramatic war/ anti-war novels, and countless better love stories.
I just don't get it!
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