Farewell To Arms

Rating:
Summary: My two cents
Review: Much has been said here on the plot and dialog. I'd like to add my opinion about two closely-related scenes: Henry's back and forth, back and forth internal dialog about "what if she dies?" and "she can't die!" is the most powerful writing I've ever seen; and Catherine's labor was the most realistic writing (and from a man, yet!) about this subject. These two scenes showed more about the characters than any narrative could ever do. For those of you who gave this book a low rating, wait till you're older and then go to the library and borrow the audio version of this book. You might change your mind. This is a haunting novel of real (and flawed) people trying to live and love during war time.

Rating:
Summary: Being Brave
Review: Hemingway uses love and war to find a bit of truth. Life breaks you--it kills you--if you're "very good" or "very brave." Nature washes over humanity like a flood, merely moving over anyone that lays down for it, but crushing people who stand against it. Hemingway pits Catherine & Frederick against the tide, while taking note of those just swimming along, like Count Greffi. At ninety-four, the Count has survived so long because he, like other old men, did not "grow wise...[but]careful." He hasn't "become more devout" either--perhaps he doesn't care about anything enough to be broken by its loss. He values life because it's all he's got. Catherine dies in the end standing against the flood: she was brave and good and gentle, and those qualities are the antithesis of a world that produces such a meaningless war. Frederick had the honor the bow out of that war when it became obscene to him, and loved Catherine so much she took away his loneliness. He was broken by her death, and I wonder if it will kill him in the rain on the way back to his hotel. Hemmingway wrote a romantic story, and a realistic war novel, but he also wrote something about the difference between living and just existing. That's why this book is great.

Rating:
Summary: So true, so hard and yet so deep.
Review: I've had some problems with Hemingway before, especially "The old man and the sea" but I realized that his kind of writing is the kind you grow into understanding. To say this or that about it before understanding it is not only dumb but also a way of pushing it in front of you since Hemingway wrote so true and so cold and due to that, he wrote with emotions and that's what makes "A Farewell to Arms" worth five stars.

Rating:
Summary: Can you all do better?
Review: All the people here who criticize Hemingway have never written a book, and never will. You know how they are. At first, they all admire his style and then try to copy it thinking it is going to get them published. When they find out how worthless what they've written is, they blame Papa instead.

Hemingway's prose is filled with imagery and an abundance of details, all stubbornly shoehorned into a flowing, succinct, rhythmic style. If you have no imagery you know how to depict vividly, no feel for writing dialogue that is both witty and actually looks good on paper, and understand nothing about the human condition, then trying to copy Hemingway's style is futile. Give it up.

Hemingway had a lot to say and he doesn't beat a reader over the head with it. He lets it wash over you. His works are, as someone else here has said, 'to be savoured.'

Rating:
Summary: To people find love in a time of hatred and pain.
Review: This was a powerful noval from page one. hemmingway sets the book with a powerful advantage to those who know the book. What is even more powerful than that of war is love. He showed us that even though a war is happening, other natural happings still take place.

Rating:
Summary: Tobaggans
Review: Any book that features the word "tobaggan" eleven times on a single page has my vote for sure.

Rating:
Summary: A masterful work, one of Hemmingway's best!!
Review: This is a most remarkable book about the challenges of love and war. Hemmingway refuses to sugar coat war and shows it in a light that many Americans want to deny. His look at the war and at the interaction between the two makes this a marvelous work that will go down as one of the all time greatet American Classics

Rating:
Summary: This book is the ultimate portrayal of true love!
Review: When I began to feel a certain indebtedness towards my country to read the supposedly greatest novel to ever come from it, I began preparing myself for a strong opinionated novel. Something groundbreaking. But what I found in it's place was just a simple but flowing love story. Hemingway places no set rules for loving someone, I believe his sole purpose was to give an example of something pure, and simple, and good in a time of great doubt of the morality of humanity. By placing obstacles in each of the lovers way and describing their triumph he exemplifies their devotion to a worthy cause. Despite each of the characters physical and mental abandonment of the things they had previously known, Henry finds himself beaten when Catherine and their child are taken away from him in an unlikely and tragic death. Could this mean that because of the world's general coldness and unfeeling nature it will allways destroy such innocent themes as love and devotion, or is this story to say that past actions will never be forgotten and someone will allways be held accountable for them? Hemingway doesn't say, that is the beauty of it. He presents a story in a compelling and drawing-in manner whithout giving any absolute views. A great writer, I believe, is one that can present facts to a reader and make him think about them. Hemingway accomplishes this to no end in A Farewell to Arms.

Rating:
Summary: A true classic and a must-read for any seeker of true love
Review: All I can say about this work is that if you are interested in or are seeking true love in this life then this book should definitely be part of your journey. After you have finished it you will know many of the reasons why I am making this statement. Hemingway wrote the ending 36 times and its power reflects his effort. It smites me to the core at every reading. I will carry what I learned from A Farewell to Arms in my heart forever.

Rating:
Summary: A Farewell to Arms is a realistic glimpse of love and war.
Review: I had to read "A Farewell to Arms" for an English class and have found it to be believable - Hemingway puts the reader in Europe during WWI when the American ambulance driver falls for the British nurse and they end up in love and bed, next a baby is on the way...the ending is also realistic, life sometimes happens this way.