Farewell To Arms

Rating:
Summary: Timeless
Review: I am a freshman in hs and I enjoyed this book emensely. It is a wonderful example of a classic love story. Granted, the ending is horribly sad, but all in all, this book is a fantastic read. I had never read a "classic" piece of litarature that I enjoyed until this. Applause!!!

Rating:
Summary: Masterpiece.
Review: I read this in one sitting and found the style and story to be very gripping - Hemingway draws the reader along with his terse prose, not allowing a pause. Some here have complained about the terse dialogue, which is true, or lack of character development. I found that these criticisms lent the story a directness and Hemingway was able to strip it of all sentimentality. For me, this made the narrative more powerful. The characters tell it how it is. Highly recommended.

I intend to now devour more Hemingway: next The Sun Also Rises and a Moveable Feast.

Rating:
Summary: An Okay Book (Farrah Hassan P.1)
Review: I choose to read A Farewell to Arms, because my grandpa said it was a good book. He also said it was very well known. So I thought I should read this well known book...The main character is the narrator. He has been wounded in World War 1 and has been moved to Paris. There he is serveing as a corespondent. He is fighting for the Italians, which is weird because he is English. While in Paris he has met a nurse named, Cathrine, who is in love with him.... I happen to actually dislike the book, Because it's boring. There are too many details about everything! Also, it's too long of a book for me. Even my grandpa wasn't able to finish the book.

Rating:
Summary: a beautiful work
Review: With A Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway precisely portrays the beauty of his writing style and the beauty of human love. Showing courage and boldness through the protagonist in the work, Hemingway paints a picture of himself through his words. A member of the "Lost Generation," Hemingway presents his disillusionment up to the final paragraph in A Farewell to Arms. One can't go wrong by adding A Farewell to Arms to his or her personal library.

Rating:
Summary: Behind the Scenes of War
Review: When I first started reading this book, a couple of people told me how Hemingway's works did not interest them, or how they weren't his "biggest fan." But I held my own opinion on this piece of literature and found that I was held in throughout the novel.

I cannot say that I am appealed to the books that are in the War time setting. But "A Farewell to Arms" holds the war setting in sunch an interesting manner, I couldn't resist but be entertained. Ernest Hemingway was capable of this because his life reflects in the novel. Hemingway used his World War I experiences and literally gave them to a character in which the only difference between the two, was the name.

The book, "A Farewell to Arms", is highly reccomended by myself because of the ideas of life I got from this book. I know that even if the reader doesn't get entertained by the book, their focus on what happens outside of the wartime battle will be newly-formed or changed.

Rating:
Summary: All the praise is true...
Review: I can't even begin to emphasize the tremendous merits of this novel. Hemingway's writing style, to begin with, is ridiculously good here. This was written at arguably the pinnacle of his career, and it shows; his writing has never been more genuinely innovative and dense. Hemingway's writing is known for the minimalism and tough sentences, but there's an incredible amount of depth behind the phrasing. Also, the themes of the novel (war, loss, courage, loyalty) are expressed so vividly that one can't help but sit in spellbound silence when you read. As an anti-war novel, "A Farewell to Arms" succeeds wildly (particularly effective is the encounter with the other Italian troop), and as a love story, Henry and Catherine's romance is devastating.

"The Old Man and the Sea" and "The Sun Also Rises" were both fantastic, but "A Farewell to Arms" is even better. Picture all of the varying emotions of those novels intensified beyond belief, and add a writing at the apex of Hemingway's output, and you've got a genuine masterpiece on your hands. This is astonishing - arguably one of the best novels ever written.

Rating:
Summary: A quality read
Review: Many people tend to think that "A Farewell to Arms" is an American Classic. I disagree; in order to be a great American novel, a book should represent the American dream. Instead, the main character, Frederic Henry, is a soldier in Italy during WWI who does nothing the American Armed Forces stand for. He is wounded while eating a bowl of macaroni - and receives a Medal of Valor for it - and eventually deserts his regiment in order to run off to Switzerland with his nurse.

This book says a lot more than what's on its pages. Many people will toss "Farewell" aside, thinking the simplistic language will lack intellectual value. However, a book does not need big words to have substance. Hemingway creates very powerful messages and themes in the text by forcing the reader construct them himself. He supplies the reader with dialogue and actions, and assumes he will discover the meaning.

Though not an American Classic, "Farewell to Arms" is well worth reading. A love story drives the book forward while Hemingway effortlessly shares his insight into the life of a soldier and explains why "everybody hates war."

Rating:
Summary: Hemingway Hits The Mark
Review: Ernest Hemingway's "A Farewell to Arms" is a defining novel in American Literature. The story revolving around the love between a young nurse and a volunteer in the ambulance corps during World War I goes beyond the traditional boundaries of the genre. Hemingway provides an intense look into the human yearning for life and the brevity of our time on Earth. This idea is what brings the two lovers together.
The complementary characters further enhance the idea of life and death. The soldiers faced with near certain death search for a distraction, something to take their mind off the war. These men turn to women and alcohol to try and distract them from their rapidly approaching death. Death is the inevitable end that haunts us all, as illustrated by this quote: "That was what you did. You died. You did not know what it was about. You never had time to learn. They threw you in and told you the rules and the first time they caught you off base they killed you ...But they killed you in the end. You could count on that. Stay around and they would kill you."

Rating:
Summary: Not Your Fathers Tragedy
Review: Ernest Hemingway is one of the worlds greatest writers, his books are powerfully and thoughtfully written. A Farewell to Arms is a perfect example of this, his ideas on subjects like love, war, and desertion leap from the page into the readers head. However sometimes his writting can be confusing to the reader, he jumps from place to place thought to thought, idea to idea very quickly, and almost too quickly.
By the end of the book there are so many thoughts in your head that you, the reader, start to get confused. I can not tell if Hemingway supports war or hates it. Does he believe in love or think it a weakness of man? To add on to this confusing base there is the abrupt ending to which he gives the book. There is no resolution to the main charecters problems, they only compound at the end of the book. This is what I feel was the main flaw with A Farewell to Arms. There was no ending, I enjoyed the book very much but I wanted some sort of resolution in the end. It almost would have been better if Henery had ended up dying as well. At least then it would be a true tragedy, and not only a sad quickly ended book.

Rating:
Summary: Name that Theme
Review: I feel that A Farewell to Arms is a very excellently written book, and it certainly brings up many points to be considered and reflected upon.
The passage that most illustrates the central theme in the book is on page 327, and says "But they killed you in the end. You could count on that. Stay around and they would kill you."
This passage, though brought up towards the end of the book, is in action throughout the story. Rinaldi, Aymo, Henry's child, and finally Catherine. All these people were victims of the story, and had no power to stop what was to befall them.