FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS

Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review:
If I had to recommend a single Hemingway book that would probably be this one. It's not your typical early Hemingway, and that's not a negative critic. The book is emotional, some passages are just really impressive. I think it's the one I preferred of all the books by Ernie that I read.

One thing that makes this book special is the direct speeches. If you read this book you will not fail to notice a certain touch of 17th century in the way people speak to each other. I thought I would explain the reason for this as it is not self-explanatory for people who are native english-speakers. Spanish is a language where you have two forms of second person, "you"; as in french, and formerly English. This is the difference between the "you" and the "thou", which is used in this novel. Formerly, the "you" was the polite form, and the "thou" the familiar form (not the religious form as many might think since the only use where you actually hear it anymore is for religious stuff). So whenever you see "thou" being used in the novel you know it means familiarity, as in old english. If I remember correctly, Hemingway also uses turns of phrases in such a way that it makes them sound "latin", the way it would be done in Spanish, which is the goal. This is a bit weird I have to admit but you'll get used to it, just keep in mind it's used to approach more closely the reality of the Spanish language, and thus have a better "translation".

Worth reading.

Rating:
Summary: Another great novel by Hemingway
Review: I had to write this review because of the review someone else wrote...This person said it was about Hemingway's support for anti-communists and young americans going over to Spain during the civil war to fight the communists...He must not have read the book. The main character of the book went to fight against the FASCISTS, not the communists. He hated fascism and wanted to stop the fascist regime from taking Spain. Fighting on his side were many communists, or Spanish backed by communist nations, such as the spanish generals trained by the communist Russian nation, so how on earth this reviewer could think it was against communism if he read the book is beyond me. Also, this book is about much more, it explores moral issues and covers themes from love to the truth of war. Hemingway really makes you see the tragedy and pointlessness of war.