A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway (Patron-Only Early Access / Ad-Free)
One of the 10 best novels I have ever read in my life.
Comments (15)
I went out to my local used bookstore after watching just the first few minutes of this video when Mr Sargent posted it. Wanted to save my viewing for when I’d finished the book. Which happened this afternoon. Wow. This is one of those novels that makes one want to sit alone in silence for a while once finished. The last few pages just gut you like a fish. And I’ve been in Tenente’s shoes. 21 years ago this month. It’s just like that - saying goodbye to a statue.
I’m glad you found and enjoyed the book. I am so sorry you ever had to know how that feels. I can not imagine.
Great review. I was way too young when I read my way through Hemingway and a lot went over my head. Sounds like its time to revisit. Will highly recommend the Complete Short Stories if you're in the mood. That was my intro to him and the rest of his work.
One could read Being and Time, and good luck indeed to those who try, but one might also read At the Existentialist Cafe by Sarah Bakewell, where she, in an extremely readable and fascinating way, thoroughly outlines Heidegger’s concept of Dasein as well as the philosophies and lives of Sartre, Beauvoir, Camus, et al. It’s a refreshingly readable yet non-simplistic book.
Schopenhauer, huh? -I guess... I'll have to reread it now. -Its been years though, since...
After your review, I will have to put this novel on my TBR pile. I read a few of Hemingway's short stories earlier this year and was especially impressed with "The Killers" and "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place." I read The Sun Also Rises and For Whom the Bell Tolls a long time ago, and I might read them again in the future.
Great review, and definitely agree with you on this one. Wanted to say re: Dostoyevsky, I'm coming off two-ish years of reading the major works from the Russian authors. I hadn't read any of them prior, and went in assuming I'd like Dost the most. I've come out believing Tolstoy the umatched writer of the 19th century and maybe of all time, with Chekhov as my very close second. That's to say, I'd really recommend giving Anna Karenina or War and Peace a chance since you're not digging Dostoyevsky too much. And same with Chekhov's stories.
It isn't easy ranking it, partially because Dostoyevsky's goals seem so different from Tolstoy's. Still, I've had a similar experience coming away from the Tolstoy novels as breathtaking and wide-ranging. I love the Tolstoy I've read, especially War and Peace. I'm halfway through Anna K right now, and it's great. But I've also liked the Dostoevsky I've read, especially Notes from Underground. I agree that the Checkov stories are fantastic, and I would add Gogol's to those. Zamyatin's We is one I hope to get to soon!
Great review. I was listening to your review on my computer - without headphones. I heard my husband kinda snort and I thought, oh, here it comes: a complaint about arty-farty intellectuality attempts on my part and why am I not using my headphones? Instead he put down his iPad (and he was reading about soccer, btw) and started listening. He. Loved. It. And he does not love reading. And he does not love fiction (unless it is about sports). So, there, Clifford: you got my husband to read a book. I believe your work here is finished. At least as to "Farewell to Arms."
That’s awesome! Thanks so much for your kind words and sharing that Rebecca, that’s very encouraging. Hope you and your husband love the book as much as I did.
I read The Old Man & The Sea last month and I loved it as my introduction to Hemmingway. This one seems to be where i'll head next down that road. Awesome review, Cliff.
A Farewell To Arms has been on my bookshelf for at least 10 years. Now with your intensely positive review I am going to have to read it. And then you put it on the same level of greatness as Absalom Absalom! Now I feel like I have to read it immediately, before I die or something. I loved For Whom The Bell Tolls, and liked The Sun Also Rises. And I enjoyed A Movable Feast-I think you’re going to love that one! Cheers Clifford! Jeff
Great review and great book. I had a similar experience reading it -- the middle part sort of dragged but that finish is unlike anything else I've read. Reading it after just becoming a father hit way too hard. I've been in another Hemingway kick lately (which involves a lot of drinking of daiquiris and eating gulf shrimp) . Going "Up in Michigan" next week and definitely bringing along his collection of short stories.
Absolutely loved this book, but I read it at a horrible time. (My wife was in the last month of her pregnancy when I finished the book and that caused me a little bit of anxiety). Incredible book nonetheless. You seemed up my reading experience perfectly as I was also lulled a little bit in the middle, and then absolutely gutted by the end. I love how much the lighting changed from the beginning to the end of this video.
I reread A Farewell to Arms back in April of this year, it still holds up. A great book. Coincidentally I see a film version of one of Hemingway's later novels, Across the River and into the Trees, starring Liev Schreiber, is to be released this year.