For Whom the Bell Tolls

by SparkNotes

Spark Publishing’s Literature Guides are celebrating their 5th Anniversary!  To celebrate this, we’re giving our TOP 50 a revamp by adding some exciting new features.

There will be sixteen pages devoted to writing a literary essay including:

Glossary of literary terms, Step by step tutoring on how to write a literary essay Feature on how not to plagiarized.

Each book will also include an A+ Essay; an actual literary essay written about the Spark-ed book, to show students how an essay should be written.

Genres: Fiction, Literary Fiction, Military Fiction, War, Classics, Guides, American

57 pages, Paperback

First published June 13, 2003

About the author

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Link to discussion.

Reviews

[Greg Seeley]

First of all, I did not read the "Sparks Notes", I read the entire unabridged book. It was the first time I had read it since college and I must say that I got a lot more out of it this time. I now was able to approach Hemingway's work from the perspective of an author, not just as another assignment to be completed in sophomore English.

As I tried to do in my own novel, Henry's Pride( the American Civil War), Hemingway portrays the brutal reality of war from the viewpoint of ordinary individual participants (in this case, partisans fighting against Franco's fascist army.) The characters are real, diverse, and dramatic each with both good points and flaws. What I had forgotten about is the dialogue which, at times, reads like Shakespeare or the King James version of the Bible (thee, thou, thy, canst, doest) This I don't quite understand. Perhaps someone can explain to me People who would have been speaking Spanish but translated into 16th century English instead of twentieth century English. Far be it from me though, the author of a single novel, to question the judgment of one of the great masters of modern literature.

I have not seen the 1943 movie starring Gary Cooper and Ingrid Bergman but have a hard time imagining Bergman in the role of Maria, a dark-haired, dark-skinned, brown-eyed Spanish girl. May be it works. As I said, I haven't seen it.

Reading this work has inspired me to go back and re-read more of Hemingway's work. As far as I know, there was never a sequel, I would be interested to know what became of the surviving characters after the Spanish Civil War ended.

[Rodica]

Read in high school, in Russian. Loved it! Loved Hemingway, in general.

[Paul W. B. Marsden]

Good overview of themes, plot, characters and suggestions of meaning to this Hemingway novel.
Very useful study guide.

[Rick Tabor]

I loved the Old Man and the Sea, but For Whom the Bell Tolls seems to have been written by a talented man who was drunk the entire time he was writing it. Repetitive, boring dialogue. Simple plot with absolutely no twists. Utterly and completely predictable. I FORCED myself to read this book because literary experts told me that it was one of his two best works. The only thing that was interesting about the story was the Spanish Civil War setting, about which I knew very little. That being said, sorry, but not for me.

[Paschalis]

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[Jonathan]

Gives a much more in-depth and greater understanding into the story.

[Missyanna01]

Somehow I fell in love with everything written by Ernest Hemingway. It probably started with a high school assignment and then press releases about his skills added to it.

What I will say now is he is one author that can relate love, sex war, distress, conflict and more with one or two short but we'll placed sentences.

I have had younger people ask me "what's it about"? with this and other Hemingway books. They just shake their head when I try to explain. Maybe you have to be old(er) to appreciate it.

[Vicki]

I will never forget reading this book in freshmen English. I expected something dry because I hadn't heard good things about Hemingway's life. Instead, I read a moving story that caught me up. I was reading ahead of the class because I was so thrilled with the tension and beauty of his writing.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who passed it by earlier.