A Farewell to Arms in Reading the Classics

Jul 11, 2014 Henry Avila rated it really liked it · review of another edition

An American studying architecture in Rome, Frederick Henry, is transformed into a Lt. in the Italian Army, when World War I starts. He volunteers even though America doesn't enter , the Great War, for another 3 years ! Why? He probably can't say, himself , but young men want excitement in their dull lives. He joins the ambulance corps on the northern front , in charge of four drivers , and a few motorcars, picking up the badly wounded soldiers, when feasible, the dead are carried outside the veh An American studying architecture in Rome, Frederick Henry, is transformed into a Lt. in the Italian Army, when World War I starts. He volunteers even though America doesn't enter , the Great War, for another 3 years ! Why? He probably can't say, himself , but young men want excitement in their dull lives. He joins the ambulance corps on the northern front , in charge of four drivers , and a few motorcars, picking up the badly wounded soldiers, when feasible, the dead are carried outside the vehicles , no need now. Austrians are the enemy, but the high snowy mountains, freezing weather , make battles difficult, to fight, swollen rivers dangerous to cross , the artillery flashing in the night, screaming mortars above , and coming down no-one knows where, except the unfortunates, but too late for them. Rinaldi a very capable surgeon in the Italian army , getting better every day, putting back together the wounded bodies, saving lives, most of the time . Is Lt. Henry's affable roommate, always joking, and best friend, in a good house, in a mostly undamaged village, near the war, for officers. A man who loves women, to a certain degree ( lust may be the correct word), he has seen his latest enchanting female, but to his deep regret, not a mutual feeling between the two. The gracious doctor tells the lieutenant about the beautiful blonde, tall British nurse, Catherine Barkley, even introduces him. It doesn't take long for a romance, she lost her fiancee in France, last year, 1916, in the trenches, at first she , then he too falls in love , not wanting or expecting it, her best friend and fellow nurse Helen Ferguson , disapproves. Lonely people amid a terrible conflict somehow require something to continue their joyless existence. Shortly after, while waiting in a ditch at the front, for the bombardment to halt, a mortar shell hits, killing one of his men and badly wounding him, in both legs.The ambulance will take the driver for a ride not in front, this time, but in the back, he the young American, feels a warm liquid dropping from the top, the blood oozing out of another soldier, will not stop, Henry can't move, just endure, until there is no more. The vehicle ceases traveling, heavy rains pouring down, the dead man put on the muddy ground, and another victim carried inside. They finally arrive at the unsanitary field hospital, safely navigating the treacherous mountain roads and bombs. Catherine becomes the Lt.'s nurse and much more. Since Milan, is not far away and an American hospital has just opened (this is 1917), a better place for treatment. Catherine gets assigned there, never a difficulty, she says mysteriously. But the recovered Mr.Henry, must go back to the front when he is healed, their happiness is over. A novel based on Hemingway's experiences in the war, he was a 19 -year -old ambulance driver, almost dying of battle wounds, and having an unhappy affair with an older nurse. ...more

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