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A Farewell to Arms | 
 enlarge | Author: Ernest Hemingway
Publisher: Arrow Books Ltd
Category: Book
List Price: £6.99
Buy New: £2.40
You Save: £4.59 (66%)
New (32) Used (11) from £1.65
Rating:  21 reviews
Sales Rank: 3270
Media: Paperback
Edition: New Ed
Pages: 304
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 6.9 x 4.3 x 0.8
ISBN: 0099910101
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780099910107
ASIN: 0099910101
Publication Date: August 18, 1994
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: BRAND NEW - ***Delivery usually * 2 - 3 * working days - From Aphrohead of SOUTHPORT, Lancs, uk *** . Priority Airmail used Worldwide on International orders. Thanks from all at Aphrohead.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 16 more reviews...
 It really isn't! July 24, 2008
Mr. P. Briody (St. Helens, UK)
I hope I don't offend when I let you all into a little secret....Hemingway can't write. Short, confusing sentences, disruptive asides and childish thematics make this a classic for our US dominated times only. With a more mature civilization the book will be placed where it belongs....amongst the pop-trash pulp novels of the 20th century.
Thin and silly January 3, 2008
Nt Deregowski (Brazil)
2 out of 5 found this review helpful
1. Non-existant characterisation
2. Unlikely (to the point of absurd) romantic relationship
3. lack of clear plot structure
4. Mannered prose
5. Preposterous machismo
6. Boring.
According to the blurb...
"Hemingway's description of war is unforgettable. He recreates the fear, the comradeship, the courage of his young American volunteer and the men and women he meets in Italy with total conviction. But A Farewell to Arms is not only a novel of war. In i."
None of this is true. It is simply not an impresssive evocation of war at all. He isn`t a good enough writer, though he can ocasionally describe physical pain well. Compare this to Robert Graves or Sassoon and you will see what I mean.
As for "total conviction", the book is too stylistically affected for that to be a legitimate description. The use of language is actually quite weird.
"Hemingway has also created a love story of immense drama and uncompromising passion"...my arse he has. The characters are so flat they can scarcely stand up, let alone act with "uncompromising passion".
One for the junk shop!
 Style is no substitute for a flawed content December 22, 2007
Janet_oxford
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
A Farewell To Arms is a book that divides opinion. Whether you are a fan or not you have to accept that Hemingway manages to describe scenes with a rich texture that few writers can match. You can picture every setting.. and smell it and feel it. Hemingway can depict a time and a place with such precision that you feel you are not just viewing a scene like on a stage, but that you are actually there.
There are many similarities between Farewell To Arms and the later work "For Whom The Bell Tolls". Both star an American main character in a European war. Both feature a doomed romance which is immediate and passionate with the threat of imminent death forcing an early intimacy.
However where "For Whom The Bell Tolls" is a gritty study of men and women at war, Farewell is a romantic melodrama with the war as a frequently distant backdrop.
The main characters in Farewell To Arms are obsessed with each other. Both put their relationship before their duty. They flee the war to be together to the complete exclusion of friends, comrades in arms and those who might need their care. This is a story of all consuming love; love tragically lost.
By contrast "For Whom The Bell Tolls" is a war story where the romance is sacrificed to the cause of a greater duty. Perhaps whether you prefer one book or the other is a reflection of how you yourself view the characters. For me the self obsession of the characters in Farewell To Arms is hard to stomach. The main character is a man who runs from the war, lives on money donated by his estranged family and feels no sense of any broader duty. The greatest war in European history is being played out across his morning newspaper whilst he drinks to excess in neutral Switzerland. His partner is a nurse who abandons her post to be with him. They are difficult to like and the tragedy that befalls them is like an appalling event that occurs to someone you barely know and care nothing for.
This lack of engagement is what makes this book so disappointing. As a romantic tragedy it needs us to identify with the characters. Instead we tend to dislike them and are untouched by their fate. By all means read Farewell To Arms. You will enjoy the scenery but the storyline may leave you untouched.
 Classic! August 1, 2007
R. O'loghlen (London, United Kingdom)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
As a fan of war novels one cannot even start without reading this classic by hemingway. Written in a way only hemingway could this is a novel based on his experiences as an ambulance driver in the italian army. The almost fast paced writing leaves you no time to feel anything towards the characters apart from henry the main character. A tragic tale that leaves you wondering how anyone could have done this during such a time and ending in such a hemingway way that you cant help but realise the brilliance of not always happy ever after.
A fond Farewell May 30, 2007
Mr. D. Mcguffog
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
The first thing that hits you about this book is the way it's written. The language is bare and sparce, yet somehow successfully evokes the Italian landscape and places a clear picture inside your head. The book is more than the sum of its parts and seems to effect you almost sublimily. Without realising it i found i was almost halfway through the book and had barely put it down.
The book is set during the first world war in Italy and really conveys the pointlessness and harshness of this war and war in general. Of course i have always assumed war to be an awfull experience, but this book really hammers that home like a nail through the head. What it really conveys is how unorganised and shambolic the war was and how no body really knew what they were doing. The soldiers dont seem to have any paticular special training or skills, and seem to have about as much idea as i would in what to do for the best. The book shows that war is just a crazy backward concept that you can never be prepared for.
As well as the war this book also conveys what it is to be young and in love and having a good time amongst friends. Despite the setting, the war was still gangs of young men together and at times you could almost imagine they were just friends on holiday. Hemmingway shows the soldiers drinking and laughing, finding girs, falling in love, and trying to make sure they dont get killed in the process. It created strong unshakable friendships between people. The war was terrible but the things that happened to the soldiers would certainly give you one hell of an adrenalin rush, and are experiences that we'l probably never get close to.
You dont have to be interested in war to read this book, God knows im not. This is a book about becoming an adult and finding out who you really are in life. You could substitute the war for any turbulant event in life that changes how you think and how you see the world.
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