A Farewell to Arms
An ambulance driver on the Italian front, a British nurse, and an ending he rewrote dozens of times.
Hemingway drove ambulances on the Italian front and was badly wounded at nineteen, and the novel follows an American doing the same, and falling in love with a British nurse during the retreat from Caporetto. The prose is the famously stripped style at full strength. He is said to have written dozens of endings before settling on the one that stands, and it is the ending that makes the book.
Recommended by 1 Person
Alice Winn
I’ve recommended it because I think you have to. It’s considered one of the great classics. Personally, I have a love-hate relationship with Hemingway. I really admire him, he’s a very playful writer, I always enjoy him more than I expect to. But there is something so dudely bro-ish about him. I have to be in the right place for him.
Interview · April 2023
As an Amazon Associate, bookstoread.org earns from qualifying purchases. Links to Amazon on this page may earn us a commission at no extra cost to you. Spotted an error on this page? Tell us and we will fix it.