A Farewell to Arms - wikipedia A Farewell to Arms `` Frederic Henry '' redirects here. For the 17th - century Dutch nobleman named Frederick Henry ( Frederick Hendrik ), see Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange. For other uses, see A Farewell to Arms ( disambiguation ). A Farewell to Arms First edition cover Author Ernest Hemingway Country USA Language English Published 1929 ( Scribner ) Media type Print ( hardcover ) Pages 355 A Farewell to Arms is a novel by Ernest Hemingway set during the Italian campaign of World War I. The book, published in 1929, is a first - person account of American Frederic Henry, serving as a lieutenant ( `` tenente '' ) in the ambulance corps of the Italian Army. The title is taken from a poem by 16th - century English dramatist George Peele. A Farewell to Arms is about a love affair between the expatriate American Frederic Henry and Catherine Barkley against the backdrop of the First World War, cynical soldiers, fighting and the displacement of populations. The publication of A Farewell to Arms cemented Hemingway 's stature as a modern American writer, became his first best - seller, and is described by biographer Michael Reynolds as `` the premier American war novel from that debacle World War I. '' The novel has been adapted for the stage, initially in 1930 and subsequently, for film in 1932 and 1957, and as a television miniseries in 1966. The 1996 film In Love and War, directed by Richard Attenborough and starring Chris O'Donnell and Sandra Bullock, depicts Hemingway 's life in Italy as an ambulance driver in the events prior to his writing of A Farewell to Arms. Contents 1 Plot summary 2 Background and publication history 3 Censorship 4 Critical reception 5 Adaptations 6 References 7 Sources 8 External links Plot summary The novel is divided into five books. In the first book, Frederic Henry, an American paramedic serving in the Italian Army is introduced to Catherine Barkley, an English nurse, by his good friend and roommate, Rinaldi, a surgeon. Frederic attempts to seduce her, and their relationship begins. Frederic does n't want a serious relationship, but his feelings for Catherine slowly start to grow. On the Italian front, Frederic is wounded in the knee by a mortar and sent to a hospital in Milan, where Catherine is also sent. The second book shows the growth of Frederic and Catherine 's relationship as they spend time together in Milan over the summer. Frederic and Catherine fall in love as Frederic slowly heals. After his knee heals, he is diagnosed with jaundice but is soon kicked out of the hospital and sent back to the front after being discovered with alcohol. By the time he is sent back, Catherine is three months pregnant. In the third book, Frederic returns to his unit, and soon discovers morale has severely dropped. Not long afterwards the Austrians break through the Italian lines in the Battle of Caporetto, and the Italians retreat. Due to a slow and chaotic retreat, Frederic and his men go off trail and quickly get lost, and a frustrated Frederic kills a sergeant for insubordination. After catching up to the main retreat, Frederic is taken to a place by the `` battle police, '' where officers are being interrogated and executed for the `` treachery '' that supposedly led to the Italian defeat. However, after seeing and hearing that everyone interrogated has been killed, Frederic escapes by jumping into a river. He heads to Milan to find Catherine only to discover that she has been sent to Stresa. In the fourth book, Catherine and Frederic reunite and spend some time in Stresa before Frederic learns he will soon be arrested. He and Catherine then flee to Switzerland in a rowboat given to him by a barkeep. After interrogation by Swiss authorities, they are allowed to stay in Switzerland. In the final book, Frederic and Catherine live a quiet life in the mountains until she goes into labor. After a long and painful birth, their son is stillborn. Catherine begins to hemorrhage and soon dies, leaving Frederic to return to their hotel in the rain. Background and publication history The novel was based on Hemingway 's own experiences serving in the Italian campaigns during the First World War. The inspiration for Catherine Barkley was Agnes von Kurowsky, a nurse who cared for Hemingway in a hospital in Milan after he had been wounded. He had planned to marry her but she spurned his love when he returned to America. Kitty Cannell, a Paris - based fashion correspondent, became Helen Ferguson. The unnamed priest was based on Don Giuseppe Bianchi, the priest of the 69th and 70th regiments of the Brigata Ancona. Although the sources for Rinaldi are unknown, the character had already appeared in In Our Time. Michael Reynolds, however, writes that Hemingway was not involved in the battles described. Because his previous novel, The Sun Also Rises, had been written as a roman à clef, readers assumed A Farewell to Arms to be autobiographical. A Farewell to Arms was begun during his time at Willis M. Spear 's guest ranch in Wyoming 's bighorns. Some pieces of the novel were written in Piggott, Arkansas, at the home of his then wife Pauline Pfeiffer, and in Mission Hills, Kansas while she was awaiting delivery of their baby. Pauline underwent a caesarean section as Hemingway was writing the scene about Catherine Barkley 's childbirth. The novel was first serialized in Scribner 's Magazine in the May 1929 to October 1929 issues. The book was published in September 1929 with a first edition print - run of approximately 31,000 copies. The success of A Farewell to Arms made Hemingway financially independent. The Hemingway Library Edition was released in July 2012, with a dust jacket facsimile of the first edition. The newly published edition presents an appendix with the many alternate endings Hemingway wrote for the novel in addition to pieces from early draft manuscripts. The JFK Library Hemingway collection has two handwritten pages with possible titles for the book. Most of the titles come from The Oxford Book of English Verse. One of the possible titles Hemingway considered was In Another Country and Besides. This comes from The Jew of Malta by Christopher Marlowe. The poem Portrait of a Lady by T.S. Eliot also starts off by quoting this Marlowe work : `` Thou hast committed / Fornication : but that was in another country, / And besides, the wench is dead. '' Hemingway 's library included both works by Eliot and Marlowe. Censorship There are at least two copies of the first edition in which Hemingway re-inserted the censored text by hand, so as to provide a corrected text. One of these copies was presented to Maurice Coindreau ; the other, to James Joyce. Hemingway 's corrected text has not been incorporated into modern published editions of the novel ; however, there are some audiobook versions that are uncensored. Also, the novel could not be published in Italy until 1948 because the Fascist regime considered it detrimental to the honor of the Armed Forces, both in its description of the Battle of Caporetto, and for a certain anti-militarism implied in the work. More than one biographer suggests that at the base of the censorship of the Fascist regime in the novel there had also been a personal antipathy between the writer and Benito Mussolini. Hemingway was interviewed in 1922, and in his article in the Toronto Star he said of Mussolini that he was `` the biggest bluff in Europe 's history. '' But apart from the official reactions, it is known that Mussolini did not like the article at all. The Italian translation had in fact already been written illegally in 1943 by Fernanda Pivano, leading to her arrest in Turin. Critical reception Gore Vidal wrote of the text : ``... a work of ambition, in which can be seen the beginning of the careful, artful, immaculate idiocy of tone that since has marked... ( Hemingway 's ) prose. '' The last line of the 1929 New York Times review reads : `` It is a moving and beautiful book. '' Adaptations The novel was first adapted to stage by Laurence Stallings in 1930, then to film in 1932, with a 1957 remake. A three - part television miniseries was made in 1966. References Jump up ^ Mellow ( 1992 ), 378 Jump up ^ Wagner - Martin, Linda ; Reynolds, Michael ( 2000 ). `` Ernest Hemingway 1899 - 1961 : A Brief Biography ''. A Historical Guide to Ernest Hemingway. New York : Oxford University Press. p. 31. ISBN 0 - 19 - 512151 - 1. ^ Jump up to : Reynolds ( 2000 ), 31 Jump up ^ Villard, Henry Serrano & Nagel, James. Hemingway in Love and War : The Lost Diary of Agnes von Kurowsky : Her letters, and Correspondence of Ernest Hemingway ( ISBN 1 - 55553 - 057 - 5 H / B / ISBN 0 - 340 - 68898 - X P / B ) Jump up ^ Spear - o - Wigwam history Jump up ^ `` Hemingway - Pfeiffer Home Page ''. Arkansas State University. Archived from the original on 16 February 2007. Retrieved 2007 - 01 - 30. Jump up ^ `` A Writer 's Haunts : Where He Worked and Where He Lived '' Jump up ^ Meyers ( 1985 ), 216 -- 217 Jump up ^ Oliver ( 1999 ), 91 Jump up ^ Meyers, Jeffrey. Hemingway : A Biography. Da Capo Press, 1999, p. 219. Jump up ^ Boseman, Julie. ( July 4, 2012 ). `` To Use and Use Not ''. The New York Times. Retrieved July 9, 2012 Jump up ^ Hemingway, Ernest ( 1929 ). Hemingway, Seán, ed. A Farewell To Arms ( The Special ed. ). London : William Heinemann. p. XIX. ISBN 9780434022489. Jump up ^ Brasch, James D. ; Sigman, Joseph ( 1981 ). Hemingway 's Library : A Composite Record ( PDF ) ( Electronic Edition John F. Kennedy Library, 2000 ed. ). New York and London : Garland Pub. ISBN 0 - 8240 - 9499 - 9. Retrieved 21 September 2013. Jump up ^ Hemingway, Ernest. A Farewell to Arms ( New York : Scribner, 1929 ). James Joyce Collection, the Poetry Collection ( State University of New York at Buffalo ), item J69. 23.8 TC141 H45 F37 1929 Jump up ^ Fernanda Pivano, Hemingway, Rusconi, Milan 1985 ) ( ISBN 8818701657, 9788818701654 ) Jump up ^ `` The Norman Mailer Syndrome ''. Los Angeles Times. Jump up ^ `` Hemingway 's Farewell ''. New York Times. Jump up ^ Young, Stark ( 1994 ). `` A Farewell to Dramatization ''. Critical essays on Ernest Hemingway 's A farewell to arms. New York : Hall ( u.a. ) pp. 91 -- 95. ISBN 0 - 7838 - 0011 - 8. Retrieved 4 January 2013. Sources Baker, Carlos ( 1972 ). Hemingway : The Writer as Artist. Princeton : Princeton UP. ISBN 978 - 0 - 691 - 01305 - 3 Mellow, James ( 1992 ). Hemingway : A Life Without Consequences. Boston : Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 0 - 395 - 37777 - 3 Meyers, Jeffrey ( 1985 ). Hemingway : A Biography. New York : Macmillan. ISBN 978 - 0 - 333 - 42126 - 0 Oliver, Charles ( 1999 ). Ernest Hemingway A to Z : The Essential Reference to the Life and Work. New York : Checkmark Publishing. ISBN 978 - 0 - 8160 - 3467 - 3 Reynolds, Michael ( 2000 ). `` Ernest Hemingway, 1899 -- 1961 : A Brief Biography ''. in Wagner - Martin, Linda ( ed ). A Historical Guide to Ernest Hemingway. New York : Oxford UP. ISBN 978 - 0 - 19 - 512152 - 0 Roy, Pinaki ( 2012 ). Hemingway 's ' A Farewell to Arms ' : A Critical Appraisal. Kolkata : Books Way. ISBN 978 - 93 - 81672 - 12 - 9 Tyler, Lisa, ed. ( 2008 ). `` Teaching Hemingway 's A Farewell to Arms. '' Kent, OH : The Kent State UP. External links Hemingway Archives, John F. Kennedy Library A Farewell to Arms at Faded Page ( Canada ) A Farewell to Arms, Internet Archive Ernest Hemingway Bibliography Novels The Torrents of Spring ( 1926 ) The Sun Also Rises ( 1926 ) A Farewell to Arms ( 1929 ) To Have and Have Not ( 1937 ) For Whom the Bell Tolls ( 1940 ) Across the River and into the Trees ( 1950 ) The Old Man and the Sea ( 1952 ) Non-fiction Death in the Afternoon ( 1932 ) Green Hills of Africa ( 1935 ) Posthumous A Moveable Feast ( 1964 ) Islands in the Stream ( 1970 ) The Dangerous Summer ( 1985 ) The Garden of Eden ( 1986 ) True at First Light ( 1999 ) Under Kilimanjaro ( 2005 ) Short stories `` Indian Camp '' ( 1925 ) `` The Doctor and the Doctor 's Wife '' ( 1925 ) `` The End of Something '' ( 1925 ) `` The Three - Day Blow '' ( 1925 ) `` The Battler '' ( 1925 ) `` A Very Short Story '' ( 1925 ) `` Soldier 's Home '' ( 1925 ) `` The Revolutionist '' ( 1925 ) `` Mr. and Mrs. Elliot '' ( 1925 ) `` Cat in the Rain '' ( 1925 ) `` Out of Season '' ( 1925 ) `` Cross Country Snow '' ( 1925 ) `` My Old Man '' ( 1925 ) `` Big Two - Hearted River '' ( 1925 ) `` A Clean, Well - Lighted Place '' ( 1926 ) `` A Canary for One '' ( 1926 ) `` Fifty Grand '' ( 1927 ) `` Hills Like White Elephants '' ( 1927 ) `` The Killers '' ( 1927 ) `` The Undefeated '' ( 1927 ) `` Che Ti Dice La Patria ? '' ( 1927 ) `` In Another Country '' ( 1927 ) `` On the Quai at Smyrna '' ( 1930 ) `` Fathers and Sons '' ( 1932 ) `` A Day 's Wait '' ( 1933 ) `` The Gambler, the Nun, and the Radio '' ( 1933 ) `` A Way You 'll Never Be '' ( 1933 ) `` The Snows of Kilimanjaro '' ( 1936 ) `` The Capital of the World '' ( 1936 ) `` The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber '' ( 1936 ) Short story collections Three Stories and Ten Poems ( 1923 ) In Our Time ( 1925 ) Men Without Women ( 1927 ) Winner Take Nothing ( 1933 ) The Fifth Column and the First Forty - Nine Stories ( 1938 ) The Snows of Kilimanjaro ( 1961 ) The Fifth Column and Four Stories of the Spanish Civil War ( 1969 ) The Nick Adams Stories ( 1972 ) The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway ( 1987 ) Ernest Hemingway : The Collected Stories ( 1995 ) Story fragments `` On Writing '' Poetry 88 Poems ( 1979 ) Complete Poems Letters and journalism Ernest Hemingway Selected Letters 1917 -- 1961 ( 1981 ) Dateline : Toronto ( 1985 ) The Cambridge Edition of the Letters of Ernest Hemingway ( 2011 ) Adaptations The Sun Also Rises 1957 film 1984 film Opera The Select ( The Sun Also Rises ) Ballet `` The Killers '' 1946 film 1956 film 1964 film Bukowski short story A Farewell to Arms 1932 film 1957 film 1966 TV series To Have and Have Not 1944 film The Breaking Point ( 1950 ) The Gun Runners ( 1958 ) Captain Khorshid ( 1987 ) For Whom the Bell Tolls 1943 film 1965 TV series Metallica song The Old Man and the Sea 1958 film 1990 miniseries 1999 film Other film adaptations The Macomber Affair ( 1947 ) The Snows of Kilimanjaro ( 1952 ) Hemingway 's Adventures of a Young Man ( 1962 ) Islands in the Stream ( 1977 ) See also Nick Adams Michigan cottage Idaho house Key West home Hotel Ambos Mundos, Havana home Finca Vigía, Cuba home Pilar ( boat ) The Spanish Earth ( 1937 film ) Bacall to Arms ( 1946 cartoon ) Hello Hemingway ( 1990 film ) In Love and War ( 1996 film ) Hemingway & Gellhorn ( 2012 film ) Cooper & Hemingway : The True Gen ( 2013 documentary ) Papa : Hemingway in Cuba ( 2015 film ) Hemingway Foundation / PEN Award Kennedy Library Hemingway collection Family Elizabeth Hadley Richardson ( first wife ) Jack Hemingway ( son ) Pauline Pfeiffer ( second wife ) Patrick Hemingway ( son ) Gregory Hemingway ( son ) Martha Gellhorn ( third wife ) Mary Welsh Hemingway ( fourth wife ) Grace Hall Hemingway ( mother ) Leicester Hemingway ( brother ) GND : 4099228 - 7 BNF : cb11943643b ( data ) Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=A_Farewell_to_Arms&oldid=797118843 '' Categories : 1929 American novels American autobiographical novels American novels adapted into films American war novels Anti-war novels Books by Ernest Hemingway Modernist novels Novels by Ernest Hemingway Novels first published in serial form Novels set in Italy World War I novels Works originally published in Scribner 's Magazine Hidden categories : Pages to import images to Wikidata Articles with Project Gutenberg links Wikipedia articles with GND identifiers Wikipedia articles with BNF identifiers Talk Contents About Wikipedia বাংলা Беларуская Български Cymraeg Dansk Deutsch Español فارسی Français 한국어 Հայերեն Hrvatski Íslenska Italiano עברית ქართული Кыргызча Magyar მარგალური Nederlands 日本 語 Norsk ਪੰਜਾਬੀ پنجابی Polski Português Русский Slovenčina Српски / srpski Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски Suomi Svenska ไทย Türkçe Українська اردو Tiếng Việt 中文 Edit links This page was last edited on 25 August 2017, at 02 : 15. 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Question: where does a farewell to arms take place
Answer: Italy