For Whom the Bell Tolls

by Ernest Hemingway

No cover — Ernest Hemingway: For Whom the Bell Tolls (1977, Scribner)

Board book, 480 pages

English language

Published Aug. 1, 1977 by Scribner.

ISBN:: 978-0-684-15316-2

(49 reviews)

High in the pine forests of the Spanish Sierra, a guerrilla band prepares to blow up a vital bridge. Robert Jordan, a young American volunteer, has been sent to handle the dynamiting. There, in the mountains, he finds the dangers and the intense comradeship of war. And there he discovers Maria, a young woman who has escaped from Franco's rebels.

69 editions

Bird_p137@bookwyrm.world reviewed Por quién doblan las campanas by Ernest Hemingway

Entre montañas, explosivos y amor: Hemingway me voló la cabeza

5 stars

No suelo leer novelas de guerra. Pero Por quién doblan las campanas me agarró desde la primera página y no me soltó. No es solo una historia de bombas y tiros. Es una historia sobre personas.

Robert Jordan, el protagonista, es un joven que pone explosivos para los republicanos en la Guerra Civil Española. Su misión es volar un puente. Su dilema es mucho más grande: ¿vale la pena morir por una causa?

Hemingway escribe como si te hablara al oído. No se enrolla. No se esconde. Todo es directo. Crudo. Y eso hace que todo duela más.

Los personajes son brutales y humanos. Pilar, con su fuerza salvaje. María, rota pero viva. Y Robert, atrapado entre deber y deseo. Me emocionó ver cómo, en medio del caos, nace un amor tan puro como trágico.

Lo mejor: no romantiza la guerra. La muestra como es. Fea, absurda, y aun así …

No suelo leer novelas de guerra. Pero Por quién doblan las campanas me agarró desde la primera página y no me soltó. No es solo una historia de bombas y tiros. Es una historia sobre personas.

Hemingway escribe como si te hablara al oído. No se enrolla. No se esconde. Todo es directo. Crudo. Y eso hace que todo duela más.

Lo mejor: no romantiza la guerra. La muestra como es. Fea, absurda, y aun así llena de momentos intensos que te hacen respirar hondo.

Terminé el libro con el corazón apretado y la mente llena de imágenes.

Hemingway no solo cuenta una historia. Te mete dentro de ella. Y cuando terminas, sientes que perdiste algo.

Si buscas una novela que te haga sentir, pensar y temblar un poco, Por quién doblan las campanas es un disparo directo al alma.

decadent_and_depraved reviewed For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway

Review of 'For Whom the Bell Tolls' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

This is the first novel I have read from Hemingway that managed to deeply delight me and make me feel absolutely, utterly miserable. I truly felt for the characters. It is still too long, but I would say it is worth a read.

Dɪɢɪᴛᴀʟɪs Pᴜʀᴘᴜʀᴇᴀ reviewed For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway

A masterpiece

5 stars

As a Hemingway die-hard fun, I must say this is for me one his most successful works, alongside Fiesta and a Farewell to Arms. The author perfectly conveys the trauma, the spiritual mangling, the contradictions, the inebitable loss which a civil war, but also describes the lives of those who volunteered to sacrifice their life for the sake of an idea. The driving rhythm of his concise prose makes this book an engaging reading

reese reviewed For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway

DaveNash3 reviewed For whom the bell tolls by Ernest Hemingway

Review of 'For whom the bell tolls' on 'Storygraph'

4 stars

People who watch romantic movies respond better to ads that call on being alone, people who watch violent movies respond better to ads that call on being together, in this novel the romance and violence are wrapped together in three days high in the mountains isolated by the Spanish Civil War. So there's always a tension between the comraderie of the band of guerrilla fighters and Romeo and Juliet.
The romance piece isn't much more developed or modern than Shakespeare despite almost a good 350 years later. Juliette, being Spanish is Maria, is as submissive as male chauvinist's dream.
The violence piece is better, Hemingway gets the realities of war, but still errs on the side of glorifying it, with Romeo's last stand, where A Farewell to Arms didn't.
A Farewell to Arms like the Old Man and the Sea has a timeless truth. For Whom the Bell Tolls is to connected to the realities of the Spanish Civil War, which is not widely if at all taught in American schools. It's dialogue and romantic interest is even more primitive and stilted. The modern reader may also find the end melodramatic and cliché.
I would still recommend with four stars because Hemingway can write and touches some fundamental truths about life and fate and belief and love and comradie.