471 pages
English language
Published Jan. 1, 1940 by Scribner's.
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.
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.
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
this one is a good one, love a good memento mori. very nice
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 …
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.
