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FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS

by Ernest Hemingway ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 21, 1940

This is good Hemingway. It has some of the tenderness of A Farewell to Arms and some of its amazing power to make one feel inside the picture of a nation at war, of the people experiencing war shorn of its glamor, of the emotions that the effects of war — rather than war itself — arouse. But in style and tempo and impact, there is greater resemblance to The Sun Also Rises . Implicit in the characters and the story is the whole tragic lesson of Spain's Civil War, proving ground for today's holocaust, and carrying in its small compass, the contradictions, the human frailties, the heroism and idealism and shortcomings. In retrospect the thread of the story itself is slight. Three days, during which time a young American, a professor who has taken his Sabbatical year from the University of Montana to play his part in the struggle for Loyalist Spain and democracy. He is sent to a guerilla camp of partisans within the Fascist lines to blow up a strategic bridge. His is a complex problem in humanity, a group of undisciplined, unorganized natives, emotionally geared to go their own way, while he has a job that demands unreasoning, unwavering obedience. He falls in love with a lovely refugee girl, escaping the terrors of a fascist imprisonment, and their romance is sharply etched against a gruesome background. It is a searing book; Hemingway has done more to dramatize the Spanish War than any amount of abstract declamation. Yet he has done it through revealing the pettinesses, the indignities, the jealousies, the cruelties on both sides, never glorifying simply presenting starkly the belief in the principles for which these people fought a hopeless war, to give the rest of the world an interval to prepare. There is something of the implacable logic of Verdun in the telling. It's not a book for the thin-skinned; it has more than its fill of obscenities and the style is clipped and almost too elliptical for clarity at times. But it is a book that repays one for bleak moments of unpleasantness.

Pub Date: Oct. 21, 1940

ISBN: 0684803356

Page Count: 484

Publisher: Scribner

Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1940

LITERARY FICTION

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THE MOST FUN WE EVER HAD

by Claire Lombardo ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 25, 2019

Characters flip between bottomless self-regard and pitiless self-loathing while, as late as the second-to-last chapter, yet...

Four Chicago sisters anchor a sharp, sly family story of feminine guile and guilt.

Newcomer Lombardo brews all seven deadly sins into a fun and brimming tale of an unapologetically bougie couple and their unruly daughters. In the opening scene, Liza Sorenson, daughter No. 3, flirts with a groomsman at her sister’s wedding. “There’s four of you?” he asked. “What’s that like?” Her retort: “It’s a vast hormonal hellscape. A marathon of instability and hair products.” Thus begins a story bristling with a particular kind of female intel. When Wendy, the oldest, sets her sights on a mate, she “made sure she left her mark throughout his house—soy milk in the fridge, box of tampons under the sink, surreptitious spritzes of her Bulgari musk on the sheets.” Turbulent Wendy is the novel’s best character, exuding a delectable bratty-ness. The parents—Marilyn, all pluck and busy optimism, and David, a genial family doctor—strike their offspring as impossibly happy. Lombardo levels this vision by interspersing chapters of the Sorenson parents’ early lean times with chapters about their daughters’ wobbly forays into adulthood. The central story unfurls over a single event-choked year, begun by Wendy, who unlatches a closed adoption and springs on her family the boy her stuffy married sister, Violet, gave away 15 years earlier. (The sisters improbably kept David and Marilyn clueless with a phony study-abroad scheme.) Into this churn, Lombardo adds cancer, infidelity, a heart attack, another unplanned pregnancy, a stillbirth, and an office crush for David. Meanwhile, youngest daughter Grace perpetrates a whopper, and “every day the lie was growing like mold, furring her judgment.” The writing here is silky, if occasionally overwrought. Still, the deft touches—a neighborhood fundraiser for a Little Free Library, a Twilight character as erotic touchstone—delight. The class calibrations are divine even as the utter apolitical whiteness of the Sorenson world becomes hard to fathom.

Pub Date: June 25, 2019

ISBN: 978-0-385-54425-2

Page Count: 544

Publisher: Doubleday

Review Posted Online: March 3, 2019

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2019

LITERARY FICTION | FAMILY LIFE & FRIENDSHIP

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HOUSE OF LEAVES

by Mark Z. Danielewski ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 6, 2000

The story's very ambiguity steadily feeds its mysteriousness and power, and Danielewski's mastery of postmodernist and...

An amazingly intricate and ambitious first novel - ten years in the making - that puts an engrossing new spin on the traditional haunted-house tale.

Texts within texts, preceded by intriguing introductory material and followed by 150 pages of appendices and related "documents" and photographs, tell the story of a mysterious old house in a Virginia suburb inhabited by esteemed photographer-filmmaker Will Navidson, his companion Karen Green (an ex-fashion model), and their young children Daisy and Chad. The record of their experiences therein is preserved in Will's film The Davidson Record - which is the subject of an unpublished manuscript left behind by a (possibly insane) old man, Frank Zampano - which falls into the possession of Johnny Truant, a drifter who has survived an abusive childhood and the perverse possessiveness of his mad mother (who is institutionalized). As Johnny reads Zampano's manuscript, he adds his own (autobiographical) annotations to the scholarly ones that already adorn and clutter the text (a trick perhaps influenced by David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest ) - and begins experiencing panic attacks and episodes of disorientation that echo with ominous precision the content of Davidson's film (their house's interior proves, "impossibly," to be larger than its exterior; previously unnoticed doors and corridors extend inward inexplicably, and swallow up or traumatize all who dare to "explore" their recesses). Danielewski skillfully manipulates the reader's expectations and fears, employing ingeniously skewed typography, and throwing out hints that the house's apparent malevolence may be related to the history of the Jamestown colony, or to Davidson's Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph of a dying Vietnamese child stalked by a waiting vulture. Or, as "some critics [have suggested,] the house's mutations reflect the psychology of anyone who enters it."

Pub Date: March 6, 2000

ISBN: 0-375-70376-4

Page Count: 704

Publisher: Pantheon

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2000

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by Mark Z. Danielewski

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Read TIME’s Original Review of <i>For Whom the Bell Tolls</i>

Read TIME’s Original Review of For Whom the Bell Tolls

For Whom the Bell Tolls is a novel by Ernest Hemingway in 1940. It tells the story of Robert Jordan, a young American in the International Brigades attached to a republican guerrilla unit during the Spanish Civil War.

W hen Ernest Hemingway’s now-classic novel For Whom the Bell Tolls was released, exactly 75 years ago on Wednesday, the author’s fans had some cause to tamp down their expectations. Hemingway’s stock-in-trade–finely-detailed stories of drinking and sporting in foreign lands–struck some as ill-suited to a period of great suffering.

“There was a feeling abroad that Hemingway was a little too obsessed with sex, a little too obsessed with blood for the sake of blood, killing for the sake of killing. Even his admirers wondered where he was going to find another experience big enough to make him write another A Farewell to Arms, ” TIME noted in its review of For Whom the Bell Tolls . “If ever he did, they thought, he would produce another great book. They misunderstood Hemingway’s apparent obsession with killing, forgot that the dominant experience of this age is violent death.”

But, TIME’s critic declared, any doubts about his abilities had been misplaced:

In 1936 Hemingway found the great experience—The Spanish Civil War. This week he published the great novel— For Whom the Bell Tolls . He took the title from a passage by Preacher Poet John Donne: “No man is an iland, intire of it selfe; every man is a peece of the Continent, a part of the maine; if a clod bee washed away by the Sea, Europe is the lesse, as well as if a Promontorie were, . . . any mans death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankinde; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee.” For Whom the Bell Tolls is 1) a great Hemingway love story; 2) a tense story of adventure in war; 3) a grave and sombre tragedy of Spanish peasants fighting for their lives. But above all it is about death. The plot is simple, about a bridge over a deep gorge behind Franco’s lines. Robert Jordan, a young American International Brigader, is ordered to blow up the bridge. He must get help from the guerrillas who live in Franco’s territory. The bridge must be destroyed at the precise moment when a big Loyalist offensive begins. If the bridge can be destroyed, the offensive may succeed. If the offensive succeeds, the struggle of the human race against fascism may be advanced a step. The courage of the Spanish peasants is linked to the fate of all mankind.

Read the full review, here in the TIME Vault: Death in Spain

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Write to Lily Rothman at [email protected]

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For whom the bell tolls, common sense media reviewers.

Profound novel offers brutal view of Spanish Civil War.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this book.

Through internal monologues, flashbacks to convers

In For Whom the Bell Tolls, Hemingway is not squea

Regardless of whether the reader, or the author, c

Battles rage in For Whom the Bell Tolls, and the d

Two characters' lovemaking is explained up to a po

The words "whore" and "bitch" are used, as well as

One character is often drunk on wine, and a good d

Educational Value

Through internal monologues, flashbacks to conversations, and changing points of view, Hemingway reveals the complex political and religious ideas behind the Spanish Civil War. Readers of For Whom the Bell Tolls learn about the different factions opposing Franco's fascist armies, weaponry used during the war, and some Spanish geography. Hemingway also directly compares the guerrillas' courage to the feelings of bullfighters in the ring, so that aspect of Spanish culture is described in detail, too.

Positive Messages

In For Whom the Bell Tolls , Hemingway is not squeamish about revealing the hypocrisy, violence, and flawed principles of the Spanish Civil War. The novel gives an intense portrayal of the bravery and pointlessness that coexist on both sides of the conflict. This is not an uplifting novel by any stretch, but it's a very meaningful one.

Positive Role Models

Regardless of whether the reader, or the author, considers Robert Jordan's mission pointless, Hemingway's anti-hero is a brave, capable, intelligent man who is acting on his belief in the anti-fascist cause. Jordan also has very well-formed internal strategies for mustering his courage when he needs it, and for controlling his temper. Oftentimes, he sees the danger of letting anger consume him, and he finds ways to subdue his own emotions. Also, he is very loving and gentle to Maria, despite the fact it could be argued that their "love" has a pretty thin foundation.

Violence & Scariness

Battles rage in For Whom the Bell Tolls , and the destruction is described at length. Men, including main characters, are shot and killed. People also talk about having the courage to shoot each other to avoid capture and torture. One female character is emotionally and physically damaged after having been gang raped.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Two characters' lovemaking is explained up to a point. The feeling of a woman's body is described, and it is evident that they have sex, but the act itself is conveyed in lyrical/poetical terms ("the earth moved") rather than graphically. One character has been raped in the past, and her physical and emotional scars affect her relationship in the novel.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

The words "whore" and "bitch" are used, as well as some Spanish curse words. However, the author uses an affected device to address more taboo curse words, replacing them with words like "unprintable" and "obscenity."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

One character is often drunk on wine, and a good deal of wine is consumed by all. A few men drink whiskey, and one drinks from a flask of absinthe. Alcohol is unapologetically used to help the guerillas cope with their stress and discomfort.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that For Whom the Bell Tolls takes an unvarnished view of the Spanish Civil War. It's emotionally and politically complex, and creates a profoundly honest picture of war and the individual personalities involved; parents and teachers will want to bolster readers' understanding of fascism and communism in Spain in the late 1930s. Though the lead character, Robert Jordan, finds some pleasure and humanity under extreme duress, he lives in a brutal world full of violence, death, and deprivation. Many consider For Whom the Bell Tolls Hemingway's greatest literary achievement, but it is not for the faint of heart. Also, one note on the text: Hemingway uses an unusual literary conceit in this novel: All of the conversation that takes place between Jordan and his Spanish comrades is written as a literal translation from Spanish, to inform the reader that these people would actually be speaking to each other in Spanish, so the language can sound slightly strange.

Where to Read

Community reviews.

Parents say (2)

Based on 2 parent reviews

Classic read about the brutality of war

What's the story.

In 1937, American professor Robert Jordan is working with Spanish guerrillas in the mountains of Spain, attempting to sabotage fascist forces during the Spanish Civil War. Assigned to blow up a bridge, Jordan struggles to obtain the manpower and supplies he needs to achieve his objective at the appointed time. Dissent among the guerrillas, and his affection for a beautiful young girl, distract from Jordan's mission, but he is committed to performing his duty, even though he has lost some faith in its purpose.

Is It Any Good?

FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS is a rich, complex novel about the Spanish Civil War. Hemingway offers several points of view into the tragic events -- from Jordan's personal memories of his family, which explain the man he is and wants to be, to the inner workings of the Communist Party members in Madrid, to soldiers on the battlefield -- creating an enormously effective and multifaceted picture of what the war did to individuals. This is a profound novel, on a grand scale -- just as upsetting and confusing and sad as it should be.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about what Hemingway is trying to tell readers about the Spanish Civil War, and about war in general. Is war glorified in the novel?

What kind of man is Robert Jordan? Do you admire him? Is he doing the right thing?

What do you make of Jordan's relationship with Maria? What is Jordan doing when he fantasizes about what their life will be like after the war?

Many consider For Whom the Bell Tolls Hemingway's greatest novel, and one of the greatest novels ever written about war, and it is often required reading in school. Why do you think this is the case?

Book Details

Author : Ernest Hemingway
Genre : Literary Fiction
Topics : History
Book type : Fiction
Publisher : Scribner
Publication date : October 21, 1940
Publisher's recommended age(s) : 14 - 18
Number of pages : 480
Last updated : July 12, 2017

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Great Books Guy

Reading the classics.

Book Review: For Whom The Bell Tolls (1940) by Ernest Hemingway

For Whom The Bell Tolls was supposed to win Ernest Hemingway his first Pulitzer Prize in 1941. However, like Sinclair Lewis before him, the prize was denied by the controversial President of Columbia University, Nicholas Murray Butler. As the story goes, the 1941 Novel Jury recommended several books for the Pulitzer Prize including, but not primarily, For Whom The Bell Tolls . Upon receiving the Jury’s recommendations the Pulitzer Advisory Board favored the critic’s choice For Whom The Bell Tolls . However, before the Board could complete a vote on the matter they were blocked by one man: Nicholas Murray Butler. He objected to the ‘lascivious’ content in the novel (Sound familiar? Nicholas Murray Butler also blocked the Pulitzer Prize from being bestowed upon Sinclair Lewis in 1921 for his novel Main Street , and instead, the 1921 prize was awarded to Edith Wharton for The Age of Innocence ).

Why did no member of the Pulitzer Advisory Board stand up to Nicholas Murray Butler? How was he able to railroad the whole process? His story is worth mentioning as he was a fascinating American figure. Nicholas Murray Butler was viewed as something of an autocratic ruler at Columbia University, often wantonly dismissing staff and faculty, pushing for a distinctly pro-America atmosphere on campus, prohibiting entry for Jewish students –in a word, he ruled Columbia with an iron first, and yet he was also a respected American statesman. He was the former running mate of William Howard Taft in the Presidential election of 1912, and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1931 along with Jane Addams, for his humanitarian efforts as President of the Carnegie Endowment For International Peace. He helped to negotiate peace in Europe using elite relationships he cultivated with leaders like Kaiser Wilhelm II. Nicholas Butler Murray was also a popular cultural figure. Each year The New York Times printed his annual Christmas Greeting to the nation. He is recognized today as the longest serving President of Columbia University (43 years), a tenure which first began in his role as Interim President in 1901 before he was officially elected President of Columbia, serving from 1902-1945. So when Nicholas Murray Butler stood in the doorway of the Pulitzer proceedings refusing to move or relent on the Hemingway question while shouting “I hope you will reconsider before you ask the university to be associated with an award for a work of this nature!” –no one dared to stand against him. The full details of the confrontation were later brought to light in 1962 by Arthur Krock, the celebrated New York Times journalist and Pulitzer Board member at the time. As a consequence of the fight, no novel was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1941.

That year, the Novel Jury welcomed a newcomer, best-selling novelist Dorothy Canfield Fisher, to replace Robert M. Lovett from the previous year. Dorothy Canfield Fisher is perhaps best known for being ardent social activist, a tireless advocate of education. She helped bring the Montessori School system to the United States, but she also achieved other important cultural milestones. She was praised by Eleanor Roosevelt as one of the most influential women in America. Alongside Fisher, two veteran Novel Jury members also reprised their roles on the Jury in 1941: Jefferson B. Fletcher (Literature Professor at Columbia University), and Joseph W. Krutch (Literature Professor at Columbia University and naturalist writer). For the Pulitzer Prize in 1941, this trio also considered several other novels aside from For Whom The Bell Tolls including The Trees by Joseph Conrad, The Ox-Bow Incident by Walter Van Tilburg Clark, Native Son by Richard Wright, and Oliver Wiswell by Kenneth Roberts. The Jury apparently favored two coequal novels for the prize: The Trees by Joseph Conrad and The Ox-Bow Incident by Walter Van Tilburg Clark, and chairman Krutch went so far as to critique Hemingway’s For Whom The Bell Tolls for its “romantic sensationalism” and for having “a style so mannered and eccentric as to be frequently absurd.” However, the newspapermen of the Pulitzer Advisory Board rejected this snub and unilaterally selected For Whom The Bell Tolls until a fiery Nicholas Murray Butler blocked its nomination.

Of course, despite being robbed the first time, Hemingway later won the coveted Pulitzer Prize in 1959 for The Old Man And The Sea (feel free to read my reflections on The Old Man and the Sea here ).

For Whom The Bell Tolls is as tense a novel as it is tender. It is the story of love and war -a soldier’s duty contrasted with a lover’s embrace. The book takes us covertly behind enemy lines during the destructive Spanish Civil War of the 1930s (a war which lasted from 1936-1939). The book spans approximately four days, and within that narrow timeframe a lifetime occurs: we gain a profound and complex glimpse into the nature of heroism and cowardice among ordinary people. Amidst the chaos of war and the looming specter of death, For Whom The Bell Tolls also pulls back the curtain on a budding romance between an American soldier and an innocent Spanish girl.

For context, during the Spanish Civil War, battle lines were drawn between a coalition of conservatives, nationalists, and Catholics, led by the military dictator Francisco Franco; and on the other side, a loose-knit federation of republicans, liberals, communists, and anarchists. Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy supported Franco, while Soviet Russia and Mexico supported the communists, but the United States, England, and France maintained a public stance of neutrality. After years of violence in every major Spanish city, the Spanish Civil War was eventually brought to an end in 1939 with the fascists taking over the country under Francisco Franco. During the war writers like George Orwell pleaded with the West to support the republicans against the fascists (see Homage To Catalonia ). The war was later dubbed a “dress rehearsal” for World War II by Claude Bowers, U.S. Ambassador to Spain.

In the novel, Hemingway introduces us to Robert Jordan, a Montana-native and Spanish language professor. Robert Jordan has unfortunately found himself in the midst of the Spanish Civil War while on leave in Spain during the outbreak of the war. He is a volunteer in the International Brigades (a international coalition of fighters organized by communists). During this time Robert Jordan has become an experienced soldier and dynamiter. He is tasked with destroying a key strategic bridge inn order to block supplies and munitions from reaching the fascists through the Sierra de Guadarrama. The order comes from Golz, a Soviet officer.

En route to complete his mission, Robert Jordan encounters an old man named Anselmo who takes Robert Jordan high up into the mountains outside Segovia in central Spain (north of Madrid) where a band of guerrilla warriors is hiding out in a cave from the fascists below. While there, Robert Jordan meets Pablo, a jaded rebel who once led the revolt against fascism but now spends his time ignobly drinking wine and sarcastically deriding the war. He also meets Pablo’s wife, Pilar, a strong-willed woman who serves as the de facto leader of the group in Pablo’s abdication (“Pilar” was a nickname for Hemingway’s third wife, Pauline, and also the name of his fishing boat); a gypsy named Rafael; and several other soldiers like Agustín, El Sordo, Fernando, Andrés, Eladio, Primitivo, and Joaquín. The group exists there by a “miracle” according to El Sordo. The fascists are unaware of their presence. The group quickly grows accustomed to Robert Jordan and they call him “Inglés” or simply “Roberto” (the whole novel is rife with Spanish idioms, including edited obscenities). However, the people in the cave are strange and unfamiliar. All throughout his days in the cave the reader asks: can Robert Jordan really trust these guerrilla fighters? How can we be certain they are not going to sabotage the mission?

The most important character Robert Jordan meets in the cave is María, a young Spanish girl whose town was ravaged by the fascists. She taken alive by the fascists -her hair was hacked off and she was raped, but she was then rescued and cared for by Pilar. Robert Jordan and María quickly strike up a romance, and Pilar essentially gives María to Robert Jordan as his lover with the promise of marriage. Robert Jordan calls María his little “rabbit” and they spend most evenings together in Robert Jordan’s sleeping bag just outside the cave.

While introducing us to the tenderness of Robert Jordan’s new love, the first half of the novel also delivers an extraordinarily tense series of moments. The impending mission to destroy the bridge plagues the reader’s mind. Will the weather be good? Will the fascists retaliate? Will they find the cave before the bridge can be blown? Will Golz call off the mission? Who will die? Who will live? Filled with hope and worry, Robert Jordan hides out with the rebels in the mountains while trying to keep a low profile, careful about what information he reveals. At the same time, skepticism grows regarding Pablo’s loyalties, and Robert Jordan places his faith in Pilar.

Suddenly, Robert Jordan is surprised one morning when an unsuspecting fascist patrolman stumbles onto his outdoor sleeping bag. Robert Jordan quickly leaps up and kills the patrolman. Then a skirmish breaks out across the mountain killing El Sordo’s entire band of fighters. Robert Jordan and the remaining fighters wait a day, and then assault the bridge (undeterred by a momentary lapse of judgment from Pablo when he steals some of Robert Jordan’s explosive equipment in the night, casting it into a ravine. Pablo eventually rejoins the fight in an effort to redeem himself). As the group approaches the bridge, they quietly kill the fascist sentries. Robert Jordan and the old man Anselmo then successfully wire, detonate, and destroy the bridge, but the explosion kills Anselmo along with several others in the process. The remaining guerrillas flee back up into the mountains having completed their mission.

“Dying was nothing and he had no picture of it nor fear of it in his mind. But living was a field of grain blowing in the wind on the side of a hill. Living was a hawk in the sky. Living was an earthen jar of water in the dust of the threshing with the grain flailed out and the chaff blowing. Living was a horse between your legs and a carbine under one leg and a hill valley and a stream with trees along it and the far side of the valley and the hills beyond” (312-313 on the last moments of Sordo’s life during his last stand against advancing fascists before he is killed in a plane raid).

For Whom The Bell Tolls tells the true account of war far greater than mere fact or history: it presents the experience of a soldier in all its complexity. Robert Jordan is a multi-faceted man: he is anxious, confident, distrusting, steadfast, competent, sorrowful, determined, and yet friendly. He is both a lover and a fighter who experiences the great depths of love amidst the heart-pounding threat of war.

“You felt, in spite of all bureaucracy and inefficiency and party strife, something that was like the feeling you expected to have and did not have when you made your first communion. It was a feeling of consecration to a duty toward all of the oppressed of the world which would be as difficult and embarrassing to speak about as religious experience and yet it was authentic as the feeling you had when you heard Bach, or stood in the Chartres Cathedral or the Cathedral at Leon and saw the light coming through the great windows; or when you saw Mantegna and Greco and Brueghel in the Prado. It gave you a part in something that you could believe in wholly and completely and in which you felt an absolute brotherhood with the others who were engaged in it. It was something you had never known before but that you had experienced now and you gave such importance to it and the reasons for it that your own death seemed of complete unimportance; only a thing to be avoided because it would interfere with the performance of duty. But the best thing was that there was something you could do about this feeling and this necessity too. You could fight” (235, on the experience of war).

The question of death, namely what is a good and noble death, also looms large over the novel. Robert Jordan’s father had committed suicide, an act which he considers cowardly. He occasionally reflects on his troubled father throughout the novel. Robert Jordan recalls the story of a compatriot who requested he be shot instead of falling into the hands of the fascists. Instead, Robert Jordan values a man who ends his life fighting without surrender. And Robert Jordan is also contrasted with other characters in the novel, particularly Pablo, who has become cowardly and all-too-comfortable in his hidden cave while drunk in a bowl of wine. Sadly, Pablo’s fear of death has overcome his desire for virtue or honor, and even his own wife does not respect him. In contrast, El Sordo dies bravely in battle. In the end, we are led to believe Robert Jordan dies a good death, as well. Perhaps the most striking moment that discusses a noble versus ignoble death occurs when Pilar recounts the brutal killings of fascists in her town square. Some people go to their death bravely and without fear, while others are weak and cower before the crowd of people.

“‘If you have not seen the day of revolution in a small town where all know all in the town and always have known all, you have seen nothing…'” (106, Pilar sharing a horrific story of anti-fascists, including Pablo, who assassinate sympathetic townsfolk with the fascist cause, one by one. Some die nobly and willingly, while others die in disgrace and dishonor. It is a jarring but instructive scene).

In the end, Robert Jordan ends his life as an honorable man. After blowing up the bridge, and while running back into the mountains, Robert Jordan’s leg is horribly broken in an explosion. He is dragged up to safety by the others but he simply cannot carry on. Knowing his fate, he calmly develops a plan. He says goodbye to his lover, María, and tells Pablo, Pilar, and the others to press on without him. Hemingway dramatically leaves us with this scene in the end: a mortally wounded Robert Jordan waiting beside a tree, feeling his heartbeat against the pine needles on the forest floor, while a fascist cavalry unit turns the corner and Robert Jordan prepares to open fire.

“I have fought for what I believed in for a year now. If we win here we will win everywhere. The world is a fine place and worth the fighting for and I hate very much to leave it. And you had a lot of luck, he told himself, to have had such a good life” (467).

Ernest Hemingway was a lifelong lover of Spain, particularly the encierro in Pamplona. He was a supporter of the Loyalist cause in the Spanish Civil War (the anti-fascists) -he served as Chair of the Ambulance Committee for the Medical Bureau of the American Friends of Spanish Democracy. He also publicly supported the Spanish Republic in 1937 when he produced an hour-long pseudo-documentary movie The Spanish Earth together with Jörg Ivens and John Dos Passos ( read my review of the film here ). Hemingway wrote the script and narrated the film (Orson Welles was originally slated too narrate the film). A beautiful technicolor film version of For Whom The Bell Tolls was released in 1943 ( read my review of the film here ). Hemingway was also a war correspondent reporting on the Spanish Civil War for the North American Newspaper Association (NANA) between 1937-1938. He left Spain for the last time in 1938 and wrote a series of short stories about the Spanish Civil War before setting himself up at the Hotel Sevilla Biltmore in Havana where he began writing For Whom The Bell Tolls . His writing regimen began at 8:30am and continued until 2pm or 3pm, the same practice he had established when writing A Farewell to Arms .

After traveling in Cuba and Montana, he searched for a title for the novel, first turning to the Bible and Shakespeare, before discovering John Donne’s poem “For Whom The Bell Tolls” in the Oxford Book of English Verse :

“No man is an Iland, intire of it selfe; every man is a peece of the Continent, a part of the maine; if a Clod bee washed away by the Sea, Europe is the lesse, as well as if a Promontorie were, as well as if a Mannor of thy friends or of thine owne were; any mans death diminishes me me, because I am involved in Mankinde; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee.”

The allusion to John Donne’s poem, which was originally published in 1624 from his presumed deathbed, points us to themes of isolation, death, and the need to belong. The Spanish Civil War offers Robert Jordan the chance to find fraternity and purpose in fighting the threat of fascism. If there is no greater love than for a man to lay down his life for his friends, then Robert Jordan finds his deepest love on the battlefield of central Spain. His life is an important piece of an intricate puzzle in a worldwide chain of being. The war in Spain is not an island, but rather a part of a broader global conflict set to explode with World War II. In For Whom The Bell Tolls , the idea of war comes to light as a harsh teacher, a bearer of unforgiving truth, a life-affirming cause of brotherhood and meaning in a meaningless world. Love and death have the power to unveil the hidden character of modern man, by testing his prudence, courage, temperance, and justice. War reveals to us the grandeur and also the limits of mankind.

About Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) led a fascinating and storied life. He was born in Oak Park, Illinois, a small town outside Chicago. He cut his teeth writing as a journalist for the Kansas City Star in 1917. There, he built his signature writing and editing style: concise, direct, and honest sentences that tell the truth above all else.

During the outbreak of World War I, Hemingway became a volunteer ambulance driver for the Red Cross on the Italian front but was wounded and sent home. He married his first wife Hadley Richardson and moved to Paris where he joined a circle of post-war artists and critics: Gertrude Stein, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ezra Pound, Ford Madox Ford, and others. In Paris, Hemingway began writing his first collections of poetry and short stories. In 1926, he published his first modernist classic, The Sun Also Rises , a reflection of his years as an expat in France and Spain.

In the late 1920s, Hemingway returned to the United States and published his World War I novel, A Farewell To Arms . He had an affair and divorced his first wife to marry Pauline “Fife” Pfeiffer. He then moved to Key West and Cuba. While traveling widely throughout the world, he wrote books about bullfighting ( Death In The Afternoon ) and an account of big game hunting in Africa ( The Green Hills of Africa ). Hemingway had another affair and he left his wife for another woman -he remarried a third time, this time to Martha Gellhorn (he dedicated For Whom The Bell Tolls to Martha Gellhorn).

In the 1930s, Hemingway became an international reporter on the Spanish Civil War, which eventually spawned For Whom The Bell Tolls , and with the growing turmoil in Europe, he hand-delivered the novel manuscript to his publisher Max Perkins at Scribner’s in New York in July 1940 (the book would later be praised by two adversaries and American statesmen: John McCain and Barack Obama). Hemingway then hunted U-Boats in the Caribbean and reported on the European front in World War II. He remarried for the fourth and final time to Mary Welsh who remained with him until his death. In 1952 he wrote The Old Man And The Sea . Shortly thereafter, he won the Pulitzer in 1953 and the Nobel Prize in 1954. At the end of his life, Hemingway’s mental health had deteriorated, particularly after he received electroshock treatment. He killed himself by a self-inflicted shotgun blast in Ketchum, Idaho in 1961 -the same way his father had also died (and the way Robert Jordan’s father died in For Whom The Bell Tolls ).

For my full notes on Ernest Hemingway’s life, click here .

To read my reflections upon reading The Paris Review’s famous interview with Hemingway (1958) click here .

Hemingway, Ernest. For Whom The Bell Tolls . New York, Scribner, 2003.

Click here to return to my survey of the Pulitzer Prize Winners.

Book Review: For Whom The Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway

One of Hemingway’s most famous works, For Whom The Bell Tolls is a masterpiece from start to finish. It can get a little dry at times and is definitely no light read, but if you’re a fan of the old classics, this is definitely one to read.

If any have read the meditation by John Donne entitled For Whom The Bell Tolls (the one with famous phrase ‘no man is an island’), then they will know with relative certainty the outcome of this novel. Having said this, it does not cheapen in any way the reading experience. In fact, I would argue it heightens it, making the reader guess as to what happens next with a feeling of certainty.

The novel itself is surprisingly long given that it takes place in only three days, following the journey of a dynamiter tasked with blowing up a bridge during the Spanish Civil War. It is classic Hemingway, often spending more time on the description of the events than the events themselves, and if you aren’t accustomed to his particularly dry writing style it can get a little heavy at times.

It reads more like a documentary about a particular event than an action-packed war novel. Much of this builds from Hemingway’s experience himself as a war correspondent during the Spanish Civil War, where he saw firsthand what was happening and heard stories from the men themselves. And because of this it is an excellent, pseudo-factual account of life as a soldier.

In this particular novel by him, I am reminded at times of the novel Moby Dick , where Ishmael spends 95% of the book building up to the climax and then the climax is so brief you wonder what all the build-up was about.

Though with this particular novel the build-up is actually not so long, there is a lot going on throughout the duration of the novel and the climax is actually worth it in the end. But it is by no means an action-packed, pedal to the metal, shoot ’em up.

No, this novel is more cerebral. It takes time to dive into the psyche of each character, learn why they each do what they do and the struggles they each have. It’s a chess match, and a brilliant one at that, rather than a boxing match.

With Hemingway you never quite know what you’re getting into, and you must always be prepared. From the very first sentence For Whom The Bell Tolls dives deep, staying there and not letting up until the last sentence has finished. With its off-the-wall descriptors, emotionally raw (and honest) character development, and use of words like “lugubriously” (three pages into chapter 16), this novel is definitely one for the permanent collection. Read it once, read it again a year later. It’s absolutely dripping with meaning and symbolism, much of which won’t be picked up on the first read. Like seemingly everything Hemingway, this book takes time and matures slowly.

But it’s definitely worth the investment. *

Lugubrious ( adj ):

Looking or sounding sad or dismal.

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Book Review: "For Whom the Bell Tolls" by Ernest Hemingway

Writing done simply is done best.

Rating: 4/5

Each man’s death diminishes me.

For I am involved in mankind.

Therefore, send not to know

For whom the bell tolls,

It tolls for thee.

Introduced by John Donne’s poem of the same title, Ernest Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls has been on my list for some time, and it did not disappoint .

Set in the Spanish Civil War of the 1930s, the story follows Robert Jordan , a young American teacher turned dynamiter. At the start of the novel, he has joined a guerilla unit within Spain, the country he's come to love, and is presented with a singular task: to destroy a bridge vital to their antifascist offensive. Throughout the book, he's driven by two competing forces and must contend with a moral dilemma he's never faced before. On the one hand, his duty and the memory of his grandfather's honorable service during the American Civil War compels him to fight for the cause of freedom. On the other, his heart is tempered by the young and beautiful Maria and the promise of a future life together.

In his struggle between the cause and the woman he loves, he finds a bit of grace on both fronts and offers us his innermost thoughts as the battle looms near.

I enjoyed nearly everything about this novel: the ragtag group of guerilla fighters hiding in the hills, the poetic adoration of Iberian customs, deliberations concerning fascist and republican political philosophies, and the hubris found in men fighting for causes larger than themselves. But at its core, I found three things I enjoyed about this novel the most and one that I didn't.

Robert Jordan's sense of manhood evolves

At the start, Hemingway praises the martial virtues typical of any war novel, but he hints that duty might not be as valuable as his main character believes.

Jordan begins the story with the conviction that fighting for a cause is the essence of manhood. Together he and the disillusioned guerilla leader, Pablo, explore the topic like two drunks around a campfire. Jordan, through their conversations and his budding love for Maria, comes to realize that being a man can be more subtle...more complicated than he originally thought.

Amidst all the discussion of honor, Jordan's internal struggle between duty and love is the true conflict that drives the story to its conclusion.

Hemingway's love of Spain and love itself

Between the protagonist's adoration for the food, the music, and even the stoical matadors that he emulates, Hemingway spends more pages than not detailing his fondness for the Spanish way of life.

Love has an even larger role. Although she's hardened by events preceding the war, Maria maintains an innocence that is both alluring and indicative of what must have been Hemingway’s ideal woman. It’s readily apparent that Hemingway himself was in the midst of a love affair, and his infatuation with Martha Gellhorn (with whom he covered the Spanish Civil War) spills onto the page like blood at a bullfight.

Often our work is inspired by the most important things in our lives; in Hemingway's case, it seems inevitable.

The author’s writing is potent

His style transformed the American novel in the early 20th century for two reasons.

First, his use of language was simple and conversational when the other authors of the day tried to outclass even the dictionary. Moreover, his use of repetition was like a prized jab. Words and phrases that held little meaning at the start grew on the page and transformed into something much more weighty by page's end.

However, there was one aspect of Hemingway's writing that I did not enjoy.

Throughout this novel, he tends to prattle about events or topics that don’t have much relevance to the story's core.

During several chapters I found myself searching and searching for the next plot point rather than being led to it. Healthy chunks of the book were clearly streams of consciousness that any decent editor should have nixed. That said, the final chapter is textbook penmanship, building the struggle and emotions Jordan has carried with him to a most introspective climax.

After reading For Whom the Bell Tolls , I'm excited to reread some of Hemingway's novels I skimmed as a kid and thrilled there are several more yet unread.

I recommend this one to anyone interested in the American classics, simple yet effective writing, or a better understanding of the spirit of the Lost Generation.

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October 21, 1940 Books of The Times By RALPH THOMPSON FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS By Ernest Hemingway. ll that need be said here about the new Hemingway novel can be said in relatively few words. "For Whom the Bell Tolls" is a tremendous piece of work. It is the most moving document to date on the Spanish Civil War, and the first major novel of the Second World War. As a story, it is superb, packed with the matter of picaresque romance: blood, lust, adventure, vulgarity, comedy, tragedy. For Robert Jordan, the young American from Montana, the lust and adventure are quickly drowned in blood. The comedy, as in other Hemingway fiction, is practically indistinguishable from the vulgarity, which in this case is a rich and indigenous peasant brand. The tragedy is present and only too plain; the bell that began tolling in Madrid four years ago is audible everywhere today. Robert Jordan is a partizan attached to the Loyalist forces. He is neither a professing Communist nor a professional soldier, but a college instructor who happened to be in Spain on sabbatical leave. During the three or four days covered by the story, he hides out in Franco-controlled territory, into which he has been sent by headquarters to dynamite a strategic mountain bridge. He doesn't hide out alone; as prearranged, he has made contact with a certain guerrilla band operating from a cave high in the Sierra de Guadarrama. He meets two women there, one middle-aged and as tough and blasphemous as any man, the other young and frightened, her hair still short because the Falangists shaved it off after they shot her parents and rampaged through her native town. He meets the saturnine Pablo, who sits in the cave half drunk and mumbles, "Thou wilt blow no bridge here." He meets old Anselmo, who helps him blow it in the end, and Primitivo, Fernando, Augustin and several more. Once he meets El Sordo, who lives with his band on another ridge some miles way. "Listen to me," El Sordo explains, "we exist here by a miracle. By a miracle of laziness and stupidity of the Fascists which they will remedy in time. Of course we are very careful and we make no disturbance in these hills." But Robert Jordan has come to make a disturbance. He must make it if the Loyalist drive out of Madrid toward Segovia is to have a chance to succeed. Mr. Hemingway has always been the writer, but he has never been the master that he is in "For Whom the Bell Tolls." The dialogue, handled as though in translation from the Spanish, is incomparable. The characters are modeled in high relief. A few of the scenes are perfect, notably the last sequence and an earlier one when Jordan awakes to the sound of a horse thumping along through the snow. Others are intense and terrifying, still others gentle and almost pastoral, if here and there a trifle sweet. It is fourteen years since "The Sun Also Rises" and eleven since "A Farewell to Arms." More than three hundred years ago John Donne said, "No man is an Iland , intire of it selfe; every man is a peece of the Continent , a part of the maine . * * * And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee ." Mr. Hemingway has taken this text and, out of his experiences, convictions and great gifts, built on it his finest novel. Return to the Books Home Page

For Whom the Bell Tolls

Ernest hemingway, ask litcharts ai: the answer to your questions.

Welcome to the LitCharts study guide on Ernest Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls . Created by the original team behind SparkNotes, LitCharts are the world's best literature guides.

For Whom the Bell Tolls: Introduction

For whom the bell tolls: plot summary, for whom the bell tolls: detailed summary & analysis, for whom the bell tolls: themes, for whom the bell tolls: quotes, for whom the bell tolls: characters, for whom the bell tolls: symbols, for whom the bell tolls: theme wheel, brief biography of ernest hemingway.

Historical Context of For Whom the Bell Tolls

Other books related to for whom the bell tolls.

Full Title: For Whom the Bell Tolls
When Written: Late 1930s
Where Written: Idaho, Cuba, Wyoming
When Published: 1940
Literary Period: Late Modernism
Genre: War novel
Setting: Sierra de Guadarrama Mountains, Segovia, and Madrid, Spain
Climax: Robert Jordan, Anselmo, and the guerillas detonate the explosives to blow up the bridge.
Antagonist: Francoist Fascists
Point of View: Third-person omniscient

Extra Credit for For Whom the Bell Tolls

Movie Adaptation. A film adaptation of For Whom the Bell Tolls was released in 1943, with Gary Cooper as Robert Jordan and Ingrid Bergman as Maria. Though few in the cast were Spanish, the movie was critically acclaimed (and mostly true to the original plot).

Pulitzer Prize Controversy. For Whom the Bell Tolls was slated to win the Pulitzer Prize in 1941, but committee member Nicholas Murray Butler, president of Columbia University, voted against the selection, citing the novel’s “obscenity”—likely a response to mildly explicit sex scenes in the novel and Spanish curse words. Hemingway won the Pulitzer for The Old Man and the Sea in 1953.

Book Reviews by a Chick Who Reads Everything

I read every kind of book from the absolute serious to the downright silly.

For Whom the Bell Tolls Book Review

Let’s talk about the man, the myth, the bullfighter – Ernest Hemingway. He was known for his concise and masculine style of writing. He also received plenty of accolades for work. His best known titles are The Sun Also Rises (1926), A Farewell to Arms (1929) , The Old Man and the Sea (1952), and the subject of today’s review For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940). For Whom the Bell Tolls was so successful at the time of its release that it sold over half a million copies and was considered for the Pulitzer Prize ( it didn’t get it because an ex-officio chairman of the board vetoed the jurors’ unanimous choice ). What do I think of it? It’s simply okay. There are parts that work, and others that don’t work as well.

For Whom the Bell Tolls shows the story of Robert Jordan, a young American from the International Brigades who’s fighting in an antifascist guerrilla unit in the Spanish Civil War. It tells of loyalty and courage, love and defeat, and the tragic death of an ideal. This is basically the fictionalized version of what Hemingway himself experienced while covering the war as a foreign correspondent for the Northern American Newspaper Alliance. Long story short, it’s about a guy who’s assigned to blow up a bridge with an antifascist guerrilla group and all the events that occur in the 3-4 days that he’s with them.

So readers would probably want to know if I have read any of Hemingway’s stories in the past. Yes, I have. In my English class in my senior year of high school, I read one of his Nick Adams stories “Indian Camp.” With that story, we learned how to detect subtext. And man, there was plenty of that knowing how Hemingway coined the phrase “iceberg theory” (or how Lindsey Ellis calls it “K.I.S.S.” [keep it simple stupid]).

Is there plenty of subtext in For Whom the Bell Tolls ? There’s surprisingly not a whole lot. A good chunk of that could be found roughly in the first 100 pages. Afterwards, circumstances and motives become very clear. This makes sense as Hemingway perfected the “iceberg theory” while working in journalism, so writing a full-length novel allows him to discuss more topics explicitly.

Let me start off with the positive aspects of the novel. Hemingway is surprisingly good at writing women. At first, Robert’s love interest Maria feels like any other woman in a book written by a white guy in the mid-twentieth century, where beauty is more valued than personality. However, Maria went through sexual assault at the hands of fascists thugs. When she revealed her backstory to Robert, it made me feel a bunch of things like anger and sadness. Despite protests from him to stop, she was determined to tell her story as a way to heal herself. During a portion of the novel, Robert constantly thinks that if she had longer hair, she would be beautiful. However, when he hears of her tragic backstory, he immediately stops thinking that because he knows that her short hair is not her fault. Additionally, Pilar is a wonderful multi-dimensional woman. She can be manipulative and a bully at times, yet she’s the true leader of and mother to the group. I always looked forward to what she had to say. She’s easily more fleshed out than Maria. It makes me wonder if Hemingway inserted his third wife Martha Gellhorn into Pilar because the book is dedicated to her, and he liked to insert real people into his characters. Also, Pilar was a nickname Hemingway gave to his second wife Pauline Pfeiffer and to his boat that he had in Cuba.

Another aspect that worked was the misunderstandings within one side. During the third act, Robert orders Andres to give a note to Commander Golz calling off the bridge demolition. However, Andres runs into some obstacles like encountering antifacist officials who think he’s the enemy. It takes him hours to accomplish this. By the time Andres presents the note to Golz, Robert decides to go ahead and blow up the bridge. Moreover, early in the novel, the group gets to know one another by finding out the reasons why there’s fighting on the antifacist side. When Robert reveals that he’s an antifacist, one of the other members asks if he’s a communist (since they were backing the Republicans or those who wanted a democracy during the war). He says no, for he’s simply an antifacist. I can understand the misinterpretation since the fighters might not always share the same views as their supporters.

Now, let’s look at the aspects that don’t work as well. First, Hemingway didn’t need to make the novel 471 pages because not much occurs during a good chunk of it, and it takes place over the course of 3-4 days. There’s a lot of waiting and talking about what’s going to happen, but I’m forgiving since a lot of war involves waiting and strategizing, especially when to blow up a bridge. However, there comes a point, where there could’ve been more compelling short stories from the various parts from the novel. For example, Pilar’s recounting of the rampage at a village during the early part of the war was pretty interesting. However, once I came across Chapter 27, the book had a wake up call and started building up to the finale. This held my interest til the very end.

Nothing and everything occurs in For Whom the Bell Tolls . During the 3-4 days that Robert is with the group, he falls in love with Maria and gets involved in a plot to kill Pablo – the designated leader and Pilar’s husband. So, there’s plenty of action. It could’ve been a lot worse, it could’ve been The Polished Hoe , which has all the events taking place during one night and is 480 pages. Was there much action? Barely!

In addition, Robert Jordan feels a bit bland, for he’s the typical Hemingway Hero. That’s the problem. He’s typical. He displays honor, courage, and endurance like any other hero in Hemingway novels. What makes Robert stand out is that he loves to think long and hard about things like his father’s suicide and contemplates about whether or not this war is worth fighting for. This helps and hinders him, especially when his group tries to convince him to kill Pablo. Heck, even Hamlet does more in the namesake play than Robert Jordan does. I found it hilarious that in Chapter 35, Robert swears like a sailor but with the word muck. In the subsequent chapter, the author inserts the word obscenity like “what the obscenity.” I guess Hemingway wanted to make sure For Whom the Bell Tolls got passed the censors?

There’s also casual racism. During the course of the novel, Hemingway wanted to make sure that readers knew that the majority of the characters were Spaniards by mentioning their brown skin at almost every possible chance he got. You think that he would be aware of the fact that not every Spaniard has brown skin since he actually was in Spain during the Spanish Civil War, right? A lot of Spaniards have lighter skin. Moreover, there’s a Romani character named Rafael, who is seen as worthless because he’s lazy and a criminal. Robert Jordan even thinks that Rafael is those things because he’s a part of the Roma group.

Others complained about the use of thees and thous, but I really didn’t mind. Early on, Robert identifies that the Spainards speak in the old Castilian dialect. Anytime those characters used those archaic words, it meant they were speaking old Castilian Spanish, and Hemingway incorporated some real Spanish words and phrases to drive home the point.

Overall, For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway is a rather okay book. I’m not sure if it should be in the literary canon today, but it has its worthy aspects that I’m sure some readers will enjoy. I would recommend it to those who love Hemingway and those interested in reading novels that take place during the Spanish Civil War. It’s no wonder why the book’s legacy basically lies in a 1943 movie version, a great Metallica song , and a Dog Man sequel .

Speaking of that film, there’s a special reason why I read this novel. I made a guest appearance on The 300 Passions Podcast , where we talked about the film version starring Gary Cooper and Ingrid Bergman as well as why it failed to make the cut on the American Film Institute’s 100 Years…Passions list. I figured it would be best to read the book first, and then see how the film translates it to the screen. So stay tuned for my movie review as well as for that episode!

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For Whom the Bell Tolls (Hemingway)

For Whom the Bell Tolls Ernest Hemingway, 1940 Simon & Schuster 496 pp. ISBN-13: 9780684830483 Summary High in the Spanish Sierra, a guerrilla band prepares to blow up a vital bridge. Robert Jordan, a young American, has been sent to handle the dynamiting. There he finds the intense comradeship of war. And there he finds Maria who has escaped from Franco’s rebels More Robert Jordan, a Spanish professor from Montana serving with Loyalist guerrilla forces during the Spanish Civil War, is guided by the old man Anselmo to Pablo's guerrilla band in the mountains above a bridge which Jordan must blow up when the Loyalist offensive begins. Pablo, aware that Jordan's mission will invite fascist forces, refuses at first to participate, but relents, returning with additional men and horses shortly before the mission begins. Knowing that the fascists are aware of the offensive, Jordan sends a message to General Golz, hoping the offensive will be canceled, but the message arrives too late. Jordan blows the bridge, and Anselmo is killed by flying steel. As the group attempts escape, Jordan is seriously injured, and Maria, having been told by Jordan that he will always be with her, leaves with the survivors while Jordan remains behind, waiting for death. ( From the publisher .)

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Book Review # 77: For Whom the Bell Tolls

Author: Ernest Hemingway Publisher: Quality Paperback Book Club Publishing Date: 1993 Number of Pages: 471 Genre: War Novel Historical Fiction

Written in the late 1930s, when democracy faces its greatest peril, For Whom the Bell Tolls is Hemingway’s masterful novel about love, death, honor and betrayal. Set amidst the tragedy of the Spanish Civil War, it tells the story of Robert Jordan, an American volunteer guerilla who has only three days to plan the destruction of a strategically important bridge. Facing certain failure, Jordan learns the true meaning of loyalty and sacrifice and the high price of liberty.

My Thoughts

While browsing a book sale, a fellow reader recommended to me Ernest Hemingway’s For Whom The Bell Tolls. Since he has read the story already, he gave me the book that he painstakingly found while rummaging through the heaps of books. I am thankful to him because it is one of the books that I have been wanting to read although I barely had an iota on what the story is about. However, I have read two of Hemingway’s works – A Farewell to Arms and The Old Men and the Sea. From the synopsis, I have surmised that it would be more similar to the former. Hemingway, a war veteran, does have a fascination with war fiction.

Unfortunately, the book was left to gather dust until I contemplated on what book to read. From over a hundred unread books in my bookshelves, I chose this Hemingway classic. Well, first off, it is a work by no less than Ernest Hemingway; his name is enough a stamp of quality and a guarantee to an enlightening read, or at least a powerful one. But that is not always the case as I have learned over the years.

“I loved you when I saw you today and I loved you always but I never saw you before.” ~ Ernest Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls

Set during the Spanish Civil War, For Whom the Bell Tolls relates the story an American guerilla soldier, Robert Jordan. He irregularly works as a soldier fighting against Generalissimo Franco’s fascist forces. An expert dynamiter, he was assigned on a mission to bomb and destroy a strategically important bridge in the city of Segovia. Through graphic and vivid portrayals, the brutality of the Spanish Civil War was depicted in the novel which is Hemingway’s retelling of his experiences as a reporter for the North American Newspaper Alliance during the Spanish Civil war.

So, how do I start this. With Joseph Heller’s Catch-22, I have surmised that I am no fan of war novels. Sure, I have read a lot about wars, like World War II which was extensively depicted in more modern works like Anthony Doerr’s All the Light We Cannot See and Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief. However, these books seem child’s play and did little to prepare me to the more complex war novels. But to be fair, these two works are of a different genre and of a different spirit compared to the aforementioned classical works.

Perhaps the most challenging facet of the novel is its language, and consequently, its overall narrative style. Hemingway’s extensive use of archaic language is nauseating, especially on the conversations. This made the conversations a little too contrived, or a little too stiff and dull. This is the same reaction I had with William Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury which was entirely written in the colloquial. It was difficult appreciating both classics because of this. Below are some examples of these conversations:

“I call thee Roberto before the others,” she said in a low voice and blushed.

“Those can see thy cigarette butts,” the woman said. “Let fall the blanket.”

“Dying was nothing and he had no picture of it nor fear of it in his mind. But living was a field of grain blowing in the wind on the side of a hill. Living was a hawk in the sky. Living was an earthen jar of water in the dust of the threshing with the grain flailed out and the chaff blowing. Living was a horse between your legs and a carbine under one leg and a hill and a valley and a stream with trees along it and the far side of the valley and the hills beyond.” ~ Ernest Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls

In comparison to A Farewell to Arms (which I favor over this one) , Hemingway conjured a very austere atmosphere that has, for the most part of the story, impaired my understanding and appreciation of the novel. The profound use of literary archaism is very straining, very taxing; it did not help the story’s cause. The way the narrative was conveyed was overwhelming and the gloomy atmosphere did not help in assuaging this overwhelming feeling.

One factor that contributed to the bleakness that hovered above the narrative, I have gleaned, is the novel’s plethora of dark, heavy and complex subjects. Well, it is kind of expected considering that the novel is preoccupied with a war. As such, it is no surprise that death is a subject that the novel extensively dealt. Moreover, nearly all the characters in the story have premonitions of their own deaths, eventually leading to an anticlimactic ending. Betrayal was a secondary theme explored in the novel.

In connection to death, the novel also discussed suicide. Driven by their ideologies, the guerillas preferred death over incarceration. This mirrors the Japanese value of hara-kiri or honorable suicide. A bulk of the novel is dedicated to highlighting political ideologies, especially fascism, something that Generalissimo Franco is quite known of. The evils and consequences of fascism and communism were extensively discussed all throughout the narrative. In contrast to betrayal, the novel dealt with more the more positive subject of camaraderie and brotherhood.

The way the story unfolded is unbearably very slow. As the reader immerses in the story, he gets caught in an impasse because Jordan is engaged in an internal conflict that just seems to drag. Halfway through the story, I got confused as to how the story is going to move forward. I wasn’t as engaged with the characters as well because all of them feel dull or underdeveloped. This is in stark comparison with how Hemingway intricately described the ongoing war.

“There will always be people who say it does not exist because they cannot have it. But I tell you it is true and that you have it and that you are lucky even if you die tomorrow.” ~ Ernest Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls

A well-loved classic, I found the novel a bit too jarring for my taste. Whereas Heller’s Catch-22 had a more complacent tone, Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls had a bleaker one. Contrary to my expectations, I had an overwhelmingly difficult reading experience due to a number of reasons enumerated in this review. I did enjoy the first two Hemingways that I have read but this one is just a tad too complex; the dark subjects, the bleak atmosphere, the stiff characters, and the archaic language all added up to one unpleasant read. It did have its merits but now I need a perfect Hemingway tonic to reverse For Whom the Bell Tolls’ effect on me. Suggestions anyone?

Recommended for avid readers of historical fiction, for readers who generally favor war novels, for the faithful Ernest Hemingway fans, and for readers who like novels that unfold in a very slow pace.

Not recommended for readers who prefer stories with quicker pace, readers who dislike generally dark novels, and readers who like fully developed characters.

About the Author

Before enlisting as an ambulance driver during the first World War, he worked as a reporter for The Kansas City Star for a couple of months. He was severely wounded by mortar fire but despite his wounds, he helped assist Italian soldiers to safety, earning him the Italian Silver Medal of Bravery. In 1921, he joined the expatriate literary community in Paris where he met Gertrude Stein, James Joyce and Ezra Pound.

With the encouragement of his friends, Hemingway published his first book, Three Stories and Ten Poems in 1923 . It was immediately followed by the publication of yet another short story collection, In Our Time (1925). In 1926, Hemingway’s first full length novel, The Sun Also Rises, was published. His other works include A Farewell to Arms (1929), The Old Man and the Sea (1952), The Snows of Kilimanjaro and Other Stories (1961), and A Moveable Feast (posthumously, 1964). In 1954, Hemingway was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature.

Aside from writing, Hemingway had a passion for bullfights, deep-sea fishing, and travelling. He travelled extensively to Spain, Africa and the Caribbean. In July 2, 1961, Hemingway committed suicide.

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A Profound Exploration of War, Love, and Humanity: Ernest Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls

Ernest Hemingway ‘s “For Whom the Bell Tolls” is a literary masterpiece that immerses readers in the tumultuous landscape of the Spanish Civil War. Published in 1940, this epic novel encapsulates the essence of Hemingway’s writing style, blending raw and powerful prose with profound insights into the human condition. Through its exploration of war, love, sacrifice, and the complexities of human nature, “For Whom the Bell Tolls” remains a timeless work of literature. In this review, we will delve into the novel’s themes, its masterful characterization, and its impact on both the literary world and our understanding of war and humanity.

The Brutality and Humanity of War

“For Whom the Bell Tolls” presents a visceral and unflinching portrayal of the Spanish Civil War. Hemingway’s firsthand experiences as a journalist during the conflict imbue the novel with authenticity and a sense of immediacy. Through his vivid descriptions of battles, bombings, and the harsh realities faced by the fighters, Hemingway captures the brutality and chaos of war.

However, amidst the violence, Hemingway also explores the humanity that persists in the midst of conflict. The protagonist, Robert Jordan, an American volunteer fighting with the Republican side, grapples with the moral complexities of war. Hemingway skillfully depicts the camaraderie and bonds formed between the fighters, highlighting their shared sense of purpose and loyalty. Through the nuanced portrayal of characters such as Pablo, Pilar, and Maria, Hemingway reveals the diverse motivations and psychological toll that war exacts on individuals.

Quote from For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway

Love and Passion Amidst Chaos

At the heart of “For Whom the Bell Tolls” lies a deeply poignant love story. The relationship between Robert Jordan and Maria, a young Spanish woman he meets during his mission, serves as a counterpoint to the violence and destruction surrounding them. Hemingway explores the transformative power of love, as the couple seeks solace and connection amidst the chaos of war.

Their love transcends the boundaries of language and culture, becoming a source of hope and resilience in the face of imminent danger. Hemingway’s portrayal of their relationship is tender and passionate, underscoring the intensity of emotions experienced when confronted with the fragility of life. Through their love, Hemingway emphasizes the capacity of human connection to endure and provide solace even in the most challenging circumstances.

Hemingway’s Prose and Symbolism

Hemingway’s distinct writing style is on full display in “For Whom the Bell Tolls.” His sparse and economical prose captures the essence of the characters and the landscapes they inhabit. Through his precise use of language, Hemingway evokes powerful imagery that allows readers to fully immerse themselves in the narrative.

Moreover, Hemingway employs symbolism to imbue the novel with deeper meaning. The recurring motif of the tolling bells serves as a reminder of the inevitability of death and the interconnectedness of all lives. It echoes the novel’s title, taken from John Donne’s famous poem, emphasizing the interconnectedness of humanity and the universal experience of suffering.

Hemingway also employs nature and the Spanish landscape as symbolic elements. The mountains, rivers, and forests become characters in their own right, mirroring the characters’ emotional states and reflecting the larger themes of the novel. The natural world serves as a refuge and a source of solace, juxtaposing the violence and destruction of war.

Famous Quotes from “For Whom th Bell Tolls” by Ernest Hemingway

This quote reflects a central theme of the novel: the idea that despite the pain, suffering, and evil present in the world, there is still beauty and goodness worth defending. It encapsulates the protagonist’s, Robert Jordan, internal struggle with the violence he must commit for what he believes is a greater good.
This quote, originally from John Donne’s meditation that Hemingway uses as the novel’s epigraph, speaks to the interconnectedness of all people. It suggests that the loss of any life diminishes everyone, reflecting the novel’s exploration of the impact of war on humanity. It underscores the theme that no one lives in isolation but is part of a larger community where every action has wider repercussions.
This quote touches on the subjectivity of truth and the complexity of reality. Hemingway uses it to suggest that people’s experiences, emotions, and perceptions create their realities, and that these diverse realities can all hold truth. It challenges the reader to consider multiple perspectives, especially in the context of war, where moral ambiguities are rampant.
This passage speaks to the importance of living in the present and making the most of the current moment. It reflects the existential belief that individuals are defined by their actions in the present, not by their past or future. It encourages living fully in the moment, a theme that is particularly poignant in the context of the novel’s war setting, where the future is uncertain.
This quote is part of a conversation about love and intimacy, symbolizing a deep connection and transformative experience. It suggests that true love is not just physical but also an emotional and spiritual bond that profoundly affects those who experience it. This moment in the novel highlights the contrast between the beauty of personal relationships and the brutality of war.

Illustration For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway

Trivia Facts about “For Whom th Bell Tolls”

Inspired by Real Events: Ernest Hemingway was inspired to write “For Whom the Bell Tolls” based on his experiences as a journalist during the Spanish Civil War. He reported on the conflict for the North American Newspaper Alliance and was deeply moved by what he saw.
Robert Jordan’s Character: The protagonist, Robert Jordan, is believed to be partially based on Robert Merriman, an American who led international brigades during the Spanish Civil War. Hemingway met Merriman and was likely influenced by his story.
Critical and Commercial Success: Upon its release in 1940, “For Whom the Bell Tolls” was a massive success, both critically and commercially. It sold over half a million copies within months and was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in 1941.
Film Adaptation: The novel was adapted into a film in 1943, starring Gary Cooper as Robert Jordan and Ingrid Bergman as Maria. The movie was a major success and received nine Academy Award nominations, winning one.
Title Origin: The title of the novel comes from a meditation (Meditation XVII) by John Donne, a metaphysical poet. The passage includes the famous lines “No man is an island” and “for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee.” Hemingway’s choice of title reflects the interconnectedness of all people and the shared experience of humanity, especially in times of conflict.
Controversy and Censorship: “For Whom the Bell Tolls” faced censorship in various countries, including Spain, where it was banned until after Francisco Franco’s death in 1975 due to its sympathetic portrayal of Republican forces during the Spanish Civil War.
Time Magazine Cover: Ernest Hemingway was featured on the cover of Time Magazine on the release of “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” highlighting the novel’s anticipated impact and Hemingway’s prominence as an author.
FBI Surveillance: The FBI kept a file on Hemingway, in part because of his activities during the Spanish Civil War and his associations with individuals believed to be involved with the Communist Party. His travels to Spain and his political opinions, as reflected in the novel, were of interest to the agency.
Critical Reception: While “For Whom the Bell Tolls” is considered one of Hemingway’s masterpieces today, its reception among critics at the time was mixed. Some praised its profound emotional depth and political engagement, while others criticized its portrayal of Spanish characters and dialogue.
Language and Style: Hemingway used a distinctive style in “For Whom the Bell Tolls” to mimic the translation of Spanish to English, including the use of “thee” and “thou” to reflect the formal Spanish “usted.” This choice has been both praised for its authenticity and criticized as cumbersome.

Conclusion For Whom the Bell Tolls

Ernest Hemingway’s “For Whom the Bell Tolls” is a literary masterpiece that delves into the complexities of war, love, and humanity. Through his powerful prose, vivid descriptions, and nuanced characterization, Hemingway invites readers into the harrowing world of the Spanish Civil War. The novel’s exploration of the brutality of war and the resilience of the human spirit resonates with readers, challenging our understanding of conflict and its impact on individuals. Furthermore, Hemingway’s portrayal of love and passion amidst chaos reminds us of the enduring power of human connection.

“For Whom the Bell Tolls” stands as a testament to Hemingway’s literary prowess and his ability to capture the essence of the human experience, making it a must-read for lovers of literature and anyone seeking a profound exploration of war and humanity.

Other Reviews of Works by Ernest Hemingway

Death in the Afternoon
To Have and Have not
The Snows of Kilimanjaro
The old man and the sea

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For Whom the Bell Tolls

1943, Drama/Romance, 2h 50m

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For whom the bell tolls photos.

In this adaptation of Ernest Hemingway's popular novel, idealistic American Robert Jordan (Gary Cooper) travels to Spain to join the guerrilla forces opposing dictator Francisco Franco. Jordan, who is given the dangerous task of blowing up a bridge that lies behind enemy lines, gets sidetracked when he falls for partisan Spanish girl María (Ingrid Bergman) at base camp. As Jordan's love for María grows, he begins to question his assignment, his politics and his place in this foreign war.

Genre: Drama, Romance, Adventure

Original Language: English

Director: Sam Wood

Producer: Sam Wood

Writer: Dudley Nichols

Release Date (Theaters): Jul 14, 1943 original

Release Date (Streaming): Feb 12, 2014

Runtime: 2h 50m

Distributor: Paramount Pictures

Production Co: Paramount Pictures

Cast & Crew

Gary Cooper

Robert Jordan

Ingrid Bergman

Katina Paxinou

Akim Tamiroff

Arturo de Cordova

Joseph Calleia

Vladimir Sokoloff

Mikhail Rasumny

Fortunio Bonanova

Eric Feldary

Victor Varconi

Dudley Nichols

Screenwriter

Buddy G. DeSylva

Executive Producer

Victor Young

Original Music

Ray Rennahan

Cinematographer

John F. Link Sr.

Film Editing

Sherman Todd

John Mieklejohn

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For Whom the Bell Tolls

3.4 • 5 calificaciones

Descripción editorial

In 1937 Ernest Hemingway traveled to Spain to cover the civil war there for the North American Newspaper Alliance. Three years later he completed the greatest novel to emerge from "the good fight," For Whom the Bell Tolls. The story of Robert Jordan, a young American in the International Brigades attached to an antifascist guerilla unit in the mountains of Spain, it tells of loyalty and courage, love and defeat, and the tragic death of an ideal. In his portrayal of Jordan's love for the beautiful Maria and his superb account of El Sordo's last stand, in his brilliant travesty of La Pasionaria and his unwillingness to believe in blind faith, Hemingway surpasses his achievement in The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms to create a work at once rare and beautiful, strong and brutal, compassionate, moving and wise. "If the function of a writer is to reveal reality," Maxwell Perkins wrote to Hemingway after reading the manuscript, "no one ever so completely performed it." Greater in power, broader in scope, and more intensely emotional than any of the author's previous works, it stands as one of the best war novels of all time.

Reseñas de clientes

My soon to be ex father gave me this book and it’s horrific, this book single Handily ruined our relationship. I suggest, if you want to keep having a loving relationship, don’t and I mean don’t, recommend this book for your son.

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For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
3.98. 293,495 ratings8,977 reviews. In 1937 Ernest Hemingway traveled to Spain to cover the civil war there for the North American Newspaper Alliance. Three years later he completed the greatest novel to emerge from "the good fight," For Whom the Bell Tolls. The story of Robert Jordan, a young American in the International Brigades attached to ...
FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS
The story's very ambiguity steadily feeds its mysteriousness and power, and Danielewski's mastery of postmodernist and cinema-derived rhetoric up the ante continuously, and stunningly. One of the most impressive excursions into the supernatural in many a year. 10. Pub Date: March 6, 2000. ISBN: -375-70376-4.
Read TIME's Original Review of For Whom the Bell Tolls
The Hemingway classic was published on Oct. 21, 1940. W hen Ernest Hemingway's now-classic novel For Whom the Bell Tolls was released, exactly 75 years ago on Wednesday, the author's fans had ...
For Whom the Bell Tolls
For Whom the Bell Tolls is a novel by Ernest Hemingway published in 1940. It tells the story of Robert Jordan, a young American volunteer attached to a Republican guerrilla unit during the Spanish Civil War.As a dynamiter, he is assigned to blow up a bridge during an attack on the city of Segovia.. It was published just after the end of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), whose general lines ...
For Whom the Bell Tolls Book Review
Our review: Parents say: ( 2 ): Kids say: Not yet rated Rate book. FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS is a rich, complex novel about the Spanish Civil War. Hemingway offers several points of view into the tragic events -- from Jordan's personal memories of his family, which explain the man he is and wants to be, to the inner workings of the Communist ...
Book Review: For Whom The Bell Tolls (1940) by Ernest Hemingway
For Whom The Bell Tolls is as tense a novel as it is tender. It is the story of love and war -a soldier's duty contrasted with a lover's embrace. The book takes us covertly behind enemy lines during the destructive Spanish Civil War of the 1930s (a war which lasted from 1936-1939).
Book Review: For Whom The Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
From the very first sentence For Whom The Bell Tolls dives deep, staying there and not letting up until the last sentence has finished. With its off-the-wall descriptors, emotionally raw (and honest) character development, and use of words like "lugubriously" (three pages into chapter 16), this novel is definitely one for the permanent ...
For Whom the Bell Tolls
For Whom the Bell Tolls, novel by Ernest Hemingway, published in 1940.. The novel is set near Segovia, Spain, in 1937 and tells the story of American teacher Robert Jordan, who has joined the antifascist Loyalist army.Jordan has been sent to make contact with a guerrilla band and blow up a bridge to advance a Loyalist offensive.
For Whom The Bell Tolls: Full Book Summary
Previous Next. For Whom The Bell Tolls opens in May 1937, at the height of the Spanish Civil War. An American man named Robert Jordan, who has left the United States to enlist on the Republican side in the war, travels behind enemy lines to work with Spanish guerrilla fighters, or guerrilleros, hiding in the mountains. The Republican command ...
Book Review: "For Whom the Bell Tolls" by Ernest Hemingway
Introduced by John Donne's poem of the same title, Ernest Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls has been on my list for some time, and it did not disappoint. Set in the Spanish Civil War of the 1930s, the story follows Robert Jordan, a young American teacher turned dynamiter.At the start of the novel, he has joined a guerilla unit within Spain, the country he's come to love, and is presented ...
For Whom The Bell Tolls: Study Guide
For Whom the Bell Tolls is a novel by Nobel Prize winner Ernest Hemingway published in 1940. It tells the story of Robert Jordan, an American volunteer in the International Brigades fighting in the Spanish Civil War, and his involvement in a mission to destroy a bridge behind enemy lines. The novel is based on Hemingway's own experiences as a ...
Books of The Times
Books of The Times. By Ernest Hemingway. ll that need be said here about the new Hemingway novel can be said in relatively few words. "For Whom the Bell Tolls" is a tremendous piece of work. It is the most moving document to date on the Spanish Civil War, and the first major novel of the Second World War. As a story, it is superb, packed with ...
For Whom the Bell Tolls Study Guide
For Whom the Bell Tolls was slated to win the Pulitzer Prize in 1941, but committee member Nicholas Murray Butler, president of Columbia University, voted against the selection, citing the novel's "obscenity"—likely a response to mildly explicit sex scenes in the novel and Spanish curse words. Hemingway won the Pulitzer for The Old Man ...
For Whom the Bell Tolls Book Review
It's simply okay. There are parts that work, and others that don't work as well. For Whom the Bell Tolls shows the story of Robert Jordan, a young American from the International Brigades who's fighting in an antifascist guerrilla unit in the Spanish Civil War. It tells of loyalty and courage, love and defeat, and the tragic death of an ...
Amazon.com: Customer reviews: For Whom the Bell Tolls
"For Whom The Bell Tolls" has long been my favorite Ernest Hemingway novel. A compelling action adventure, this is a tale filled with mystery and suspense, peopled by a cast of extraordinarily vivid characters. It is also the author's finest, and most emotional love story. Although his use of language seems simple, it is deceptively so.
Book Review: " For Whom the Bell Tolls" by Ernest Hemingway
Photo by Chris Barbalis on Unsplash. Rating: 4/5. Each man's death diminishes me. For I am involved in mankind. Therefore, send not to know. For whom the bell tolls, It tolls for thee.
For Whom the Bell Tolls (Hemingway)
Our Reading Guide for For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway includes Book Club Discussion Questions, Book Reviews, ... Book Reviews: Discussion Questions: Full Version: Print: Page 1 of 4. For Whom the Bell Tolls Ernest Hemingway, 1940 Simon & Schuster 496 pp. ISBN-13: 9780684830483 Summary
BOOK REVIEW: For Whom The Bells Tolls
Book Number two of the new year! Watch as I review For Whom the Bell Tolls, by Ernest HemingwayDon't forget to subscribe and ring the bell to be notified for...
Book Review # 77: For Whom the Bell Tolls
Book Specs. Author: Ernest Hemingway Publisher: Quality Paperback Book Club Publishing Date: 1993 Number of Pages: 471 Genre: War Novel Historical Fiction Synopsis. Written in the late 1930s, when democracy faces its greatest peril, For Whom the Bell Tolls is Hemingway's masterful novel about love, death, honor and betrayal.Set amidst the tragedy of the Spanish Civil War, it tells the story ...
For Whom the Bell Tolls
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 ...
For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
Read reviews from the world's largest community for readers. For Whom The Bell Tolls opens in May 1937, at the height of the Spanish Civil War. ... Rate this book. For Whom The Bell Tolls opens in May 1937, at the height of the Spanish Civil War. An American man named Robert Jordan, who has left the United States to enlist on the Republican ...
For Whom the Bell Tolls
Ernest Hemingway's "For Whom the Bell Tolls" is a literary masterpiece that immerses readers in the tumultuous landscape of the Spanish Civil War. Published in 1940, this epic novel encapsulates the essence of Hemingway's writing style, blending raw and powerful prose with profound insights into the human condition. Through its ...
For Whom the Bell Tolls
As Jordan's love for María grows, he begins to question his assignment, his politics and his place in this foreign war. Genre: Drama, Romance, Adventure. Original Language: English. Director: Sam ...
For Whom the Bell Tolls
In 1937 Ernest Hemingway traveled to Spain to cover the civil war there for the North American Newspaper Alliance. Three years later he completed the greatest novel to emerge from "the good fight," For Whom the Bell Tolls. The story of Robert Jordan, a young American in the International Brigades at…
DeSantis signs law limiting Florida book challenges
That law caused a national outcry after local schools received hundreds of challenges to a wide range of books, leading officials to review titles such as Ernest Hemingway's "For Whom the Bell ...

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Book Review: For Whom The Bell Tolls (1940) by Ernest Hemingway

About Ernest Hemingway

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Book Review: For Whom The Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway

One of Hemingway’s most famous works, For Whom The Bell Tolls is a masterpiece from start to finish. It can get a little dry at times and is definitely no light read, but if you’re a fan of the old classics, this is definitely one to read.

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Book Review: "For Whom the Bell Tolls" by Ernest Hemingway

For Whom the Bell Tolls

For Whom the Bell Tolls: Introduction

Historical Context of For Whom the Bell Tolls

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For Whom the Bell Tolls Book Review

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For Whom the Bell Tolls (Hemingway)

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