For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway (novel #232)

No man is an island,

Entire of itself;

Every man is a piece of the continent,

A part of the main.

If a clod be washed away by the sea,

Europe is the less,

As well as if a promontory were:

As well as if a manor of thy friend’s

Or of thine were.

Any man’s death diminishes me,

Because I am involved in mankind.

And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;

It tolls for thee.

~ John Donne

 

 

In him, too, was despair from the sorrow that soldiers turn to hatred in order that they may continue to be soldiers. Now it was over he was lonely, detached and unrelated and he hated every one he saw. ~ narrative regarding Robert Jordan, the hero of For Whom the Bell Tolls

For Whom the Bell Tolls is set in Spain, during the Spanish Civil War. The main character, Robert Jordan, is an American fighting for the Republic against the fascists. He is a man on a mission: to blow a bridge. To do so he must travel behind enemy lines and seek the assistance of guerrilla fighters. As the novel opens, he has already found Anselmo, who in turn introduces him to a small band of guerillas ostensibly led by Pablo, but in truth led by Pablo’s wife Pilar.

 

There is immediate friction between Pablo and the Ingles as Jordan is called. Pablo believes the dynamite can be put to better use than a bridge, while Jordan has orders from the organized Republican Army. Blowing the bridge will prevent the fascists from sending reinforcements to an upcoming battle.

 

Among the guerrilla band, there is Maria, an emotionally scarred young woman the fighters rescued from the fascists. Romance develops between Roberto and Maria. They seize each possible moment and pledge themselves to each other for whatever time they have.

 

There are complications with the bridge, with Pablo, with the dynamite, with true love, but there remains the chance that things will work out, including escape after the bridge is blown.

 

The opening line of the book, and the closing find Robert Jordan in ironically similar physical positions, yet with drastically different prospects.

 

Opening line:

He lay flat on the brown, pine needled floor of the forest, his chin on his folded arms, and high overhead the wind blew in the tips of the pine trees.

Closing line (three days later):

He could feel his heart beating against the pine needle floor of the forest.

This was a reread, but it’s been over 30 years since I last read it. I appreciated it more this time, understanding the inescapable interconnectedness of our lives that Hemingway portrayed and that he alluded to in the title. He initially intended to call it The Undiscovered Country, but eventually decided on a line from Donne. Good choice, I think.

 

Like many of Hemingway’s novels, the main character resembles Hemingway, without the novel being autobiographical. The most poignant similarity between Jordan and Hemingway, is that their fathers both shot themselves.

 

And that Jordan contemplates becoming a writer. While watching some planes overhead he muses…

They are shaped like sharks, Robert Jordan thought, the wide-finned, sharp-nosed sharks of the Gulf Stream. But these, wide-finned in silver, roaring, the light mist of their propellers in the sun, these do not move like sharks. They move like no thing there has ever been. They move like mechanized doom.

 

You ought to write, he told himself.

 

This is the fourth novel I’ve read by Hemingway. The others: The Sun Also Rises, A Farewell to Arms, and The Old Man and the Sea. The Old Man and the Sea is my favorite, but For Whom the Bell Tolls is a close second. The message is profound, and the characters are memorable, believable, lovable, pitiable. One complaint, that I’ve had before with Hemingway, the dialogue between lovers is absurd, preposterously cloying. (I would cite an example, but I don't want to nauseate you.)

 

Nevertheless…

 

My rating: 4 out of 5 stars

 

 

For Whom the Bell Tolls is not a glorification of war. In the introduction, Sean Hemingway describes the reason for his father’s interest in war…

Hemingway appreciated the deep bonds forged in wartime among its fellow combatants, but he viewed war itself as a crime against humanity.

 

And now the movie: 1943 starring Gary Cooper and Ingrid Bergman. It’s nearly 3 hours and quite faithful to the novel. I’m not a fan of Cooper, But Ingrid Bergman as Maria? I like Bergman in most things, but were there no Hispanic actresses in the 40s, or at least someone who could attempt a Spanish accent? Full on Swedish accent all the way. Baffling. But again, a faithful adaptation worth watching if you like the book.

 

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The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway (novel #126)

"Fish" he said, "I love you and respect you very much. But I will kill you dead before this day ends."

The Old Man and the Sea is a novella by Ernest Hemingway. It tells the story of Santiago – the old man – a Cuban fisherman who has not caught a fish for 84 days.

 

Santiago, well past his prime, and impoverished by lack of success, takes to the sea each day in a dilapidated skiff.

The sail was patched with flour sacks and, furled, it looked like the flag of permanent defeat.

 

But in spite of his reduced estate, he is a seasoned fisherman, with a healthy respect for the sea and his prey.

…the old man always thought of her [the sea] as feminine and as something that gave or withheld favors, and if she did wild or wicked things it was because she could not help them. The moon affects her as it does a woman, he thought.

 

His young apprentice, Manolin, just a boy who loves the old man, is prohibited from fishing with Santiago because the old man is considered bad luck.

 

On the 85th day of his draught, Santiago hooks an enormous Blue Marlin that will test his skill, stamina, and resolve. He battles the fish for three days and two nights. Santiago gets little sleep and must eat raw fish to maintain his strength. Although, he is not religious, Santiago prays and adds a little something to the standard Hail Mary…

Blessed Virgin, pray for the death of this fish. Wonderful though he is.

 

He considers the fish a friend or brother, even though he knows he must kill it, and he often talks to it.

“Fish” he said softly, aloud, “I’ll stay with you until I am dead.”

 

Santiago is a fan of the New York Yankees and admirer of Joe DiMaggio. He wonders if the great DiMaggio would be proud of his epic struggle. Being a Tigers fan myself, I smiled when Santiago worried about the Yankee’s chances…

I fear both the Tigers of Detroit and the Indians of Cleveland.

 

I’ll spare the spoiler – though you probably know how it ends. This is my first read of The Old Man and the Sea, though I have read several works by Hemingway. I always admire Hemingway’s writing, but I don’t always love his stories. This one however, was superb; it is now my favorite work by Hemingway. It is a tender, thoughtful story, heartbreaking and heartwarming.

 

Hemingway was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for this work in 1953, and it was cited as one of the factors for his award of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954. Hemingway’s friend Charles Scribner wrote:

It is a curious fact of literary history that a story which describes the loss of a gigantic prize provided the author with the greatest prize of his career.

 

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

 

 

I read this for The Classics Club spin #20.

 

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A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway (62 down 38 to go)

When you love you wish to do things for. You wish to sacrifice for. You wish to serve. ~ the Priest
I don’t love. ~ Tenente Frederic Henry

This is the first time I’ve read A Farewell to Arms and the third I’ve read by Hemingway. A Farwell to Arms is a modernist novel, first-person narrative of Lieutenant (Tenente) Frederic Henry, an American serving in the ambulance corps of the Italian Army during WWI.  Of course, it was not known as WWI at the time, but rather the War to End War. The Tenente falls in love with a British nurse, Catherine (Cat) Barkley. So, it’s a war story and a love story – or more precisely, the story of lovers trying to escape war. It’s also very depressing. If you saw the movie The Silver Linings Playbook you already knew that.

My rating: 3 1/2 of 5 stars

 

In spite of it being depressing, I found it quite engaging. A shocking review thus far, no? A war story that is depressing and a Hemingway novel that is engaging. To avoid further spoilers…

Spoiler Alert:  The following contains a minor spoiler.

After some preliminary narrative to develop setting, characters, and the love story, Tenente Henry is badly injured and most of his crew killed by a mortar blast. He is taken to a hospital well away from the fighting and Catherine is transferred to work in the same hospital, thus allowing their love to grow. After major surgery to repair his knee and a long recuperation, Henry is sent back to the front, just in time to take place in a massive Italian retreat. In the chaos, a group of self-imposed Battle Police, “arrest” retreating officers, and summarily execute them for the shame they have brought upon Italy. Even though he is American, Henry is arrested and will likely be executed, but he makes a daring escape. During his flight he decides he is finished with the war – hence the title. He eventually finds Catherine and the two spend several relaxing days as if they haven’t a care in the world. Henry learns that the authorities have discovered his whereabouts, and intend to arrest him. Fortunately, Henry and Catherine were staying on the Italian-Swiss border, so they plan a sudden and daring escape: An all-night rowboat trip across the lake into Switzerland. Oh and by the way, Catherine is several months pregnant. I’ll spare further spoilers and let you read it yourself. It’s worth a read.

I liked this much more than The Sun Also Rises, but not as much as For Whom the Bell Tolls. I only had one complaint. The love dialogue between Catherine and Henry is so cloying as to be unbelievable, such as this exchange, with Catherine speaking first:

Oh, darling, I want you so much I want to be you too. 

 

You are, We’re the same one.

I know it. At night we are.

The nights are grand.

I want us to be all mixed up. I don’t want you to go away. I just said that. You go if you want to. But hurry right back. Why darling, I don’t live at all when I’m not with you.

I won’t ever go away, I said.

I’m not good when you’re not there. I haven’t any life at all.

I want you to have a life. I want you to have a fine life. But we’ll have it together, won’t we?

There was one other complaint I might have had. As a veteran myself, I would have been prepared to dislike this novel, for the soldier deserting his unit and duty, but the arrogance and idiocy of the Battle Police made Tenente Henry’s decision perfectly reasonable.

Hemingway served, and was injured in the Italian ambulance corps, and he did fall in love with a nurse, but that’s about as far as the similarities go. I don’t think it would be accurate to call this autobiographical, or even semi-autobiographical. It was just Hemingway doing what writers are always admonished to do – writing about what he knew.

In the end, like the character in The Silver Linings Playbook, I wondered what was the point? Just a theory, but pointlessness may have been the point. Of all the stupid wars, WWI was one of the stupidest. Frederic and Catherine were caught up, in a war that just sort of got caught up, drawn out, and badly concluded by circumstance. 

Film Rendition: Starring Gary Cooper and Helen Hayes. To be honest, I thought this was awful. Hemingway reportedly hated it as well. Skip the movie, read the book.

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The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway (12 down, 88 to go)

This is the first time I’ve read The Sun Also Rises. It is a modernist, first person narrative of Jake Barnes, an American expatriate working in Paris in the mid 1920s.

I am perplexed as to why this is considered such a great work. I am myself ambivalent; didn’t love it, didn’t hate it. I’ve read other novels on my list that I disliked, but still understood how they are considered great, but this? I don’t understand. This is not a criticism. I think it is superbly written, and somewhat compelling. I just don’t know why it ranks so high.

My rating: 2 1/2 of 5 stars

 

The main character, Jake Barnes, is Hemingway, and the story is based on a
real-life experience Hemingway had with a group of friends in France and Spain. The rest of the characters are also mapped to real persons, but their true tales, aside from this brief glimpse, are unknown to me, so I will only refer to the characters. The main characters being Jake, his friend Robert Cohn, and Lady Brett Ashley. Jake loves Brett but because he was left impotent from a war wound, feels a relationship is hopeless. Brett professes to love Jake, who seems to be the only person that understands her, but she is impetuous, fickle, and promiscuous. The two are resigned to the belief that a true relationship is futile. Numerous failed relationships are implied and Brett is now engaged to an Englishman Mike Campbell. This doesn’t stop her from having a brief and meaningless affair with Cohn. Campbell knows of the affair, and others, and accepts them as part of Brett’s fervidity. Cohn however, is ridiculously in love with Brett, in spite of the fact that she does everything to discourage him.

 

The story culminates when Jake, Brett, Mike, Cohn, and another American Bill, travel via different groups and means, to meet at the Festival of San Fermin in Pamplona Spain. It includes the famous running of the bulls, bullfights, a love quadrangle, interpersonal complexities of the group, and a lot of drinking.

 

As I understand it, Hemingway originally called the novel, The Lost Generation. I think it was a better title. What a mess these people were. If this was a glimpse of Hemingway’s life, I think it was a sad life, glorious adventurer persona notwithstanding. As I said though, it was superbly written. I especially like one account, not really important to the overall plot, of an older matador, Belmonte. He was once, one of the very best. His legend is still recognized, but the crowds have begun to express contempt for his lackluster performance. Hemingway did such a wonderful job describing him, I could feel his pain, and wounded pride.

 

For the record, I don’t condone bullfighting; it’s just the setting, and a real-life avocation of Hemingway’s.

 

Quotations: Really just one bit I liked. I like the writing, but also a peculiar notion of prayer and religion that Jake (and I presume, Hemingway) held. Jake steps into a church in San Fermin, and decides to pray. 

I knelt and started to pray and prayed for everybody I thought of, Brett and Mike and Bill and Robert Cohn and myself, and all the bull-fighters, separately for the ones I liked, and lumpin all the rest, then I prayed for myself again, and while I was praying for myself I found I was getting sleepy, so I prayed that the bull-fights would be good, and that it would be a fine fiesta, and that we would get some fishing. I wondered if there was anything else I might pray for, and I thought I would like to have some money, so I prayed that I would make a lot of money, and then I started to think how I would make it, and thinking of money reminded me of the count, and I started wondering about where he was, and regretting I hadn’t seen him since that night in Montmartre, and about something funny Brett told me about him, and as all the time I was kneeling with my forehead on the wood in front of me, and was thinking of myself as praying, I was a little ashamed, and regretted that I was such a rotten Catholic, but realized there was nothing I could do about it, at least for a while, and maybe never, but that anyway it was a grand religion, and I only wished I felt religious and maybe I would next time…

 

Film Rendition: The 1957 film starring Tyrone Power as Jake, and Ava Gardner as Brett is a very good rendition. Gardner is especially good and appropriately beautiful as Lady Brett. Eddie Albert was an amusing choice for Bill, but he pulled it off. Errol Flynn played Mike Campbell, and Mel Ferrer as Robert Cohn was convincingly annoying.

 

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