This well-known war
classic novel is semi-biographical, written by Ernest Hemingway in 1929.
A Farewell to Arms is a love story, drawn mainly from Hemingway's experiences as a young soldier in Italy.
The story revolves around Lieutenant Frederic Henry, an American Red Cross ambulance driver serving in the
Italian army during World War I. He meets and falls in love with Catherine Barkley, a
British nurse. The
relationship blossoms. In the battlefield at the Italian front, Henry's knee gets wounded by a mortar shell, and nurse Barkley looks after him in a hospital in Milan until he recuperates.
The relationship of Henry and Catherine develops, they fall in love spending time over summer. Catherine gets
pregnant. But Henry must return to the front leaving the pregnant Catherine behind.
Returning to the army unit, Henry narrowly escapes from the hands of the Italian soldiers, who are executing officers during the Italians' retreat after the Battle of Caporetto. Eventually, Henry is taken by the police that time where officers are interrogated and if found guilty of "treachery" to the Italian cause, they are executed. After he hears about a lieutenant colonel executed, he escapes by daring to jump into a river.
He eventually finds Catherine, they reunite, and they escape to Switzerland on the eve of his arrest for desertation.
The couple live a fairly quiet life in the mountains of Switzerland until she goes into a painful labour. Sadly, their child is born dead and Catherine also dies from hemorrhage.
It's one of the famous novels by Hemingway, a poignant, heart-warming classic story during most difficult times. It's one of his most best books made into film starring Helen Hayes and Gary Cooper (1932 version) and Jennifer Jones and Rock Hudson (1957 version).