Monday 10 July 2017

Hemingway, Ernest "For Whom the Bell Tolls"


Hemingway, Ernest "For Whom the Bell Tolls" - 1940

After reading this book, I don't understand why I didn't read it earlier. This is one of the "must read" classics, a book that tells us so much about a terrible time, not just a particular terrible time about the guerillas in the Spanish Civil War, but about war in general. War isn't jsut a number of how many people died or how many fights were won or lost. War is horrible. War is brutal. War is everything nobody wants. And yet, we still have wars.

You can tell that a lot of experience flowed into this piece. Ernest Hemingway faught himself in the Spanish Civil War. He must have lived through lot of the actions described here.

This novel is a brilliant account of the partisans, their fight, their effort, their dreams. A strong story about a fight that we all know was lost and cost many Spaniards dearly in the following years.

I never watched the movie with Gary Cooper and Ingrid Bergman, two actors I really loved. I probably should. They received nine Oscar nominations for it.

From the back cover:
"High in the pine forests of the Spanish Sierra, a band of anti-fascist guerrilla prepares to blow up a strategically 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."

Ernest Hemingway received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954 "for his mastery of the art of narrative, most recently demonstrated in 'The Old Man and the Sea' and for the influence that he has exerted on contemporary style" and the Pulitzer Prize for "The Old Man and the Sea" in 1953.

I contribute to this page: Read the Nobels and you can find all my blogs about Nobel Prize winning authors and their books here.

6 comments:

  1. This is the only Hemingway book I like. I liked it very much!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Interesting. I must say, I prefer it to "The Old Man and the Sea" but I did enjoy that a lot, as well.

      Friends of ours have just given a Cuba evening after spending their holiday there adn I'm looking forward to reading about that country now, so I guess I will try more Hemingways.

      Happy Reading,
      Marianne

      Delete
  2. I should add this to my list of classics to read.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. And it certainly is worth being there. Enjoy!

      Delete
  3. I'm a big fan of Hemingways, though this isn't a favorite, A Moveable Feast is, as is Death in the Afternoon. Also really like his short stories.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sounds good, thanks for the tips. I'd love to read more about Cuba as I mentioned to Judy ^^ but I have no idea how much he wrote about it. We'll see.

      Have a good day,
      Marianne

      Delete