Customer Rating: 
Summary: One of the Best Historical Novel's I've Read...
Comment: Yes, I said "historical novel," because, even in H.'s day, history passed by very quickly. It's this novel A Farewell to Aarms, and The Old Man and the Sea that, for me, are the real crown jewels of Hemingway's output. Even if you're just interested in the historical aspect of the The Spanish Civil War, you'll get much out of this work. There isn't much more I can add that hasn't already been said.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Slow, but good and artful
Comment: The author's style is strong and detailed, but with so little happening over so many pages, I found myself becoming impatient with the story. Perhaps just a sign of the times and my own personal taste, I put the book down after reading only half of it. In reflection, the characters, the settings and the building of the story line are all quite beautiful as a whole, but the pace was just too stretched out for me to endure. Perhaps I'll pick it up again sometime.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Typical Hemingway
Comment: This is my third experience with Hemingway, and while I fully expect to complete the entire Hemingway collection, I can't quite find it within myself to award five stars to any of the works I've read to date.
In each of the novels (The Sun Also Rises and Farewell to Arms being the other two) I've been entranced at times by the hauntingly beautiful writing, however there have been periods where the story drags, where the almost stream of consciousness style grinds the action to a halt. Not long enough to kill the story, but enough to impact the overall reading experience.
This novel is set in Spain, during the Spanish Civil War, the idealogical precursor to the Fascist/Communist clash soon to come on the Eastern Front of World War II. The story primarily involves American Spanish professor and converted Republican partisan, Robert Jordan and the 72 hours he spends with an anti-fascist partisan force in the hours preceding a Republican offensive.
The characters crafted by Hemingway are fascinating, most specifically the partisan leaders Pablo and Pilar. The interaction between the rebels and with Jordan are spellbinding. The character of Pilar is especially haunting and her story of the execution of the fascists (a/k/a prominent citizens) in her small Spanish village is some of the best and most captivating writing I've ever read.
Unfortunately, in my opinion, this 470 page novel is about 100 pages too long, as it is interspersed with periods of inaction, punctuated by stream of consciousness meanderings, which admittedly many may find enjoyable.
Some may find the style of language irritating (Thee, Thou, Thy mother, etc.) but I found this to be a minor issue. More problematic to me is what I can only guess is the censorship (either self censorship in light of the times or editorial censorship) whereby all instances of profanity or coarse language is omitted and replaced by bizarre alternatives. For example, these beauties from the mouth of Pablo, "I obscenity in the milk of all," and "Go and obscenity thyself." I find it hard to believe that Hemingway actually wrote this, and if not (or even if he did), these bizarre omissions cannot be rectified.
Despite these minor complaints, this is an extremely educational piece of work, both from the standpoint of literature and for the insight it provides for an extremely important and interesting period of world history. Highly recommended.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A Difficult Romanticism
Comment: Hemingway's novel "For Whom the Bell Tolls" (1940) is toughly realistic in its depiction of the butchery of warfare. The book has the no-nonsense, fact-intensive style of a reporter. Yet, in its themes of love, death, heroism, and human brotherhood, Hemingway's novel is, in spite of itself, romantic in outlook, but romantic with an edge.
The novel is set in Spain in 1937 during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). The Spanish Civil War was a multi-sided conflict between the democratically-elected government, the Republicans or loyalists, and its right-wing anti-communist opponents, the nationalists (fascists). The Republicans during this conflict had the assistance of the USSR. Their enemies, the nationalists, were assisted by Nazi Germany and by Italy. Hemingway was a correspondent in Spain at the time. His novel tells the story of Robert Jordan, a young American instructor in Spanish at the University of Montana who had earlier spent much time wandering through Spain. In 1936, with the outset of the conflict, Jordan volunteered his services to assist the Republicans and became an expert in explosives. Jordan idealizes his grandfather who had been a hero in the American Civil War. Jordan's father had committed suicide. When the novel opens, Jordan is assigned to destroy a bridge in furtherance of a Republican offensive. He works with a group of guerrillas in the mountains.
The story unfolds over a time of three days. Hemingway's book offers portrayals of a group of Jordan's Spanish compatriots, in addition to Jordan himself. Chief among them is a 48-year old woman, Pilar, physically unattractive, earthy, and strong-willed. She is the de facto leader of her group and is as central to the story as is Jordan. Pilar is the "woman" of Pablo, who was once a formidable fighter but who has become disillusioned by the conflict. The novel includes several scenes of high tension and near violence between Jordan and Pablo. In his efforts to blow-up the bridge, Jordan is assisted by Anselmo, an aged man who despairs of violence and killing but is devoted to the Republican cause. And, in the three days of the novel, Jordan meets and has a passionate love affair with Maria, a lovely 19-year old who has been saved from the nationalists by Pablo.
Hemingway is known for a terse, elliptical writing style, and it is on display in this book. But the writing is highly varied, with long stream of conscious digressions by Jordan as he reflects upon his past life and upon the conflict in which he has thrust himself. Much of the writing is both figurative and digressive. Hemingway tried to transcribe much of Spanish idiom directly into English, particularly the use of "thou" for the intimate Spanish "you." He also makes considerable use of untranslated Spanish phrases. The book captures the speech patterns of soldiers under tension, with much use of colorful language. Hemingway does not reproduce this language directly but, in English, uses phrases such as "obscenity" or "unprintable" in place of the words themselves. In addition to telling the story of the bridge and its destruction, all the characters engage in long discussions of their thoughts and their prior lives. These discussions generally are directed to the brutality of the war. In an outstanding passage, Pilar tells of the destruction under the command of Pablo of a group of fascist leaders who are forced to run the gauntlet before being thrown down a cliff.
Hemingway was in love with Spain, both for its beauty and its brutality. The novel has many discussions of bullfighting, largely told by Pilar as she recounts her experiences with earlier lovers. Pilar also has a power of clairvoyance in the story, especially as it relates to impending death. The book includes several vivid battle scenes. One of these scenes tells of the gunning-down by aircraft of a group of five of the guerillas assisting Jordan at the top of a small hill.(Aircraft has a large and fearsome presence in the book.) Another effective battle scene tells of the difficult destruction of the bridge and its aftermath.
The love relationship between Robert Jordan and Maria comes to dominate the novel. The two become passionately attracted to each other and quickly consummate their relationship. The passages describing the couple's lovemaking are central to the story and effective. The inhumanity of war is juxtaposed against human commitment and the beauty of the everyday. Robert Jordan realizes that he is in love with Maria, Spain, and with life. This love, in the book, reaches its peak in heroism and self-sacrifice. Jordan comes to realize what in life he values. It is because of his realization, that he ultimately must give up the things he comes to cherish. Within its language of toughness and machismo, this novel has the theme of inevitability and of romantic tragedy.
This is a book I read in high school many years ago when it was far beyond me. It is not an easy book, and not every part of it is successful. But it is an extraordinary novel. I am grateful that I had the opportunity to revisit the book when I was able to try to appreciate it.
Robin Friedman
Customer Rating:
Summary: The best of Hemingway
Comment: Filled with complex and interesting characters and written in Hemingway's characteristically simple, but effective style, For Whom the Bell Tolls is Hemingway at his best. There are few novels I would recommend more highly.
Hemingway's fascinating characters, from the American, Robert Jordan, to Pablo and Pilar, often referred to "the woman of Pablo" (if there can be one criticism of Hemingway, it is that his female characters are often simple; however, this is not true of Pilar), make this novel so wonderful, along with Hemingway's vivid descriptions of everything from the characters themselves to the horrors of war (one scene that comes to mind particularly is Hemingway's description of the execution of a group of fascists, who are beaten to death before being hurled from a cliff).
Although it is not a tale for the faint-hearted (forgive the cliche), For Whom the Bell Tolls is arguably Hemingway's greatest work. Anyone who enjoys Hemingway, McCarthy, or Faulkner should enjoy this novel.
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