Name: For Whom the Bell Tolls
Rating: 3.757792207792208 (154 reviews)
ISBN: 0816159688

Ernest Hemingway

For Whom the Bell Tolls

Lee Schneider

Edward Steel

For Whom the Bell Tolls (Vintage Classics)

Difficult one to rate. It had some great moments but also a lot that dragged. I think the ending chapter really improved my opinion of this book at the last moment.

Introduced by Hemingway’s grandson Seán Hemingway, this newly annotated edition and literary masterpiece about an American in the Spanish Civil War features early drafts and supplementary material—including three previously uncollected short stories on war by one the greatest writers on the subject in history. In 1937 Ernest Hemingway traveled to Spain to cover the civil war for the North American Newspaper Alliance. Three years later he completed the greatest novel to emerge from “the good fight,” and one of the foremost classics of war literature in history. Published in 1940, For Whom the Bell Tolls tells of loyalty and courage, love and defeat, and the tragic death of an ideal. Robert Jordan is a young American in the International Brigades attached to an antifascist guerilla unit in the mountains of Spain. In his portrayal of Jordan’s love for the beautiful Maria and his superb account of El Sordo’s last stand, Hemingway creates 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 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. Featuring early drafts and manuscript notes, some of Hemingway’s writings during the Spanish Civil War, and three previously collected stories of his on the subject of war, as well as a personal foreword by the author’s son Patrick Hemingway, and a new introduction by the author’s grandson Seán Hemingway, this edition of For Whom the Bell Tolls brings new life to a literary master’s epic like never before.

The Hemingway Library Edition

Timeo Williams

Read this a second time, but this time more in depth. 

While I think the storyline is a bit lacking, I enjoy the way Hemingway plays with words. I would have liked more suspense and action in the plot. 

Nevertheless, I'm not the biggest fan of fiction, and I still managed to finish the book.

Hemingway at his best. Should've been his first Pulitzer for sure. Devastating yest beautiful. Some parts felt a little unnecessary especially with the length of the book reaching nearly 500 pages already. Nonetheless a good ride and a classic piece of literary fiction with some great characters and exemplary prose.

Derek Graf

Hannah Yang

I tried to like Hemingway, I really did. I attempted In Our Time, and here I am with yet another Hemingway DNF.

I just can't appreciate the concision and detached language! I don't see the beauty or expertise in Hemingway's writing that is so often praised; in fact, every time I tried to read this I ended up falling asleep, so perhaps I should have kept it around for my insomniac spells. If there was a plot, or emotions, or interesting and lively characters, please direct me in their direction because I did not find them in these pages.

I've come to the conclusion that Hemingway is just not for me, and I'll have to make peace with that.

For whom the bell tolls

Colleen

3.5 Stars
 
*An insightful, heartfelt story bogged down by convoluted dialogue*


I love much of Hemingway’s work. But I also have to admit that there are times when he can be frustrating to read. For Whom the Bell Tolls is one work that I feel particularly conflicted about. The first time I read it was in high school for assigned reading. I will freely admit that I sped read it through the lens of “Let’s see what profound things I can say about this book, so I can get an A on this paper.” Rereading it years later just for the sake of reading was a completely different experience.

The overall story is thoughtful and moving. It paints a bleak and realistic portrait of war heavily influenced by Hemingway’s own life experiences. But there are aspects of the overly-stylized writing that drove me nuts. Much of the story is unfortunately told through convoluted dialogue that is purposefully archaic. Here is a prime example:


  "Now I thank thee for it. Now you are going well and fast and far and we both go in thee. Now put thy hand here. Now put thy head down. Nay, put it down. That is right. Now I put my hand there. Good. Thou art so good. Now do not think more. Now art thou doing what thou should. Now thou art obeying. Not me but us both. The me in thee. Now you go for us both. Truly. We both go in thee now. This I have promised thee. Thou art very good to go and very kind.”

If your initial reaction to reading that paragraph was, “Whaaaaaat?” then you are not alone! I do not enjoy having to read paragraphs multiple times just to decipher their meaning. And that frustration was compounded when sometimes the meaning was some critical point to the story and other times the gist of it was, “I’m hungry. When is dinner?” It certainly does not help that a large chunk of the beginning of the book is this dull dialogue. It took too long to figure out who the characters were and what they were doing. The beginning is composed of a ridiculous amount of people sitting around a fire mentioning things without actually discussing them. For Whom the Bell Tolls needed a stronger foundation. 

There are some beautiful moments in this book. By the end, I was totally invested in the story. And the climax of it is excellent. But this story had such a rough start obfuscated in dialogue soup that it is hard for me to rate it higher. For Whom the Bell Tolls is still good to read for anyone who wants to thoroughly explore Hemingway’s work, but it doesn’t make it anywhere near my favorites list.


RATING FACTORS:
Ease of Reading: 2 Stars
Writing Style: 3 Stars
Characters and Character Development: 4 Stars
Plot Structure and Development: 3 Stars
Level of Captivation: 3 Stars
Originality: 4 Stars

For Whom the Bell Tolls is Ernest Hemingway’s brilliant war novel, telling the story of Robert Jordan, a young American fighting with an antifascist guerilla unit in Spain. Jordan wages war, forges friendships, and falls deeply in love with the beautiful Maria. First published in 1940, For Whom the Bell Tolls has been adapted for movies, television, and stage. It is widely viewed as Hemingway’s greatest literary triumph. HarperPerennialClassics brings great works of literature to life in digital format, upholding the highest standards in ebook production and celebrating reading in all its forms. Look for more titles in the HarperPerennial Classics collection to build your digital library.

For Whom The Bell Tolls

Clare B

I was shocked by how much I liked this book. Seriously.

Brooklyn Swanson

The best way I could have imagined starting off my senior year literature class. It fueled me along the rest of the year, inspiring me to really read and understand every piece we were assigned. It re-sparked my affection for literature.

Anthony Sabourin

Hemingway wrote the shit out of this book and yeah it's macho as hell and yeah there are parts of it that have aged like wet socks but it's an incredible meditation on war and there's a lot to take from it in terms of like, propulsive plotting and a masterful use of omniscient narration.

Melody Izard

As an English major it pains me to confess that I’ve never read any Hemingway. Recently someone suggested that we build a cooperative story on facebook in Hemingway’s style and that was just the prod I needed to scramble forth and educate myself. 

I’m unsure how representative this book is of Hemingway’s writing style, but I certainly could fake my way through a Hemingwayish story mimicking the language in this novel. If thou wilt bear with me as I obscenity in your mother’s milk I will attempt to explain. (you shouldn’t do this to them. Why not? It’s downright confusing. But I’m making a point. I’m trying to let them know what they will have to, nay, what they must overcome if they attempt to read this book. And they should read it. It speaks. It may have spoken to thou, but can you be sure it will speak to them? Yes. It will. It will tug at their heart. It will make them think. But won’t the strange language the sudden in the head self-talk distract? Yes it will. And this will prepare them for it).

I’ll stop. But Hemingway won’t. No he writes this book as if it were translated literally from the formal Castilian Spanish that the characters are speaking for most of the story. And the main character, who is not the narrator nor is the story told totally from his point of view, will suddenly begin to have conversations with himself as he tries to convince himself that he must follow orders and blow up this damn bridge even though his chances of survival and the chances of survival for his (dang it all why did he have to go and LIKE these people) new found friends and helpers, is pretty slim. Also there is a lot of cussing in the novel. Well there might be. Because there is a lot of people obscenity-ing this and that and in milk and calling each other’s mothers obscenity this and that. If the cuss word happened to be written in Spanish though, the real word was used. So I guess he was just censoring it for those who did not know any Spanish cuss words.

But get past it. I had to have several conversations with myself telling me that I just needed to move on from saying “obscenity you Hemingway and tell your dang story” and just read (or listen to – because I had an audio book) the dang story. And I know my silly little review is making it sound like it’s a trivial tale and it is everything but. It is a powerful story of war. Of the conflicting feelings of those who must fight and those who believe in the cause and then realize the price that must be paid if you are to defend and push forth the cause. It’s wretched and tender. It’s harsh and gentle. It’s something I might just call a masterpiece.

Simon Elliott Stegall

It's hard for me to describe why Hemingway's writing is so powerful. It is simple and innocuous, like falling snow; you know it's there, and it's nice, but you don't notice it.... until it's up to your chest. It builds on itself, and creates a mood that grows in power as the book moves along. If I wasn't convinced before, I am now: Ernest was a master of style.

Robert Jordan is a Spanish teacher from Montana who works as a dynamiter in the Spanish Civil War of the 30s. He is saddled with the daunting task of going behind Nationalist lines to blow up a strategically valuable bridge. For Whom the Bell Tolls takes place over the course of the 3 days before the appointed time of Jordan's bomb. He enlists the help of a rag-tag band of guerrilla fighters and waits.

The book is about death and Hemingway's perennial theme, Courage. For a war story, that is pretty standard, but there's nothing standard about Hemingway's writing, or his attitude, or his approach. His inclusion of John Dunne's poem in the title stresses the point: Hemingway took an ancient topic and treated it in such a way to make it totally new and present. That is great writing. For Whom The Bell Tolls will stick with me for a long time. I'll never read or watch another war story without comparing it to this book, and I doubt many will stand the comparison.

Jeni Enjaian

A review from my old blog...

I approached this book with my memories of John Steinbeck in my mind. I just realized that as I started to write this entry. I have found that while Steinbeck's writing can be impressive he often overloads his text with things gratuitous in nature. Hemingway is not like that.

I found myself strangely fascinated by this book. While I also found myself a little confused as to where the book was placed and how much time passed I can put that all aside because of my awe of Hemingway's writing style. The book is placed in Spain. the time period, though I should know this, escapes me at the moment. Hemingway infuses the text with stylistic turnings typical of imperfect translations of Spanish to English. A large majority of the characters are native Spaniards.

I could look at an awkward phrasing and realize exactly how that would have been stated in Spanish and why the translation felt so awkward. In addition, Hemingway peppered hundreds of Spanish words and phrases throughout the book, many of which stood untranslated.

I suppose that Hemingway's writing style alone redeems the book in my mind. If it had not been for the careful crafting of the language I probably would have put the book down before I got halfway through because I wouldn't have been able to find one end of the book from another.

I still don't understand the ending.

Nathan Griffin

The last 150ish pages were really good. Up until that point it wasn't bad, but it just sort of puttered along. I did think it was better and deeper than A Farewell to Arms, which I think I only marginally enjoyed.

Riley Young

Juozas Salna

Shreerag Plakazhi

Left a hole in my heart. Can anyone write a better war book than Hemingway? I think not. This is a hard book to read, don't attempt it unless you have immense patience.

Ethel

An interesting story where nothing is either black or white

Key words: classic, Spanish civil war, historical novel, love story

This was my first Hemingway book and I quite enjoyed it. The story happens during the Spanish Civil war (1936-1939) in which Hemingway was involved as a journalist in Spain. I really enjoyed the insight thinking that goes through the book, when the characters reflect on their past or their future or even just their present; it really adds a sweet touch to this story about war. Sometimes, I have to admit that I found it to be a bit long as it slows the story down a lot but overall, I found it really interesting. I also found the love story to be quite present through the book. I liked the character of Maria and especially the one of Pilar who I think is the most reliable character and the strongest. At the beginning, I was a little bit confused about how the characters talked. As the story happens in Spain, Hemingway translated some Spanish saying directly in English and sometimes, I didn’t know what it meant such as “I obscenity in the milk of …” (it means I sh*t in the milk of…). He also used informal English pronouns such as thee and thy which I found quite enjoyable. The story didn’t really divide between bad and good and showed the problem of the bureaucracy in those times and what people were forced to do. 
Overall, I enjoyed this story, though sometimes a bit long, and I would recommend it.

For Whom the Bell Tolls

Reviews

Highlights