Reading Hemingway’s \u3cem\u3eA Farewell to Arms\u3c/em\u3e: Glossary and Commentary

Annotates and interprets familiar and obscure details and allusions to provide a comprehensive guide to the people, places, things, events, and other references found in the novel. Opening with commentary on the novel’s jacket cover artwork and closing with a brief examination of alternative manuscript endings, the authors’ close reading explicates important motifs and themes such as the conflict between faith and reason. Entries are arranged chronologically as they appear in the text and correspond to the page numbers of the Hemingway Library edition so that readers can easily consult the guide as they go through the novel chapter by chapter. The introduction focuses on Hemingway’s extensive campaign of self-education during the 1920s preparing himself for writing A Farwell to Arms by reading hundreds of works by established literary masters. Also discusses the influence of six key authors on Hemingway’s masterpiece of love and war: Turgenev, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Stendhal, Flaubert, and Mann. General readers and scholars alike will appreciate the thoroughness and helpfulness of this close reading. Includes index