I have a hard time with Mr. Hemingway, I guess. For Whom the Bell Tolls didn't involve as much rampant drinking as many of his other books, but I blame that on the setting—a cave in the mountains where only a few gallons of wine were available (and a flask of absinthe, the flavor of which is described over the course of about thirty pages). However, his standard sexism toward the female characters still applied. Here are a few more things I didn't like about the book:
*Did he really have to write "rope-soled shoes" every time he mentioned their footwear or even their feet?
*The dialogue was the standard stiff Hemingway dialogue, but somehow it seemed even more wooden.
*Every Spanish character goes by a first name or a nickname. Not Robert Jordan, the American. He is Robert Jordan (full name) at every mention.
*Robert Jordan finds the love of his life in about 17 minutes. Leave it to the Papa to churn out a beautiful and realistic love story.
*Every character is so up front with every emotion and the writing was so repetitive (here is my dramatic interpretation): He was frightened. "I say these things because I am frightened," said the frightened man. or She felt herself falling in love with the Hemingway-like main character. "I feel myself falling in love with you," she told him. "Yes," he replied. "You are falling in love with me."

I liked a few things about this one: the power struggles, the descriptions of war strategies at various levels of command... Also, it must have been all right because it held my weak attention pretty well despite how slowly the story unfolded. Also, it ended well. Well, it ended, anyway.

For Whom the Bell Tolls is a fictional account of the Spanish Civil war, and I say this now, it is probably one of Hemingway’s finest works of fiction. Like Orwell, he reported on the war, arriving in Spain in 1937 and worked with the International Brigades in the Madrid area, advocating a Popular Front Government. The premise of the novel is this: The protagonist is an American called Robert Jorden, a University Teacher in Spain, who joins the International Brigades and gets sent on a mission to blow a bridge up behind the Fascist lines prior to a Republican offensive. He teams up with a group of Partisans, and this mission and his relationship with his band of comrades is essentially what the book is about.

There are many, many themes in the novel; for instance, the nature of the war is questioned, and how far people would go to win, or at least what they would do for their beliefs. What is at stake here is probably tied up with the future of the world, or at least a future free from bigotry and oppression. But this is only hinted at. Hemingway paints a very barbaric picture near the beginning of the novel about the execution of a group of Fascists in a village during the start of the war. This is probably the most disturbing scene in the book, but he does show the nature of the Fascists; landowners, the ruling clique, etc. He also shows how barbaric the whole of the conflict became, and he doesn’t like the CNT-FAI (Anarchist-Syndicalists) either, which is shown not just in this scene, but throughout the novel (Red and Black ‘crazies’). However, one of his partisan group, Pablo, who was involved in the execution, ends up disturbed from what he let happen; even though Pablo has some very questionable motives, I think it is from this scene that we understand how he turned out how he did. Fascist barbarity is not ignored. Jorden falls in love with a Spanish Woman, Maria, who was rescued from an earlier attack on a train; she had witnessed the inhumane execution of her parents by the Falange and was subsequently humiliated (her hair shaved, raped). No side gets off from what occurred, but we know, and Hemingway knows, who the true culprits are.

Then there is Anselmo, and old man with the band; someone who hates the concept of killing anyone, because he is a Christian and Jorden muses that he is a rare Christian in this Catholic Country, because he has more humanity in him than most, if not all of the Priests in Spain during this period. And of most men. During the war, the Catholic Church, or at least the Spanish alternative of it, were hated by the Reds because they were so tied to the State and upheld their ‘barbarity’, or at least the injustices which had occurred under the old order. Many were shot. Hemingway muses on this point, or at least the protagonist does, trying to justify it as a peculiarly Spanish thing (stemming from the Inquisition etc), rather than anything else.

I think Hemingway was tied more towards the official Republican line than that of the POUM or Anarchists; this is painted very clear in his book. He also questions the role of the official Communist Party, detailing their excess towards deviants (mentioning Trotskyists and so on). But I think what the book tries to portray is the comradeship towards his fellow partisans, each with their own ideals, and what they would do for the cause. Robert Jorden I think knew his end in this book, based on his thoughts throughout and what Pilar speaks to him about (like she also knew his destiny), and so this is where the love angle comes into play with his relationship with Maria. During their brief time together, he states his love to her, and knows she is the woman whom he has fallen the most in love with in all his life. They must have spent all of three days together, and, towards the end of the book, when he falls at the last moment from a tank shell, he tells her that she will always be a part of him, and her him; that they will always be together. This is something that humanity cannot destroy. It is a very sad ending to a very good and deep book. I am sure this will stay with me for sometime.

Two young lovers find each other in the midst of war - and fight an inner battle between duty and happiness. The bell tolls for us all at some point, but do we hear it in time to awake to an authentic life before it is silent? Haunting story that will stay with you long after you finish the book.

For Whom the Bell Tolls melted the Iceberg. My previous attempts at reading Hemingway’s novels had left me cold. It seemed to me that his famous Iceberg Method, which produced short stories that were miniature masterpieces, was an impediment when applied to his novels. The Sun Also Rises told a banal tale populated with characters I hadn’t any desire to spend time with. A Farewell To Arms left me cold, with an emotionally detached protagonists, remote from the horrors of war, whose love affair failed to convey the passion necessary to make me believe. Hemingway’s Iceberg just couldn’t seem to sustain a novel. Then I read For Whom the Bell Tolls.

Hemingway’s method remains intact in For Whom the Bell Tolls. His journalistic realism persists. But the story lives and breaths with passionate intensity. Perhaps it’s his theme of heroism in a doomed cause. Maybe it’s his inclusion of revealing bits of his own psyche. (Robert Jordan, the protagonist, contemplates feeling shame from his father’s suicide.) Or it could just be the inherent excitement of the tale itself — essentially an adventure story about a dangerous mission to blow up a bridge behind enemy lines. Likely it is all of that.

The result was a book that captured me from its opening paragraph to its last sentence. Its characters were alive, compelling, and I was enmeshed within their fates. Jordan’s love affair sparked with true passion, adding poignancy to the doom that constantly hovered, waiting. Hemingway finally allowed his characters to become fully human, and in doing so created a masterpiece.

Can a whole life be lived in just four days? This is the question that haunts Robert Jordan throughout FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS. Leaving behind his respectable life as an American college Spanish-language teacher, he has become an accomplished guerrilla fighter and explosives expert fighting for the anti-fascists in the Spanish Civil War. Can he really find a new "family," fall head over heels in love, and strike a blow that will further the rebel cause and lay his own personal ghosts to rest ... in just four days? Well, he's going to give it one almighty try, because when that fourth day arrives, he is sure there will be no tomorrow.

And so, Robert Jordan, ordered to blow up a bridge to enable the anti-government forces' latest attack, attaches himself to a ragtag band of hardened guerrilla fighters, currently hiding out in a cave in the hills near the bridge. In the cave, he finds a band of unstable, hotheaded misfits, a band of unique and beguiling individuals, a band that is sheltering a frightened "little rabbit." But they are very few, and the task Robert Jordan has brought them is very great. Can he possibly lead them to a glorious, unlikely success, or will he lead them to their doom and his own? The story is haunted by the concept that: "Whether one has fear of it or not, one's death is difficult to accept." This is the scene that Hemingway sets, and being Hemingway, all he does is tell us: These are the people, this is what happened to them, this is what they did, this is what they said. And being Hemingway, that is more than enough.

Hemingway's famously "economical" style can sometimes border on the cold, clinical, and flat, but in this book, he loosens the reins just slightly, with very effective results. The moments of fast-paced action are often very dialogue-driven; in quieter moments, there are little oases of slightly more wordy descriptions of surroundings or feelings; and sensual moments are a tumbling bundle of words and images that hardly even constitute sentences at all, but are intensely moving. Overall, the style of FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS is still characteristically Hemingway - matter-of-fact, pointed, with not a word out of place. The dialogue is still jarringly clipped, but that's what makes it so stirring. There are moments of maddening, excessive repetition, but they are like hammer strokes driving the point home. Once again, Hemingway does everything that should make a story fall flat - but instead, it soars. Don't try this at home, folks. This is something beyond the powers of mere mortals; this is something found only in the realms of genius.

Characterization and character development are particularly strong in FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS. In his usual way, Hemingway introduces us to all the characters of the story in situ, withholding any hint of their histories and making us earn the right to know them better by waiting and dwelling with them for some considerable time first. It seems that we are meant to get to know these characters in the present so as to deserve the privilege of knowing anything about their pasts, and so as to understand that the present is really all that matters. But by the time we have got to know them that well, all we can think about is their futures: Who will survive the dangerous mission before them?

Robert Jordan is the typical Hemingway leading man - mysterious, enigmatic, physically and emotionally strong but not invulnerable. Initially appearing to be made of stone, it is the "little rabbit," Maria, a victim of unspeakable war crimes who has found refuge with the guerrilla band, who steadily chips away at "Roberto's" facade to reveal the human being beneath. And this human being is all too mortal and all too susceptible to the dread of leading his new Spanish "family" to their doom. And the enigma remains: Why is this American fighting in somebody else's war? Meanwhile, the cast of peripheral characters in FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS is as vibrant and varied as the contents of a paella. In the wait for zero hour, these characters are revealed one by one: Anselmo, the gentle-hearted "old man"; Fernando, the pedant; Agustin, the fervent revolutionary; Rafael, the unreliable gypsy. And then there is Pilar, a character who could never be accused of being "peripheral." Mercurial, certainly, but never peripheral: she is surely one of Hemingway's strongest female characters - by turns worldly, zealous, kind, cruel, loyal, bitter, and as tough as old boots. When it comes to the crunch, we are right there with these very real characters as they march with their heads held high and their hearts in their boots into the impossibly dangerous situation devised for them by the powers-that-be, the powers-that-should-damn-well-know-better.

FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS is reminiscent of Hemingway's other war story, A FAREWELL TO ARMS, in the attention it gives to the way in which war turns men into monsters. Pilar's recounting of the first day of the revolution in her own village plus the underlying threat of insurrection within the guerrilla band's own ranks provide chilling evidence of the evil that lurks in the souls of ordinary men and women. In the memorable words of Agustin, "War is a bitchery." Robert and Anselmo, in particular, struggle throughout with the Machiavellian concept of killing for the sake of their higher cause. Is this really all there is to it, or do they take some kind of perverse pleasure in the taking of a life? And can they be honest enough, at least with themselves, to admit it?

These themes of personal guilt and responsibility lead inevitably to contemplation of who the enemy really is. At one point, Robert remarks that one side of a revolution usually garners greater attention than the other. Hemingway makes it abundantly clear, however, that FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS is not going to perpetuate this injustice, and great pains are taken to emphasize that "the enemy" are people, too. From the personal effects of an enemy scout to a peek through the window at the occupants of an enemy guardpost to actual narrative space given to the enemy in a bloody skirmish, the reader is never allowed to forget that both sides of the conflict share a common humanity. When all is said and done, Robert reflects on that part of himself that is the core of all soldiers, no matter who they fight for: "In him, too, was despair from the sorrow that soldiers turn to hatred in order that they may continue to be soldiers."

And when faced with the horrors of war, the minds of soldiers often turn to religion, another central theme of FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS. Robert and his newly Communist comrades are supposed to have renounced religion altogether, and there are many jokes about their now ex-Lord and Savior. Anselmo, however, is quietly wracked with uncertainty over renouncing the beliefs of a lifetime, and in a particularly moving scene, he wishes for the opportunity to undertake some form of religious penance, once the war is over, for the lives he has taken. And when the battle for the bridge is finally waged, both sides turn to prayer as their last resort.

FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS is a magnificent rendition of the hypocrisy, farce, and senselessness of war. This, in itself, makes the book a superb, thought-provoking, soul-searching classic. But it is also arguably Hemingway's greatest love story. Robert and Maria's story is so much more than just a whirlwind romance, it is an exquisitely tender, desperately passionate joining of two lost but beautiful souls. As ridiculous as it may sound, Robert and Maria will make you believe that true love can blossom and burn in the space of just four days. This pair would do anything for each other. They want to live a full life together, but they won't hesitate to die for one another, either. Will they have to?

I do not make this statement lightly: FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS is the most perfectly paced novel I have ever read. In the beginning, the story chugs along sedately, giving you time to meet and greet your fellow passengers and accustom yourself to your surroundings. In the last third of the book, you start to hear the whistle blowing and feel the story picking up speed. In the last fifty or so pages, you're holding on to this runaway train for dear life. By the end, you've gone past the edge of your seat and are kneeling on the floor praying for these characters, and especially these two lovers, to survive. "I wish that I were going to live a long time instead of going to die today because I have learned much about life in these four days; more, I think, than in all the other time." This is Robert Jordan's musing when the battle is finally joined, and it made me realize that I had also learned much about life from the four days, the lifetime, contained in the pages of this unprepossessing, riveting novel. The thing that makes me so passionate about books is that when they're really, really good, they make my eyes sparkle and my heart beat faster. FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS held me mesmerized and took my breath away. It is one of those books I will never forget. It is a masterpiece.

Reviewed in May 2012

The last Hemingway I read was A Moveable Feast and I enjoyed it a lot. It helped that I was staying in Paris when I read it so there was that extra special feeling we get when we walk the very streets an author describes in his stories. I think it suited Hemingway to write stories, and perhaps short novels - I also remember enjoying The Old Man and the Sea and images from that book stayed with me for years.
In spite of those good experiences, I couldn't relate to this book. I had just finished reading Xavier Cercas' Soldiers of Salamis: A Novel when I picked up For Whom the Bell Tolls.
Cercas' book is a mixture of fact and fiction revolving around events and personalities associated with the Spanish civil war so I figured it was a good idea to follow that reading with this book by Hemingway since it concerns some of the same events. Everything recounted by Cercas, even the fictional parts, have an aura of 'truth' about them. You just believe these events happened and that the characters reacted in the way described. Such a 'truth' is not easy task to convey, especially when the author is working with events which took place more then 60 years previously.

Hemingway wrote his novel much closer to the time of the events described yet I couldn't manage to make that leap into believing in the fiction he was presenting. Most of the characters didn't seem credible to me. The main character, Robert Jordan, whom Hemingway continually refers to by his full name in an awkward way, is not so much a character as a monument to male ego tripping. He is big, he is blonde, he is strong, he is an expert in explosives, he is wise, he is always right and he gets the only girl in the place within minutes of meeting her.

Another of the main characters, who is constantly referred to by Hemingway as 'the wife of Pablo' rather than Pablo's wife, is also a larger than life creation, bearing closer resemblance to some sybil of the ancient world than to a Spanish peasant woman of the 1930's. You admire her wisdom but you just can't believe she's real. Most of the characters speak a dialect of Spanish which H tries to render in English using lots of 'thees' and 'thous' and some convoluted constructions similar to 'the wife of Pablo' above. When this is done in dialogue, I can see the point of it as it reinforces the idea that this is all taking place in Spain, in Spanish. When the author also uses such constructions in narrative passages, it just becomes wearisome to read.

The writing is stiff and awkward, as if written under some invisible constraint, and It lacks any kind of emotion. I am tempted to compare it to watching a man walking about in trousers which are too tight around the crotch, there is that kind of jerky limbs and stilted movement.

Perhaps I would have had a different reaction to this book had I read it at an earlier point in my life. Perhaps then I would have ignored these idiosyncrasies and just concentrated on getting to the end to see how the story turned out. These days, I'm less interested in how the story turns out.

Hemingway uses special "literary techniques" in "For whom the Bell Tolls" that rather than enhancing the reading experience detract from it. Please see the list below. The ending is totally soppy. You learn nothing about the Spanish Civil War, and a better explanation for why Robert Jordan decided to fight with the Republicans should have been given. The scenes depicting physical attraction were bland and insipid. Some dislike the macho behavior of Hemingway's characters, but this doesn't bother me. I see it as typical of the times, and Pilar is the best character of this novel. She is a strong, intelligent, no-nonsense woman! What remains undeniably true though is that Hemingway can draw a scene so you see, hear, smell and feel it in your pores. It is interesting to see what goes through a soldier's mind, but there is so much wrong with this book I cannot justify a better rating.

I listened to the audiobook. There is absolutely nothing wrong with Scott Campbell's narration, except that a few bomb blasts fell flat. Even a good narrator cannot save a bad book.

May I suggest A Farewell to Arms instead?!


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Through 1/2 of chapter 10:
I very much enjoy the description of the landscapes and events. I like the strength and clarity of the prose. The dialogs have stopped bothering me. I am in chapter 10 and what happens is truly moving. You feel as the villagers' mood changes from controlled hostility to frenzied anger to drunken brutality. There is a massacre in the town.

Through Hemingway's usage of the words thee and thou, I understand now that he is simply giving the reader more information about the relationship between the individuals speaking. It doesn't disturb me in the slightest any more. In fact I like it! It serves a purpose.
(Please note that by the end of the book I was totally fed up with this.)

I am in fact totally enjoying the book now. I have come to care for some of the characters, Pilar in particular. There is emotion in the book. There is the theme of what makes a person fight in a war. Motivation is not the same for all, and thus one person's behavior will be very different from another's.

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Through chapter 7:
This is what is bugging me:
1. The dialogs are NOT in the least believable. None of them.
2. Swear words are replaced with "unprintable word" or "obscenity". This is ridiculous and disrupts the prose! "F*/k you" will be written, "obscenity you", for example. Crazy!
3. In the 30s people did not speak with the terms "thy", "thee", "thou art". This is driving me nuts. WHY has Hemingway done this?
(Answer: Kim explained this to me. It is to show the relationship between the people speaking. Please see comments 21-22 below!)
4. Robert Jordan is holier than "thou" (:0)), and it drives me crazy. SUCH a perfect soldier with SUCH motivation, and he is SO devoted to his job.
5. To top it all off the love between Maria and Robert Jordan jumps out of nowhere. The same day they meet they are in bed, no, actually a sleeping bag, and then she says in one of those above mentioned dialogs that she doesn't know how to kiss. Jeez! (OK, if one is a little patient an explanation is given.)
6. And what is this with calling Robert Jordan Robert Jordan?. Everyone else goes by one name, usually a nickname!

I will persevere. Why? Well because I DO enjoy Hemingway's depictions of places and events. They become moving and laden with feeling. You feel the immensity of those airplanes lined up in rows. You hear the gurgling stream. There is something that draws me to Hemingway's writing; it is just the dialogs that irritate me.

I LIKED A Farewell to Arms. I hope this turns around for me.

(Review Provisória == 3,5 estrelas)
Um obra sólida de grande qualidade, com um estilo de escrita único e diferente do que estou habituada. Este foi sem dúvida um bom livro com uma boa história, que me proporcionou boas horas de leitura.
O tema em si não me puxou muito, mas foi muito interssante esta "viagem" a Espanha, nestes tempos da Guerra Civil Espanhola.
A caracterização de um povo e da sua luta foi na minha opinião muito bem conseguida, tendo sido o lado humano dos personagens o aspecto que mais me marcou.

Suffice it to say, I am not a Hemingway fan.

My 2nd read of Hemingway's and I thought it was brilliant. A timeless, authentic and poetic read about the Spanish Civil War that has heart and flair. His prose is so smooth, his dialogue is individual and real, his themes are as powerful today as they would have been in the 1930s. Mesmerising.

I wouldn't have picked up this book on my own,but someone made it prescribed reading for a university course. Damn !

I rather liked Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms and although I'm not too fond of The Sun Also Rises,I didn't dislike it as much as this one.

Hemingway's prose is even worse than usual and neither the setting,the Spanish Civil War,nor the story, blowing up a bridge,worked for me.

It was also a 1940s film,and even the presence of two of my favourite actors,Gary Cooper and Ingrid Bergman didn't save it for me.There are so many,so much better war films to watch than this one.

Hemigway bored me yet again,this time to an even greater extent.Not that it's a short book,it's over 400 pages.

My favorite Hemingway.