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Critical Insights: A Farewell to Arms
Ernest Hemingway’s 1929 novel A Farewell to Arms has been praised as “one of Hemingway’s best literary works.” His first-person wartime narrative follows incidents in the life of American lieutenant Frederick Henry, an ambulance corpsman in the Italian army. The story develops as Henry engages in a turbulent love affair with nurse Catherine Barkley. The gritty five-part novel was alternatingly deemed “pornographic,” “offensive,” and “brilliant,” and was subjected to censorship and banning, all while being hailed as “the premier American war novel of World War I.” The novel’s exploration of love, loss, and resilience has profoundly influenced literature and culture from its initial publication into the present day.
Edited by Laura Nicosia and James F. Nicosia, this collection of essays engages in scholarly conversations about Hemingway’s novel—its reception, lineage, and legacy. This volume takes a close look at the work, examining the cultural shifts that took place following the first World War. Significant themes that appear in Hemingway’s work such as existential uncertainty, disillusionment, and the fragility of human relationships are explored in depth within various historical, political, and social contexts.
The four Critical Context essays featured in this volume include:
- Historical Context of Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms: World War I in Fiction and Nonfiction
- A Timeless Farewell: How A Farewell to Arms Captivated Italian Culture
- “There isn’t any me. I’m you”: Fredric’s Cognition and Use of “Narrative You” in A Farewell to Arms
- “I was born for dying!” A Farewell to Arms and the Music of Metallica, Slayer, and Megadeth
Following these four Critical Context essays is the Critical Readings section of this book, which contains the following essays:
- A Farewell to Arms: A Different Perspective on War
- “The art of losing”: Humiliation and Humility in A Farewell to Arms
- “The dreamy poem of (a) woman’s body on the battlefield”: Reading Books IV and V of A Farewell to Arms as Frederic Henry’s Dream
- The Language of Love in A Farewell to Arms
- Alternative Endings: Hemingway and the Complications of Concluding A Farewell to Arms
- “You always feel trapped”: Measures of Masculinity, Morality, and Martial Spirit in A Farewell to Arms
- Reimagining Heroism in A Farewell to Arms through a Posthumanist Lens
- Expecting War’s End: Shape-Shifting Escapism and Narratological Foreshadowing in A Farewell to Arms
- Walking Back to the Hotel in the Rain: Where A Farewell to Arms Ends and the Black Masculinities of Richard Wright’s Native Son and James Baldwin’s Another Country Begin
Each essay in Critical Insights: A Farewell to Arms includes a list of Works Cited and detailed endnotes. In the final section, Resources, easy-to-follow lists are provided to help guide the reader through important dates and moments in the author’s life, beginning with a Chronology of Ernest Hemingway’s Life. This is followed by a list of Works by Ernest Hemingway and a Bibliography. Finally, this section closes with an About the Editor section, Contributors, and a detailed Index.
The Critical Insights Series distills the best of both classic and current literary criticism of the world’s most studied literature. Edited and written by some of academia’s most distinguished literary scholars, Critical Insights: A Farewell to Arms provides authoritative, provides authoritative, in-depth insights that will be valuable students, researchers, and anyone who is interested in learning more about the themes in this novel. This volume is destined to become a valuable purchase for all.
