For Whom The Bell Tolls
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Product Description
FOR USE IN SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES ONLY. An American learns the right value of life while fighting with a guerilla band during the Spanish Civil War.Amazon.com Review
For Whom the Bell Tolls starts and ends in a pine-scented forest, somewhere in Spain. The year is 1937 and the Spanish Civil War is in full swing. Robert Jordan, a demolitions practiced attached to the International Brigades, lies “flat on the brown, pine-needled floor of the forest, his chin on his folded arms, and high overhead the wind blew in the tops of the pine trees.” The sylvan setting, but, is at sharp odds with the reason Jordan is there: he has come to blow up a bridge on behalf of the antifascist guerrilla forces. He hopes he’ll be able to rely on their local leader, Pablo, to help carry out the mission, but upon meeting him, Jordan has his doubts: “I don’t like that sadness, he thought. That sadness is terrible. That’s the sadness they get before they quit or before they betray. That is the sadness that comes before the sell-out.” For Pablo, it seems, has had enough of the war. He has amassed for himself a tiny herd of horses and wants only to stay quietly in the hills and attract as small attention as possible. Jordan’s arrival–and his mission–have seriously alarmed him.
“I am tired of being hunted. Here we are all right. Now if you blow a bridge here, we will be hunted. If they know we are here and hunt for us with planes, they will find us. If they send Moors to hunt us out, they will find us and we must go. I am tired of all this. You hear?” He turned to Robert Jordan. “What right have you, a foreigner, to come to me and tell me what I must do?”
In one fleeting chapter Hemingway lays out the blueprint for what is to come: Jordan’s sense of duty versus Pablo’s treacherous self-interest and tiredness with the war. Complicating matters even more are two members of the guerrilla leader’s tiny band: his “woman” Pilar, and Maria, a young woman whom Pablo rescued from a Republican prison train. Unlike her man, Pilar is still fiercely devoted to the cause and as Pablo’s loyalty wanes, she becomes the moral center of the group. Soon Jordan finds himself caught between the two, even as his own resolve is tested by his growing feelings for Maria.
For Whom the Bell Tolls combines two of the leader’s recurring obsessions: war and personal honor. The pivotal battle scene involving El Sordo’s last stand is a showcase for Hemingway’s narrative powers, but the quieter, ongoing conflict within Robert Jordan as he struggles to fulfill his mission perhaps at the cost of his own life is a tribute to his creator’s psychological acuity. By turns brutal and compassionate, it is arguably Hemingway’s most mature work and one of the best war novels of the 20th century. –Alix Wilber
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Hemingway will be remembered as the Lord Byron of the 20th century; vastly overrated, woefully untalented.
Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5
I normally don’t place a book down lacking finishing it, especially one in the genre of classic American literature. But, Hemingway’s English translations were so irritating, trite, and immature that I could not get past them. The use of “thy” and “thou” to indicate the ud. form is ridiculous in 20th century English. Quoting the characters as asking, “How do you call yourself?” as a replacement for of “What is your name?” is downright silly. If Hemingway really wanted to convey what the characters were adage factually, he should have simply quoted them in Spanish and provided a translation in parentheses or in an pointer. Regardless, who needs a literal translation? How is “How do you call yourself” better than “What is your name”? And is it really vital to know who uses ud. to whom when this form doesn’t even exist in modern English? I establish these “translations” so distracting from what was going on that I couldn’t continue past chapter 2. I get the impression that the hundreds of reviewers who have raved about this book over the past 65 years don’t speak Spanish.
Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5
Dated nonsense. Hemingway is such an uninteresting writer. It is so dull and dull.
Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5
Hemingway was a grreat promoter of himself. A lot of bull. This book is a rambling piece of blige. Hemingwasy was a excellent writer, but not all (and I should say most of) his books are dull as ditch water. This is a perfect example of dull writing. His “personal property” was bull fighting and the Spanish Civil war…give me a break. If this thing tells you anything about the civil war you are too dumb to be counted. Hemingway is ok, but come on, hardly the “Fantastic Writer of the 20th century” that he wants us to judge. Talk about fantastic publicity, this guy had it in spades. The bells just don’t toll. But what can you expect from a name who commits suicide. A coward. Skip this one.
Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5
Simply place, this book, and Hemmingway in all-purpose, is overrated. There is nothing unexpected in the prose nor storyline, just a predictable page-turner or “best seller” — and that is *not* a compliment! Missing in any real insight and imagination, Hemmingway is more like a modern-day Stephen King or Amy Tan or any additional writer who sells their soul for the sake of popularity.
Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5