A Farewell to Arms - (Hemingway Library Edition) by Ernest Hemingway

About the Book

Ernest Hemingway famously said that he rewrote the ending to "A Farewell to Arms" 39 times to get the words right. This edition collects all the alternate endings together for the first time, offering new insight into the evolution of one of the greatest novels of the 20th century.

Book Synopsis

The definitive edition of the classic novel of love during wartime, featuring all of the alternate endings: "Fascinating...serves as an artifact of a bygone craft, with handwritten notes and long passages crossed out, giving readers a sense of an author's process" (The New York Times).

Written when Ernest Hemingway was thirty years old and lauded as the best American novel to emerge from World War I, A Farewell to Arms is the unforgettable story of an American ambulance driver on the Italian front and his passion for a beautiful English nurse. Set against the looming horrors of the battlefield--weary, demoralized men marching in the rain during the German attack on Caporetto; the profound struggle between loyalty and desertion--this gripping, semiautobiographical work captures the harsh realities of war and the pain of lovers caught in its inexorable sweep.

Ernest Hemingway famously said that he rewrote the ending to A Farewell to Arms thirty-nine times to get the words right. This edition collects all of the alternative endings together for the first time, along with early drafts of other essential passages, offering new insight into Hemingway's craft and creative process and the evolution of one of the greatest novels of the twentieth century. Featuring Hemingway's own 1948 introduction to an illustrated reissue of the novel, a personal foreword by the author's son Patrick Hemingway, and a new introduction by the author's grandson Seán Hemingway, this edition of A Farewell to Arms is truly a celebration.

Review Quotes

"A Farewell to Arms is a gem....To see Hemingway go from bold pronouncements and overwriting to his signature stripped-down style isn't just instructive, it's practically intrusive (but fun!)"-- "NPR.org"

"A Farewell to Arms" stands, more than 80 years after its first appearance, as a towering ornament of American literature."-- "The Washington Times"

"Fascinating...serves as an artifact of a bygone craft, with handwritten notes and long passages crossed out, giving readers a sense of an author's process."-- "The New York Times"

"This special edition of [Hemingway's] classic World War I novel, first published in 1929, contains several features that illuminate how Hemingway constructed his timeless tale of love and war."-- "Minneapolis Star-Tribune"

About the Author

Ernest Hemingway did more to influence the style of English prose than any other writer of his time. He has been called "the most important author since Shakespeare," by John O'Hara in The New York Times Book Review. The publication of The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms immediately established him as one of the greatest literary lights of the 20th century. His classic novella The Old Man and the Sea won the Pulitzer Prize in 1953. Hemingway was also awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954. His life and accomplishments are explored in-depth in the PBS documentary film from Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, Hemingway. He died in 1961.