nicanical
Another war novel by Ernest Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls is set during the Spanish Civil War, and shortly before the Second World War. The story follows American demolitions expert Robert Jordan, a volunteer with the anti-fascist Republicans. Robert goes behind enemy lines to destroy a bridge in support of a forthcoming offensive.
The story has good pacing that is sometimes disrupted by drawn out introspection with characters' thoughts written in stream of consciousness. Robert has these, and Anselmo, and Pablo. These moments slow down the book and I was not fond of them.
I love how the story starts with levity, as if the jokes and nervous laughter were forming a bulwark against the coming struggle. Like A Farewell to Arms, Hemingway squeezes in a star-crossed love into the story. The love does not become the whole story here though. It is merely a thing to thwart Robert's single-minded fatalism.
The dialogue style is different. Hemingway translates Spanish into English literally, preserving word order even where the resulting English is stiff or unnatural. Archaisms are used, e.g., 'Hast thou seen what thou needest?' Occasionally, actual Spanish is used too. The style didn't bother me. It adds to the atmosphere of being embedded with guerrillas in the hills, but it is a divisive feature.
Another war novel by Ernest Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls is set during the Spanish Civil War, and shortly before the Second World War. The story follows American demolitions expert Robert Jordan, a volunteer with the anti-fascist Republicans. Robert goes behind enemy lines to destroy a bridge in support of a forthcoming offensive.
The story has good pacing that is sometimes disrupted by drawn out introspection with characters' thoughts written in stream of consciousness. Robert has these, and Anselmo, and Pablo. These moments slow down the book and I was not fond of them.
I love how the story starts with levity, as if the jokes and nervous laughter were forming a bulwark against the coming struggle. Like A Farewell to Arms, Hemingway squeezes in a star-crossed love into the story. The love does not become the whole story here though. It is merely a thing to thwart Robert's single-minded fatalism.
The dialogue style is different. Hemingway translates Spanish into English literally, preserving word order even where the resulting English is stiff or unnatural. Archaisms are used, e.g., 'Hast thou seen what thou needest?' Occasionally, actual Spanish is used too. The style didn't bother me. It adds to the atmosphere of being embedded with guerrillas in the hills, but it is a divisive feature.