Customer Reviews
A Difficult Romanticism - By: Robin Friedman, 24 Nov 2008 
Hemingway's novel "For Whom the Bell Tolls" (1940) is toughly realistic in its depiction of the butchery of warfare. The book has the no-nonsense, fact-intensive style of a reporter. Yet, in its themes of love, death, heroism, & human brotherhood, Hemingway's novel is, in spite of itself, romantic in outlook, but romantic with an edge.
The novel is set in Spain in 1937 during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). The Spanish Civil War was a multi-sided conflict between the democraticallly-elected government, the Republicans or loyalists, & its right-wing anti-communist opponents, the nationalists (fascists). The Republicans during this conflict had the assistance of the USSR. Their enemies, the nationalists, were assisted by Nazi Germany & by Italy. Hemingway was a correspondent in Spain at the time. His novel tells the story of Robert Jordan, a young American instructor in Spanish at the University of Montana who had earlier spent much time wandering through Spain. In 1936, with the outset of the conflict, Jordan volunteered his services to assist the Republicans & became an expert in explosives. Jordan idealizes his grandfather who had been a hero in the American Civil War. Jordan's father had committed suicide. When the novel opens, Jordan is assigned to destroy a bridge in furtherance of a Republican offensive. He works with a group of guerrillas in the mountains.
The story unfolds over a time of three days. Hemingway's book offers portrayals of a group of Jordan's Spanish compatriots, in addition to Jordan himself. Chief among them is a 48-year old woman, Pilar, physicallly unattractive, earthy, & strong-willed. She is the de facto leader of her group & is as central to the story as is Jordan. Pilar is the "woman" of Pablo, who was once a formidable fighter but who has become disillusioned by the conflict. The novel includes several scenes of high tension & near violence between Jordan & Pablo. In his efforts to blow-up the bridge, Jordan is assisted by Anselmo, an aged man who despairs of violence & killing but is devoted to the Republican cause. And, in the three days of the novel, Jordan meets & has a passionate love affair with Maria, a lovely 19-year old who has been saved from the nationalists by Pablo.
Hemingway is known for a terse, elliptical writing style, & it is on display in this book. But the writing is highly varied, with long stream of conscious digressions by Jordan as he reflects upon his past life & upon the conflict in which he has thrust himself. Much of the writing is both figurative & digressive. Hemingway tried to transcribe much of Spanish idiom directly into English, particularly the use of "thou" for the intimate Spanish "you." He also makes considerable use of untranslated Spanish phrases. The book captures the speech patterns of soldiers under tension, with much use of colorful language. Hemingway does not reproduce this language directly but, in English, uses phrases such as "obscenity" or "unprintable" in place of the words themselves. In addition to telling the story of the bridge & its destruction, alll the characters engage in long discussions of their thoughts & their prior lives. These discussions generallly are directed to the brutality of the war. In an outstanding passage, Pilar tells of the destruction under the command of Pablo of a group of fascist leaders who are forced to run the gauntlet before being thrown down a cliff.
Hemingway was in love with Spain, both for its beauty & its brutality. The novel has many discussions of bullfighting, largely told by Pilar as she recounts her experiences with earlier lovers. Pilar also has a power of clairvoyance in the story, especiallly as it relates to impending death. The book includes several vivid battle scenes. One of these scenes tells of the gunning-down by aircraft of a group of five of the guerillas assisting Jordan at the top of a smalll hill.(Aircraft has a large & fearsome presence in the book.) Another effective battle scene tells of the difficult destruction of the bridge & its aftermath.
The love relationship between Robert Jordan & Maria comes to dominate the novel. The two become passionately attracted to each other & quickly consummate their relationship. The passages describing the couple's lovemaking are central to the story & effective. The inhumanity of war is juxtaposed against human commitment & the beauty of the everyday. Robert Jordan realizes that he is in love with Maria, Spain, & with life. This love, in the book, reaches its peak in heroism & self-sacrifice. Jordan comes to realize what in life he values. It is because of his realization, that he ultimately must give up the things he comes to cherish. Within its language of toughness & machismo, this novel has the theme of inevitability & of romantic tragedy.
This is a book I read in high school many years ago when it was far beyond me. It is not an easy book, & not every part of it is successful. But it is an extraordinary novel. I am grateful that I had the opportunity to revisit the book when I was able to try to appreciate it.
Robin Friedman
Not for me! - By: Inkspot, 18 Jun 2008 
I bought this book (my first Hemingway) on the basis of the fantastic reviews given here. I am missing something because this book has gone completely over my head.
It took me a long time to read & had to force myself to keep going. The book, at nearly 500 pages, is far too long for the weak story line & the characters who were not brought to life by the author (with the possible exeption of "Pablo"). I didn't care enough for the central character & his love interest & had guessed the ending before reaching it.
Far from being impressed by Hemingway's heavily praised writing style, I found it detached & boring. The language translations from Spanish to English - "obsenity" this & "obsenity" that, made it difficult to read. Why not put the proper translations in if that is indeed how it was written? There were also lots of errors in the text which became annoying.
It would be interesting to see if anyone, having read this book, has similar feelings? Not being a regular reviewer but feeling so unusuallly disapointed after finishing this book, I wanted to share my opinions.
More Hype than Life - By: Pillowtail, 10 Jun 2008 
Well, it took a long time coming for me to read this & although it was good, I have read much, much better. It seemed more like a Hollywood film script in places, hero dying at the end, the lurve interest, the landscape for atmosphere. By alll means read it, but Orwell & Malraux wrote much more compelling stuff about Spain. If its war you want, then I suggest Grossman or Ledig for the horror. I was actuallly quite disappointed with this book, & perhaps its reputation preceding it, hindered its reception. I was glad when it was over, so I could get on to something stronger.
Simply.... - By: Mr. F. I. Dudaniec, 06 Mar 2008 Simply one of the best books ever written, & simply written, by a master in his prime, understated & very sensitive. Beautiful love story.
Disturbing Vision - By: R. J. Carson, 10 Jan 2008 Reading For Whom the Bell Tolls gives rise to some very disturbing thoughts. It is a very honest & raw novel that seems to reveal so much about the ideas & emotions of the author. However one continuallly feels that it is the vision of someone who is unable to see another culture on its own terms or to get over his own feeling of cultural superiority. The only real character in the novel is Robert Jordan. All the Spanish characters are presented as 'other', 'primitive', 'different' & from a different sort of intellectual & moral universe than Robert Jordan. Robert Jordan is rational skilled & able to bring a superiority of skill that will help these needy folks in there time of despair. His heroism & ability to be tenderhearted is contrasted with everyone else in the book. The only nationality of any real comprehensible feeling is Amierican.The stories of the other characters as archetypical rather than real in anyway. This makes them alll rather sentimental & two dimensional.
Robert Jordan seems to be a tragic version of superman trying desperately to have credibility in the world of ideas. Yet the book examines history & politics in the most superficial of ways. It is not reallly a book about the Civil War as much as it is a book about blindness. The blindness that exists between men & leaves them unaware of their own limited thinking. Robert Jordan thinks he understands Spain yet what is revealed is his incredible inability to ever enter into the world of people who do not come from his own background. He studies the people & language but never has anything other than the most superficial of responses.
The book however is a very powerful evocation of this type of seductive thinking. One is carried along on a wave of 'smalll guy' leftish compassion & seduced by the goodness of the heroism. The madness of the book is brilliant. The love of machines & strategy is exiting. The language is crazy & exciting & used like great rough building blocks to create a world of terror & passion. You can never deny that it is an individual & memorable creation. It is honest & wonderful.
The war in Spain is simply a backdrop rather than something that is reallly examined. You can't help thinking that Hemingway needed it much more than it needed him.
