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Published at the end of the Roaring Twenties, A Farewell to Arms follows American Frederic Henry, who is serving as an ambulance driver with the Italian army during World War I. When Frederic is wounded by a mortar shell, he is sent to a hospital in Milan, where he is nursed back to health by Catherine Barkley, an English woman also serving the war effort through the Red Cross. Their relationship grows over the summer, though as she is still grieving the death of her fiancé, Catherine repeatedly questions Frederic’s sincerity. When empty liquor bottles are found in Frederic’s room, he is accused of keeping himself ill to avoid returning to the front and is sent back immediately. Back at the front, Austrian soldiers break through Italian defenses, which leads to a chaotic retreat. All that keeps him going is the promise to return to Catherine, who he has learned is pregnant, and escape the devastation of war.Typical of Hemingway’s straightforward style, the novel uses blunt language to convey the essence of his characters, the war-torn setting, and the damaging impact of war on the people who fight them.
