The action of A Farewell to Arms takes place from 1916-18 in four locations, for the most part: 1) the Julian Alps, along what was then the border between Italy and the Austro-Hungarian Empire 2) the city of Milan, which lies in the plains of northern Italy, far from the front 3) the Italian resort town of Stresa on Lake Maggiore, which straddles the border between Italy and Switzerland and 4) various towns and villages of the Swiss Alps.Īt the start of the book, the Italian army is busy keeping the Austro-Hungarian forces occupied so that the latter cannot assist the Germans on the war's western and eastern fronts. The war pitted the Central Powers (Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire) against the allied forces of Great Britain, France, Russia, and Italy, who were joined in 1917 by the United States.

World War I, or the Great War as it was then known, began in August 1914 with the assassination of the Austrian Archduke Francis Ferdinand. The continuing popularity of A Farewell to Arms attests to the fact that enjoyment of the novel does not depend upon understanding its particular setting. (The book was published in 1929, only eleven years after the armistice of November 11, 1918, that ended the war.) For a contemporary audience, however, making sense of these references can be difficult. In fact, certain basic information isn't alluded to in the book at all, as it was once common knowledge. Thus it contains numerous references to people and places, governments and fronts that Hemingway could safely assume his audience would recognize. The power of this perennially popular book comes from the intensity of Frederic and Catherine's love for one another and from the power of the antagonistic forces that ultimately tear these two apart.Ī Farewell to Arms is set against the historical and geographical background of World War I. There are no subplots, and the minor characters in A Farewell to Arms are minor indeed - for the simple fact that they are not needed. (For that matter, we read chapter after chapter before even learning his name.) Nor do we discover much about his lover Catherine Barkley's past, other than the fact that her fiancé was killed in battle, in France. We never learn exactly where its narrator and protagonist, the American ambulance driver Frederic Henry, came from, or why he enlisted in the Italian army to begin with. In fact, the novel contains very little exposition at all. Ernest Hemingway conveyed this story chronologically, in a strictly linear fashion, with no flashback scenes whatsoever. Rather, it is a simple story well told, the plot of which could be summarized as follows: boy meets girl, boy gets girl, boy loses girl.

Weather Symbolism in A Farewell to ArmsĪ Farewell to Arms is not a complicated book.

Hemingway a farewell to arms