13/04/2022 by Maria Soledad Aguila Luque
Web Maria Soledad Aguila Luque
Born in 1899, Ernest Hemingway was only just old enough to take part in the First World War. Turned down by the Unites States army due to poor eyesight, he made his way to Europe and became an ambulance driver in the Italy army.
While still a teenager, his experiences of battle and of being wounded and falling in love with a Red Cross nurse provided a rough framework for the character of Lieutenant Frederic Henry in his novel A Farewell to Arms.
Though the fighting had been over for a decade, it was only in the late 1920s that the first wave of important First World War memoirs in the English Language began to appear.
A Farewell to Arms shares this understanding of conflict. Written in the first person, the novel´s protagonist Lieutenant Frederic Henry is an American paramedic that, as the author himself did, is serving in the Italian army.
Henry´s time at the front comprisess only half of the book.
His other great adventure comes when he falls in love with Catherine Barkley, a nurse in the battle field.
