HEMINGWAY, Ernest

[335] pp.

Jonathan Cape

1946

7 1/8″ x 5″

A Farewell to Arms is a novel by American writer Ernest Hemingway, set during the Italian campaign of World War I. First published in 1929, it is a first-person account of an American, Frederic Henry, serving as a lieutenant (Italian: tenente) in the ambulance corps of the Italian Army. The novel describes a love affair between the American expatriate and an English nurse, Catherine Barkley.

Its publication ensured Hemingway’s place as a modern American writer of considerable stature. The book became his first best-seller and has been called “the premier American war novel from […] World War I”. The title might be taken from a 16thcentury poem of the same name by the English dramatist George Peele.