A Farewell to Arms

Summary

This new audiobook edition of Hemingway's classic is narrated by Audie Award nominee and AudioFile Golden Voice Kevin R. Free.

It is a moving and beautiful book. —Percy Hutchison in the The New York Times Book Review, 1929

Hemingway’s rhythmic, stripped-down, often-mimicked style lulls readers into a sort of trance that allows his final line to explode like a tossed grenade, devastating in its simplicity. —Valerie Trapp in The Atlantic, in their list of The Great American Novels

Frederic Henry is an American lieutenant of an ambulance corps serving in the Italian front of World War I. During his service he meets Catherine Barkley, an English nurse who goes on to work closely with him.

As the relationship between Frederic and Catherine develops, the novel follows the effects the war has on them and those around them. But the war is not the centerpiece of the book; rather, it serves more as a background and plot device for the growth of the characters’ interpersonal relationships.

A Farewell to Arms went on to become his first bestseller, with contemporary critics calling it “the premier American war novel from World War I.” It cemented his reputation as a powerful voice of the Lost Generation, and modern critics consider it among his best works.