A Farewell to Arms

By: Ernest Hemingway

Narrated by: John Slattery

Length: 8 hrs and 32 mins

Publisher's summary

The best American novel to emerge from World War I, A Farewell to Arms is the unforgettable story of an American ambulance driver on the Italian front and his passion for a beautiful English nurse.

Hemingway's frank portrayal of the love between Lieutenant Henry and Catherine Barkley, caught in the inexorable sweep of war, glows with an intensity unrivaled in modern literature, while his description of the German attack on Caporetto, of lines of fired men marching in the rain, hungry, weary, and demoralized, is one of the greatest moments in literary history.

A story of love and pain, of loyalty and desertion, A Farewell to Arms, written when he was 30 years old, represents a new romanticism for Hemingway.

©1929 Charles Scribner's Sons. Copyright renewed 1957 Ernest Hemingway (P)2006 Simon & Schuster Inc. AUDIOWORKS is an imprint of Simon & Schuster Audio Division, Simon & Schuster, Inc.

Great performance, awkward omissions.

Weird how they choose to omit some the words. Literature seems like an odd thing to censor. Other than that great piece by one of the greats.

One of the truest masterpieces.

A Beautiful story. John Slattery did an amazing job bringing it to life. Cannot recommend enough.

A Classic

if you like first person stories and experiences, this is a pretty good one. it's set in world war I and you get a bit of a glimpse of an American serving in the Italian army and a woman that he meets. I feel like the message in this story is how we can sometimes escape things in our lives, but we can really never escape fate.

Audiobook experience at the highest level

This always remarkable book comes alive with this reading. I love audio books for their convenience and I get through many more books in audio format than I do with physical books. Comparing what I get from sitting in a chair reading to listening to a book generally is a toss up for me often with reading the book getting a slight edge. But once in a while the audio format far exceeds the page turning experience. This book is a perfect example of how well audio books can be done.

Should be read the way it was written

Didn't like the fact the language was changed to remove any swear words. It should be read the way the author wrote it. Otherwise it would have received 5 stars. Next Hemingway audio book I purchase will be from another publisher.

A wonderful book

Hemingway's storytelling is iconic. I can't stop listening. The narration was perfect and I feel like I will miss this book for a long time.

My Awkward Review

A Farewell to Arms, written by Ernest Hemingway, and narrated by, John Slattery. I always find myself perplexed when reading (and re-reading) an Ernest Hemingway work. He horizontally dissects some tissue sample out of our vertically integrated society and puts it into a petri dish and allows the tissue to morph as he slowly adds corruptive bacteria or other foreign elements and allows us to watch as those extraneous ingredients decay away at the separated tissue. This, system of writing, is a cocktail that provides Hemingway a magnificent pallet from which he is to paint us a picture of who we are and at the same time ask us: do you like what you see. He is magnificently good at being an author.

One more point about Hemingway. He does it with the simplest of scenes, sentences, and language. Yet, reading a Hemingway novel dazzles one with his brilliant manipulation of English. How can he be so simplistic and yet so profound?

So where is my dilemma? I am always bored beyond belief in working my way through his stories, notwithstanding their ethical teaching, his masterly ability with English, and really intriguing circumstances in which he sets his tales. His stories always seem to move along so slowly. That is, I am bored, until his stories reach their end, and then I am awed with what he has done with me and my understanding. He shatters my ethics and replaces them with a depressing realism about our societies. My recommendation is that Hemingway is not a titillating read, but a necessary one if you want to discover our societal fragilities.

There is one more point to list here, and it is a personal experience in reading a Farewell to Arms. I first read the book at about 14 years old. I went away believing I just read the greatest love story of all time. It set my standard for life; and from then on, when I was fortunate enough to find someone, who thought she might spend some time with me in friendship, I compared her to my memory of Cat, our heroine. AFTA wasn’t a model love story. With this read, at least for the first part of the book, I realized I was reading about two very dysfunctional people. OMG. Could there really be such a distinction in understanding between adolescence and maturity? I did not think so before my reread of A Farewell to Arms. Then the end of the book came, and I once again, found the true meaning of love.

This book comes in parts (I break it down to four parts, the book has five books within though). We find our hero, Frederic, an American, fighting with the Italians in WWI, as an ambulance driver. He becomes wounded in battle. Then we are with him as he and Cat, a nurse, find each other and come together. The third part, is the retreat of the Italian army, and its horrors. The last part is about Fred and Cat; but I say no more. The first three parts give meaning to one man one woman in the final part, the love story that comes into full fruition in the final section of the book. A Farwell to Arms; may be the most perfectly titled novel ever. Double entendre.

There is a laboriousness in reading Hemingway. I hope, though, that my expression of such does not make you hesitate to read this or for that matter any other Hemingway. At least one or two. It is an experience in visiting with literary genius, notwithstanding the dullness with which he conducts communications between his characters.

As to John Slattery’s reading. Brilliant!

Amazing Narration

An amazing narration of an amazing book. John Slattery did a wonderful job of executing Hemingway’s straightforward prose with emotion and character.

- But not a farewell to Ernest Hemingway

True love lasts a lifetime, or so they say. This story is about true love, and not only does the true love in the story last a lifetime, but the story itself is almost a hundred years old, and it still lasts. Not only a lovestory - there is much more to it, but also a love story, with all the bells and whistles, and second to none, not even "Bonnie and Clyde" or "The accidental tourist"

The story is so intense in its writing, that you cannot help falling into the hole in the paper, ever time you come back from where you left off - or rather, you would, had this not been an audiobook. But be grateful that it IS an audiobook, because the narration is superb too.

I came across A farewell to arms by chance - or by narrator. John Slattery narrated my favorite audiobook of all times, Duma Key, by Stephen King, and here I simply fell in love with the voice of Mr. Slattery. So when I came to audible.com I checked him out, and saw that he had read other stories too. I picked up A farewell to arms as my first audiobook here, and I just never looked back.

The Farewell to this story left me hollow, Hemingway knows how to use the language, and he can carry a tune, wordwise, and bring it to a full scale opera. A wonderful story. One of which I didnt see the end coming until it did, and I still mourn that it's over. Luckily I can, and will, return to Mr. Hemingway - and Mr. Slattery, in other stories.

Man or woman - grab this one, you'll fall in love, I'm sure of it. I did!

Heartbreaking

The vocal performance by John Slattery was the best I've heard, and well suited to the material. I'd wanted to read this for some time and put it off, because war. I only decided to buy it because it was an opportunity to have Roger Sterling read me a bedtime story. I quickly got hooked and even listened during workouts. So much goes unsaid in this heartbreaking work, which made the emotional ending hit me like a freight train in the night.