For Whom the Bell Tolls

Ernest Hemingway flew to Spain in 1937 for the North American Newspaper Alliance to chronicle the civil war there. Three years later he finished For Whom the Bell Tolls the best novel to come from the good struggle.It relates the narrative of Robert Jordan a young American in the International Brigades attached to an antifascist guerilla force in the Spanish highlands of devotion and courage love and defeat and the tragic end of an ideal. Hemingway surpasses his achievement in The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms by creating a work that is at once rare and beautiful strong and brutal compassionate moving and wise. In his portrayal of Jordans love for the beautiful Maria and his superb account of El Sordos last stand in his brilliant travesty of La Pasionaria and his unwillingness to believe in blind faith Hemingway surpasses his achievement in The Sun Also Rises andIf the function of a writer is to reveal reality Maxwell Perkins wrote Hemingway after reading the manuscript. It is one of the best war novels of all time being more powerful bigger in scope and emotionally intense than any of the authors earlier writings.