Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms: A Critical Study

Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms : A Critical Study is not just another book on the novel. It is a distinguished study, which offers a perceptive interpretation of the novel as well as a convincing evaluation of its literary merit. Departing from the traditional reading of the novel, Prof. Dahiya shows how Hemingway’s novel in not just a love story or just a war narrative but is a Chronicle of its times as well as a work of art embodying values far above the confines of history and the limits of fiction. Specifically written for undergraduate and post-graduate students of literature, acquainting them with the author and his age, the book and its compositions, the title and theme, the plot and patterning, the characterization and characters, the technique and style, the study covers the various dimensions of the rich and complex work of Hemingway. Beside exposing the limitations of the clich?d approaches to Hemingway’s work, the study shows how the writer was not only committed to the Renaissance humanism and the 19th century liberalism but was also dedicated to the values of art and literature. Adopting the middle path, between the laboured scholarly writing and the relaxed popular writing, the author has combined in this study the best qualities of both, namely, the correctness of scholarly work and the readability of the popular style. The book, to say the least, offers a fresh look on one of the best novels of a very great American writer.