Publisher’s Description

A line-by-line analysis of one of Hemingway’s greatest novels

“Alex Vernon has written the indispensable companion to For Whom the Bell Tolls. Beautifully researched, this volume elucidates the historical forces, figures, places, and events essential to a deep understanding of this masterpiece set against the complexities of the Spanish Civil War. With vital insights into the novel’s composition, its manuscript, its major themes, and Hemingway’s craft, this book will be deeply appreciated by students and scholars alike.”

—Carl Eby, author of Hemingway’s Fetishism and Reading Hemingway’s The Garden of Eden; co-editor of Hemingway’s Spain; and President of the Ernest Hemingway Society

Published in 1940, Ernest Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls is widely considered a masterpiece of war literature. A bestseller upon its release, the novel has long been both admired and ridiculed for its depiction of Robert Jordan’s military heroism and wartime romance. Yet its validation of seemingly conflicting narratives and its rendering of the intricate world its characters inhabit, as well as its dense historical, literary, and biographical allusions, have made it a work that remains a focus of interest and study.

Alex Vernon, in this contribution to the Reading Hemingway series, mines the historical record to unprecedented depths, examining Hemingway’s drafts and correspondence, synthesizing the body of literary criticism about the novel, and engaging in close textual analysis. As a result, new and important insights into the complex situation of the Spanish Civil War―integral to the novel―emerge, enriching our understanding of the novel. Through Vernon’s comprehensive work, contemporary readers and scholars are reminded that For Whom the Bell Tolls is still vital, significant, and relevant.

“The farther the world of the Spanish Civil War recedes into the past, the more anyone who wants to fully understand Hemingway’s ambitious novel can use a guidebook like this one. With his lifetime of engagement with Hemingway, Alex Vernon is exactly the right person to write it, and he has done a splendid and thorough job.”

—Adam Hochschild, author of Spain in Our Hearts: Americans in the Spanish Civil War, 1936–1939

“Anyone interested in understanding Hemingway’s achievement in this important and controversial novel will find Alex Vernon’s Reading Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls indispensable.”

—Laurence W. Mazzeno, author of The Critics and Hemingway, 1924-2014: Shaping an American Literary Icon

 “Meticulously researched and assembled by a widely respected authority on For Whom the Bell Tolls, this compendium is an extremely useful guide to the many references, allusions, and Spanish phrases in the novel.”

—Milton Cohen, author of The Pull of Politics: Steinbeck, Wright, Hemingway, and the Left in the Late 1930s

Reviews

▪ Hemingway Review v43n2 (spring 2024): “Vernon has accomplished his intended goal, to reanimate Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls for a myriad of today’s and tomorrow’s readers….This book reads like a true companion (the stress is placed purposefully) to the novel that allows readers to diverge for a few moments into a new and (possibly) hidden element of Hemingway’s novel, enriching the overall experience, much like having a knowledgeable friend at your side as you explore a new place. Importantly, this addition to Hemingway scholarship is not only for the researcher or the classroom instructor. This is a vital resource for any reader who wants to experience the novel as it was meant to be read in 1940.”