Macmillan Collector's Library For Whom the Bell Tolls

Great that one can buy classics on amazon

I am an avid reader who will generally slog through any book regardless, almost as a badge of honour and this was on my literary bucket list, so I was pretty keen to read it. Unfortunately, I have to report that "For Whom The Bell Tolls" defeated me and I abandoned it after about 120 pages of turgid prose describing not very much at all. If you are the type that likes an author describing every nuance and minute detail of a scene, then this may be for you, but for me it has the singular accolade of being one of the very few books I have ever given up on!

Aside from The Old Man and the Sea I haven't read any Hemmingway and thought I'd rectify that by reading this, which most posts tend to think is his greatest work. I enjoyed the beginning but then he starts rambling. I read that he likes writing short sentences, shame he likes writing so many of them. The Hemmingway cultists will hate me, but I gave up - it was just too boring and, to be frank, I lost interest in finding out more about any of the characters or what happened to them. Did he blow the bridge? I don't care. Did they escape? I don't care. No more Hemmingway for me, especially if that is as good as it gets.

One cannot help but be impressed by the way that Hemingway draws out his story, frustrating as it might at times become. The down-to-earth prose is rich, the protagonists vividly described, the descriptions of the massacre of the fascists and of bullfighting unforgettable. Hemingway’s frequent use of long sentences is remarkably effective. He oddly fixates on rope-soled shoes, and of course alcohol is present on every page. In order to avoid any trouble with censors the text is littered with words like ‘obscenity’ as a substitute for swearwords that would be common to such environments. Spanish phrases are magically blended with their English meanings. One really feels having read a masterpiece...

How strange to be asked by Amazon to review this book! I’m no literary critic and this novel is regarded as a “modern classic” and a “must read” for literary students. Well, here goes.You either like Hemingway or you don’t. The plot is great and well thought out. His style is simple. His dialogue can be awkward and several pages of it could easily be skipped with no detriment to the read quality. This novel has the great benefit of being written by someone who actually participated in the Spanish Civil War so the authenticity is superb. Give it a go.

I've read War and Peace, The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and other epics, frankly, this does not do too much for me. At first the unending conversations with much the same subject were quite absorbing. Hemingway was undoubtedly a great writer but I prefer The Old man and The Sea, a shorter book by some considerable way than For Whom the Bell Tolls. No doubt highly descriptive of the Spanish Civil War and educational but at the end of it I was thoroughly tired out! Perhaps, in my very advanced years, my attention span is not so good!