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Content snapshot
Flag an inaccuracy →What's in this book, at a glance — five things readers want to know before they start.
Violence
A lot
Graphic wartime violence, the mass retreat at Caporetto, and battlefield deaths throughout
Language
Some
Strong language typical of Hemingway's soldier characters
Sexual Content
A lot
Explicit sexual scenes; a passionate wartime love affair is central
Substance Use
Some
Heavy drinking throughout; both characters drink to cope
Emotional Intensity
A lot
The devastating ending involving complications of childbirth is one of literature's most heartbreaking final pages
What this book is about
Frederic Henry, an American lieutenant in the Italian Ambulance Corps during World War I, falls deeply in love with Catherine Barkley, a British nurse. Their passionate affair against the backdrop of the Italian front and the catastrophic Caporetto retreat leads to desertion, exile in Switzerland, and the novel's devastating final pages. Hemingway's second novel is his most romantic and most heartbreaking—an argument that love is the only thing worth having in a world that will destroy everything anyway.
Notes for sensitive readers
Reader-flagged moments and themes that may affect your experience.
Graphic wartime violence and the Caporetto retreat
Explicit sexual scenes
Devastating ending involving childbirth complications and death
Reader Verification
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