A Farewell to Arms: The War of the Words: 0084 (Masterworks studies series, no. 84) - Hardcover

Lewis, Robert W.

9780805780529: A Farewell to Arms: The War of the Words: 0084 (Masterworks studies series, no. 84)

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0805780521 ISBN 13: 9780805780529

Publisher: Twayne Publishers Inc.,U.S., 1992

Written in an easy-to-read, accessible style by teachers with years of classroom experience, Masterwork Studies are guides to the literary works most frequently studied in high school. Presenting ideas that spark imaginations, these books help students to gain background knowledge on great literature useful for papers and exams. The goal of each study is to encourage creative thinking by presenting engaging information about each work and its author. This approach allows students to arrive at sound analyses of their own, based on in-depth studies of popular literature.

Each volume:

-- Illuminates themes and concepts of a classic text

-- Uses clear, conversational language

-- Is an accessible, manageable length from 140 to 170 pages

-- Includes a chronology of the author's life and era

-- Provides an overview of the historical context

-- Offers a summary of its critical reception

-- Lists primary and secondary sources and index

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From the Back Cover:

Ernest Hemingway's artistic powers are generally recognized to have been at their highest in A Farewell to Arms (1929), which has entered the canon of modern literature as one of its masterpieces. Combining austere realism and poetic language to present a powerful argument against war, the novel detailing the tragic affair during World War I between an American lieutenant and a Scottish nurse tells a touching love story at the same time. Long after its publication, A Farewell to Arms continues to be an important work because of the questions it asks about the human condition. What is it like to be adrift; to live with uncertain personal values in a world of shifting values; to be unsure of the differences between good and bad and what should be desired and what actually is desired? In short, how does one learn to live? Hemingway's disillusionment and technical virtuosity, particularly in works like A Farewell to Arms and The Sun Also Rises, influenced a whole generation of writers. Robert Lewis's exceptionally comprehensive and clear study of A Farewell to Arms is new both in its particular readings and its various emphases. Building upon previous Hemingway scholarship, it concentrates on character and theme rather than plot and style. Structural and stylistic concerns are discussed in the first part of the book, but with reference to their place in the creation of character and elaboration of certain themes. In the remainder of this study, Lewis explores a number of thematic clusters and oppositions in the novel: life and love as a game; sanity versus insanity; and appearance versus essence. Finally, Lewis argues that A Farewell to Arms is, at heart, a novel about language. This wellwritten study should provide students and other readers with a thorough reading of A Farewell to Arms while also contributing to Hemingway scholarship in general.

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