Hemingways A Farewell to Arms Receives Positive Criticism Essay

Hemingways A valedictory to Arms Receives Positive Criticism print in 1929, Ernest Hemingway finished A Farewell to Arms when he was barely 30 years old. Hemingway had been planning on writing about World contend I for more than a decade, and chose A Farewell to Arms to be his attempt at a blockbuster, a novel which would sell very well.1 This image is supported by the fact that one of Hemingways original works, presumably loss in the fiasco of Hadleys luggage, was also a war novel, emphasizing Hemingways firm picture in the importance of war and love as a theme. By this time, of course, Hemingway was already fairly well known, having already published four short report card collections and one successful novel in The Sun Also Rises. In this sense, Hemingways timing in his quest for a big seller was perfect. Fortunately for Hemingway the support did sell, and although he was already close to being a bestseller at the time of A Farewell to Arms publishing, the novel went o n to lead best-seller lists after exclusively a few weeks in publication. In contrast to the lack of money-making power of Fitzgeralds novels, A Farewell to Arms sold 45,000 copies in only seven weeks in fact, the interest in the book was so high Scribners had to renegotiate Hemingways contract following the unexpectedly large sales statistics.2Although at this time declaring the novel a popular success almost worked against its being recognized as a good literary work, the initial reply for A Farewell to Arms was nonetheless strong. Especially impressed were the people Hemingway cared about the most his fellow famous authors. Ford Madox Ford, in an introduction he wrote for a 1932 publication of the novel, wrote of Hemingway The aim - the achieveme... ...positive reception from his peers. Although in later years Hemingway turns on many of these fellow writers who praised him so lavishly, (see responding to Fitzgeralds 10 pages of criticism with kiss my ass) their critical acclaim helped launch him to writer superstardom.1 Linda Wagner-Martin. Ernest Hemingways A Farewell to Arms A Reference Guide. Greenwood Press, Westport, CT (2003), p. viii.2 Ibid., p. i-viii.3 Ford Madox Ford in Introduction to Ernest Hemingways A Farewell to Arms (1932) p. 246, from Wagner-Martin Reference Guide.4 www.allhemingway.com/afta/46585 Ibid.6 Ray B. West (1949) in Harold Bloom. Ernest Hemingways A Farewell to Arms Modern Critical Interpretations. Chelsea tolerate Publishers, New York, 1987. p. 36.7 Charles R. Anderson (1961) from Ibid., p. 46.8 www.allhemingway.com/afta/46589 Wagner-Martin, p. 175-180.