Author: Ernest Hemingway
Name of Reviewer: Susan J. Shaw
Brief Summary of Book: The quote at the beginning by poet John Donne means that the bell tolls for all of humanity, not just one person. “No man is an island…And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee.”
During the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) the left-wing Republican government of Spain received help from the Soviet Union and volunteers from many countries including the United States. The “other side”, the military revolutionaries, received aid from Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany.In the last week of May in 1937 in the Guadarrama Mountains of Spain, Robert Jordan (an American volunteer) has been sent behind enemy lines to work with a small band of guerrillas to blow up a bridge for the Republican government of Spain.
The book opens with Jordan as “He lay flat on the brown, pine-needled floor of the forest”. He is on his way to meet the guerrilla group which includes gypsies and two women. One of the women is Pilar, a very strong member of the group. The other is Maria, a young woman who was gang-raped by Fascists when they overtook her town and killed her parents. Maria and Robert become lovers. Pablo is the leader of this guerrilla band and struggles with Robert Jordan over the group’s leadership. There are many flashbacks which describe individual group member’s previous fighting experiences. At first Pablo will not cooperate with Jordan. After urging from Pilar, he agrees to help. There is some talk within the group of “eliminating” Pablo. Then Pablo changes his mind again. He runs away and throws an important part of the explosives into the river. He returns and apologizes and agrees to help Jordan. Jordan becomes discouraged. He sends a dispatch to headquarters recommending that the operation be cancelled, but it does not arrive in time.
The romantic love Robert feels for Maria gives his life new meaning and helps him to go on fighting for the Republican cause—blowing up the bridge as instructed. The guerrillas do successfully blow up the bridge, but lose many of their own men in the process. During the retreat, a Fascist wounds Robert Jordan’s horse. It falls on him breaking his leg. He insists he must be left behind. He sends Maria away to safety with Pilar and Pablo and waits to kill the Fascist officer who beheaded another group of guerrillas. The book ends as he takes aim, and “he could feel his heart beating against the pine needle floor of the forest”.
My thoughts on the book:
Even though it takes place over three days, it depicts much of the violence of war: beheadings, shooting of wounded comrades because they can no longer travel, gang rape, suicide, killings of people in the towns who were on “the other side”. It is also a love story. When Robert is telling Maria she must go on and leave him in the forest, his words are emotional: “But if thou goest then I go with thee. It is in that way that I go too. Thou wilt go now, I know. For thou are good and kind. Thou wilt go now for us both.”
Why book was once banned:
It was considered pro-Communist and declared unmailable by the US Post Office in 1940. A large majority of the Republican government was Communist, and Robert Jordan is working for the Republican leadership. Jordan “believed in the Republic and that if it were destroyed life would be unbearable” under the Fascists and Nazis. There are several references to Marxism and the book includes the Communist party slogan “Hold out and fortify, and you will win.” One of Robert Jordan’s friends was a Russian journalist who was in direct communication with Stalin.
In February of 1973, eleven Turkish book publishers were put on trial before an Istanbul martial law tribunal for “spreading propaganda unfavorable to the state.” Every swear word is replaced by the word “obscenity”. The violence is not described in fine detail, even though there is a lot of it. The love scenes with Robert and Maria (who may be 15-16) are not in detail either.
Conclusion:
Hemingway’s descriptions are excellent. Even though I don’t particularly care for war stories, I could understand the group’s movements and could “see” what they were doing. Jordan does question his beliefs about Marxism. Robert’s urging of Maria to go to safety without him, “Now you will go for us both”, is very moving. The ending is tragic as it depicts Robert Jordan being left in the forest to die alone.