Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms: A Reference Guide

by Linda Wagner-Martin

Wagner-Martin, a respected scholar of American modernism and former president of the Ernest Hemingway Foundation and Society, offers a comprehensive guide to the novel's genesis, plot, background, themes, style, and critical reception. Each chapter overviews a significant element of the novel and includes thorough documentation. A bibliographic essay is also included.

A landmark of American literature, Hemingway's "A Farewell to Arms" (1929) is one of the most widely read and studied novels of the 20th century. Written by a respected scholar of American modernism and former president of the Ernest Hemingway Foundation and Society, this reference is a comprehensive guide to the novel's genesis, plot, background, themes, style, and critical reception. Each chapter overviews a significant element of the novel and includes thorough documentation. The volume closes with a bibliographic essay, which provides summaries of current criticism in such fields as gender and feminist theory, medical humanities, and lesbian and gay studies.

192 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1977

About the author

Linda Wagner-Martin is the Frank Borden Hanes Professor of English and Comparative Literature Emerita at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Over a teaching career spanning 53 years, she taught at Wayne State University, Michigan State University, and UNC, while authoring and editing more than 55 books. Her work includes biographies of major literary figures such as Sylvia Plath, Ernest Hemingway, Toni Morrison, and Maya Angelou, along with studies like A History of American Literature from 1950 to the Present and The Routledge Introduction to American Postmodernism. After retiring in 2011, she continued publishing extensively. Wagner-Martin’s contributions have earned her prestigious awards, including the Guggenheim Fellowship, the Hubbell Medal for Lifetime Service to American Literature, and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Radcliffe Institute. She holds BA, BS, MA, and PhD degrees from Bowling Green State University, where she graduated magna cum laude with majors in English and minors in American History.

Reviews

[Frank Hering · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very useful. Very informative.