For Whom the Bell Tolls (Revised Edition)

Author: Cheng Zhongrui
Publisher:
Publish Date: 1999-02-01
Features: Robert Jordan, an American youth, teaches Spanish at a university and has a deep affection for Spain. He volunteers to join the Spanish government army and engages in sabotage activities behind enemy lines. To support the counteroffensive, he is assigned to contact local guerrillas and complete a bridge-blasting mission. He gains the support of Pablo's wife, Bilar, and other guerrilla members, isolating Pablo, who has lost his morale, and meticulously assigns specific tasks to each person. Amidst the raging war, he and Bilar fall in love with Maria, a young girl they have sheltered from enemy abuse, helping to heal her emotional wounds. Over these three days, Robert experiences conflicts between love and duty, as well as trials of life and death, with his humanity constantly rising. During the retreat after the bridge explosion, he sacrifices his own chance at survival for others but is himself blown up in the leg by an artillery shell, leaving behind to hold off the enemy alone. In the end, he gives his young life for the Spanish people. For Whom the Bell Tolls is one of Hemingway's most widely read novels, moving generations with its profound humanitarian power.