Bedside Lamp English Learning Reader IV: Farewell to Arms (Pure English Version)

Author: Wang Ruoping
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-05-01
Features: Ernest Hemingway (Ernest Hemingway, 1899—1961) was one of the self-taught literary masters of the 20th century in the United States. His closest uncle, William Hemingway, came to Shanxi Province, China, a century ago to preach and practice medicine, and founded Mingxian Academy, cultivating many talents for China. After graduating from high school in 1917, Hemingway worked as a trainee journalist. In June 1918, he went to the northeastern part of Italy to the Italo-Austrian front and joined the fourth detachment of the "American Red Cross Field Medical Corps" as an ambulance driver. On the night of July 8, he was injured on the front lines and suffered "hundreds of shrapnel wounds." From July to October, while recovering in the hospital, he fell in love with Agnes von Kurowski, an American nurse seven years older than him. He asked her out, but she rejected him, leaving him deeply heartbroken. He returned to the United States in January 1919. He sought advice from some famous writers and studied writing diligently. In 1920, he began writing for newspapers and magazines while also composing short stories and poems. In 1923, he published his first collection of poems and short stories. From 1927 to the end of 1928, drawing on his experiences in Italy during the war for about half a year, he wrote A Farewell to Arms, his second novel and one of the world's literary masterpieces of the 20th century. The plot of this 250,000-word novel is not complicated. American youth Henry voluntarily went to the front lines of the Italo-Austrian battlefield as an ambulance driver and fought against the Austrians. There, he met and fell in love with a beautiful British nurse, Catherine Barkley. While recovering from injuries in the hospital, Henry received Catherine's meticulous care. She devoted everything to him, bringing him "happiness" on his sickbed. After recovering, Henry returned to the front lines at a time when the Italian army was in complete disarray, and both the front and rear were in chaos. The Italian military police, like fools and demons, mistook friends for enemies, trampled on human lives, and were ready to execute Henry as an enemy "spy" on the spot! At the critical moment of life and death, Henry escaped by jumping into a river. In the turbulent waters, he survived by the skin of his teeth. Finally, he escaped back to Catherine. To avoid pursuit by the police, Henry and Catherine fled to Switzerland by boat in the dead of night, amidst wind and rain, and lived a happy life for a few months. Their happiness was as fleeting as a shooting star or a morning glory on the ground; Catherine and her child both died in childbirth. Henry was heartbroken and felt utterly hopeless. The theme of this book is: unjust wars destroy all the good people and things in the world. The Second World War was a unprecedented catastrophe in human history, lasting 4 years and 3 months, involving 31 countries and 1.5 billion people in the conflict. A total of 65 million military personnel were mobilized, with approximately 8.5 million killed, 22 million injured, and another 12.6 million civilians killed. It is estimated that the economic losses amounted to over 338 billion U.S. dollars. Progressive writers and people around the world condemned this imperialist war, which was unjust to both sides. A Farewell to Arms vividly and distinctly portrayed the war-weariness of the soldiers at the time with concise and refined language, becoming one of the of the anti-war movement. After its publication, it received widespread acclaim, and the author, who was only 30 years old at the time, was hailed as a literary master. From 1937 to 1938, he traveled to the front lines of the Spanish Civil War as an American journalist and writer several times, assisting in the filming of the documentary Spanish Earth (on July 8, 1937, he attended the premiere at the White House with the director and others, and the film received praise from President Roosevelt and his wife). During this period, he also wrote the play For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940, originally translated as To Whom It May Concern) and the novel The Old Man and the Sea, which became classics against fascism. In 1952, The Old Man and the Sea was published simultaneously in the United Kingdom and the United States (first published in Life magazine on May 6, 1952, with that issue selling over 5 million copies within 48 hours), and was warmly welcomed by readers as a "masterpiece of exceptional skill." In 1953, he won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for this book; in 1954, he received the Nobel Prize in Literature for it. Someone said, "The Old Man and the Sea is a model. It produces an overwhelming force." On July 2, 1961, at 7:40 p.m., Hemingway took his own life at home. Shortly before, he had been invited by the California Council of Wise Foundations to discuss his thoughts on art, life, and other topics: "Before I start writing, I must first organize my thoughts and ideas. I work very hard, rewriting and revising repeatedly, without getting tired. I carefully polish it until it becomes a gem." Great writers are born with extraordinary simplicity. They are hard workers, diligent scholars, and skilled stylists." This book is one of the excellent teaching materials for students to understand history, learn English, get close to the master, and climb the peak of literature. Any omissions or errors in the translation are welcome to be criticized and corrected by the readers.