Ernest Hemingway’s 1929 novel A Farewell to Arms has been praised as “one of Hemingway’s best literary works.” His first-person wartime narrative follows incidents in the life of American lieutenant Frederick Henry, an ambulance corpsman in the Italian army. The story develops as Henry engages in a turbulent love affair with nurse Catherine Barkley. The gritty five-part novel was alternatingly deemed “pornographic,” “offensive,” and “brilliant,” and was subjected to censorship and banning, all while being hailed as “the premier American war novel of World War I.”

Edited by Laura Nicosia and James F. Nicosia, this collection of essays engages in scholarly conversations about Hemingway’s novel—its reception, lineage, and legacy.