August 7, 2025 • 13 mins
14 - Book 3, Chapters 31 - 32. A Farewell to Arms.
Ernest Hemingway's novel A Farewell to Arms is often referred to as a war novel, which is true enough. There is certainly blood and gore, along with a measure of dark humor, but the novel is more a love story than an account of battles between soldiers. Hemingway introduces us to Frederic Henry, an American volunteer serving in the sanitary services of the Italian Army in the north of Italy during World War One. He is a Lieutenant supervising ambulance drivers and is often near the front lines. Badly wounded by a shell, Henry passes through a number of surgeries and, while convalescing, meets Catherine Barkley with whom he begins an affair. Their story follows them from Gorizia, to Milan, to Stresa, and, finally, and ironically, to Switzerland, a neutral nation.
Ernest Hemingway's novel A Farewell to Arms is often referred to as a war novel, which is true enough. There is certainly blood and gore, along with a measure of dark humor, but the novel is more a love story than an account of battles between soldiers. Hemingway introduces us to Frederic Henry, an American volunteer serving in the sanitary services of the Italian Army in the north of Italy during World War One. He is a Lieutenant supervising ambulance drivers and is often near the front lines. Badly wounded by a shell, Henry passes through a number of surgeries and, while convalescing, meets Catherine Barkley with whom he begins an affair. Their story follows them from Gorizia, to Milan, to Stresa, and, finally, and ironically, to Switzerland, a neutral nation.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Book three, chapters thirty one and thirty two of A
Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway. This LibriVox recording is
in the public domain. Chapter thirty one. You do not
know how long you are in a river. When the
current moved swiftly. It seems a long time, and it
(00:22):
may be very short. The water was cold and in flood,
and many things past that had been floated off the
banks when the river rose. I was lucky to have
a heavy timber to hold on to, and I lay
in the icy water with my chin on the wood,
holding as easily as I could with both hands. I
was afraid of cramps, and I hoped we would move
(00:43):
toward the shore. We went down the river in a
long curve. It was beginning to be light enough so
I could see the bushes along the shore line. There
was a brush island a head, and the current moved
toward the shore. I wondered if I should take off
my boots and clothes and try to swim ashore, but
decided not to. I never thought of anything but that
(01:05):
I would reach the shore someway, and I would be
in a bad position if I land at barefoot. I
had to get to Maistrie Someway. I watched the shore
come close, then swing away, then come closer again. We
were floating more slowly. The shore was very close. Now
I could see twigs on the willow bush. The timber
(01:25):
swung slowly so that the bank was behind me, and
I knew we were in an eddy. We went slowly
around as I saw the bank again very close. Now.
I tried holding with one arm and kicking and swimming
the timber toward the bank with the other, but I
did not bring it any closer. I was afraid we
would move out of the eddy, and holding with one hand,
(01:48):
I drew up my feet so that they were against
the side of the timber and shoved hard toward the bank.
I could see the brush, but even with my momentum
and swimming as hard as I could, the current was
taking me away. I thought then that I would drown
because of my boots. But I thrashed and fought through
the water, and when I looked up, the bank was
(02:08):
coming toward me, and I kept thrashing and swimming in
a heavy footed panic until I reached it. I hung
to the willow branch and did not have strength to
pull myself up, but I knew I would not drown now.
It had never occurred to me on the timber that
I might drown. I felt hollow and sick of my
stomach and chest from the effort, and I held to
(02:29):
the branches and waited. When the sick feeling was gone,
I pulled into the willow bushes and rested again, my
arms around some brush, holding tight with my hands to
the branches. Then I crawled out, pushed down through the
willows and on to the bank. It was half daylight,
and I saw no one. I lay flat on the
bank and heard the river in the rain. After a
(02:52):
while I got up and started along the bank. I
knew there was no bridge across the river in till Lutziana.
I thought I might at the opposite Sanvito. I began
to think of what I should do. Ahead there was
a ditch running into the river. I went toward it.
So far I had seen no one, and I sat
down by some bushes along the bank of the ditch
(03:13):
and took off my shoes and emptied them of water.
I took off my coat, took my wallet with my
papers and my money all wet in it, out of
the inside pocket. And then wrung the coat out. I
took off my trousers and wrung them too, then my
shirt and underclothing. I slapped and rubbed myself, and then
dressed again. I had lost my cap before I put
(03:35):
on my coat. I cut the cloth stars off my
sleeves and put them in the inside pocket with my money.
My money was wet, but was all right. I counted it.
There were three thousand and some lire. My clothes felt
wet and clamming, and I slapped my arms to keep
the circulation going. I had woven underwear, and I did
not think I would catch cold if I kept moving.
(04:00):
They had taken my pistol at the road, and I
put the holster under my coat. I had no cape,
and it was cold in the rain. I started up
the bank of the canal. It was daylight and the
country was wet, low and dismal looking. The fields were
bare and wet. A long way away, I could see
a campanilee rising out of the plain. I came up
(04:22):
onto a road I had I saw some troops coming
down the road. I limped along the side of the road,
and they passed me and paid no attention to me.
They were a machine gun detachment going up toward the river.
I went on down the road. That day I crossed
the Venetian Plain. It is a low level country and
under the rain it is even flatter. Towards the sea,
(04:45):
there are salt marshes and very few roads. The roads
all go along the river mouths to the sea, and
across the country you must go along the paths beside
the canals. I was walking across the country from the
north to the south, and had crossed two railway lines
and many roads, and finally I came out at the
end of a path onto a railway line where it
(05:08):
ran beside a marsh. It was the main line from
Venice to Trieste, with a high solid embankment, a solid
roadbed and double track down the tracks. Away was a
flag station and I could see soldiers on guard. Up
the line. There was a bridge over a stream that
flowed into the marsh. I could see a guard too
(05:29):
at the bridge. Crossing the fields to the north. I
had seen a train pass on this railroad, visible a
long way across the flat plain, and I thought a
train might come from Porto Gruaru. I watched the guards
and lay down on the embankment so that I could
see both ways along the track. The guard at the
(05:49):
bridge walked away up the line toward where I lay,
then turned and went back toward the bridge. I lay
and was hungry and waited for the train. The one
I had seen was so long that the engine and
moved it very slowly, and I was sure I could
get aboard it. After I had almost given up hoping
for one, I saw a train coming. The engine coming
(06:09):
straight on, grew larger slowly. I looked at the guard
at the bridge. It was walking on the near side
of the bridge, but on the other side of the
tracks that would put him out of sight when the
train passed. I watched the engine come nearer, was working hard.
I could see there were many cars. I knew there
would be guards on the train, and I tried to
(06:30):
see where they were, but keeping out of sight, I
could not. The engine was almost where I was lying
when it came opposite, working and puffing even on the level,
and I saw the engineer pass. I stood and stepped
up close to the passing cars. If the guards were watching,
I was the less suspicious object standing beside the track.
(06:51):
Several closed freight cars passed then I saw a low,
open car of the sort they called gondolas, coming, covered
with canvas. I stood until that almost passed, then jumped
and caught the rear hand rods and pulled up. I
crawled down between the gondola and the shelter of the
high freight car behind. I did not think any one
had seen me. I was holding on the hand rods
(07:13):
and crouching low my feet on the cupling. We were
almost opposite the bridge. I remembered the guard as we
passed him. He looked at me. He was a boy
and his helmet was too big for him. I stared
at him contemptuously, and he looked away. He thought I
had something to do with the train we were past.
(07:33):
I saw him still looking uncomfortable, watching the other cars pass,
and I stooped to see how the canvas was fastened.
It had gromets and was laced down at the edge
with cord. I took out my knife, cut the cord
and put my arm under. There were hard bulges under
the canvas that tightened in the rain. I looked up
and ahead. There was a guard on the freight car ahead,
(07:56):
but he was looking forward. I let go of the
hand rails and ducked under the canvas. My fore had
hit something that gave me a violent bump, and I
felt blood on my face, but I crawled on in
and lay flat. Then I turned around and fastened down
the canvas. I was in under the canvas with guns.
They smelled cleanly of oil and grease. I lay and
(08:18):
listened to the rain on the canvas and the clicking
of the car over the rails. There was a little
light came through, and I lay and looked at the guns.
They had their canvas jackets on. I thought they must
have been sent ahead from the Third Army. The bump
on my forehead was swollen, and I stopped the bleeding
by lying still and letting it coagulate. Then picked away
(08:39):
the dry blood except over the cut. It was nothing.
I had no handkerchief, but feeling with my fingers, I
washed away where the dry blood had been with rain
water that dripped from the canvas, and wiped it clean
with the sleeve of my coat. I did not want
to look conspicuous. I knew I would have to get
out before they got to mastry, because they would be
(08:59):
taking care of these guns. They had no guns to
lose or forget about. I was terrifically hungry Chapter thirty two.
Lying on the floor of the flat car with the
guns beside me under the canvas, I was wet, cold,
and very hungry. Finally I rolled over and lay flat
on my stomach with my head on my arms. My
(09:21):
knee was stiff, but it had been very satisfactory. Valentini
had done a fine job. I had done half a
retreat on foot and swum part of the Tuglimento with
my knee. It was his knee, all right. The other
knee was mine. Doctors did things to you, and then
it was not your body any more. The head was mine,
and the inside of the belly. It was very hungry
(09:45):
in there. I could feel it turned over on itself.
The head was mine, but not to use, not to
think with, only to remember, and not too much remember.
I could remember Catherine, but I knew I would get
crazy if I thought about her when I I was
not sure yet I would see her, So I would
not think about her, only about her a little, only
(10:05):
about her. With the car going slowly and clickingly in
some light through the canvas, in my line with Catherine
on the floor of the car, hard is the floor
of the car to lie, not thinking, only feeling, having
been away too long, the clothes wet, and the floor
moving only a little each time, and lonesome inside and
(10:26):
alone with wet clothing and hard floor for a wife.
You did not love the floor of a flat car,
nor guns with canvas jackets and the smell of vasoline metal,
or a canvas that rain leaped through, although it is
very fine under a canvas, and pleasant with guns. But
you love someone else whom now you knew was not
(10:46):
even to be pretended. There you seeing now very clearly
and coldly, not so coldly as clearly and emptily you
so emptily lying on your stomach, having been present when
one army moved back and another came forward, you had
lost your cars and your men, as a floor walker
loses the stock of his department and a fire. There was, however,
(11:09):
no insurance. You were out of it. Now you had
no more obligation. If they shot floor walkers after a
fire in the department store because they spoke with an
accent they had always had. Then certainly the floor walkers
would not be expected to return when the store opened
again for business. They might seek other employment. If there
(11:29):
was any other employment, and the police did not get them.
Anger was washed away in the river, along with any obligation,
although that ceased when the Carabineri put the hands on
my collar. I would like to have had the uniform off,
although I did not care much about the outward forms.
I'd taken off the stars, but that was for convenience.
(11:51):
It was no point of honor. I was not against them,
I was through. I wished them all the luck. There
were the good ones and the brave ones in the
and the sensible ones, and they deserved it. But it
was not my show any more. And I wish this
bloody train would get to Maestri and I would eat
and stop thinking. I would have to stop. Pianni would
(12:12):
tell them they had shot me. They went through the
pockets and took the papers of the people they shot.
They would not have my papers. They might call me drowned.
I wonder what they would hear in the States, dead
from wounds and other causes. Good Christ. I was hungry.
I wondered what had become of the priest at the
mess and Rinalde. He was probably at poor Denone. If
(12:36):
they had not gone further back, well, I would never
see him now. I would never see any of them
now that life was over. I did not think he
had syphilis. It was not a serious disease anyway, if
you took it in time, they said. But he would worry.
I would worry too if I had it. Any one
would worry. I was not made to think. I was
(12:58):
made to eat my I'd yes, eat and drink and
sleep with Catherine tonight. Maybe no, that was impossible. But
tomorrow night, and a good meal in sheets, and never
going away again except together. Probably have to go. Damned
quickly she would go. I knew she would go. When
would we go? That was something to think about. Was
(13:19):
getting dark. I lay and thought where we would go?
There were many places. End of Chapter thirty two.
Book three, chapters thirty one and thirty two of A
Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway. This LibriVox recording is
in the public domain. Chapter thirty one. You do not
know how long you are in a river. When the
current moved swiftly. It seems a long time, and it
(00:22):
may be very short. The water was cold and in flood,
and many things past that had been floated off the
banks when the river rose. I was lucky to have
a heavy timber to hold on to, and I lay
in the icy water with my chin on the wood,
holding as easily as I could with both hands. I
was afraid of cramps, and I hoped we would move
(00:43):
toward the shore. We went down the river in a
long curve. It was beginning to be light enough so
I could see the bushes along the shore line. There
was a brush island a head, and the current moved
toward the shore. I wondered if I should take off
my boots and clothes and try to swim ashore, but
decided not to. I never thought of anything but that
(01:05):
I would reach the shore someway, and I would be
in a bad position if I land at barefoot. I
had to get to Maistrie Someway. I watched the shore
come close, then swing away, then come closer again. We
were floating more slowly. The shore was very close. Now
I could see twigs on the willow bush. The timber
(01:25):
swung slowly so that the bank was behind me, and
I knew we were in an eddy. We went slowly
around as I saw the bank again very close. Now.
I tried holding with one arm and kicking and swimming
the timber toward the bank with the other, but I
did not bring it any closer. I was afraid we
would move out of the eddy, and holding with one hand,
(01:48):
I drew up my feet so that they were against
the side of the timber and shoved hard toward the bank.
I could see the brush, but even with my momentum
and swimming as hard as I could, the current was
taking me away. I thought then that I would drown
because of my boots. But I thrashed and fought through
the water, and when I looked up, the bank was
(02:08):
coming toward me, and I kept thrashing and swimming in
a heavy footed panic until I reached it. I hung
to the willow branch and did not have strength to
pull myself up, but I knew I would not drown now.
It had never occurred to me on the timber that
I might drown. I felt hollow and sick of my
stomach and chest from the effort, and I held to
(02:29):
the branches and waited. When the sick feeling was gone,
I pulled into the willow bushes and rested again, my
arms around some brush, holding tight with my hands to
the branches. Then I crawled out, pushed down through the
willows and on to the bank. It was half daylight,
and I saw no one. I lay flat on the
bank and heard the river in the rain. After a
(02:52):
while I got up and started along the bank. I
knew there was no bridge across the river in till Lutziana.
I thought I might at the opposite Sanvito. I began
to think of what I should do. Ahead there was
a ditch running into the river. I went toward it.
So far I had seen no one, and I sat
down by some bushes along the bank of the ditch
(03:13):
and took off my shoes and emptied them of water.
I took off my coat, took my wallet with my
papers and my money all wet in it, out of
the inside pocket. And then wrung the coat out. I
took off my trousers and wrung them too, then my
shirt and underclothing. I slapped and rubbed myself, and then
dressed again. I had lost my cap before I put
(03:35):
on my coat. I cut the cloth stars off my
sleeves and put them in the inside pocket with my money.
My money was wet, but was all right. I counted it.
There were three thousand and some lire. My clothes felt
wet and clamming, and I slapped my arms to keep
the circulation going. I had woven underwear, and I did
not think I would catch cold if I kept moving.
(04:00):
They had taken my pistol at the road, and I
put the holster under my coat. I had no cape,
and it was cold in the rain. I started up
the bank of the canal. It was daylight and the
country was wet, low and dismal looking. The fields were
bare and wet. A long way away, I could see
a campanilee rising out of the plain. I came up
(04:22):
onto a road I had I saw some troops coming
down the road. I limped along the side of the road,
and they passed me and paid no attention to me.
They were a machine gun detachment going up toward the river.
I went on down the road. That day I crossed
the Venetian Plain. It is a low level country and
under the rain it is even flatter. Towards the sea,
(04:45):
there are salt marshes and very few roads. The roads
all go along the river mouths to the sea, and
across the country you must go along the paths beside
the canals. I was walking across the country from the
north to the south, and had crossed two railway lines
and many roads, and finally I came out at the
end of a path onto a railway line where it
(05:08):
ran beside a marsh. It was the main line from
Venice to Trieste, with a high solid embankment, a solid
roadbed and double track down the tracks. Away was a
flag station and I could see soldiers on guard. Up
the line. There was a bridge over a stream that
flowed into the marsh. I could see a guard too
(05:29):
at the bridge. Crossing the fields to the north. I
had seen a train pass on this railroad, visible a
long way across the flat plain, and I thought a
train might come from Porto Gruaru. I watched the guards
and lay down on the embankment so that I could
see both ways along the track. The guard at the
(05:49):
bridge walked away up the line toward where I lay,
then turned and went back toward the bridge. I lay
and was hungry and waited for the train. The one
I had seen was so long that the engine and
moved it very slowly, and I was sure I could
get aboard it. After I had almost given up hoping
for one, I saw a train coming. The engine coming
(06:09):
straight on, grew larger slowly. I looked at the guard
at the bridge. It was walking on the near side
of the bridge, but on the other side of the
tracks that would put him out of sight when the
train passed. I watched the engine come nearer, was working hard.
I could see there were many cars. I knew there
would be guards on the train, and I tried to
(06:30):
see where they were, but keeping out of sight, I
could not. The engine was almost where I was lying
when it came opposite, working and puffing even on the level,
and I saw the engineer pass. I stood and stepped
up close to the passing cars. If the guards were watching,
I was the less suspicious object standing beside the track.
(06:51):
Several closed freight cars passed then I saw a low,
open car of the sort they called gondolas, coming, covered
with canvas. I stood until that almost passed, then jumped
and caught the rear hand rods and pulled up. I
crawled down between the gondola and the shelter of the
high freight car behind. I did not think any one
had seen me. I was holding on the hand rods
(07:13):
and crouching low my feet on the cupling. We were
almost opposite the bridge. I remembered the guard as we
passed him. He looked at me. He was a boy
and his helmet was too big for him. I stared
at him contemptuously, and he looked away. He thought I
had something to do with the train we were past.
(07:33):
I saw him still looking uncomfortable, watching the other cars pass,
and I stooped to see how the canvas was fastened.
It had gromets and was laced down at the edge
with cord. I took out my knife, cut the cord
and put my arm under. There were hard bulges under
the canvas that tightened in the rain. I looked up
and ahead. There was a guard on the freight car ahead,
(07:56):
but he was looking forward. I let go of the
hand rails and ducked under the canvas. My fore had
hit something that gave me a violent bump, and I
felt blood on my face, but I crawled on in
and lay flat. Then I turned around and fastened down
the canvas. I was in under the canvas with guns.
They smelled cleanly of oil and grease. I lay and
(08:18):
listened to the rain on the canvas and the clicking
of the car over the rails. There was a little
light came through, and I lay and looked at the guns.
They had their canvas jackets on. I thought they must
have been sent ahead from the Third Army. The bump
on my forehead was swollen, and I stopped the bleeding
by lying still and letting it coagulate. Then picked away
(08:39):
the dry blood except over the cut. It was nothing.
I had no handkerchief, but feeling with my fingers, I
washed away where the dry blood had been with rain
water that dripped from the canvas, and wiped it clean
with the sleeve of my coat. I did not want
to look conspicuous. I knew I would have to get
out before they got to mastry, because they would be
(08:59):
taking care of these guns. They had no guns to
lose or forget about. I was terrifically hungry Chapter thirty two.
Lying on the floor of the flat car with the
guns beside me under the canvas, I was wet, cold,
and very hungry. Finally I rolled over and lay flat
on my stomach with my head on my arms. My
(09:21):
knee was stiff, but it had been very satisfactory. Valentini
had done a fine job. I had done half a
retreat on foot and swum part of the Tuglimento with
my knee. It was his knee, all right. The other
knee was mine. Doctors did things to you, and then
it was not your body any more. The head was mine,
and the inside of the belly. It was very hungry
(09:45):
in there. I could feel it turned over on itself.
The head was mine, but not to use, not to
think with, only to remember, and not too much remember.
I could remember Catherine, but I knew I would get
crazy if I thought about her when I I was
not sure yet I would see her, So I would
not think about her, only about her a little, only
(10:05):
about her. With the car going slowly and clickingly in
some light through the canvas, in my line with Catherine
on the floor of the car, hard is the floor
of the car to lie, not thinking, only feeling, having
been away too long, the clothes wet, and the floor
moving only a little each time, and lonesome inside and
(10:26):
alone with wet clothing and hard floor for a wife.
You did not love the floor of a flat car,
nor guns with canvas jackets and the smell of vasoline metal,
or a canvas that rain leaped through, although it is
very fine under a canvas, and pleasant with guns. But
you love someone else whom now you knew was not
(10:46):
even to be pretended. There you seeing now very clearly
and coldly, not so coldly as clearly and emptily you
so emptily lying on your stomach, having been present when
one army moved back and another came forward, you had
lost your cars and your men, as a floor walker
loses the stock of his department and a fire. There was, however,
(11:09):
no insurance. You were out of it. Now you had
no more obligation. If they shot floor walkers after a
fire in the department store because they spoke with an
accent they had always had. Then certainly the floor walkers
would not be expected to return when the store opened
again for business. They might seek other employment. If there
(11:29):
was any other employment, and the police did not get them.
Anger was washed away in the river, along with any obligation,
although that ceased when the Carabineri put the hands on
my collar. I would like to have had the uniform off,
although I did not care much about the outward forms.
I'd taken off the stars, but that was for convenience.
(11:51):
It was no point of honor. I was not against them,
I was through. I wished them all the luck. There
were the good ones and the brave ones in the
and the sensible ones, and they deserved it. But it
was not my show any more. And I wish this
bloody train would get to Maestri and I would eat
and stop thinking. I would have to stop. Pianni would
(12:12):
tell them they had shot me. They went through the
pockets and took the papers of the people they shot.
They would not have my papers. They might call me drowned.
I wonder what they would hear in the States, dead
from wounds and other causes. Good Christ. I was hungry.
I wondered what had become of the priest at the
mess and Rinalde. He was probably at poor Denone. If
(12:36):
they had not gone further back, well, I would never
see him now. I would never see any of them
now that life was over. I did not think he
had syphilis. It was not a serious disease anyway, if
you took it in time, they said. But he would worry.
I would worry too if I had it. Any one
would worry. I was not made to think. I was
(12:58):
made to eat my I'd yes, eat and drink and
sleep with Catherine tonight. Maybe no, that was impossible. But
tomorrow night, and a good meal in sheets, and never
going away again except together. Probably have to go. Damned
quickly she would go. I knew she would go. When
would we go? That was something to think about. Was
(13:19):
getting dark. I lay and thought where we would go?
There were many places. End of Chapter thirty two.
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