In another country

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Hemingway's paramedic cap

In Another Country is a novel by Ernest Hemingway , published in 1929 by Charles Scribner's Sons in New York under the title A Farewell to Arms . Rowohlt brought out the German first edition in 1930 in a translation by Annemarie Horschitz-Horst . The German title is based on the short story In Another Country published in Scribner's Magazine in 1927 .

Hemingway incorporates his experiences as a medic on the Italian front in World War I when he talks about the love between an American serving in the Italian army and a British nurse during that war.

The work was put on the list of books to be burned by the German National Socialists in 1933 .

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The first-person narrator Frederic Henry dropped out of architecture studies in Rome and went to war. Now, in 1917, the young American served in northeast Italy as a medical officer on the Italian-Austrian front on the side of the Italians. For Frederic the war consists of waiting times and illnesses (he got the gonorrhea ). Reading like “ Das Feuer ” by Barbusse can help against waiting . As disillusioned as Frederic, most of the uniformed men see the lousy war as a mess . “If I had brains, I wouldn't be here,” an Italian comrade said to Frederic. Nevertheless, he is attacked and dies. Because of cowardice in front of the enemy, an entire unit is decimated on the spot.

At his location, Frederic meets the blonde Scottish nurse Miss Catherine Barkley. Catherine's fiancé fell on the Somme . Frederic thinks Catherine is very beautiful . He wants her and is initially rejected. Frederic is persistent. The fairly tall young woman with gray eyes and tanned skin thaws and lets herself be kissed.

Four Italian ambulance drivers report to Frederic. North of Gorizia , on the Isonzo , the five men are waiting in the front line for the announced Italian offensive. They are supposed to transport the wounded to the nearest first aid station. Immediately before the attack begins, Frederico, as his Italian comrades call him, fetches food for his people. Then the storm breaks out. The meal is taken in cold blood. The Austrians return fire. A mine hits the shelter. Both legs of an Italian who eats are torn off. He roars, moans, prays, falls silent, dies. Frederic also has flesh wounds in both hips, in both legs and on his right foot.

The surgeons in the dressing room are red like butchers . Soldiers die under the knife. Nevertheless, the English comrades joke that Frederic would like to place Frederic on one of the operating tables. You spend Frederic on the son of US President Wilson . When that makes no impression, they claim that Frederic is the only son of the American ambassador . Finally, it is Frederic's turn in the first aid room and is then driven from the first aid station to the field hospital. On the way a comrade bleeds and dies on the stretcher above him. The dead person is discharged, the next wounded person is invited and the bumpy ride continues. In the hospital, Frederic overlooks the cemetery in front of the house with the newly added graves and crosses with inscriptions. Wounded die in the beds around him. Because Frederic has numerous splinters in his body, he is transferred to the American hospital in Milan. X-ray technology is available there. Comrades visit Frederic. Alcohol is awarded on and in the bedside. The patient asks about Catherine. The comrades want to send the beautiful, cool English goddess to make out. Luck smiles at Frederic. Catherine is really put on duty in that Milan hospital. When Catherine enters Frederic's room, he falls in love with the woman on the spot. Love is returned. To the delight of the other nurses, Catherine does more night duty. What happens between the two of them at night can only be guessed, since Hemingway in his typical way, which really stimulates the reader's imagination, only mentions the essentials and leaves out the rest "under the surface". Despite being wounded, Catherine goes to bed with Frederic, as she later becomes pregnant. They enjoy their happiness as the calm before the storm and even tell each other that they were married from the day they first met in the hospital. When Frederic really wants to marry her, Catherine refuses, otherwise she would be sent away.

At the beginning of his stay in the hospital, Frederic initially refused to follow the advice of a surgeon examining him that he should wait 6 months for the operation. Instead, he finds another surgeon in Milan who will operate on his broken right knee the next day. The doctor is a keen observer and prophesies all the best for him and Catherine: You will have a wonderful boy from her . Heal Frederic's wounds. At first he walks on crutches and soon afterwards on a stick. The lovers visit restaurants and make extensive bets on horses. The summer of 1917 says goodbye. Frederic practices not limping . Catherine is three months pregnant. The future father worries about the future of the small family. Although he still has convalescence leave, the hostile head nurse throws him from the hospital with his collection of empty liquor bottles. The lovers spend a few more hours in a comfortable Milan hotel before they split up. Then Frederic has to return to Gorizia via Udine . At the old location, it is planned to be used in Caporetto . As soon as Frederic took up position, the Austrians break through towards Cividale and Udine. Frederic and his men bring the wounded to Plava . As they retreated towards Udine, the ambulances get stuck in the mud. When Frederic crossed a Tagliamento bridge on foot, wedged in the crowd of returning Italians, he was arrested by Italian field police on the other bank. After a brief interrogation, officers who have strayed from their troops are executed. Frederic saves his life by jumping into the river. It first reaches Mestre on a freight train and then on to Milan. He gets civilian clothes from a friend and finds Catherine in Stresa on Lake Maggiore . The couple stays in a hotel. Frederic knows the bartender from before. The local keeper finds out that Frederic is known as an officer in Stresa and is about to be arrested as a deserter. The keeper helps the couple to escape across the lake. Frederic rows his hands sore and after 35 kilometers reaches Switzerland near Brissago . The two refugees go to an inn. They are arrested after breakfast. Since they have cash, they can go on vacation in Switzerland. Frederic wants to forget the war and chooses a hut in the wooded mountains above Montreux with a view of the Dents du Midi , the Rhone and Lake Geneva . Catherine doesn't want to be married until after she gives birth. In March 1918 the time had come. The couple travels to Lausanne . Both stay in a hotel near the women's clinic. The sturdy little boy has to be delivered by caesarean section and is born dead. Catherine dies of internal bleeding.

The first-person narrator sums up: "The world breaks everyone ... those who don't want to break, they kill."

Filmography

see also:

expenditure

First edition

  • Ernest Hemingway: A Farewell to Arms . Charles Scribner's Sons, New York 1929.

Translations

  • Ernest Hemingway: In another country . Translation from the American by Annemarie Horschitz-Horst . Ernst Rowohlt, Berlin 1930. (German first edition; 368 pages, full linen, cover vignette, color header)
    • numerous reprints, most recently Rowohlt Taschenbuch (6th edition from July 1, 1999). 384 pages, ISBN 978-3-499-22602-1

Secondary literature

  • Carlos Baker: Ernest Hemingway. The writer and his work . Pp. 107-128. Reinbek 1967
  • EM Halliday: Symbolism and Irony in Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms. In: Gerhard Hoffmann (Ed.): American Literature of the 20th Century , Volume 1. Fischer Verlag 1972, ISBN 3-436-01444-3 , pp. 169–193
  • Jürgen Peper: Ernest Hemingway: A Farewell to Arms. In: Edgar Lohner (ed.): The American novel in the 19th and 20th centuries . Schmidt Verlag, Berlin 1974, ISBN 3-503-00515-3 , pp. 275-296
  • Hans-Peter Rodenberg: Ernest Hemingway. Reinbek 2002, ISBN 3-499-50626-2

Web links