Ernest Hemingway Hemingway combines austere realism and poetic language to present a powerful argument against war and to tell a touching love story at the same time. Possessed of the most remarkable time sense of the period between wars, his disillusioned temperament and technical skill have influenced a whole generation of writer. In spite of its hard-boiled realism of detail and its tragic ending, A Farewell to Arms is nevertheless an idealistic book. The novel was dramatized by Laurence Stallings and was made into a motion picture.

Lieutenant Frederic Henry was a young American attached to an Italian ambulance unit on the Italian front. An offensive was soon to begin, and when Henry returned to the front from leave he learned from his friend, Lieutenant Rinaldi, that a group of British nurses had arrived in his absence to set up a British hospital unit. Rinaldi introduced him to nurse Catherine Barkley.

Between ambulance trips to evacuation posts at the front, Henry called on Miss Barkley. He liked the frank young English girl in a casual sort of way, but he was not in love with her. Before he left for the front to stand by for an attack, she gave him a St. Anthony medal.?

At the front, as Henry and some Italian ambulance drivers were eating in a dugout, an Austrian projectile exploded over them. Henry, badly wounded in the legs, was taken to a field hospital. Later he was moved to a hospital in Milan.?

Before the doctor was able to see Henry in Milan, the nurses prohibited his drinking wine, but he bribed a porter to bring him a supply which he kept hidden behind his bed. Catherine Barkley came to the hospital and Henry knew that he was in love with her. The doctors told Henry that he would have to lie in bed six months before they could operate on his knee. Henry insisted on seeing another doctor, who said that the operation could be performed the next day. Meanwhile. Catherine managed to be with Henry constantly.

After his operation, Henry convalesced in Milan with Catherine Barkley as his attendant. Together they dined in out of the way restaurants, and together they rode about the countryside in a carriage. Henry was restless and lonely at nights and Catherine often came to his hospital room.

Summer passed into autumn. Henry's wound had healed and he was due to take convalescent leave in October. He and Catherine planned to spend the leave together, but he came down with jaundice before he could leave the hospital. The head nurse accused him of bringing on the jaundice by drink, in order to avoid being sent back to the front. Before he left for the front, Henry and Catherine stayed together in a hotel room; already she had disclosed to him that she was pregnant.

Henry returned to the front with orders to load his three ambulances with hospital equipment and go south into the Po valley. Morale was at low ebb. Rinaldi admired the job which had been done on the knee and observed that Henry acted like a married man. War weariness was all-pervasive. At the front, the Italians, having learned that German divisions had reinforced the Austrians, began their terrible retreat from Caporetto. Henry drove one of the ambulances loaded with hospital supplies. During the retreat south, the ambulance was held up several times by wagons, guns, and trucks which extended in stalled lines for miles. Henry picked up two straggling Italian sergeants. During the night the retreat was halted in the rain for hours.

At daybreak Henry cut out of the long line and drove across country in an attempt to reach Udine by side roads. The ambulance got stuck in a muddy side road. The sergeants decided to leave, but Henry asked them to help dislodge the car from the mud. They refused and ran. Henry shot and wounded one; the other escaped across the fields. An Italian ambulance corpsman with Henry shot the wounded sergeant through the back of the head. Henry and his three comrades struck out on foot for Udine. On a bridge, Henry saw a German staff car and German bicycle troops crossing another bridge over the same stream. Within sight of Udine, one of Henry's group was killed by an Italian sniper. The others hid in a barn until it seemed safe to circle around Udine and join the main stream of the retreat toward the Tagliamento River.

By that time the Italian army was nothing but a frantic mob. Soldiers were throwing down their arms and officers were cutting insignia of rank from their sleeves. At the end of a long wooden bridge across the Tagliamento military carabiniere were seizing all officers, giving them drumhead trials, and executing them by the river bank. Henry was detained, but in the dark of night he broke free, plunged into the river, and escaped on a log. He crossed the Venetian plain on foot, then jumped aboard a freight train and rode to Milan, where he went to the hospital in which he had been a patient. There he learned that the English nurses had gone to Stresa.

During the retreat from Caporetto Henry had made his farewell to arms. He borrowed civilian clothes from an American friend in Milan and went by train to Stresa, where he met Catherine, who was on leave. The bartender of the hotel in which Henry was staying warned Henry that authorities were planning to arrest him for desertion the next morning; he offered his boat by means of which Henry and Catherine could escape to Switzerland. Henry rowed all night. By morning his hands were so raw that he could barely stand to touch the oars. Over his protests, Catherine took a turn at the rowing. They reached Switzerland safely and were arrested. Henry told the police that he was a sportsman who enjoyed rowing and that he had come to Switzerland for the winter sports. The valid passports and the ample funds that Henry and Catherine possessed saved them from serious trouble with the authorities.

During the rest of the fall and the winter the couple stayed at an inn outside Montreux. They discussed marriage, but Catherine would not be married while she was with child. They hiked, read, and talked about what they would do together after the war.

When the time for Catherine's confinement approached, she and Henry went to Lausanne to be near a hospital. They planned to return to Montreux in the spring. At the hospital Catherine's pains caused the doctor to use an anaesthetic on her. After hours of suffering she was delivered of a dead baby. The nurse sent Henry out to get something to eat. When he went back to the hospital, he learned that Catherine had had a hemorrhage. He went into the room and stayed with her until she died. There was nothing he could do, no one he could talk to, no place he could go. Catherine was dead. He left the hospital and walked back to his hotel in the dark. It was raining.?

--- Excerpts from Masterpieces of World Literature in Digest Form (来源：英语麦当劳－英语杂志 http://www.EnglishCN.com)

别了，武器

〔美〕 海明威 原著 ?泉璋 译

海明威以严峻的现实主义结合富有诗意的语言，对战争作了有力的抨击，同时又叙述了一个扣人心弦的爱情故事。由于对两次大战之间那个时期具有特别杰出的时间观念，他的那种看破红尘的气质和熟练的技巧影响了整个一代作家。《别了，武器》一书虽然在细节描写方面刻意求实，而且有一个悲剧性的结局，但它仍然是一部理想主义的著作。本书曾经劳伦斯·斯托林兹改编为剧本，并拍成电影。

弗雷德里克·亨利中尉是一个年轻的美国人，在意大利战场上随同一个意大利流动医疗组工作。当时一次攻势发动在即；当亨利在休假之后回到前线时，他的朋友雷那蒂中尉告诉他说，在他离开的期间，来了一批英国护士准备成立一个英国医疗组。雷那蒂把亨利介绍给一位护士，她叫凯瑟琳·巴克利。

亨利经常要开救护车到前方疏散点去，从前方回来时他就去找巴克利小姐。他很喜欢这个坦率年轻的英国姑娘，但只是一般的喜欢，并没有堕入情网。当有一次他要上前线去为进攻作准备时，她送给他一枚圣·安东尼像章。

在前线，当亨利和几个意大利救护车驾驶员一起在地下掩蔽部吃饭的时候，一枚奥地利炮弹在他们上边爆炸。亨利腿部受重伤，被送进野战医院。后来他被转移到米兰的一所医院里。

米兰医院的护士在大夫诊治亨利之前，禁止他喝酒，但他贿赂了一个工友，买了一些酒，藏在床后。凯瑟琳·巴克利来到医院，亨利知道自己爱上了她。大夫跟亨利说他得在床上躺半年，然后他的膝盖才能开刀。亨利坚持要找另一个大夫，这位大夫说第二天就可以动手术。在这期间，凯瑟琳经常陪伴着亨利。

手术后，亨利在米兰休养，凯瑟琳·巴克利作他的护理员。他们一起到偏僻的饭馆里去吃饭，一起坐车出去郊游。夜间亨利心神不定，感到寂莫，凯瑟琳常到他的病房里来。

夏去秋来。亨利的伤口愈合了，预定十月间他可以享受一段康复假。他和凯瑟琳计划在一起度假，可是在他离开医院之前，他又得了黄疸病，躺倒了。护士长指责他故意用喝酒来招致黄疸病，为了逃避重上前线。在他出发去前线之前，他和凯瑟琳同住在一家旅馆房间里；她已经向他透露：她怀孕了。

亨利重返前线，奉命用他的三辆救护车装载医院设备，南下波河流域。当时士气低落。雷那蒂称赞亨利在战争失败时所做的工作。他还说亨利的举止行动象个已婚的人。厌战情绪笼罩一切。在前线，当意大利人得悉德军几个师增援奥军后，开始从卡波雷托狼狈溃退。亨利驾驶了一辆装载医疗供应品的救护车。在向南撤退的过程中他的救护车多次被绵延达几英里长的停住不动的货车、大炮和卡车所堵住。亨利让两名失散的意大利中士上了车。在晚上，撤退的人马在雨中被阻达几个小时。

清晨，亨利把他的车从长龙似的车队中撤出，越野行驶，企图抄小路赶往乌迪内。救护车在一条泥泞的小路上抛锚了。那两个中士决定离开，但亨利请他们帮忙把车从泥浆中解脱出来。他们不肯，撒腿就跑。亨利开枪，打伤了其中的一个，另一个落荒而逃。和亨利在一起的一个意大利看护兵向那个受伤的中士开枪，打穿了他的后脑勺。亨利和他的三个战友出发步行前往乌迪内。在一座桥上亨利看见一辆德国军车和一些德国自行车部队通过同一条河上的另一座桥梁。当他们已经看到乌迪内时，亨利的一个伙伴被一个意大利狙击手击毙。其他人躲进一个粮仓，以便等情况安定一点再绕开乌迪内，赶上向塔利亚门托河撤退的大队人马。

那时意大利军队简直就是一群狂乱的乌合之众。兵士们丢掉武器，军官们撕下袖章。在塔利亚门托河上一座木桥的一头，宪兵见军官便抓，对他们进行战地军法审判，就在河边处决。亨利被扣，但夜间乘黑溜走，跳进河里，抱住一根木头逃脱。他步行穿越威尼斯平原，跳上一列货车，到达米兰，跑到他曾经住过的那所医院里去。在那里他得知英国护士们都到斯特雷扎去了。

在从卡波雷托撤退的过程中，亨利向武器告了别。他向一位在米兰的美国朋友借了一身便服，坐火车去斯特雷扎，找到了正在那里休假的凯瑟琳。亨利所住旅馆的酒吧间服务员警告亨利说官方准备第二天一早以开小差的罪名逮捕亨利；他让亨利和凯瑟琳利用他的小船逃往瑞士。亨利划了整整一夜。等到第二天早晨他的双手痛得几乎连接触船桨都难以忍受。凯瑟琳不顾他的抗议，接过桨来。他们安全到达瑞士，接着被逮住了。亨利跟警方说他是一个运动员，爱好划船，他到瑞士是来进行冬季运动的。他们有效的护照和两人拥有的充足的金钱使他们与当局之间没有发生太多的麻烦。

在那个秋季的剩余的日子里和冬季，他俩住在蒙特勒郊外的一家小客栈里。他们讨论了结婚问题，但凯瑟琳不愿意在怀着孩子的时候结婚。他俩徒步旅行，读书，谈论他们战后将在一起干些什么。

凯瑟琳分娩的日子快到了，她和亨利为了靠近医院，于是搬到洛桑去。他们计划春天再回到蒙特勒。在医院里，凯瑟琳的阵痛促使大夫对她使用了麻醉剂。在几个小时的痛苦之后，她产出一个死婴。护士让亨利出去找点吃的东西。当他回医院时，听说凯瑟琳大出血。他跑进屋里，陪伴着她，直到她咽气。他无事可做，无人可谈，无处可去。凯瑟琳死了。他离开医院，在黑暗中走回旅馆。天下着雨。

——节译自：《世界文学名著书摘》