Summary: A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway

The nar­ra­tive cen­ters on a youth­ful Amer­i­can, Lieu­tenant Fred­er­ic Hen­ry, who acts as an ambu­lance dri­ver in the Ital­ian mil­i­tary dur­ing the final stages of World War I. He spends the win­ter explor­ing Italy, only to return to his duties at the front­line in spring. There, he encoun­ters Cather­ine Barkley, an Eng­lish assis­tant nurse at a near­by British hos­pi­tal. While Cather­ine ini­tial­ly attracts the atten­tion of Hen­ry’s com­rade Rinal­di, it is with Fred­er­ic that she embarks on a play­ful, intri­cate romance. Cather­ine, still mourn­ing the loss of her betrothed, seeks solace in love, even if it’s a fig­ment. Her feel­ings arouse in Hen­ry a desire for emo­tion­al close­ness, some­thing he had relin­quished amidst the hor­rors of war­fare. When Hen­ry sus­tains injuries in com­bat, he is tak­en to a hos­pi­tal in Milan. Despite rec­om­men­da­tions for a six-month recu­per­a­tion peri­od fol­lowed by knee surgery, Hen­ry choos­es an imme­di­ate oper­a­tion per­formed by the dar­ing Dr. Valen­ti­ni. Con­cur­rent­ly, Cather­ine is trans­ferred to Milan, fos­ter­ing their bur­geon­ing bond. What began as a love affair of emp­ty promis­es and light-heart­ed ban­ter evolves into some­thing deep and authen­tic. After his recu­per­a­tion, Hen­ry is grant­ed a brief three-week fur­lough. Cather­ine dis­clos­es her preg­nan­cy to him, and they plan a get­away. Nev­er­the­less, a diag­no­sis of jaun­dice and alle­ga­tions of self-inflict­ed harm to evade duty lead to the can­cel­la­tion of Hen­ry’s leave. He is sent back to the front­line, where Ital­ian forces are endur­ing loss­es. Amid a retreat, Hen­ry steers his ambu­lance dri­vers off the main course, result­ing in a vio­lent con­fronta­tion with two engi­neers, one of whom he shoots. As their vehi­cles get stuck, the retreat tran­si­tions to a trek on foot. Anar­chy ensues, with senior offi­cers being exe­cut­ed, and Hen­ry nar­row­ly escapes cap­ture by mil­i­tary police. Plung­ing into a riv­er, he eludes cap­ture and boards a train to Milan, opt­ing to con­sid­er his mil­i­tary oblig­a­tions ful­filled. Reunit­ed with Cather­ine in Stre­sa, they escape to Switzer­land, forg­ing a serene exis­tence and putting the war behind them. Nev­er­the­less, their tran­quil­i­ty is shat­tered when Cather­ine goes into labor, result­ing in a still­born child and cul­mi­nat­ing in her trag­ic demise from a hem­or­rhage. Bereft and unable to bid farewell, Hen­ry trudges back to his lodg­ings in the midst of a downpour.

chapter 1

Lieu­tenant Hen­ry, the nar­ra­tive’s pro­tag­o­nist, describes the quaint Ital­ian vil­lage where he resides. It is the era of World War I, and sol­diers rou­tine­ly tra­verse the road to the near­by front­line. Com­man­ders zoom past in their “mod­est gray motor vehi­cles.” Hen­ry mus­es that if a vehi­cle is mov­ing excep­tion­al­ly fast, it is like­ly trans­port­ing the monarch, who fre­quents the bat­tle­ground near­ly every day. Win­ter her­alds a cat­a­stroph­ic cholera epi­dem­ic, result­ing in the demise of sev­en thou­sand soldiers.

chapter 2

Lieu­tenant Hen­ry and his unit relo­cate to Gorizia, a town dis­tant from the ongo­ing war in the far-off moun­tains. The town is in sat­is­fac­to­ry con­di­tion with charm­ing cafes and two dis­tinct broth­els cater­ing to offi­cers and enlist­ed per­son­nel. On a snowy win­ter day, Hen­ry joins his fel­low offi­cers in the mess hall. They joke about the war being on hia­tus due to the snow and pro­ceed to jest about their mil­i­tary cler­gy­man, insin­u­at­ing lewd­ly about his celiba­cy. Despite the ban­ter, the priest main­tains his good humor. Though not a believ­er, Hen­ry treats the priest with respect. Sub­se­quent­ly, the offi­cers delib­er­ate on where Hen­ry should spend his break. The priest pro­pos­es Abruzzi, his home­town, while the oth­ers sug­gest pop­u­lar des­ti­na­tions like Paler­mo, Capri, Rome, Naples, or Sici­ly. Con­ver­sa­tion soon veers towards opera singers before the offi­cers opt to vis­it the brothel.

chapter 3

Upon his return from leave, Hen­ry shares his trav­el exploits with his dor­m­mate, Rinal­di. Hen­ry men­tions he tra­versed Italy exten­sive­ly. Rinal­di, pre­oc­cu­pied with “exquis­ite women,” asserts there’s no need to search for such beau­ty else­where. He divulges that charm­ing Eng­lish ladies have been sta­tioned at the front, and he is infat­u­at­ed with a nurse named Cather­ine Barkley. Hen­ry loans him fifty lire, enabling Rinal­di to present him­self as a pros­per­ous indi­vid­ual to Cather­ine. Dur­ing din­ner, the priest takes offense that Hen­ry did not vis­it Abruzzi. A con­trite and intox­i­cat­ed Hen­ry explains he had intend­ed to vis­it but was hin­dered by cir­cum­stances. As din­ner con­cludes, the offi­cers resume teas­ing the priest.

chapter 4

Hen­ry is roused by the sounds of artillery the next morn­ing. He heads to the garage where ambu­lances are under­go­ing repairs and engages in a brief exchange with the mechan­ics. Sub­se­quent­ly, Rinal­di per­suades him to accom­pa­ny him to meet Miss Barkley at the British Hos­pi­tal. At the hos­pi­tal, Rinal­di con­vers­es with nurse Helen Fer­gu­son, afford­ing Hen­ry the oppor­tu­ni­ty to acquaint him­self with Cather­ine. Her beau­ty, par­tic­u­lar­ly her lengthy blonde locks, cap­ti­vate him. She pos­sess­es a small, rod-like object resem­bling a “toy rid­ing crop,” a memen­to from her depart­ed fiancé from the Somme con­flict. Inquir­ing if he has ever expe­ri­enced love, he refutes it. As they depart, Rinal­di notices Cather­ine’s appar­ent pref­er­ence for Hen­ry over him.

chapter 5

The next day, Hen­ry pays Cather­ine anoth­er vis­it. The head nurse ques­tions an Amer­i­can’s deci­sion to enlist in the Ital­ian forces. She informs him that Cather­ine will be on duty until 7 p.m. Hen­ry spends his day sur­vey­ing a road being con­struct­ed for an upcom­ing assault. Fol­low­ing his meal, he vis­its Cather­ine, find­ing her along­side Helen Fer­gu­son in the gar­den. Short­ly after, Helen departs, leav­ing them alone. They con­verse about Cather­ine’s duties, agree­ing to side­step war-relat­ed dis­cus­sions. Hen­ry tries to embrace her, met ini­tial­ly with resis­tance before she relents. An attempt to kiss her results in a slap from Cather­ine. Hen­ry amus­ing­ly reg­is­ters this devi­a­tion from the war top­ic. Even­tu­al­ly, Cather­ine per­mits him to kiss her, after which she tear­ful­ly remarks, “We’re going to have a strange life.” Upon return­ing home, Rinal­di teas­es him about his lovesick demeanor.

chapter 6

Hen­ry reunites with Cather­ine after a two-day hia­tus. She queries him about his affec­tion for her and invites him to address her by her first name. As they amble in the gar­den, she express­es her pro­found fond­ness for him and the ache of his absence. Despite think­ing she might be “prob­a­bly a lit­tle mad,” Hen­ry kiss­es her, unper­turbed. While not in love with Cather­ine, Hen­ry views their rela­tion­ship as a con­vo­lut­ed amuse­ment akin to bridge. Unex­pect­ed­ly, she acknowl­edges the arti­fice of their inter­ac­tions, remark­ing, “This is a wretched game we play, isn’t it?” She reas­sures him of her san­i­ty and, though their game con­cludes, he per­suades her to kiss him once more. Abrupt­ly, she ter­mi­nates the kiss and requests him to depart. Upon his return, Rinal­di dis­cerns Hen­ry’s roman­tic woes, express­ing relief at not being entan­gled with a British nurse.

chapter 7

Hen­ry, on his way back from his assign­ment, offers a ride to a sol­dier suf­fer­ing from a her­nia. The sol­dier admits to delib­er­ate­ly aban­don­ing his sup­port device to evade return­ing to the bat­tle­ground. Con­cerned about his supe­ri­ors know­ing these tac­tics, the sol­dier dis­cuss­es his anx­i­eties with Hen­ry. In a pecu­liar turn of events, Hen­ry pro­pos­es a method for the sol­dier to secure a hos­pi­tal stay by self-inflict­ing a head injury, which the sol­dier imple­ments. Mean­while, Hen­ry day­dreams about the impend­ing offen­sive only two days away, express­ing a desire to be in Milan with Cather­ine instead, savor­ing a pleas­ant evening with exquis­ite wine. Lat­er, dur­ing din­ner, the group imbibes in bev­er­ages and mocks the priest. Rinal­di assists an ine­bri­at­ed Hen­ry to the British hos­pi­tal, offer­ing him cof­fee beans to aid in sober­ing up. Upon arrival at the nurs­es’ vil­la, Helen Fer­gu­son informs Hen­ry that an unwell Cather­ine won’t be able to meet him. This news leaves Hen­ry with an unex­pect­ed feel­ing of ”soli­tude and emptiness.”

section 8

As the next day dawns, Hen­ry learns about a sched­uled assault for the evening. While en route to the front­line, pass­ing by the British hos­pi­tal, Hen­ry instructs his dri­ver to stop. Rush­ing to meet Cather­ine, Hen­ry briefs her on his impend­ing depar­ture for a ”show,” urg­ing her not to wor­ry. Before part­ing, Cather­ine presents him with a St. Antho­ny medal as a pro­tec­tive tal­is­man. After their encounter, Hen­ry reen­ters the car, con­tin­u­ing the jour­ney to Pavla, the await­ed battleground.

section 9

Dur­ing his stay in Pavla, Hen­ry observes trench­es brim­ming with artillery and Aus­tri­an bal­loons hov­er­ing over dis­tant ter­rains. A senior offi­cer warm­ly wel­comes Hen­ry and his dri­vers, accom­mo­dat­ing them in a bunker. Dis­cus­sions ensue regard­ing the mil­i­tary com­mand struc­ture, dur­ing which Hen­ry engages in a dia­logue con­cern­ing halt­ing the war. While Hen­ry argues against halt­ing the Ital­ian mil­i­tary action, Passi­ni, an ambu­lance dri­ver, respect­ful­ly presents a coun­ter­ar­gu­ment, empha­siz­ing that the con­flict would be nev­er-end­ing unless one side with­draws. In need of sus­te­nance, Hen­ry and anoth­er dri­ver, Gor­di­ni, pro­cure cold mac­a­roni and cheese from the cen­tral wound-dress­ing sta­tion. On their way back to the bunker, they get caught in a storm of explod­ing shells. Amid their meal, they are sud­den­ly hit by ”a flash, sim­i­lar to when a blast-fur­nace door swings open.” Strug­gling to breathe and fear­ing the worst, Hen­ry believes he is near­ing death. A trench mor­tar breach­es the bunker, result­ing in Passini’s demise and Gor­dini’s injury. The remain­ing two dri­vers, Gavuzzi and Man­era, trans­port Hen­ry to a wound-dress­ing sta­tion. There, a British physi­cian tends to Hen­ry’s severe­ly injured leg. Fol­low­ing the med­ical atten­tion, Hen­ry and the oth­er wound­ed indi­vid­u­als are loaded into an ambu­lance and dis­patched to a hospital.

section 10

Hen­ry endures immense suf­fer­ing at the mil­i­tary hos­pi­tal where he is being treat­ed. His com­pan­ion, Rinal­di, vis­its him and com­mends Hen­ry for his val­or in com­bat. Despite Hen­ry’s denial of any hero­ic deeds, Rinal­di stands firm in his con­vic­tion. Before depart­ing, Rinal­di gifts Hen­ry a bot­tle of cognac and ensures Cather­ine’s impend­ing visit.

section 11

As night falls, the priest pays a vis­it to Hen­ry, lament­ing his absence from the mess hall. Bring­ing gifts of mos­qui­to net­ting, ver­mouth, and Eng­lish news­pa­pers for Hen­ry, the priest is warm­ly received. They share in liba­tions and dis­course about the ongo­ing war. Hen­ry con­veys his dis­dain for the con­flict, prompt­ing the priest to out­line a divide among men: those who wage war and those who resist. Hen­ry reflects on his role in assist­ing the for­mer group, express­ing bleak sen­ti­ments. Ques­tion­ing the futil­i­ty of the war’s cul­mi­na­tion, Hen­ry seeks reas­sur­ance from the priest, who, although grap­pling with hope him­self, offers com­fort­ing words. The con­ver­sa­tion shifts to mat­ters of faith. Defi­ant against the offi­cers’ ridicule, the priest upholds his devo­tion, assert­ing that a man’s love for God is not a mat­ter for jest. While Hen­ry refrains from declar­ing love for God, he admits to occa­sion­al trep­i­da­tion. The priest clos­es the dis­cus­sion by acknowl­edg­ing the poten­tial for love with­in Hen­ry, dif­fer­en­ti­at­ing between phys­i­cal encoun­ters and gen­uine affec­tion. Despite the priest’s encour­age­ment of forth­com­ing gen­uine love, Hen­ry remains dubi­ous as the priest takes his leave, and Hen­ry drifts into slumber.

section 12

The med­ical staff is eager to trans­fer Hen­ry to Milan for advanced care for his injured leg. The urgency stems from the need to heal or relo­cate wound­ed sol­diers as hos­pi­tal space is required for the immi­nent offen­sive. On the night before Hen­ry’s depar­ture, Rinal­di and a major from his unit pay him a vis­it. Learn­ing of the U.S.‘s dec­la­ra­tion of war on Ger­many, the Ital­ians are abuzz with antic­i­pa­tion. Rinal­di inquires about a poten­tial dec­la­ra­tion of war on Aus­tria by Pres­i­dent Wil­son, with Hen­ry con­firm­ing its like­li­hood. Amid drinks and dis­cus­sions regard­ing the war and life in Milan, Rinal­di reveals that Cather­ine is assigned to a role at the Milan hos­pi­tal. The next day, Hen­ry embarks on his jour­ney to Milan, recount­ing his train ride where he imbibes until he retch­es on the floor.

section 13

Arriv­ing in Milan after two days, Hen­ry under­goes an uncom­fort­able trans­fer to the Amer­i­can hos­pi­tal by
two dri­vers, caus­ing him con­sid­er­able dis­tress. His encounter is with a gray-haired nurse, Mrs. Walk­er, who appears some­what absent-mind­ed and unable to assign him a room with­out a physi­cian’s approval. Per­suad­ing the dri­vers to place him in a room, Hen­ry even­tu­al­ly falls asleep. The fol­low­ing day, a young nurse named Miss Gage attends to him, check­ing his tem­per­a­ture. Sub­se­quent­ly, Mrs. Walk­er and Miss Gage change his bed­ding. Lat­er in the day, Miss Van Camp­en, the hos­pi­tal’s super­in­ten­dent, extends her intro­duc­tion. Ten­sions seem evi­dent between her and Hen­ry. Despite Hen­ry’s request for wine with his meals, Miss Van Camp­en denies it unless autho­rized by a doc­tor. Even­tu­al­ly, Hen­ry arranges for a porter to deliv­er some wine and news­pa­pers. In a rec­on­cil­ia­to­ry ges­ture before retir­ing for the night, Miss Van Camp­en sends him a serv­ing of eggnog blend­ed with sherry.

section 14

In the morn­ing, Miss Gage dis­cov­ers a bot­tle of ver­mouth under Hen­ry’s bed. Rather than scold­ing him, she express­es her dis­ap­point­ment in not being invit­ed for a drink. Men­tion­ing Miss Barkley’s arrival at the hos­pi­tal and her dis­ap­proval, Hen­ry reas­sures her con­vic­tion that per­cep­tions may change. A bar­ber arrives per Hen­ry’s request for a shave but treats him dis­re­spect­ful­ly. The porter divulges that the bar­ber mis­took Hen­ry for an Aus­tri­an sol­dier and almost harmed him, find­ing humor in the mis­tak­en iden­ti­ty. Post their depar­ture, Cather­ine enters. It is in this moment that Hen­ry real­izes his affec­tion for her, pulling her into bed as they embrace inti­ma­cy for the first time.

section 15

Encoun­ter­ing a diminu­tive and fee­ble physi­cian, Hen­ry under­goes a pro­ce­dure to remove shrap­nel from his injury. How­ev­er, the physi­cian soon tires from the exer­tion and sends Hen­ry for an X‑ray.

a group of health­care providers assess­es Hen­ry’s health and rec­om­mends a half-year delay before surgery. Hen­ry play­ful­ly sug­gests opt­ing for leg removal instead of endur­ing extend­ed bed rest. Con­se­quent­ly, he seeks a sec­ond med­ical view­point. Dr. Valen­ti­ni, an opti­mistic and skilled physi­cian, vis­its him a cou­ple of hours lat­er. After shar­ing a bev­er­age with Hen­ry, Valen­ti­ni agrees to per­form the nec­es­sary oper­a­tion the next day.

chapter 16

Cather­ine and Hen­ry pass the night togeth­er in his cham­ber, observ­ing the noc­tur­nal sur­round­ings and the sweep of a search­light. Despite Hen­ry voic­ing con­cerns about poten­tial detec­tion, Cather­ine reas­sures him that every­one else is asleep. In the morn­ing, while Hen­ry pon­ders hav­ing break­fast out­doors, Cather­ine read­ies him for his impend­ing surgery. He invites her to stay in bed, but she declines, fore­see­ing his prob­a­ble lack of inter­est in her com­pan­ion­ship post-surgery due to the effects of anes­the­sia. She advis­es him against reveal­ing their liai­son dur­ing his post-oper­a­tive chat­ti­ness. As they dis­cuss their rela­tion­ship, she inquires about his past part­ners. He denies any, and though she sees through his false­hood, she feels satisfied.

chapter 17

Fol­low­ing the surgery, Hen­ry’s health dete­ri­o­rates sig­nif­i­cant­ly. Amid his recov­ery, three new patients are admit­ted to the hos­pi­tal; a young man from Geor­gia and anoth­er from New York, both afflict­ed with malar­ia, and a third indi­vid­ual who tried to dis­man­tle an explo­sive shell as a memen­to. Helen Fer­gu­son, whom Hen­ry starts respect­ing, facil­i­tates com­mu­ni­ca­tion between him and Cather­ine while she is on duty. He extends an invi­ta­tion to her for their antic­i­pat­ed nup­tials, though Helen remains dubi­ous about their inten­tions. Con­cerned about Cather­ine’s wel­fare, Helen con­vinces Hen­ry that Cather­ine requires a break. He open­ly dis­cuss­es this with Miss Gage, advo­cat­ing for Cather­ine’s respite. After a three-day inter­lude, Cather­ine returns to Hen­ry, and they share a fer­vent reunion.

chapter 18

Through­out the sum­mer, Hen­ry mas­ters the use of crutch­es for walk­ing while he and Cather­ine strength­en their con­nec­tion in Milan. They strike up a friend­ship with the head wait­er at the Gran Italia eatery. Cather­ine spends her evenings with Hen­ry, and they play at being mar­ried, though Hen­ry secret­ly enjoys their unwed­ded sta­tus. They broach the top­ic of mar­riage, but Cather­ine exhibits resis­tance, con­vinced that as a mar­ried woman, she would be dis­tanced from the front­line. She asserts that mar­i­tal sta­tus holds no impor­tance: “I couldn’t be any more mar­ried.” She pledges her fideli­ty to Hen­ry, reas­sur­ing him that despite the cer­tain­ty of “all sorts of dread­ful things will hap­pen to us,” infi­deli­ty won’t be among them.

chapter 19

In his spare time, Hen­ry social­izes with var­i­ous indi­vid­u­als from Milan, includ­ing the Mey­ers­es, an elder­ly cou­ple who have a fond­ness for horse rac­ing. After meet­ing the Mey­ers­es, Hen­ry pur­chas­es choco­lates for Cather­ine from a near­by shop. At a local bar, he encoun­ters Ettore Moret­ti, an Ital­ian-Amer­i­can sol­dier, along with Ralph Sim­mons and Edgar Saun­ders, both opera vocal­ists. Ettore boasts about his acco­lades, lead­ing Hen­ry to deem him a “legit­i­mate hero,” albeit a dull one. Upon return­ing to the hos­pi­tal, he con­vers­es with Cather­ine, who dis­ap­proves of Ettore, pre­fer­ring more refined, Eng­lish heroes. As their con­ver­sa­tion pro­gress­es, rain begins to fall. Cather­ine artic­u­lates her appre­hen­sion about rain, insist­ing that it is “very hard on lov­ing,” and breaks down in tears until Hen­ry con­soles her.

chapter 20

Hen­ry, Cather­ine, Helen, nick­named “Fer­gie” or “Fer­gu­son,” and an injured boy attend a horse race, rely­ing on tips from the typ­i­cal­ly suc­cess­ful Mey­ers. While Cather­ine watch­es a less­er-known race, she notices a horse of unusu­al col­or and spec­u­lates that it might be a covert cham­pi­on, giv­en the alleged cor­rup­tion in Ital­ian horse rac­ing. Despite bet­ting on this horse, their win­nings are mod­est. Grow­ing weary of the crowds, Cather­ine and Hen­ry opt to enjoy the remain­ing races in soli­tude, rev­el­ing in each oth­er’s companionship.

chapter 21

As autumn draws near, the Allied forces face sig­nif­i­cant chal­lenges. A British offi­cer alerts Hen­ry that their forces could face defeat with­in a year if the cur­rent con­di­tions per­sist. Nev­er­the­less, he con­tends that it’s bear­able as long as no one acknowl­edges it. With Hen­ry’s leg recu­per­at­ing, he is grant­ed a three-week respite before head­ing back to the bat­tle­field. Cather­ine sug­gests accom­pa­ny­ing him dur­ing this peri­od and reveals she is three months preg­nant. She express­es appre­hen­sion about bur­den­ing Hen­ry, but he assures her, express­ing con­tent­ment and admi­ra­tion for her. They dis­cuss poten­tial obsta­cles ahead. Hen­ry sug­gests that the valiant con­front death once, while the timid face it mul­ti­ple times. Nei­ther can recall the source of this asser­tion. Cather­ine revis­es Hen­ry’s remark, stat­ing that intel­li­gent and coura­geous men may encounter death repeat­ed­ly but refrain from dis­cussing it.

chapter 22

At day­break, Hen­ry is diag­nosed with jaun­dice as rain cas­cades out­side. Miss Van Camp­en dis­cov­ers dis­card­ed alco­hol con­tain­ers in his room and attrib­ut­es his ill­ness to exces­sive drink­ing. She sus­pects he feigned sick­ness to evade a return to the front­lines. Res­olute, she clears all alco­hol from his quar­ters and vows to impede his heal­ing break by fil­ing a report — a task she accom­plish­es effectively.

chapter 23

Hen­ry pre­pares to rejoin the front line. He bids farewell at the hos­pi­tal and explores the city. Encoun­ter­ing Cather­ine at a café, he invites her to accom­pa­ny him. They chance upon a cou­ple open­ly express­ing their affec­tion out­side a church. Hen­ry remarks, “They’re like us,” elic­it­ing a sor­row­ful response from Cather­ine, “Nobody is like us.” They vis­it a firearms empo­ri­um where Hen­ry pro­cures a new firearm and ammu­ni­tion. Once out­side, they share an impas­sioned kiss, echo­ing the cou­ple they wit­nessed ear­li­er. Hen­ry sug­gests find­ing a more seclud­ed spot, a pro­pos­al to which Cather­ine agrees, lead­ing them to a hotel. Despite the lav­ish set­ting and Cather­ine’s acqui­si­tion of an expen­sive night­gown, she can’t shake off a sense of wrong­do­ing. How­ev­er, this feel­ing dis­si­pates after their meal. Hen­ry recites, “‘But at my back I always hear / Time’s wingèd char­i­ot hur­ry­ing near,’” a poet­ic verse famil­iar to Cather­ine from the writ­ings of Andrew Mar­vell. Hen­ry express­es con­cerns about Cather­ine’s impend­ing child­birth; she assures him of her resilience and pledges to cre­ate a wel­com­ing home for him upon his return.

chapter 24

Hen­ry hails a cab to con­vey him­self and Cather­ine from the lodg­ings to the rail­way sta­tion. Upon arrival, he directs her to the hos­pi­tal, urg­ing her to care for her­self and “lit­tle Cather­ine.” A minor com­mo­tion unfolds on the crowd­ed train.Henry man­aged to acquire a place thanks to a machine-gun­ner, caus­ing a tall and slim cap­tain to express dis­sat­is­fac­tion. Ulti­mate­ly, Hen­ry sur­ren­ders his place to the cap­tain and decides to rest on the floor.

Chapter 25

Return­ing to Gorizia, Hen­ry engages in a dis­cus­sion about the con­flict with the town’s chief offi­cer, who remarks on the chal­leng­ing sum­mer. The chief offi­cer is pleased to hear about Hen­ry’s hon­ors and deems his injury well-timed. Shar­ing his weari­ness with the war, the chief offi­cer ques­tions his will­ing­ness to return if giv­en the chance to leave the bat­tle­field. Hen­ry then seeks out Rinal­di, pon­der­ing about Cather­ine while await­ing his arrival. When Rinal­di appears, he is delight­ed to see Hen­ry and express­es indig­na­tion at his friend’s deci­sion to go back to war with an injured knee. Rinal­di inquires about Hen­ry’s mar­i­tal sta­tus and roman­tic life, tact­less­ly dis­cussing Cather­ine’s per­for­mance in the bed­room. This dis­pleas­es Hen­ry, who con­sid­ers cer­tain sub­jects to be “sacred”. They toast to Cather­ine with a bev­er­age and join the mod­est assem­bly at din­ner, where Rinal­di attempts to light­en the mood by teas­ing the clergyman.

Chapter 26

After fin­ish­ing their meal, Hen­ry engages in a con­ver­sa­tion with the cler­gy­man. The cler­gy­man shares his belief that the con­flict might soon come to an end, with­out spec­i­fy­ing his rea­son­ing. How­ev­er, Hen­ry remains skep­ti­cal. The cler­gy­man notices a change in the men, using the “gen­tle” chief offi­cer as an exam­ple. Hen­ry reflects on how the hard­ship of defeat might have soft­ened the men. Cit­ing the sto­ry of Jesus Christ, he sug­gests that his meek­ness stemmed from endur­ing oppres­sion. Hen­ry admits to los­ing faith in the idea of tri­umph. When ques­tioned about his beliefs by the cler­gy­man, he sim­ply replies, “In sleep.”

Chapter 27

Hen­ry embarks on a jour­ney to the Bain­siz­za moun­tains, an area of intense com­bat. He encoun­ters a man named Gino, who speaks of for­mi­da­ble Aus­tri­an artillery. They dis­cuss the vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty of the Ital­ian mil­i­tary to Croa­t­ian forces, with Gino empha­siz­ing that if an Aus­tri­an assault occurs, the Ital­ians have no escape. He argues that the loss­es over the sum­mer were not futile, lead­ing Hen­ry to con­tem­plate his dis­com­fort with abstract terms like “sacred, glo­ri­ous, and sac­ri­fice”. He val­ues con­crete real­i­ties such as vil­lage names and street num­bers more. A heavy rain­fall occurs that night, fol­lowed by an ene­my attack. The morn­ing reveals the inclu­sion of Ger­mans in the assault team, spark­ing sig­nif­i­cant con­cern among the Ital­ians, who have had lim­it­ed con­tact with the Ger­mans and pre­fer to uphold this dis­tance. Lat­er that night, news spreads that the Ital­ian defense line has been breached, prompt­ing a large-scale retreat. Dur­ing the retreat, Hen­ry observes women from a local broth­el being trans­port­ed in a truck in Gorizia. Bonel­lo, a dri­ver under Hen­ry, vol­un­teers to accom­pa­ny the women. Upon reach­ing the vil­la, they find it desert­ed as Rinal­di has depart­ed for the hos­pi­tal. Hen­ry, Bonel­lo, Piani, and Aymo pause to rest and eat before con­tin­u­ing with their retreat.

Chapter 28

The troops march steadi­ly through the town, form­ing an end­less line of with­draw­ing sol­diers and vehi­cles. Hen­ry steals a moment to rest, but upon awak­en­ing, dis­cov­ers the line halt­ed. He leaves his vehi­cle to check on his men and finds two engi­neer­ing offi­cers hitch­ing a ride in Bonel­lo’s car, while Aymo is accom­pa­nied by two women. Though ini­tial­ly wary of Aymo, he man­ages to con­vince them that he pos­es no threat. Hen­ry returns to Piani’s car for anoth­er bout of rest, dream­ing and mur­mur­ing about Cather­ine. By night­fall, local vil­lagers join the mil­i­tary with­draw­al. At dawn, Hen­ry and his team opt to devi­ate from the main group, tak­ing a less-trav­eled road north­wards. They pause at an aban­doned farm­house, enjoy­ing a hearty break­fast before resum­ing their journey.

Chapter 29

Aymo’s vehi­cle gets stuck in the swampy ter­rain, prompt­ing the sol­diers to hasti­ly gath­er foliage to pro­vide trac­tion under the tires. Hen­ry instructs the two engi­neers with Bonel­lo to assist, but they decline out of fear of the approach­ing ene­my. When they attempt to desert, Hen­ry shoots one while the oth­er flees. Bonel­lo dis­patch­es the injured man with Hen­ry’s weapon. Despite efforts using brush­wood and even cloth­ing for trac­tion, the car sinks deep­er into the mire. They switch to anoth­er vehi­cle but soon become trapped again. Hen­ry gives some mon­ey to the two girls accom­pa­ny­ing Aymo, direct­ing them to a near­by town. The sol­diers then pro­ceed on foot to Udine.

Chapter 30

Hen­ry and his group spot a Ger­man car and armed cyclists in the dis­tance. To avoid them, they opt for small­er roads instead of the main route. While on the move, they encounter gun­fire, result­ing in Aymo’s death. The rev­e­la­tion that they were shot by their own com­rades leaves them shak­en. Seek­ing refuge in an aban­doned farm­house till dusk. Hen­ry stays in the hayloft while Piani and Bonel­lo seek out pro­vi­sions. How­ev­er, Bonel­lo deserts the group, hop­ing to be cap­tured to avoid death. The remain­ing men stay hid­den until night­fall, then try to reunite with the Ital­ian group. They come across a large team where offi­cers are being accused and inter­ro­gat­ed for their role in the Ital­ian defeat. Sud­den­ly, mil­i­tary police grab Hen­ry. He wit­ness­es an offi­cer being tak­en away and exe­cut­ed. Seiz­ing an oppor­tu­ni­ty, Hen­ry jumps into the water and swims away. Ini­tial­ly, gun­fire can be heard, but it recedes as he moves fur­ther from the shore.

Chapter 31

Hen­ry spends a sig­nif­i­cant time in the frigid riv­er before emerg­ing, dis­card­ing the offi­cer’s stars from his uni­form, and check­ing his remain­ing cash. Lat­er that day, he tra­vers­es the Venet­ian plain and man­ages to sneak onto a mil­i­tary train. Pan­ick­ing when a young sol­dier with an over­sized hel­met notices him, the sol­dier mis­tak­en­ly iden­ti­fies Hen­ry as one of their own and dis­re­gards him. Hen­ry con­ceals him­self in a com­part­ment filled with weapons, acci­den­tal­ly injur­ing his head under a large can­vas cov­er. He waits for his wound to stop bleed­ing and care­ful­ly cleans off the dried blood from his fore­head to avoid draw­ing atten­tion when he disembarks.

Chapter 32

Exhaust­ed and hid­den under a can­vas, Hen­ry con­tem­plates the resilience of the knee oper­at­ed on by Dr. Valen­ti­ni. His thoughts are con­sumed by Cather­ine, though he fears that long­ing for her with­out hope of reunion could lead him to mad­ness. He is tor­ment­ed by feel­ings of bereave­ment. With­out his team, a mil­i­tary unit to return to, and mem­o­ries of com­rades like the priest and Rinal­di, he believes his part in the con­flict has con­clud­ed. “It was not my show any­more,” he mus­es. How­ev­er, his phys­i­cal needs soon over­ride his con­tem­pla­tions. He craves food, drink, and rest with Cather­ine, envi­sion­ing spir­it­ing her away to safety.

Chapter 33

Hen­ry alights from the train upon arriv­ing at Milan. He stops by a local win­ery for a mug of cof­fee, declin­ing the pro­pri­etor’s offer of help as he assures he’s not fac­ing any trou­ble. Togeth­er, they rel­ish a glass of wine before Hen­ry pro­ceeds to the hos­pi­tal. At the entrance, the door­man informs him that Cather­ine has moved to Stre­sa. Hen­ry then ren­dezvous with Ralph Sim­mons, a well-known opera singer, seek­ing infor­ma­tion on Swiss trav­el pro­ce­dures. Sim­mons presents Hen­ry with a set of ordi­nary clothes, wish­ing him well as he sets off for Stresa.

chapter 34

Embark­ing on the jour­ney to Stre­sa via train, Hen­ry feels out of place in unfa­mil­iar garb, met with dis­ap­proval as a youth­ful non­com­bat­ant. Nonethe­less, he brush­es off the crit­i­cism, hav­ing made peace with the con­flict with­in him­self. Upon reach­ing Stre­sa, he checks into the Isles Bor­romées hotel, book­ing a com­fort­able room and inform­ing the concierge of his wife’s expect­ed arrival. Emilio, a bar­tender, shares insights about two British nurs­es stay­ing near­by. Hen­ry dines with Emilio but steers clear of mil­i­tary dis­cus­sions, leav­ing the war in the past. Upon arrival at the nurs­es’ hotel, Cather­ine greets him with joy, while Helen express­es dis­plea­sure, blam­ing him for upset­ting her friend’s life. Unfazed by Helen’s dis­ap­proval, both Cather­ine and Hen­ry stand firm, leav­ing Helen in tears. Hen­ry cher­ish­es a night with Cather­ine, his hap­pi­ness shad­owed by the harsh truth that life is unfor­giv­ing, and death does not dis­crim­i­nate based on moral­i­ty. The next day, Hen­ry declines the news­pa­per. Cather­ine ques­tions whether his past expe­ri­ences are too painful to revis­it, and he promis­es to address them once he has come to terms with them. He acknowl­edges feel­ing guilty about desert­ing the mil­i­tary, but Cather­ine jok­ing­ly dis­miss­es his remorse, remind­ing him that he left the Ital­ian army. They dream of escap­ing to Switzer­land and return to their quarters.

chapter 35

Sub­se­quent­ly, Cather­ine vis­its Helen while Hen­ry joins Emilio for a fish­ing excur­sion. Emilio offers Hen­ry the use of his boat when­ev­er he desires. Hen­ry, Cather­ine, and Helen Fer­gu­son share a meal togeth­er. Also stay­ing at the hotel is Count Gref­fi, a 94-year-old noble­man whom Hen­ry had befriend­ed dur­ing a pri­or vis­it to Stre­sa, accom­pa­nied by his niece. Lat­er that evening, Hen­ry engages in a game of bil­liards with the count. They con­verse about the coun­t’s mis­con­cep­tions of devel­op­ing reli­gious fer­vor with age and assess Italy’s prospects in the war.

chapter 36

In the dead of night, Emilio awak­ens Hen­ry, reveal­ing that the mil­i­tary police plan to detain him at day­break. He sug­gests that Hen­ry and Cather­ine flee to Switzer­land by boat. Upon wak­ing Cather­ine, they swift­ly gath­er their belong­ings and make their way to the dock. Emilio pro­vides them with sand­wich­es and brandy, allow­ing them to depart on his boat. He accepts fifty lire for the pro­vi­sions, direct­ing Hen­ry to for­ward him five hun­dred francs for the boat once they’re set­tled in Switzerland.

chapter 37

Hen­ry rows cease­less­ly through the tumul­tuous sea until his hands grow numb from exer­tion. Cather­ine briefly takes over row­ing before Hen­ry resumes. After evad­ing cus­toms offi­cials for numer­ous hours, they final­ly reach Switzer­land. They have break­fast and, as expect­ed, are appre­hend­ed by Swiss author­i­ties and tak­en to Locarno. There, they are grant­ed tem­po­rary visas to remain in Switzer­land. The offi­cials amus­ing­ly debate on the best loca­tion for win­ter sports for the cou­ple. Exhaust­ed yet relieved, Cather­ine and Hen­ry retire to a hotel, falling into instant slumber.

chapter 38

Hen­ry and Cather­ine move to a moun­tain dwelling out­side Mon­treux dur­ing autumn. They lead a con­tent­ed life, fre­quent­ly inter­act­ing with their neigh­bors down­stairs, Mr. Gut­tin­gen and his wife, and tak­ing leisure­ly strolls in the serene neigh­bor­ing vil­lages. When Cather­ine decides to style her hair, they opt for a beer, believ­ing it might aid in keep­ing their unborn child small due to Cather­ine’s con­cerns about her nar­row pelvis, as high­light­ed by the doc­tor. The cou­ple dis­cuss­es future plans of mar­riage, pri­mar­i­ly to legit­i­mate their child, but Cather­ine is keen on the des­ti­na­tions they will explore as Amer­i­cans, such as Nia­gara Falls and the Gold­en Gate Bridge. As Christ­mas approach­es and snow falls, Cather­ine ques­tions Hen­ry’s sat­is­fac­tion. Though he denies feel­ing rest­less, he does miss his com­pan­ions on the front lines. Attempt­ing to ease his rest­less­ness, Cather­ine pro­pos­es he grow a beard. She even sug­gests she trim her hair to match Hen­ry’s, a notion he does­n’t favor. They try to syn­chro­nize their sleep, but Hen­ry strug­gles to doze off, spend­ing the time observ­ing Cather­ine and pondering.

chapter 39

By mid-Jan­u­ary, Hen­ry’s beard has ful­ly grown. Dur­ing a walk, he and Cather­ine pause at a dim, smoky tav­ern, rel­ish­ing their seclu­sion and con­tem­plat­ing whether the arrival of their “lit­tle brat” would dis­rupt their tran­quil­i­ty. Cather­ine plans to cut her hair after child­birth, once she regains her slen­der fig­ure, hop­ing to be “excit­ing” and reignite Hen­ry’s affec­tion for her. How­ev­er, he reas­sures her of his exist­ing love and jests, “What do you want to do? Ruin me?”

chapter 40

Come March, the cou­ple moves to Lau­sanne, clos­er to the med­ical facil­i­ty. Their stay at a local hotel spans three weeks. Cather­ine busies her­self with acquir­ing baby clothes, while Hen­ry devotes time to the fit­ness cen­ter. Sens­ing the immi­nent arrival of their child, they cher­ish their remain­ing moments together.

chapter 41

In the ear­ly hours, Cather­ine goes into labor. Hen­ry escorts her to the hos­pi­tal, lat­er depart­ing for break­fast as she insists. Upon his return, he dis­cov­ers she’s been moved to the deliv­ery room. Under the influ­ence of anes­thet­ic gas, Cather­ine bat­tles her ago­niz­ing con­trac­tions while the doc­tor super­vis­es. Post-lunch, Hen­ry learns that the gas has left Cather­ine light-head­ed, and her labor has­n’t pro­gressed ade­quate­ly, prompt­ing the doc­tor to rec­om­mend a Cae­sare­an pro­ce­dure. Amidst severe pain, Cather­ine requests more gas and is even­tu­al­ly wheeled in for surgery. Lat­er, the doc­tor emerges with a new­born boy, towards whom Hen­ry feels an inex­plic­a­ble indif­fer­ence. Bypass­ing the baby, he rush­es to Cather­ine, con­sol­ing her about their son’s state, receiv­ing a puz­zled glance from a nurse. Direct­ed out­side, he is informed that the baby suf­fo­cat­ed due to the umbil­i­cal cord before birth. Fol­low­ing din­ner, a nurse informs Hen­ry that Cather­ine is los­ing exces­sive blood. Anx­ious­ly fear­ing her demise, he awaits news. Upon see­ing her, she calm­ly accepts her impend­ing death and requests him not to repeat the endear­ments he once expressed to her with oth­er women. Remain­ing by her side till the end, Hen­ry departs the hos­pi­tal, walk­ing back to his hotel in the rain.