Reading Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls. Glossary and Commentary by Alex Vernon (review)

Reviewed by: Reading Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls. Glossary and Commentary by Alex Vernon Frederick H. White Reading Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls. Glossary and Commentary. By Alex Vernon. Kent State UP, 2024. 408 pp. Paperback 42. 95. More than 80 years after the publication of Ernest Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls, Alex Vernon's task was to make the novel "come alive" again (ix). For a new generation of readers, the Spanish Civil War no longer has the same immediacy. Yet, for Hemingway and his Lost Generation it represented an incredible clash of political ideologies that could either prevent or propel nations toward another world war. With Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy supplying Francisco Franco's military coup, meant to topple the duly elected leftist government, the Soviet Union and Mexico rallied to the Republican side. Tens-of-thousands joined the fight, on the side of the Republic, as members of the International Brigade. Hemingway was just one of many foreign journalists who covered this civil war. After several trips to Spain, he returned to Cuba to write his novel, one that he intended to be an honest depiction of the conflict. Therefore, Vernon's task was not an easy one. And yet, Reading Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls offers valuable information that enriches and enlivens Hemingway's novel for students, Hemingway buffs, and the conscientious reader. Vernon begins with an overview of the last 80 years, explaining why For Whom the Bell Tolls has had its critics and its acolytes. The essential question posed, however, is: how might we now read the novel for our own personal reading pleasure or as part of a course or to bolster our understanding of Hemingway? Vernon suggests that the novel might be situated as an example of romantic realism in that it "mashes up genres, influences, and traditions" (xvi). In For Whom the Bell Tolls Hemingway experiments with language in new ways, trying to reproduce Spanish grammatical concepts, syntax, and phrases in English, while also forgoing his minimalist "journalese" style of writing. The Spanish Civil War left deep scars in many countries and has "inspired more books than the Second World War" (xix). And yet, Hemingway's novel transcends its own historical context, which is one of the reasons for Vernon's (re) reading of For Whom the Bell Tolls now. Most importantly, what might we learn of Hemingway's own experience in Spain at the end of the 1930s? Were his views radically different from the many other foreigners who came to fight for the Spanish Republic? The majority of Vernon's book then is organized, as noted in the title, as a glossary and commentary, beginning with Hemingway's dedication to Marth End Page 101 Gellhorn, his third wife. The text is structured, as is the novel, according to the days of Robert Jordan's mission to blow-up a strategic bridge, beginning with 28 May 1937. In great detail, this book offers valuable information, line-byline and chapter-by-chapter, on everything, such as rope-soled shoes (17), the prison at Valladolid (41), and whippet tanks (309). Each of these references have not only a real value within the novel, but also a symbolic meaning that Vernon explains. More importantly, the many real personages of the Spanish Civil War are discussed. This includes the Spaniards such as Juan Modesto (179) and Buenaventura Durruti (274) ; the Soviets such as Mikhail Koltsov (180) and Ivan Kashkin (30) ; those of the International Brigade such as Máté Zalka (300) and André Marty (127). In a conflict in which almost everyone had an alias, these entries are extremely helpful. They also underline the truly international nature of this conflict. That said, Vernon makes clear the strong political and organizational role played by the Soviet Union. In fact, the main character Robert Jordan, in earlier drafts of the novel, was a communist. Strategically, Hemingway made the change to an "antifascist" because he wanted to secure a Book-of-the-Month club contract. As Vernon notes, three-fourths of American volunteers in Spain were communists and, as a result, "antifascist" was synonymous with "communist" (70–71. . .