Dos Passos

Related Webs:

On Hills Like White Elephants

A "Hills" Forum

Dos Passos, John. "[The 'Best Written Book']" In Monteiro, George, ed.
Critical Essays on Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms. New
York: G.K. Hall & Co., 1994: 89-90.

Dos Passos defined Hemingway's good writing as "terse and economical, in which each sentence and each phrase bears its maximum load of meaning, sense impressions, emotion" (89) He singles out these scenes--

	the first chapter [often likened to an "overture," which announces or previews the major themes of a musical drama]
	the talk in the officers' mess in Gorizia
	the scene in the dressing station when the narrator is wounded
	the paragraph describing the ride to Milan in the hospital train
	the talked with the British major about how everybody's cooked in the war
	the whole description of the disaster of Caporetto to the end of the chapter where the battlepolice are shooting the officers as they cross the bridge
	the caesarian operation in which the girl dies (89)

Dos Passos also praises the first half of the novel as fine history of that sector of World War I. He also notes that writers were generally growing in esteem and that the book business was thriving, noting "Even good books sell" (90). Finally, he praises the craftsmanship of this novel in an era of mass production.

Copyright3.gif (24311 bytes) Copyright and Permission: This web on Ernest Hemingway's early novel was begun under a small grant from the VCCS, which holds copyright. © 2001 by the Virginia Community College System. This web was made by Dr. Eric Hibbison, Professor of English and Chief Chair, VCCS Regional Centers for Teaching Excellence (1998-2002). Materials in this web may be used free for educational purposes, but this web should not be behind a portal for which users must pay a fee without written permission from the VCCS. If you're an educator using this web, please inform ehibbison@jsr.vccs.edu, especially if you'd like contact with other educators who are using this web.