Art, literature & culture

Publication of For Whom the Bell Tolls

21 October 1940

For Whom the Bell Tolls is a novel by Ernest Hemingway, set during the Spanish Civil War. It follows Robert Jordan, an American volunteer and explosives expert who is sent to a band of Republican guerrillas in the mountains to blow up a bridge as part of an offensive. Over three days he falls in love with a young woman, María, and sees the brutality and moral conflict of the war on both sides. The title comes from a meditation by the poet John Donne about human connection. The book was a bestseller, became a film in 1943 and is regarded as one of Hemingway's major works.

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