Book Summaries

Book 1 (I-XII)
The book A Farewell to Arms begins with our narrator, Lieutenant Henry, describing the small Italian village in which he lives during World War I. When a cholera epidemic hits part of the Italian army, killing seven thousand men, Henry is moved to a new location in Gorizia that is further away from the fighting. While in Gorizia, many of the officers enlisted in the army make fun of the military priest, constantly taunting him. Many of them also retire back to brothels in Gorizia at the end of the day, but Lt. Henry does not follow along in either of these activities. Lt. Henry’s roommate, a surgeon and lieutenant named Rinaldi urges Lt. Henry to come with him to a British hospital to Rinaldi's love interest, Catherine Barkley; instead, Catherine and Lt. Henry take a liking to each other and form a relationship.
After spending many days at his post and also visiting Catherine, Lt. Henry is notified of an attack that is scheduled for that night in Pavla. He tells Catherine that he is off to fight and she gives him a medal for good luck. At Pavla, Lt. Henry and his drivers are installed in a dugout where many shells are fired, and a trench mortar explodes through their dugout. Lt.Henry’s leg and knee are injured and he is taken to a hospital nearby where he is decorated for his heroism in battle.
The priest comes to visit Henry later that night, and they discuss the war over drinks. The priest explains that there are two types of men: those who would make war, and those who would not. The priest tells Lt. Henry that he has a competence for love, and that instead of sleeping with multiple women in brothels, he fully gives himself to another human being. Later, the priest leaves and Lt. Henry goes to sleep.
Lt. Henry's doctors want to ship him to Milan where he can receive better medical attention on his injured leg and knee; hospital beds also need to be cleared for incoming men before the offensive part of the war begins. Before leaving, Rinaldi and another major come to visit Lt. Henry and deliver the news that America has just declared war on Germany. Rinaldi also tells Lt. Henry that Catherine will be working at the hospital in Milan where he is being sent. The three men get drunk and discuss the war. The next morning, Lt. Henry sets out for Milan.

Book Two (XIII-XXIV)

Lt. Henry arrives at an American hospital in Milan, where he is greeted by a gray haired nurse named Mrs. Walker. He spends his first night there, and the next morning gets his temperature taken by another nurse named Miss Gage. In the afternoon, the superintendent of the hospital, Miss Van Campen, appears and introduces herself. She and Henry immediately dislike each other. Lt. Henry wants wine with his meals, but Miss Van Campen will not give it to him unless it is prescribed by a doctor. Later, Miss Van Campen sends him eggnog spiked with sherry to make up for their disputes.

While in the hospital, Lt. Henry requests a barber to shave him. A thin doctor removes some shrapnel from his injured leg, and he also gets X-rays. Catherine enters Lt. Henry’s hospital room and he realizes that he is in love with her. He then pulls her onto the bed and they share a “romantic time together.” When looking at the X-rays, doctors at the hospital agree that Henry should wait six months before having an operation, but Lt. Henry said that he would rather have his leg amputated than wait that long in a bed. He wants a second opinion and a couple of hours later Doctor Valentini arrives, has a drink with him, and agrees to perform the operation in the morning. Catherine spends the night in Henry’s room, and in morning prepares him for his operation.
After his leg operation, Henry becomes sick. While recovering, three other patients come to the hospital, two of which are infected with jaundice. Henry grows an appreciation for Helen Ferguson (Fergie) who helps him pass notes to Catherine while she is on duty.

That summer, Lt.Henry learns to walk on crutches. He spends lots of time with Catherine and they discuss marriage. They come to the conclusion that instead of getting married they will just be loyal to one another. When Lt. Henry is not with Catherine, he sometimes spends time with an older couple named the Meyers. When back at the hospital, Catherine and Lt. Henry talk as it starts to rain. Catherine is very fearful of the rain because she thinks that it is very “hard on loving.” She cries and he comforts her. Sometimes during the summer, Catherine and Lt. Henry also go to horse races with Helen Ferguson and bet.

By September, the Allied forces of the Italian army are suffering. As Lt. Henry’s leg is nearly healed, he receives three weeks of convalescent leave. Catherine tells him that she is three months pregnant and discusses some of the obstacles that they will face. The next morning, it begins to rain and Lt. Henry is diagnosed with jaundice. Miss Van Campen finds liquor bottles in his room and blames alcoholism for his condition. Because of her findings, she reports Lt. Henry and his three weeks of convalescent leave are revoked, so he prepares to travel back to the front.

The next day, Catherine and Lt. Henry are walking along the street when they spot two lovers. Lt. Henry says that they are just like them, but Catherine responds saying “Nobody is like us.” He suggests that they go somewhere private so that they can get a hotel room. There, they discuss how Catherine is going to manage the baby while he is gone and she tells him that she will be fine. In the morning, Lt. Henry sends for a carriage to take them to the train station. Lt. Henry gets out at the station and sends Catherine back to the hospital urging her to take care of herself and “little Catherine.” He leaves to go back to the front.

Book Three (XXV-XXXII)
Book three begins in Udine with a reunion of our narrator, Lieutenant Henry, and his friends, Lieutenant Rinaldi and the Priest. Henry, who has just recovered from jaundice, enters the city exhausted, and again begins to think about his lost love, Catherine Barkley. The two (i.e. Lt. Henry and Lt. Rinaldi) share drinks and their dismay and doubts regarding the seemingly ceaseless war. Almost instantly, upon reentering the service and finding a state of relaxation, Lt. Henry’s unit is forced to retreat. As a part of the retreat, it is arranged for Lt. Henry to leave the city with a small group of officers and soldiers and drive several ambulances safely to the Italian city of Pordenone.
Lt. Henry’s trip to Pordenone is eventful to say the least. The first bump in their trip comes when one of their vehicles gets stuck in the muddy road; it is in this first problem that the reader is presented a whole new side of the narrator. When two soldiers refuse to follow orders to assist in the car removal, Lt. Henry and several other officers shoot the “insubordinates” quickly and without restraint. Never before had Lt. Henry shown such characteristically military behavior, loyalty, and warlike “pack mentality.” After the car incident, the front continues to reach closer to the retreat.
In their efforts to move forward towards Pordenone, one member of the party, Aymo, is shot by a group of wandering Italian soldiers. Aymo’s death forces the retreating group to change their plans and spend in the night in an abandoned country barn. As the troop advances over a bridge, they are cut off by a carabinieri unit of Italians. The hostile Italians question their decision to retreat and take from the group all of the commanding officers. Several of the officers are shot, but before the carabinieri reach Lt. Henry, he escapes quickly to a nearby river.
After floating down the river and hiking through the Venetian plains, the Lieutenant manages to get himself safely (although illegaly) aboard a train to Mestre. On his voyage through the countryside, he makes the significant decision to remove his ranking stars from his jacket. By removing the stars, Henry conceals his identity to those around him and also makes more serious any future charges brought against him. The third book concludes with Lt. Henry’s continuing journey to Mestre…

Book Four (XXXIII-XXXVII)
After narrowly escaping the grasp of hostile Italian forces during the thwarted retreat, Lieutenant Henry arrives safely via train in Milan. Upon his arrival in Milan, Lt. Henry is aided by the proprietor of a local wine shop. This proprietor offers Lt. Henry help with his present situation (i.e. that of a deserting foreign officer) and also helps him locate his lost Catherine. He is further informed that Catherine and Helen Ferguson have been relocated to Stresa and he leaves to find them.
Lt. Henry stays with a friend, Simmons, in Milan immediately following his encounter with the proprietor. Simmons outfits him with new civilian clothes and a train ticket to Stresa. Lt. Henry arrives at a hotel in Stresa and inquires as to Catherine’s whereabouts. He finds them in a nearby hotel and the three dine together. Miss Ferguson is in a particularly bristly mood and does not hesitate to share with Catherine and Lt. Henry the resentment she has towards their relationship. She is hysterical and unreasonable at the dinner table, but later admits that she is simply upset at the thought of “losing” Catherine. Catherine and the Lieutenant share a night in the hotel and discuss the challenges ahead for him as a military deserter.
Lt. Henry also reunites with an old acquaintance, Count Greffi. The two play a round of billiards together and discuss the failures of the war. Count Greffi, as a much older man, shares his wisdom about love, death, and religion with Lt. Henry that the Lieutenant seems to internalize and take to heart. Although their meeting is brief, it reveals valuable insight about Lt. Henry’s real thoughts on love and the war.
When Lt. Henry returns to the hotel, he is greeted with startling news. The barman informs him that the authorities are aware of his presence (as a deserting officer) at the hotel and plan to arrest him in the morning. The barman recommends that Lt. Henry flee to Switzerland and offers a boat, food, and money for the trip. In a moment’s notice, Catherine and the Lieutenant are rowing across a lake to “freedom” in Switzerland.
Although their trip rowing through a storm is long and arduous, Lt. Henry and Catherine arrive safely at their destination in Switzerland on schedule. After stopping for breakfast at a local café, the two are promptly arrested and brought to Swiss customs. Their passports are taken from them, but they are granted safe passage and travel within Switzerland. The two end up deciding upon Montreux as their hideaway of choice and quickly depart for the start of their new life together.

Book Five (XXXVIII-XLI)
Henry and Catherine have now moved to a house on a mountain outside the village of Montreux. They live a peaceful life often taking walks along the city streets and conversing with their neighbor Mr. Guttingen and his wife who live downstairs. Catherine begins to worry about the size of the baby because her doctor has told her that she has a small pelvis. One day, she and Henry go out for a beer after Catherine gets her hair done. Catherine believes that drinking beer will keep her baby small.The subject of marriage is then brought up again between the two of them. Catherine agrees to marry Henry someday because it will make the child “legitimate.”
Three days before Christmas, snow starts to fall. Henry is beginning to wonder about Rinaldi, the priest, and the other men on the front. Catherine, suspecting that Henry has become quite restless urges him to reinvigorate his life in some way, so he grows a beard. That night Henry is unable to sleep and lies awake looking at Catherine.
By mid-January Henry has a full grown beard. One day, at a dark, smoky inn, Catherine and Henry discuss whether their isolation will be spoiled once their baby comes. Catherine says that she will cut her hair short once she is skinny to make Henry fall in love with her again, but he does not acknowledge the idea and says “What are you trying to do? Ruin me.”
In March, Catherine and Henry move to the town of Lausanne to be closer to the hospital. There, Catherine buys clothes for the baby, and Henry works out in the gym. They both feel that their baby will be due any minute and decide they should not lose any more time together.
At three in the morning, Catherine goes into labor. Henry takes her to the hospital, and once they get there, Catherine urges Henry to go out for breakfast, so he does. When he gets back from breakfast he finds that Catherine has already been taken to the delivery room where she is inhaling lots of anesthetic gas to ease the pain of labor. After Henry returns from lunch, he comes back to the deliver room to find Catherine intoxicated from the anesthetic gas having made little progress in her labor. Catherine is in unbearable pain as they wheel her out on a stretcher to perform the operation. As all of this is happening Henry is standing nearby watching the rain fall from a window.
Eventually, the doctor comes out with a baby boy, but Henry is less than enthusiastic and rushes to see Catherine. Catherine asks about the baby and Henry tells her that he is fine, but the nurse tells Henry otherwise. She informs him that the umbilical chord strangled the child prior to birth. Henry then goes out to dinner and when he returns Catherine is hemorrhaging. Henry is afraid that she will die, and waits by her side until she finally does. Henry then leaves the hospital and walks back to his hotel in the rain.