For Whom the Bell Tolls (Hemingway)

For Whom the Bell Tolls
Ernest Hemingway, 1940
Simon & Schuster
496 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780684830483


Summary
High in the Spanish Sierra, a guerrilla band prepares to blow up a vital bridge. Robert Jordan, a young American, has been sent to handle the dynamiting. There he finds the intense comradeship of war. And there he finds Maria who has escaped from Franco’s rebels

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Robert Jordan, a Spanish professor from Montana serving with Loyalist guerrilla forces during the Spanish Civil War, is guided by the old man Anselmo to Pablo's guerrilla band in the mountains above a bridge which Jordan must blow up when the Loyalist offensive begins. Pablo, aware that Jordan's mission will invite fascist forces, refuses at first to participate, but relents, returning with additional men and horses shortly before the mission begins.

Knowing that the fascists are aware of the offensive, Jordan sends a message to General Golz, hoping the offensive will be canceled, but the message arrives too late. Jordan blows the bridge, and Anselmo is killed by flying steel. As the group attempts escape, Jordan is seriously injured, and Maria, having been told by Jordan that he will always be with her, leaves with the survivors while Jordan remains behind, waiting for death. (From the publisher.)