Blowing the Bridge

Rena Sanderson

This collection of recent essays on Hemingway and For Whom the Bell Tolls demonstrates the centrality of this Spanish Civil war novel in the author's life and canon and reestablishes the book's status as an American masterpiece. It provides a long overdue reassessment of the novel, which was an overwhelming critical and popular success in 1940.Following Rena Sanderson's introduction, the volume begins with a reconsideration of Hemingway's career by novelist Kurt Vonnegut. Ten literary essays by both well-known specialists and new voices follow. Employing a diversity of critical methods, including the biographical, historical, political, textual, ethical, feminist, religious, mythic, generic, and post-structuralist, these essays reveal the literary and historical richness of Hemingway's novel. Informed by recent developments in Hemingway scholarship, the chapters add up to a valuable Hemingway resource. The book is an important contribution to Hemingway studies, American literary scholarship, and American studies. It is essential reading for anyone working on For Whom the Bell Tolls.

This collection of essays provides a long overdue reassessment of this Spanish Civil War novel and demonstrates its centrality in the author's life and canon, reestablishing the book's status as an American masterpiece.

Introduction by Rena SandersonKurt Vonnegut on Ernest Hemingway by Kurt VonnegutHemingway's West: Another Country of the Heart by Michael S. ReynoldsJoris Ivens and the Communists: Bringing Hemingway into the Spanish Civil War by William Braasch WatsonHemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls: Fact into Fiction by Robert A. Martin"A Tiny Operation with Great Effect": Authorial Revision and Editorial Emasculation in the Manuscript of Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls by Thomas E. GouldHemingway's Code: The Spanish Civil War and World Power by Charles Molesworth"The Priest Did Not Answer": Hemingway, the Church, the Party, and For Whom the Bell Tolls by H.R. StonebackPilar's Tale: The Myth and the Message by Robert E. GajdusekOnce a Rabbit, Always? A Feminist Interview with Maria by Gerry BrennerThe Polemics of Narrative and Difference in For Whom the Bell Tolls by Mark C. Van Gunten"I Don't Know Buffalo Bill" or Hemingway and the Rhetoric of the Western by Dean RehbergerSelected BibliographyIndex