Introduction: A Farewell to Arms is divided into five books. In the first book, Rinaldi introduces Frederic Henry to Catherine Barkley; Frederic attempts to seduce her and their affair begins. While on the Italian front, Frederic is wounded in the knee by a mortar shell and admitted to a hospital in Milan. The second book shows the growth of Frederic and Catherine's relationship as they spend time together in Milan over the summer. Frederic falls in love with Catherine, and when he recovers, Catherine is three months pregnant. In the third book, Frederick returns to his unit, but not long afterward the Austrians break through the Italian lines at the Battle of Caporetto and the Italians retreat. Frederic kills an engineer sergeant for insubordination. After falling behind and recovering again, Frederic is taken by the "battle police" to a location where the agents are interrogated and executed for the "betrayal" that supposedly led to the Italian defeat. However, after seeing and hearing that all those interrogated have been killed, Frederic escapes by throwing himself into a river. In the fourth book, Catherine and Frederic reunite and escape to Switzerland in a rowing boat. In the final book, Frederic and Catherine live a quiet life in the mountains until she goes into labor. After a long and painful birth, their son is stillborn. Catherine begins to hemorrhage and soon dies, leaving Frederic to walk back to the hotel in the rain. Love in Hemingway's novels is not a romantic relationship in which lovers cry and long for each other. His concept of love, unlike that of Charles Dickens, is realistic and represents an urgent need of the body and mind, which explains why the lovers in Hemingway's novels form sexual and emotional intimacy... amidst paper... indeed. The intensity of the story is beautifully orchestrated until the heartbreaking ending of the novel. There is contrast between the two themes. But in the end we are convinced that neither love nor war is the salient feature that dominates the novel. It is the concept of man as opposed to the unknown that dominates the proceedings, both in the war and love factors. Whatever happens, the theme of "A Farewell to Arms" strikes an emotional chord in the heart of every man and woman who hears it. It is the convention that death is the ultimate reality that remains in readers' minds. Works Cited Hemingway, Ernest. A Farewell to Arms, (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1929) Mellow, Jeffrey. Hemingway: a life without consequences. Boston: Houghton Mifflin (1992). Meyers, Jeffrey (1985). Hemingway: a biography. New York: Macmillan