Dolores Ibárruri, better known as La Pasionaria, is extensively described in Chapter 32.
Robert Hale Merriman, leader of the American Volunteers in the International Brigades, and his wife Marion, were well known to Hemingway and served possibly as a model for Hemingway’s own hero.
André Marty, a leading French Communist and political officer in the International Brigades, makes a brief but significant appearance in Chapter 42. Hemingway depicts Marty as a vicious intriguer whose paranoia interferes with Republican objectives in the war.
Karol Świerczewski, a Russian general of Polish origin as Golz.
Francisco Franco, commander of the rebel army who will become the ruling dictator after the war.
Critical reception and impact
On November 5, 2019, BBC News listed For Whom the Bell Tolls on its list of the 100 most inspiring novels.
Censorship
In 1940, For Whom the Bell Tolls was declared non-mailable by the U.S. Post Office.
In 1973, the book was banned in Turkey because the book included «propaganda unfavorable to the state.» On February 21 of that year, eleven Turkish book publishers and eight booksellers «went on trial before an Istanbul martial law tribunal on charges of publishing, possessing, and selling books in violation of an order of the Istanbul martial law command. They faced possible sentences of between one month’s and six months’ imprisonment and the confiscation of their books.»
Language
Since its publication, the prose style and dialogue in Hemingway’s novel have been the source of negative critical reaction. For example, Edmund Wilson, in a tepid review, noted the encumbrance of «a strange atmosphere of literary medievalism» in the relationship between Robert Jordan and Maria.
Additionally, much of the dialogue in the novel is an implied direct translation from Spanish, producing an often strained English equivalent. For example, Hemingway uses the construction «what passes that», which is an implied translation of the Spanish construction qué pasa que. This translation extends to the use of linguistic «false friends», such as «rare» (from raro) instead of «strange» and «syndicate» (from sindicato) instead of «trade union».
Pulitzer Prize snub
In 1941, the Pulitzer Prize committee for letters unanimously recommended For Whom the Bell Tolls be awarded the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel for that year. The Pulitzer Board agreed. However, Nicholas Murray Butler, president of Columbia University and ex officio head of the Pulitzer board at that time, found the novel offensive and persuaded the board to reverse its determination; no Pulitzer was given for the category of novel that year.
In Spain
In 1944, the book was first published in Spanish by an Argentinian publishing house, Editorial Claridad, with many subsequent editions produced either in Argentina or in Mexico. In Spain, it was initially viewed very suspiciously by the Francoist censorship office; in 1942–43 the Spanish diplomatic corps went to great lengths in trying to influence the final edit of the Hollywood film based on the novel, which was not permitted to be shown in Spanish cinemas. Since 1953, when The Old Man and the Sea was published in Madrid, most of Hemingway’s stories and novels had been published in Spain. However, this was not the case with For Whom the Bell Tolls, although the novel was at times discussed in the press. Prohibition of the book’s publishing was rescinded only in late 1968. By the end of the year Por quién doblan las campanas had been published by Editorial Planeta.
Legacy
A film adaptation titled For Whom the Bell Tolls was released in 1943.
In 1959, a television adaptation For Whom the Bell Tolls was broadcast in two parts on CBS’s Playhouse 90.
In 1965, the BBC produced another television adaptation For Whom the Bell Tolls as a four-part serial and a miniseries in American English.
In 1978, the Takarazuka Revue adapted the novel as a musical drama (誰がために鐘は鳴る: Dare ga Tame ni Kane wa Naru), produced by Star Troupe. Cosmos Troupe revived the show in 2011.
In October 2014, the novel was dramatized in a two-part series on BBC Radio 4.
Documentary
The 2012 film Hemingway and Gellhorn depicts Hemingway’s time in Spain during the Spanish Civil War when he was completing work on For Whom the Bell Tolls, and his relationship with the American novelist, travel writer and war correspondent Martha Gellhorn, whom he credited with having inspired him to write the novel, and to whom he dedicated it.
