"A Farewell to Arms" is Ernest Hemingway's semi-autobiographical account of a young volunteer medic serving near the front lines in Italy during World War I. After he is injured and shipped to an army hospital, the recovering young man falls in love with an English nurse and the two lovers attempt to flee the war-torn country and start a life together. Hemingway's first best-seller, the publication of this novel in 1929 helped put Hemingway on the 20th century literary map. Employing Hemingway's renowned terse and unadorned style of prose, "A Farewell to Arms" has become a classic of American fiction.