Autobiographical Details
The novel was based on Hemingway's own experiences serving in the Italian campaigns during the First World War. The inspiration for Catherine Barkley was Agnes von Kurowsky, a real nurse who cared for Hemingway in a hospital in Milan after he had been wounded. He had planned to marry her but she spurned his love when he returned to America. Kitty Cannell, a Paris-based fashion correspondent, became Helen Ferguson. The unnamed priest was based on Don Giuseppe Bianchi, the priest of the 69th and 70th regiments of the Brigata Ancona. Although the sources for Rinaldi are unknown, the character had already appeared in In Our Time.
Biographer Reynolds, however, writes in "Ernest Hemingway, 1899–1961: A Brief Biography", that Hemingway was not involved in the battles described but that because his previous novel, The Sun Also Rises, was written as a roman a clef, readers assumed A Farewell to Arms to be autobiographical.
Read more about this topic: A Farewell To Arms
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