A Farewell to Arms has never been one of my favorite books, but it does contain what is possibly my favorite line ever written: “The war seemed as far away as the football games of some one else’s college.”
I had no idea but am not surprised in the least to learn that Hemingway penned forty or more alternate endings to his wartime masterpiece before deciding to conclude it the way he did.
I particularly like this version, which was suggested to him by his friend F. Scott Fitzgerald:
The world breaks everyone, and those it does not break it kills.
It kills the very good and very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these you can be sure it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry.
h/t to Rich for the link
2024-01-27: Broken links in this post have been removed and/or updated.
