For Whom the Bell Tolls

noun

1. a novel (1940) by Ernest Hemingway.

for whom the bell tolls

1. An expression from a sermon by John Donne . Donne says that because we are all part of mankind, any person's death is a loss to all of us: “Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.” The line also suggests that we all will die: the bell will toll for each one of us. ( See No man is an island .)

Notes

The twentieth-century American author Ernest Hemingway named a novel For Whom the Bell Tolls ; the book is set during the Spanish Civil War .