Summary: Chapter Eighteen
You felt that you were taking part in
a crusade. . . . It gave you a part in something that you could
believe in wholly and completely.
(See Important Quotations Explained)
Robert Jordan feels that his confrontations with Pablo
recur as though they were on a merry-go-round. He finishes drawing
up plans for blowing up the bridge. He imagines going to Madrid
after blowing up the bridge, staying at the Florida Hotel, and dining
at Gaylord’s, the gathering place for important Russian expatriates
in Madrid. It was at Gaylord’s that Robert Jordan began to learn insider
information, such as the fact that many Spanish Republican leaders
had been trained in Russia or came from more privileged backgrounds
than they let on. Although these deceptions and the opulence at
Gaylord’s initially made Robert Jordan uncomfortable, he has come
to understand that the deceptions are necessary and that the opulence
is nice.
At Gaylord’s, Robert Jordan met Karkov, an intelligent
journalist for the Russian newspaper Pravda with great taste in
women. The two men became friends. Robert Jordan remembers that Karkov
was at one point responsible for three wounded Russians who were
being held captive in the city. If Madrid were taken by the Fascists,
Karkov was to poison the three men so that no evidence of Russian
involvement would remain. Karkov said that it was not a difficult
task to poison someone if you were used to always carrying poison
you might have to use on yourself.
Thinking of Karkov, Robert Jordan remembers another scene. During
an attack on Madrid, Robert Jordan dragged a dead man out of a car
only to abandon him in the street as the dead man’s partner wanted.
He abandoned the body in order to go assist a third man who was
dying of an arm wound nearby. Moments afterward, Robert Jordan was
stopped by a well-known British economist named Mitchell, whom Robert
Jordan recognized but had never met before. Mitchell offered a cigarette
and asked for information about the war, but Robert Jordan swore
at him, disgusted with his academic airs. Robert Jordan remembers
discussing Mitchell with Karkov. Karkov suggested that Robert Jordan
read up on philosophy. Karkov also said that he read Robert Jordan’s
one published academic book and said that he liked its writing style.
Robert Jordan resolves to write another book about the things he
knows now, the things he has come to learn in the war, which are
“not so simple.”
Summary: Chapter Nineteen
Maria interrupts Robert Jordan’s musings. In
front of everyone, Pilar says that Robert Jordan shot Kashkin. Pilar
claims that Kashkin had a premonition that he would die, and that
he smelled of death. Robert Jordan, who claims that he does not
believe in superstitions, says it was more of a self-fulfilling
prophecy for the nervous Kashkin.
Pilar describes the smell of death, which has
four main components: the brass on a ship in danger of sinking,
the taste of the kiss of an old woman who has drunk the blood of
a slaughtered animal, dead flowers in the trash, and dirty water
from a brothel. The snowstorm ends.
Summary: Chapter Twenty
Outside, Robert Jordan makes a bed out of a spruce tree.
He lies in the bed, thinking about soul-calming smells, and waits
for Maria. She comes barefoot through the snow wearing her nightgown, which
she calls her “wedding shirt.” Their pillow-talk revolves around
the idea that they are one and share the same heart. They make love,
and Maria says that this coupling was different from the afternoon’s.
In the middle of the night, Robert Jordan wakes up and embraces
her, then moves away and thinks.
