Miss Van Campen
The superintendent of the hospital in Milan. She dislikes Frederic Henry from the first afternoon, and eventually costs him his leave.
The hospital run by her rules. She counts eleven empty brandy bottles in Frederic Henry's room, calls his jaundice self-inflicted, and cancels the convalescent leave he was counting on.
The book
At a glance
- Miss Van Campen — superintendent of the American hospital in Milan
- Small, neatly suspicious, and too good for her position
- No wine with meals unless the doctor prescribes it
- His convalescent leave; the other nurse thinks she is after his scalp
Who they are in the book
Spoiler-freeMiss Van Campen runs the American hospital in Milan where Frederic Henry is sent after he is wounded. He describes the relationship in his second sentence about her: "She did not like me and I did not like her."
She is the only institutional authority in the Milan chapters, and she is broadly right about him. He is drinking heavily, he does not want to go back to the front, and the jaundice that would have earned him a convalescent leave arrives conveniently.
How the book draws them
- "Small and neatly suspicious"Frederic's first description adds that she is "too good for her position," asks a great many questions, and seems to think it somewhat disgraceful that he is serving with the Italians.
- Wine only if the doctor prescribes itHe asks whether he can have wine with meals. Only on prescription, and not until the doctor arrives, and the doctor is at Lake Como. Frederic sends the porter out for Cinzano and a flask of chianti and keeps them under the bed. Miss Van Campen, meanwhile, has sherry put in his egg-nog, which he only learns from the nurse who brings it.
- She admired family very muchShe accepts that Frederic and Catherine Barkley are simply great friends, partly because Catherine works hard for her and partly because she thinks Catherine comes from very good people. Frederic notes that she came from an excellent family herself.
- "Pity is something that is wasted on you"While he has jaundice she opens his armoire and finds eleven brandy bottles and a bear-shaped kümmel bottle. She tells him self-inflicted jaundice does not entitle a man to convalescent leave, and that he might try something more intelligent than producing it with alcoholism. He asks a question about the sensation of jaundice that she can only avoid by leaving the room. She takes the bottles away to show the doctor. "Nothing happened except that I lost my leave."
She wins the argument, and the plot follows her.