Count Greffi is a virile 94-year old who acts as a father figure to the protagonist in this work, and Ralph Simmons is an untalented student of opera.  
Count Greffi is a virile 94-year old who acts as a father figure to the protagonist in this work, and Ralph Simmons is an untalented student of opera.  While the hero is recuperating after an operation done by Dr. Valentini, he comes down with jaundice and Miss Van Campen accuses him of malingering. An accident while attempting to reach Udine leads to an altercation with two Italian soldiers, one of whom the protagonist shoots in the back.  Eventually he flees from the retreat at Caporetto to Switzerland with his lover, a nurse who dies in childbirth. For ten points, name this novel about the relationship between Catherine Barkley and Frederic Henry, set in Italy during World War I, a work of Ernest Hemingway.
Count Greffi is a virile 94-year old who acts as a father figure to the protagonist in this work, and Ralph Simmons is an untalented student of opera.  
A Farewell to Arms