From Library Journal
This 50th-anniversary edition of Mailer's World War II epic contains a new introduction by the author. If your current copy is falling apart, now is the time to replace it.Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.


Review
"The best novel to come out of the . . . war, perhaps the best book to come out of any war."—San Francisco Chronicle

"Best novel yet about World War II."—Time

"Brutal, agonizing, astonishingly thoughtful."—Newsweek

"Nightmarish masterpiece of realism."—Cleveland News

"Vibrant with life, abundant with real people, full of memorable scenes. To call it merely a great book about the war would be to minimize its total achievement."—The Philadelphia Inquirer

"The most important American novel since Moby-Dick."—Providence Journal



Review
"The best novel to come out of the . . . war, perhaps the best book to come out of any war."—San Francisco Chronicle

"Best novel yet about World War II."—Time

"Brutal, agonizing, astonishingly thoughtful."—Newsweek

"Nightmarish masterpiece of realism."—Cleveland News

"Vibrant with life, abundant with real people, full of memorable scenes. To call it merely a great book about the war would be to minimize its total achievement."—The Philadelphia Inquirer

"The most important American novel since Moby-Dick."—Providence Journal



Book Description
Hailed as one of the finest novels to come out of the Second World War, The Naked and the Dead received unprecedented critical acclaim upon its publication and has since become part of the American canon. This fiftieth anniversary edition features a new introduction created especially doe the occasion by Norman Mailer.

Written in gritty, journalistic detail, the story follows an army platoon of foot soldiers who are fighting for the possession of the Japanese-held island of Anopopei. Composed in 1948, The Naked and the Dead is representative of the best in twentieth-century American writing.



The Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature
Novel by Norman Mailer. Published in 1948, the book was hailed as one of the finest American novels to come out of World War II. The story concerns a platoon of 13 American soldiers who are stationed on the Japanese-held island of Anopopei in the Pacific. With almost journalistic detail, Mailer records the lives of men at war, characterizing the soldiers individually in flashbacks that illuminate their past.


About the Author
Norman Mailer's first novel, The Naked and the Dead, is widely regarded as one of the finest American novels of the twentieth century. Among Norman Mailer's other achievements are Why Are We in Vietnam?, The Armies of the Night, for which he was awarded a Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award in 1968, and The Executioner's Song, which won the 1980 Pulitzer Prize.

ANNOTATION

The author's first and most famous novel.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Hailed as one of the finest novels to come out of the Second World War, The Naked and the Dead received unprecedented critical acclaim upon its publications and has since enjoyed a long and well-deserved tenure in the American canon.

Written in gritty, journalistic detail, the story follows a platoon of Marines who are stationed on the Japanese-held island of Anopopei. Composed in 1948 with the wisdom of a man twice Mailer's age and the raw courage of the young man he was, The Naked and the Dead is representative of the best in twentieth-century American writing.

FROM THE CRITICS

New York Times

Many consider The Naked and the Dead to be the greatest combat novel ever written by an American. In it, the reader engages with Lieut. Robert Hearn, fighting in the Pacific in World War II. As the story progresses, the reader goes inside his thoughs, experiencing both his real and his imagined fears.

Library Journal

This 50th-anniversary edition of Mailer's World War II epic contains a new introduction by the author. If your current copy is falling apart, now is the time to replace it.

Time

Best novel yet about Waorl War II.

Philadelphia Inquirer

Vibrant with life, abundant with real people, full of memorable scenes. To call it merely a great book about the war would be to minimize its total achivement.

Newsweek

Brutal, agonizing, astonishingly thoughtful.Read all 9 "From The Critics" >

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING