The Caine Mutiny: A Novel of World War II

Herman Wouk

Jan 2013 · Sold by Little, Brown

About this ebook

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and a perennial favorite of readers young and old, Herman Wouk's masterful World War II drama set aboard a U.S. Navy warship in the Pacific is "a novel of brilliant virtuosity" (Times Literary Supplement).
Herman Wouk's boldly dramatic, brilliantly entertaining novel of life--and mutiny--on a Navy warship in the Pacific theater was immediately embraced, upon its original publication in 1951, as one of the first serious works of American fiction to grapple with the moral complexities and the human consequences of World War II.
In the intervening half century, The Caine Mutiny has sold millions of copies throughout the world, and has achieved the status of a modern classic.

Ratings and reviews

I think I was spozed to read it in high school along w/ Julius Caesar & An Occurrence @ Oxbow Creek + a few others, but movie came on local TV so most of us wouldn't flunk English. ( Cliff Notes cost beer\pool playing money ) What I now know of acclaimed author Wouk this book oughtta be read. -the Brazzaville bard

The actual military story including the court-martial are superb. I'll be damned if I know why so much time was devoted to Willy and his girl at the beginning and end.

A little slow to start but well worth sticking with!

About the author

Herman Wouk was born in the Bronx, New York on May 27, 1915. He received a bachelor's degree in comparative literature and philosophy from Columbia University. In 1936, he became a staff writer for the radio comedian Fred Allen. He enlisted in the Navy immediately after Pearl Harbor and was posted as a radio officer in the South Pacific. His debut novel, Aurora Dawn, was published in 1947. His other novels included The City Boy, Marjorie Morningstar, Youngblood Hawke, Don't Stop the Carnival, The Winds of War, War and Remembrance, The Hope, The Gift, A Hole in Texas, and The Lawgiver. He received the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1952 for The Caine Mutiny. He received the first Library of Congress Lifetime Achievement Award for the Writing of Fiction in 2008. His nonfiction books included This Is My God, The Language God Talks, and Sailor and Fiddler: Reflections of a 100-Year-Old Author. Several of his books were adapted into movies including The Caine Mutiny and Marjorie Morningstar. He adapted the courtroom sections of The Caine Mutiny into the Broadway play The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial. His other Broadway shows included The Traitor and Nature's Way. He died on May 17, 2019 at the age of 103.