From Here to Eternity [Paperback]

James Jones (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 13, 1998 | Series: Delta World War II Library

Diamond Head, Hawaii, 1941.  Pvt. Robert E. Lee Prewitt is a champion welterweight and a fine bugler.  But when he refuses to join the company's boxing team, he gets "the treatment" that may break him or kill him.  First Sgt. Milton Anthony Warden knows how to soldier better than almost anyone, yet he's risking his career to have an affair with the commanding officer's wife.  Both Warden and Prewitt are bound by a common bond:  the Army is their heart and blood . . .and, possibly, their death.

In this magnificent but brutal classic of a soldier's life, James Jones portrays the courage, violence and passions of men and women who live by unspoken codes and with unutterable despair. . .in the most important American novel to come out of World War II, a masterpiece that captures as no ther the honor and savagery of men.


From the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

This is a long, satisfying, commanding novel of the soldiers who were poised on the brink of real manhood when World War II flung them unceremoniously into that abyss. Private Robert E. Lee Prewitt is the nonconformist hero who refuses to box at Schofield Barracks and is slowly destroyed by his own rebelliousness. Around him, others are fighing their own small battles--and losing. It's worth noting that Jones' 1951 audience was shocked by his frank language and the sexual preoccupations of his characters. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

Make no mistake about it, From Here to Eternity is a major contribution to our literature, written with contempt for the forces that waste human life, and out of compassion for men who find love and honor and courage in the lower depths, where they are less apparent but sometimes more enduring. -- The New York Times Book Review --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 864 pages
• Publisher: Delta (October 13, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385333641
• ISBN-13: 978-0385333641
• Product Dimensions: 5.1 x 1.8 x 8.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (68 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #201,941 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

55 of 55 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not too long!, August 28, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: From Here to Eternity (Paperback)

I was in the U.S. Army for four years, '67-71. During those years, I did not read Jones, Mailer, or any other military-related novels. I was able to do so a couple of years later. From Here To Eternity struck me as no other novel had. Jones absolutely captured the depravity, decency, tenderness, and brutality of what it is to be a soldier. No one has ever done it better. I read the last page on a bus, and still feel the loss of it ending. I wish it had continued. As good as the other two books in the trilogy, Thin Red Line and Whistle, they do not approach the depth and truth of From Here to Eternity. One of the few great american novels.

42 of 48 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A slow burn, August 14, 2002

By 

David A. Bede (Singapore) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: From Here to Eternity (Paperback)

If you've heard of this book, chances are you've seen - or at least heard of - the classic movie. Rest assured, no matter how many times you've seen the movie, there's a lot more to discover in the book, as is usually the case. Through the eyes of an all too human soldier on the eve of Pearl Harbor, Jones provides a stark glimpse at the relations between friends and foes in the most basic, fatalistic of surroundings: an Army base on the eve of a great war.

Private Robert E. Lee "Prew" Prewitt is the epitome of tragic heroism, a great man who allows himself to be torn down bit by bit through his own flaws, all the while knowing it and thinking he can beat it in the end. The men he serves with and the harsh environment they create for him are vividly illustrated as well, in unsentimental descriptions of a time and place that are often romanticized by people who weren't there. War IS Hell, and so, Jones reminds us, are the conditions that set the stage for it. Amidst all the ugliness, Prew reflects a somewhat unwilling but noble spirit of persistence in the face of adversity and individuality against the ultimate culture of conformity. Even in the book's more slow-moving passages, the reader is aware that Prew's resilience will inevitably lead to a stormy climax, and when it comes, Jones manages to make it somewhat unexpected but satisfying all the same.

So why only four stars for such a brilliant novel? There are a couple of major flaws here. For one, the pace of the story is wildly uneven; it takes off very quickly just past the halfway point, but those first 400 pages tend to be slow or even stagnant. Jones does a superb job throughout of setting the scene, but at times in the early chapters, there just doesn't seem to be much going on, no matter how vividly we can picture the surroundings. This, of course, is the sort of technique that Hemingway always received so many accolades for; but even he wasn't always so good with it. With other writers it can be excruciating. Then there's the salty language, which is undeniably accurate, but overdone in some places. I don't doubt that soldiers really do talk like that among themselves, but Jones pushes that aspect of military life to the point of self-parody, even using it in his more formal third-person narratives on occasion. (Does anyone ever really refer to the absence of hunger as "a comfortably full bowel"? And is there any reason to do so other than to turn the reader's stomach?) Even non-squeamish readers might grow tired of this long before the end of the book.

There is a reason why the movie is more famous than the book: it simply isn't a quick or easy read, and it's not for everyone. But for fans of World War II-era novels or military fiction in general, it's a giant of the genre. Enjoy it, but expect to do so slowly.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Can I give it MORE than 5 stars?, July 15, 2005

By 

T. Berner (New York, New York) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: From Here to Eternity (Paperback)

It is almost a pity that the movie From Here to Eternity was one of the greatest movies ever made. This is because not only will fewer people read the book, but because it is so rich in character, mood and plot that you could make five movies without duplicating any scene. The only problem is that Sgt. Warden would be a key actor in each movie and there are no actors like Burt Lancaster in Hollywood today.

One reviewer criticized the book for its pacing: there are slow sections and faster moving chapters, but this is an accurate reflection of military life, where you will have boredom alternating with intense excitement. So Jones just reflects the world he depicts in his pacing.

There are only two crucial works of fiction about World War II which must be read: From Here to Eternity and James Gould Cozzens' Guard of Honor. The action is minimal in both (non-existent in Guard of Honor: it all takes place on a Florida airbase over the course of a weekend) but both capture the times like no other book. They complement each other, too, with Jones capturing the life of enlisted men and Cozzens doing the same for officers.

One word of warning, however. If you are of a mind to read Norman Mailer's The Naked and the Dead (not that I recommend it), read Mailer first. Once you've read Jones, you will not be able to wade through Mailers' sophomoric, tedious, preachy tome. At the end of 900 pages of From Here to Eternity, I was sorry to see the book end. After 50 pages of The Naked and the Dead, I feared that it never would.