The Naked and the Dead: 50th Anniversary Edition, with a New Introduction by the Author - Softcover

Mailer, Norman

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0312265050 ISBN 13: 9780312265052

Publisher: Picador USA, 2000

Synopsis

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 for 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.

About this title

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

From the Back Cover

'The Naked and the Dead' traces the story of a platoon of young American soldiers as they pick their way, through treacherous terrain, across the Japanese-held Pacific island of Anopopei. Caught up in the confusion of close-armed combat, preyed upon by snipers, the men are pushed to the limit of human endurance. Held together only by the raw will to survive and barely sustained dreams of life beyond the maelstrom, each man finds his innermost hopes and deepest fears laid bare by the unrelenting stress of battle.

In his early twenties Mailer was himself a Second World War combatant in the Far-Eastern theatre. Published three years after the war ended, 'The Naked and the Dead', a shattering masterpiece of nightmarish realism, catapulted Mailer to instant fame.

“The best war novel to come out of the United States.”
THE TIMES

“Mailer writes like an angel – a master of small surprises that are precursors of seismic shocks.”
LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKS

“Mailer recorded every foul thought and word of his characters, wrote about ignorant, savage, primitive men... For maturity of viewpoint, for technical competence, and for stark dramatic power, 'The Naked and the Dead' is an incredibly finished performance.”
NEW YORK TIMES

“Besides being the most unpredictable novelist in the USA, he is also its most consistently interesting.”
VOGUE

“Mailer is a genuine original, working against the grain of the rest of his contemporaries.”
NEW STATESMAN

“Mailer remains America’s most talented writer.”
NEWSWEEK

About this edition

• Publisher: Picador USA
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0312265050
• ISBN 13: 9780312265052
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 736