What do you think?
Rate this book
The World War II Trilogy #1-3
The World War II Trilogy: From Here to Eternity, The Thin Red Line, and Whistle
Three classic World War II novels in one collection, including the National Book Award winner From Here to Eternity. An army base at Pearl Harbor. The jungles of Guadalcanal. A veterans hospital on the home front. Inspired by his own experiences in the US Army, author James Jones’s World War II Trilogy stands as one of the most significant achievements in war literature. This compilation From Here to Eternity Pearl Harbor, 1941. A challenging young private is transferred to a unit where the commander is determined to make his life hell. This edition includes scenes and dialogue censored for the novel’s original publication. A true classic, From Here to Eternity was made into an Academy Award–winning film and a television mini-series, as well as adapted for the stage.The Thin Red Line The invasion of Guadalcanal ignites a six-month battle for two thousand square miles of jungle and sand. But the soldiers of Charlie Company are not of the heroic mold. The unit’s captain is too intelligent and sensitive for the job, his first sergeant is half mad, and the enlisted men begin the campaign gripped by cowardice. This searing portrait of jungle combat has been adapted twice for feature films.Whistle After a long journey across the Pacific, a ship finally lands on American soil. For the soldiers’ loved ones, it’s a celebration. But on board, hundreds of men are broken and haunted, survivors of the battle to wrest the South Seas from the Japanese Empire. Though on their way to heal in a Tennessee hospital, their road to recovery will take far more than mending physical wounds. This ebook features an illustrated biography of James Jones including rare photos from the author’s estate.
2406 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2012
313 people are currently reading
354 people want to read
About the author
James Jones
48 books251 followersJames Jones was an American novelist best known for his explorations of World War II and its aftermath. His debut novel, From Here to Eternity (1951), won the National Book Award and was adapted into an Academy Award-winning film. The novel, along with The Thin Red Line (1962) and Whistle (published posthumously in 1978), formed his acclaimed war trilogy, drawing from his personal experiences in the military.
Born and raised in Robinson, Illinois, Jones enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1939 and served in the 25th Infantry Division. He was stationed at Schofield Barracks in Hawaii, where he witnessed the attack on Pearl Harbor, and later fought in the Battle of Guadalcanal, where he was wounded. His military service deeply influenced his writing, shaping his unflinching portrayals of soldiers and war.
Following his discharge, Jones pursued writing and became involved with the Handy Writers' Colony in Illinois, a project led by his former mentor and lover, Lowney Handy. His second novel, Some Came Running (1957), was adapted into a film starring Frank Sinatra and Shirley MacLaine. Over the years, he experimented with different literary styles but remained committed to exploring themes of war, masculinity, and the American experience.
Jones later moved to France with his wife, actress Gloria Mosolino, before settling in the United States. He also worked as a journalist covering the Vietnam War and wrote several non-fiction works, including Viet Journal (1974). His final novel, Whistle, was completed based on his notes after his death. In later years, his daughter Kaylie Jones helped revive interest in his work, including publishing an uncensored edition of From Here to Eternity.
Jones passed away from congestive heart failure in 1977, leaving behind a body of work that remains influential in American war literature.
Born and raised in Robinson, Illinois, Jones enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1939 and served in the 25th Infantry Division. He was stationed at Schofield Barracks in Hawaii, where he witnessed the attack on Pearl Harbor, and later fought in the Battle of Guadalcanal, where he was wounded. His military service deeply influenced his writing, shaping his unflinching portrayals of soldiers and war.
Following his discharge, Jones pursued writing and became involved with the Handy Writers' Colony in Illinois, a project led by his former mentor and lover, Lowney Handy. His second novel, Some Came Running (1957), was adapted into a film starring Frank Sinatra and Shirley MacLaine. Over the years, he experimented with different literary styles but remained committed to exploring themes of war, masculinity, and the American experience.
Jones later moved to France with his wife, actress Gloria Mosolino, before settling in the United States. He also worked as a journalist covering the Vietnam War and wrote several non-fiction works, including Viet Journal (1974). His final novel, Whistle, was completed based on his notes after his death. In later years, his daughter Kaylie Jones helped revive interest in his work, including publishing an uncensored edition of From Here to Eternity.
Jones passed away from congestive heart failure in 1977, leaving behind a body of work that remains influential in American war literature.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
January 6, 2022
REREAD
“Gentleman-rankers out on the spree,
Damned from here to eternity,
God ha’ mercy on such as we….”
– from poem Gentlemen-Rankers, by Rudyard Kipling
---------------------------
“Then it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' ‘Tommy how's yer soul?’
But it's ‘Thin red line of 'eroes’ when the drums begin to roll,
The drums begin to roll, my boys, the drums begin to roll,
O it's ‘Thin red line of 'eroes’ when the drums begin to roll.”
– from the poem, Tommy, by Rudyard Kipling
---------------------------
“Bounce, and dance; bounce, and
Dance;
Jiggle on your strings.
Whistle toward the graveyard.
Nobody knows who or what
Moves your batten.
You’ll not find out.”
– from an ancient French ditty
---------------------------
To really understand and appreciate James Jones’ fiction, especially his war novels, it is beneficial to know some details of his personal life.
He (1921-1977) was born in Robinson, Illinois. After graduating from high school in 1939 at age seventeen, he enlisted in the army. While stationed at Schofield Barracks on Oahu in the Hawaiian Islands in 1941, he witnessed the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. He was subsequently shipped to the Pacific Theater where he fought in the Battle of Guadalcanal, sustaining a serious ankle injury that led to a transfer to a military hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. After a brief stint at Ft. Campbell in Kentucky, he received a medical discharge in 1944. His decorations included a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star.
His military experiences became the foundation for what is considered his WWII trilogy. In fact, the evolution of the soldiers’ experiences in the three novels, from duty in a peacetime army, to combat in the Pacific, to convalescence in a military hospital, reflected Jones’ own evolution as a soldier in a world in which boys were forced to grow up fast.
His two years in the peacetime army prior to Pearl Harbor provided him with the knowledge and insight to write his debut novel, From Here to Eternity (1951), which is considered his best work. It won a National Book Award and was named by the Modern Library Board as one of the 100 best novels of the 20th century. In it, Jones’ depicted what he viewed as the corrupt, brutal “old” army, the army of the thirty-year men before the influx of WWII enlistees and draftees.
The Thin Red Line (1962) is an account of an infantry company’s fight for survival in the Battle of Guadalcanal, a battle in which the combatants faced random and impersonal death at the hands of modern technological warfare. It is fictional, but it is more than loosely based on Jones’ personal experiences.
Whistle (1978), published posthumously, is a story about four soldiers who were evacuated from the Pacific to a medical hospital in a city that Jones called Luxor, Tennessee, which doesn’t exist, but is a combination of Memphis and Nashville.
Jones objected to being labeled a war novelist. He maintained that he was an anti-war novelist, that “to be accurate a novel about war had to show the regimentation of souls, the systemized reduction of men to animal level, the horrors of pointless death, the exhaustion of living in constant fear.”
Ernest Hemingway hated Jones’ trilogy, even going so far as accusing Jones of being a “whimpering neurotic” whose books would “do great damage to the country.”
On the other hand, Paul Fussell, who served in WWII, and wrote extensively about that war, as well as WWI, stated that The Thin Red Line is perhaps the best American WWII novel.
British military historian John Keegan is on record as saying that The Thin Red Line is one of only two novels depicting WWII combat that could be favorably compared with the best of the WWI combat novels. The other, he indicated, was Flesh Wounds, by the British writer David Holbrook. (When I read that I immediately began a search to find a copy. Unfortunately, I could locate only one -- a used copy -- at a price of $154. I guess I will take Keegan's word for its excellence.)
Jones loved the army, just like one of his principal fictional characters, but he hated the regimentation, just as his character did. And also like that character, he preferred underdogs and distrusted authority, especially governments that engaged in war. He had joined the army as a seventeen-year old boy and was discharged as an angry and embittered twenty-three -year old man.
He was writing what he knew and what he believed and that knowledge and those beliefs, underscored and reinforced by a strong dose of cynicism, strongly informed his writing about combat and the military. He was quoted as saying that he wrote “about war because it is the only métier I’ve ever had.” The result was his best fiction. And when he attempted to broaden the scope of his writing to tackle other subjects, his efforts tended to fall flat.
----------------------------
"….Jones consistently exposed the insanity of modern warfare. His purpose was not to glorify the courage of the warrior who takes on the irrational horror as a challenge to his masculinity, a la Rambo, but rather to show that fighting for any mass cause is bound to rob the individual of his conscience, his values and everything else he holds dear.” -- Gerald Nicosa, Chicago Tribune
----------------------------
From Here to Eternity – 5*
The Thin Red Line – 5*
Whistle – 4*
Rounded up to 5*
“Gentleman-rankers out on the spree,
Damned from here to eternity,
God ha’ mercy on such as we….”
– from poem Gentlemen-Rankers, by Rudyard Kipling
---------------------------
“Then it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' ‘Tommy how's yer soul?’
But it's ‘Thin red line of 'eroes’ when the drums begin to roll,
The drums begin to roll, my boys, the drums begin to roll,
O it's ‘Thin red line of 'eroes’ when the drums begin to roll.”
– from the poem, Tommy, by Rudyard Kipling
---------------------------
“Bounce, and dance; bounce, and
Dance;
Jiggle on your strings.
Whistle toward the graveyard.
Nobody knows who or what
Moves your batten.
You’ll not find out.”
– from an ancient French ditty
---------------------------
To really understand and appreciate James Jones’ fiction, especially his war novels, it is beneficial to know some details of his personal life.
He (1921-1977) was born in Robinson, Illinois. After graduating from high school in 1939 at age seventeen, he enlisted in the army. While stationed at Schofield Barracks on Oahu in the Hawaiian Islands in 1941, he witnessed the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. He was subsequently shipped to the Pacific Theater where he fought in the Battle of Guadalcanal, sustaining a serious ankle injury that led to a transfer to a military hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. After a brief stint at Ft. Campbell in Kentucky, he received a medical discharge in 1944. His decorations included a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star.
His military experiences became the foundation for what is considered his WWII trilogy. In fact, the evolution of the soldiers’ experiences in the three novels, from duty in a peacetime army, to combat in the Pacific, to convalescence in a military hospital, reflected Jones’ own evolution as a soldier in a world in which boys were forced to grow up fast.
His two years in the peacetime army prior to Pearl Harbor provided him with the knowledge and insight to write his debut novel, From Here to Eternity (1951), which is considered his best work. It won a National Book Award and was named by the Modern Library Board as one of the 100 best novels of the 20th century. In it, Jones’ depicted what he viewed as the corrupt, brutal “old” army, the army of the thirty-year men before the influx of WWII enlistees and draftees.
The Thin Red Line (1962) is an account of an infantry company’s fight for survival in the Battle of Guadalcanal, a battle in which the combatants faced random and impersonal death at the hands of modern technological warfare. It is fictional, but it is more than loosely based on Jones’ personal experiences.
Whistle (1978), published posthumously, is a story about four soldiers who were evacuated from the Pacific to a medical hospital in a city that Jones called Luxor, Tennessee, which doesn’t exist, but is a combination of Memphis and Nashville.
Jones objected to being labeled a war novelist. He maintained that he was an anti-war novelist, that “to be accurate a novel about war had to show the regimentation of souls, the systemized reduction of men to animal level, the horrors of pointless death, the exhaustion of living in constant fear.”
Ernest Hemingway hated Jones’ trilogy, even going so far as accusing Jones of being a “whimpering neurotic” whose books would “do great damage to the country.”
On the other hand, Paul Fussell, who served in WWII, and wrote extensively about that war, as well as WWI, stated that The Thin Red Line is perhaps the best American WWII novel.
British military historian John Keegan is on record as saying that The Thin Red Line is one of only two novels depicting WWII combat that could be favorably compared with the best of the WWI combat novels. The other, he indicated, was Flesh Wounds, by the British writer David Holbrook. (When I read that I immediately began a search to find a copy. Unfortunately, I could locate only one -- a used copy -- at a price of $154. I guess I will take Keegan's word for its excellence.)
Jones loved the army, just like one of his principal fictional characters, but he hated the regimentation, just as his character did. And also like that character, he preferred underdogs and distrusted authority, especially governments that engaged in war. He had joined the army as a seventeen-year old boy and was discharged as an angry and embittered twenty-three -year old man.
He was writing what he knew and what he believed and that knowledge and those beliefs, underscored and reinforced by a strong dose of cynicism, strongly informed his writing about combat and the military. He was quoted as saying that he wrote “about war because it is the only métier I’ve ever had.” The result was his best fiction. And when he attempted to broaden the scope of his writing to tackle other subjects, his efforts tended to fall flat.
----------------------------
"….Jones consistently exposed the insanity of modern warfare. His purpose was not to glorify the courage of the warrior who takes on the irrational horror as a challenge to his masculinity, a la Rambo, but rather to show that fighting for any mass cause is bound to rob the individual of his conscience, his values and everything else he holds dear.” -- Gerald Nicosa, Chicago Tribune
----------------------------
From Here to Eternity – 5*
The Thin Red Line – 5*
Whistle – 4*
Rounded up to 5*
May 3, 2018
Read just From Here to Eternity. The other books are supposed to be sequels, even though the main characters have different names, and at least one of them has already died.
From...Eternity is a really long book that I could not give the attention it warranted. It’s not really a war book, but instead is about the peacetime Army on the verge of war. Some of the plot is sensational, but the down-in-the-gutter exploits of some of the enlisted does ring true. Because the focus is on the seamier side of military life, I found all the characters unsympathetic. It is fascinating to see the military becoming more professional in the background.
From...Eternity is a really long book that I could not give the attention it warranted. It’s not really a war book, but instead is about the peacetime Army on the verge of war. Some of the plot is sensational, but the down-in-the-gutter exploits of some of the enlisted does ring true. Because the focus is on the seamier side of military life, I found all the characters unsympathetic. It is fascinating to see the military becoming more professional in the background.
July 27, 2021
Jaw-Dropping
I recalled “Martin Eden” where the hero drops himself into the cold ocean, not being able to withstand the pain of mental torture. Many stories, and the film, “ The best years of our lives” address these issues. When our veteran suicide rate is eclipsing records, this read is revealing. With great sensitivity and sympathy the life-long trials of those who gave their all, survived, yet cannot escape their sense of loss are lovingly told in this tale of woe.
I recalled “Martin Eden” where the hero drops himself into the cold ocean, not being able to withstand the pain of mental torture. Many stories, and the film, “ The best years of our lives” address these issues. When our veteran suicide rate is eclipsing records, this read is revealing. With great sensitivity and sympathy the life-long trials of those who gave their all, survived, yet cannot escape their sense of loss are lovingly told in this tale of woe.
March 31, 2014
This trilogy takes a lot to get through. Jones's writing is remarkably dense in its prose and takes some getting used to at first. And there is a lot to dislike about the protagonists on whom Jones focuses.
Having said that, it's hard to find an author who has better portrayed the dehumanizing effects of war on the men who wage it. All three books are bleak, bordering on nihilistic at times. But they remain a unique insight into the minds of soldiers struggling to find meaning in their lives (and deaths).
One of the passages from "The Thin Red Line" sums it up: "When compared to the fact that he might very well be dead by this time tomorrow, whether he was courageous or not today was pointless, empty. When compared to the fact that he might be dead tomorrow, everything was pointless. Life was pointless."
For all the warts that Jones displays in his writing, you never get the sense that it is anything less than genuine. His characters are stubborn, proud, and often incapable of choosing--or perhaps even experiencing--happiness. And taken as a whole, this trilogy does probably best represent the unseen toll that war exacts. There are no heroes in this milieu; there are only the dead and those who survive.
Having said that, it's hard to find an author who has better portrayed the dehumanizing effects of war on the men who wage it. All three books are bleak, bordering on nihilistic at times. But they remain a unique insight into the minds of soldiers struggling to find meaning in their lives (and deaths).
One of the passages from "The Thin Red Line" sums it up: "When compared to the fact that he might very well be dead by this time tomorrow, whether he was courageous or not today was pointless, empty. When compared to the fact that he might be dead tomorrow, everything was pointless. Life was pointless."
For all the warts that Jones displays in his writing, you never get the sense that it is anything less than genuine. His characters are stubborn, proud, and often incapable of choosing--or perhaps even experiencing--happiness. And taken as a whole, this trilogy does probably best represent the unseen toll that war exacts. There are no heroes in this milieu; there are only the dead and those who survive.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews