The Thin Red Line

They are the men of C-for-Charlie company—“Mad” 1st Sgt. Eddie Welsh, Pvt. 1st Class Don Doll, Pvt. John Bell, Capt. James Stein, Cpl. Fife, and dozens more just like them—infantrymen who are about to land, grim and white-faced, on an atoll in the Pacific called Guadalcanal. This is their story, a shatteringly realistic walk into hell and back.
 
In the days ahead, some will earn medals, others will do anything they can dream up to get evacuated before they land in a muddy grave. But they will all discover the thin red line that divides the sane from the mad—and the living from the dead—in this unforgettable portrait that captures for all time the total experience of men at war.
 
Foreword by Francine Prose
 
“Brutal, direct, and powerful . . . The men are real, the words are real, death is real, imminent and immediate.”—Los Angeles Times
 
“A rare and splendid accomplishment . . . strong and ambitious, spacious, and as honest as any novel ever written.”— Newsweek
 
“[A] major novel of combat in World War II . . . reminiscent of Stephen Crane in The Red Badge of Courage.”—The Christian Science Monitor
 
“The Thin Red Line moves so intensely and inexorably that it almost seems like the war it is describing.”—The New York Times Book Review

The World War II classic by the bestselling author of From Here to Eternity and Whistle, now a major motion picture from 20th Century Fox.

They are the men of C-for-Charlie Company--"Mad" 1stSgt. Eddie Welsh, SSgt. Don Doll, Pvt. John Bell, Capt. James Stein, Cpl.

Library Journal

Jones's 1962 novel follows the men of Charlie Company as they fight on Guadalcanal. Though LJ's reviewer was less than knocked out by it, a forthcoming feature film starring John Travolta, George Clooney, Nick Nolte, Leonardo DiCaprio, Gary Oldman, and many others should generate heavy interest.

James Jones (1921-1977), one of the major novelists of his generation,

is known primarily as the author of fiction that probes the effects of World War II on the individual soldier. Born in Robinson,  Illinois, Jones entered the U.S. Army and

had the distinction of being the only individual who would become a major

writer to witness the attack by the Japanese on Pearl Harbor. A member of

the 27th U.S. Infantry Regiment, Jones was wounded at Guadalcanal and returned to

Robinson, where he started to write about  his experiences. After shelving his

unpublished first novel, "They Shall Inherit  the Laughter," Jones completed the

critically acclaimed international bestseller  From Here to Eternity (1951).

Jones's other novels are Some Came Running (1957), The Pistol (1959),

The Thin Red Line (1962), Go to theWidow-Maker (1967), The Merry Month of

May (1971), A Touch of Danger (1973), and Whistle (1978). Jones published an

acclaimed short-story collection, The Ice-Cream Headache and Other Stories

(1968), a nonfictional history of World War II from the viewpoint of the soldier, World

War II (1975), and a book of essays, Viet Journal (1975).

About the Reader

Joe Mantegna has starred in the feature films House on Games, Homicide, Godfather III, Bugsy, Up Close and Personal, and Searching for Bobby Fischer.  He has starred on Broadway in David Mamet's Speed the Plow, and Glengarry Glen Ross, for which he won the Tony Award.