A war novel is a novel in which the primary action takes place in a field of armed combat, or in a domestic setting (or home front) where the characters are preoccupied with the preparations for, or recovery from, war. Daniel Defoes Robinson Crusoe; title page of 1719 newspaper edition A novel (from French nouvelle, new) is an extended fictional narrative in prose. ... Combat, or fighting, is purposeful conflict between one or more persons, often involving violence and intended to establish dominance over the opposition. ... Home front is the informal term commonly used to describe the civilian populace of the nation at war as an active support system of its military. ... The only atomic weapons ever used in war - the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Japan on August 9, 1945, effectively ending World War II. The bombs over Hiroshima (August 6) and Nagasaki immediately killed over 120,000 people. ...

History of the war novel

Origins

The war novel's main roots lie in the epic poetry of the classical and medieval periods, especially Homer's The Iliad, Virgil's The Aeneid, the Old English saga Beowulf, and different versions of the legends of King Arthur. All of these epics were concerned with preserving the history or mythology of conflicts between different societies, while providing an accessible narrative that could reinforce the collective memory of a people. Other important influences on the war novel included the tragedies of such dramatists as Euripides, Seneca the Younger, Christopher Marlowe, and Shakespeare. Shakespeare's Henry V provided a quintessential model for how the history, tactics, and ethics of war could be combined in an essentially fictional framework. Romances and satires in Early Modern Europe--Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene and Miguel de Cervantes's Don Quixote, to name two of many--also contained elements of military heroism and folly that influenced the later development of war novels. In terms of imagery and symbolism, many modern war novels (especially those espousing an anti-war viewpoint) take their cue from Dante's depiction of Hell in The Inferno, John Milton's account of the war in Heaven in Paradise Lost, and the Apocalypse as depicted in the Book of Revelations. The epic is a broadly defined genre of poetry, and one of the major forms of narrative literature. ... The word classical has several meanings: Pertaining to the societies of the classical antiquity, ancient Greece or Rome. ... The Middle Ages formed the middle period in a traditional schematic division of European history into three ages: the classical civilization of Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and modern times. ... Bust of Homer in the British Museum For other uses, see Homer (disambiguation). ... The Iliad is, with The Odyssey, one of the two major Greek epic poems traditionally attributed to Homer, a blind Ionian poet. ... A sculpture of Virgil, probably from the 1st century AD. Publius Vergilius Maro (October 15, 70 BC–19 BC), known in English as Virgil or Vergil, is a Latin poet, the author of the Eclogues, the Georgics and the Aeneid, the last being an epic poem of twelve books that... The Aeneid is a Latin epic written by Vergil in the 1st century BC that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Trojan who traveled to Italy where he became the ancestor of the Romans. ... Note: This page contains phonetic information presented in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) using Unicode. ... The first page of Beowulf This article describes Beowulf, the epic poem. ... King Arthur is an important figure in the mythology of Great Britain, where he appears as the ideal of kingship in both war and peace. ... Wikimedia Commons has media related to: History For other senses of this word, see history (disambiguation). ... The word mythology (from the Greek μυθολογία mythología, from μυθολογειν mythologein to relate myths, from μυθος mythos, meaning a narrative, and λογος logos, meaning speech or argument) literally means the (oral) retelling of myths – stories that a particular culture believes to be true and that use supernatural events or characters to explain the... Collective memory is a term coined by Maurice Halbwachs, separating the notion from the individual memory. ... Tragedy is one of the oldest forms of drama. ... A statue of Euripides Euripides (c. ... Portrait bust formerly identified as Seneca the Younger Lucius Annaeus Seneca (often known simply as Seneca, or Seneca the Younger) (ca. ... An anonymous portrait, often believed to show Christopher Marlowe Christopher (Kit) Marlowe (baptised 26 February 1564 – 30 May 1593) was an English dramatist, poet, and translator of the Elizabethan era. ... William Shakespeare—born April 1564; baptised April 26, 1564; died April 23, 1616 (O.S.), May 3, 1616 (N.S.)—has a reputation as the greatest of all writers in English. ... Henry V is a play by William Shakespeare based on the life of King Henry V of England. ... Tactics is the collective name for methods of winning a small-scale conflict, performing an optimization, etc. ... Ethics (from Greek ἦθος meaning custom) is the branch of axiology, one of the four major branches of philosophy, which attempts to understand the nature of morality; to define that which is right from that which is wrong. ... Look up romance in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Satire is a literary technique of writing or art which exposes the follies of its subject (for example, individuals, organizations, or states) to ridicule, often as an intended means of provoking or preventing change. ... The early modern period is a term used by historians to refer to the period in Western Europe and its first colonies, that spans the time between the Middle Ages and the Industrial Revolution that has created modern society. ... Edmund Spenser Edmund Spenser (c. ... Una and the Lion by Briton Rivière The Faerie Queene is an epic poem by Edmund Spenser, first published in 1590 (the first half) with the more or less complete version being published in 1596. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Don Quixote de la Mancha (now usually spelled Don Quijote by Spanish-speakers; Don Quixote is an archaic spelling) (IPA: ) is a novel by the Spanish author Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Anti war protest in Melbourne, Australia, 2003 Anti_war is a name that is widely adopted by any social movement or person that seeks to end or oppose a future or current war. ... Dante redirects here. ... Medieval illustration of Hell in the Hortus deliciarum manuscript of Herrad of Landsberg (about 1180) Hell is, according to many religious beliefs, a place or a state of painful suffering. ... This article is about the epic poem. ... John Milton, English poet John Milton (December 9, 1608 – November 8, 1674) was an English poet, best-known for his epic poem Paradise Lost. ... Michelangelos interpretation of Heaven Heaven is an afterlife concept found in many religions or spiritual philosophies. ... Title page of the first edition Paradise Lost (1667) is an epic poem by the 17th century English poet John Milton. ... Look up Apocalypse in Wiktionary, the free dictionary Apocalypse (Greek: αποκαλυψις, disclosure), is a term applied to the disclosure to certain privileged persons of something hidden from the mass of humankind. ... The Revelation of St. ...

As the prose fiction novel rose to prominence in the seventeenth century, the war novel began to develop its modern form, although most novels featuring war were picaresque satires in which the soldier was rakish rather than realistic figure. An example of one such work is Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen's Simplicissimus, a semi-autobiographical account of the Thirty Years War. Prose blah blah blahProse generally lacks the formal structure of meter or rhyme that is often found in poetry. ... (16th century - 17th century - 18th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 17th century was that century which lasted from 1601-1700. ... The picaresque novel (Spanish: picaresco, from pícaro, for rogue or rascal) is a popular style of novel that originated in Spain and flourished in Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries and has continued to influence modern literature. ... A soldier is a person who has enlisted with, or has been conscripted into, the armed forces of a sovereign country and has undergone training and received equipment (such as a uniform and weapon) to defend that country or its interests. ... Grimmelshausen, painting (1641) Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen (1621 - August 11, 1676), German author, was born at Gelnhausen in 1621. ... Simplicissimus was a satirical German weekly magazine started by Albert Langen in April 1896 and published through 1944. ... The victory of Gustavus Adolphus at the Battle of Breitenfeld (1631) The Thirty Years War was a conflict fought between the years 1618 and 1648, principally in the central European territory of the Holy Roman Empire, but also involving most of the major continental powers. ...

19th century war novels

The war novel came of age during the nineteenth century. Works such as Stendhal's The Charterhouse of Parma, featuring the Battle of Waterloo, Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace, about the Napoleonic Wars in Russia, and Stephen Crane's The Red Badge of Courage, about the American Civil War established the conventions of the modern war novel as it has come down to us today. All of these works feature realistic depictions of major battles, visceral scenes of wartime horrors and atrocities, and significant insights into the nature of heroism, cowardice, and morality in wartime. Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ... Marie-Henri Beyle (January 23, 1783 – March 23, 1842), better known by his penname Stendhal, was a 19th century French writer. ... The Charterhouse of Parma (French: La Chartreuse de Parme) is one of Stendhals two acknowledged masterpieces (and only complete novels) along with The Red and the Black. ... Combatants France Anglo-Allied/Prussian/ Dutch Commanders Napoléon Bonaparte Duke of Wellington Gebhard von Blücher Strength 73,000 67,000 Anglo-Dutch 60,000 Prussian (48,000 engaged by about 18:00) Casualties 25,000 22,000 {{{notes}}} Map of the Waterloo campaign The Battle of Waterloo, fought... Leo Tolstoy, pictured late in life Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy (help· info) (Russian: Лев Никола́евич Толсто́й; commonly referred to in English as Leo Tolstoy) (September 9, 1828 – November 20, 1910, N.S.; August 28, 1828 – November 7, 1910, O.S.) was a Russian novelist, social reformer, pacifist, Christian anarchist, vegetarian, moral thinker and... War and Peace (Russian: Война и мир, Vojna i mir; in original orthography: Война и миръ, Vojna i mir) is an epic novel by Leo Tolstoy, first published from 1865 to 1869, which tells the story of Russian society during the Napoleonic Era. ... Combatants Allies: • United Kingdom, • Prussia, • Austria, • Russia France Commanders Strength Casualties Full list Full list The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars fought during Napoleon Bonapartes rule over France. ... Stephen Crane Stephen Crane (November 1, 1871 – June 5, 1900) was an American writer. ... The Red Badge of Courage (1895) is a short novel (or a long short story) by Stephen Crane about the meaning of courage, as it is discovered by Henry Fleming, a recruit in the Civil War. ... Combatants United States of America Confederate States of America Commanders Abraham Lincoln Ulysses S. Grant Jefferson Davis Robert E. Lee Strength 1,556,678 1,064,200 Casualties KIA: 110,100 Total dead: 359,500 Wounded: 275,200 KIA: 74,500 Total dead: 198,500 Wounded: 137,000+  The American... See also the town of Battle, East Sussex, England Generally, a battle is an instance of combat between two or more parties wherein each group will seek to defeat the others. ... An atrocity (from the Latin atrox, atrocious, from Latin ater = matte black (as distinct from niger = shiny black)) is a term used to describe crimes ranging from an act committed against a single person to one committed against a population or ethnic group. ... This article is about the type of character. ... Cowardice is a vice that is conventionally viewed as the corruption of prudence. ... Morality, in the strictest sense of the word, deals with that which is innately regarded as right or wrong. ...

An important sub-genre of war fiction included works about war between European settlers and Aboriginal Peoples in North America, seen for instance in the novels of James Fenimore Cooper and Major John Richardson. In the late nineteenth century and into the twentieth, the war novel also entered the realm of popular fiction through the adventurous war novels of Ralph Connor, G. A. Henty, and Rudyard Kipling. These latter novelists emphasized the heroic and patriotic aspects of war. They were the last war novelists to write with a blatantly imperialist or romantic mindset, an outlook that became ever-harder to espouse in the wake of the post-industrial wars and genocides of the twentieth century. Indigenous peoples are: Peoples living in an area prior to colonization by a state Peoples living in an area within a nation-state, prior to the formation of a nation-state, but who do not identify with the dominant nation. ... Cooper portrait by John Wesley Jarvis, 1822 James Fenimore Cooper (September 15, 1789 – September 14, 1851) was a prolific and popular American writer of the early 19th century. ... The name John Richardson can refer to: Sir John Richardson (1787-1865), Arctic explorer and naturalist John Richardson (1796–1852), Canadian novelist [1] John Richardson (b. ... Genre fiction is a term for writings by multiple authors that are very similar in theme and style, especially where these similarities are deliberately pursued by the authors. ... Ralph Connor or Rev. ... George Alfred Henty (December 8, 1832 - November 16, 1902), was a British novelist. ... Rudyard Kipling Joseph Rudyard Kipling (December 30, 1865 – January 18, 1936) was a British author and poet, born in India. ... Imperialism is the policy of extending the control or authority over foreign entities as a means of acquisition and/or maintenance of empires, either through direct territorial or through indirect methods of exerting control on the politics and/or economy of other countries. ... Romantic and romanticism have a number of uses: Titles: Romantic (song) by Karyn White. ... Genocide is defined by the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPCG) article 2 as any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such: Killing members of the group; Causing... (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s The 20th century lasted from 1901 to 2000 in the Gregorian calendar (often from (1900 to 1999 in common usage). ...

World War I and after

World War I produced an unprecedented number of war novels, by writers from countries on all sides of the conflict. One of the first and most influential of these was the 1916 novel Le Feu (or Under Fire) by the French novelist and soldier Henri Barbusse. Barbusse's novel, with its open criticism of nationalist dogma and military incompetence, initiated the anti-war movement in literature that flourished after the war. Combatants Allies: • Serbia, • Russia, • France, • Romania, • Belgium, • British Empire and Dominions, • United States, • Italy, • ...and others Central Powers: • Germany, • Austria-Hungary, • Ottoman Empire, • Bulgaria Commanders {{{commander1}}} {{{commander2}}} Strength {{{strength1}}} {{{strength2}}} Casualties 5 million military, 3 million civilian (full list) 3 million military, 3 million civilian (full list) {{{notes}}} World War... Under Fire may relate to: An episode of British sitcom Dads Army - Under Fire A 1983 film starring Gene Hackman and Nick Nolte - Under Fire This is a disambiguation page, a list of pages that otherwise might share the same title. ... Henri Barbusse (May 17, 1873 - August 30, 1935) was a French novelist and journalist. ... Nationalism is an ideology that creates and sustains a nation as a concept of a common identity for groups of humans. ...

The post-1918 period produced a vast range of war novels, including such "home front" novels as Rebecca West's The Return of the Soldier, about a shell shocked soldier's difficult re-integration into British society; Romain Rolland's Clérambault, about a grieving father's enraged protest against French militarism; and John Dos Passos's Three Soldiers, one of a relatively small number of American novels about the First World War. 1918 (MCMXVIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar (see link for calendar) or a common year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. ... Dame Rebecca West, DBE was the pseudonym of Cecily (or Cicily) Isabel Fairfield (December 21, 1892- March 15, 1983), a British-Irish feminist and writer famous for her novels and for her relationship with H. G. Wells. ... The Return of the Soldier is a 1918 novel by the British novelist Rebecca West. ... The military term combat stress reaction (CSR) comprises the range of adverse behaviours in reaction to the stress of combat and combat related activities. ... Romain Rolland (January 29, 1866 - December 30, 1944) was a French writer. ... Clérambault is a 1920 novel by the Nobel Prize-winning French author Romain Rolland. ... Militarism or militarist ideology is the doctrinal view of a society as being best served (or more efficient) when it is governed or guided by concepts embodied in the culture, doctrine, system, or people of the military. ... John Rodrigo Dos Passos, born January 14, 1896, in Chicago, Illinois, United States - died September 28, 1970, in Baltimore, Maryland, was a novelist and artist. ... Three Soldiers is a 1921 novel by the American writer and critic John Dos Passos. ...

Also in the post-World War I period, the theme of war began to inhabit an increasing number of modernist novels, many of which were not "war novels" in the conventional sense, but which featured characters whose psychological trauma and alienation from society stemmed directly from wartime experiences. One example this type of novel is Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway, in which a key subplot concerns the tortuous descent of a young veteran, Septimus Warren Smith, toward insanity and suicide. This article focuses on the cultural movement labeled modernism or the modern movement. See also: Modernism (Roman Catholicism) or Modernist Christianity; Modernismo for specific art movement(s) in Spain and Catalonia. ... Psychological trauma is a type of damage to the psyche that occurs as a result of a traumatic event. ... Alienation is estrangement or splitting apart. ... Virginia Woolf (January 25, 1882 – March 28, 1941) was a British author who is considered to be one of the foremost modernist literary figures of the twentieth century. ... Vanessa Redgrave as Clarissa Dalloway Mrs Dalloway (1925) is a novel by Virginia Woolf detailing one day in Clarissa Dalloways life about post-World War I England. ... A subplot is a series of connected actions within a work of narrative that function separately from the main plot. ... It has been suggested that Suicide and culture be merged into this article or section. ...

The late 1920s saw the rise of the so-called "war book boom," during which many men who had fought during the war were finally ready to write openly and critically about their war experiences. In 1929, Erich Maria Remarque's Im Westen nichts Neues (All Quiet on the Western Front) was a massive, world-wide bestseller, not least for its brutally realistic account of the horrors of trench warfare from the perspective of a German infantryman. Also successful were Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms, Richard Aldington's Death of a Hero, Arnold Zweig's Der Streit un den Sergeanten Grischa (The Case of Sergeant Grischa), and Charles Yale Harrison's Generals Die in Bed--the latter one of the most bitter accounts of war ever written. The 1920s were a decade sometimes referred to as the Jazz Age or the Roaring Twenties, usually applied to America. ... 1929 (MCMXXIX) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Erich Remarque, about 1963. ... All Quiet on the Western Front is a novel by Erich Maria Remarque, a German veteran of World War I, about the horrors of that war and also the deep detachment from German civilian life felt by many men returning from the front. ... A bestseller is a book that is identified as extremely popular by its inclusion on a list of top-sellers. ... Trench warfare is a form of war in which both opposing armies have static lines of fortifications dug into the ground, facing each other. ... Infantry in the First World War Infantry (or Infantrymen) are soldiers who fight primarily on foot, using personal weapons. ... Ernest Hemingway, 1950 Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist and short story writer. ... A Farewell to Arms book cover A Farewell to Arms is a semi-autobiographical novel written by Ernest Hemingway in 1929. ... Richard Aldington (July 8, 1892 – July 27, 1962) was an English writer and poet. ... Death of a Hero is a World War I novel by Richard Aldington. ... Arnold Zweig (November 10, 1887 - November 26, 1968) was a German writer and an active pacifist. ... The Case of Sergeant Grischa (1927) is a war novel by the German writer Arnold Zweig. ... Charles Yale Harrison was an American-Canadian novelist and journalist, best known for his 1930 anti-war novel Generals Die in Bed. ... Generals Die in Bed is a 1930 anti-war novel by the Canadian-American writer Charles Yale Harrison. ...

Novels about World War I continued to trickle into print throughout the 1930s. One particular development during this decade was the rise in popularity of historical novels about earlier wars. Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind, which recalls the American Civil War, is a quintessential example of works of this type. // Events and trends A public speech by Benito Mussolini, founder of the Fascist movement The 1930s were described as an abrupt shift to more radical lifestyles, as countries were struggling to find a solution to the global depression. ... A historical novel is a novel in which the story is set among historical events, or more generally, in which the time of the action predates the lifetime of the author. ... Margaret Munnerlyn Mitchell (November 8, 1900 - August 16, 1949) was the American author who won the Pulitzer Prize in 1937 for her immensely successful novel, Gone with the Wind, that was published in 1936. ... Gone with the Wind was an instant success. ...

World War II and after

World War II gave rise to a new boom in contemporary war novels. Unlike World War I novels, a European-dominated genre, World War II novels were produced in the greatest numbers by American writers, who made war in the air, on the sea, and in key theatres such as the Pacific Ocean and Asia integral to the war novel. Among the most successful American war novels were Herman Wouk's The Caine Mutiny, James Jones's From Here to Eternity, and Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls, the latter a novel that explored the origins of World War II in the Spanish Civil War. More experimental and unconventional works in the post-war period included Joseph Heller's satirical Catch 22 and Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow, an early example of postmodernism. Norman Mailer's "The Naked and the Dead", Irwin Shaw's "The Young Lions" and James Jones' "The Thin Red Line", all explore the personal nature of war within the context of intense combat. Combatants Allies: • Soviet Union, • UK & Commonwealth, • USA, • France/Free France, • China, • Poland, • ...and others Axis: • Germany, • Japan, • Italy, • ...and others Commanders Strength Casualties Full list Full list World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a large scale military conflict that took place between 1939 and 1945. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Herman Wouk (born May 27, 1915) is a bestselling American author, with a number of notable novels to his credit, including The Caine Mutiny, The Winds of War, and War and Remembrance. ... DVD cover The Caine Mutiny is a 1954 movie directed by Edward Dmytryk of the fictional story of a mutiny aboard a World War II US naval vessel, and the subsequent court-martial. ... James Jones (November 6, 1921 – May 9, 1977) is an American author most famous for his explorations of World War II and its aftermath. ... Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr in the famous beach scene in From Here to Eternity. ... For Whom the Bell Tolls book cover For Whom the Bell Tolls is a 1940 novel by Ernest Hemingway. ... The Spanish Civil War (July 1936–April 1939) was a conflict in which the incumbent Second Spanish Republic and political left-wing groups fought against a right-wing nationalist insurrection led by General Francisco Franco, who eventually succeeded in ousting the Republican government and establishing a dictatorship. ... Joseph Heller (May 1, 1923 – December 12, 1999) was an American satirist best remembered for writing the satiric World War II classic Catch-22. ... Catch-22 Catch-22 is a 1961 novel by American novelist Joseph Heller. ... Thomas Ruggles Pynchon, Jr. ... Gravitys Rainbow book cover. ... Postmodernism is a term describing a wide-ranging change in thinking beginning in the early 20th century. ...

The decades following World War II period also saw the rise in significant parallel genres to the war novel. One is the Holocaust novel, of which A.M. Klein's The Second Scroll, Primo Levi's If Not Now, When?, and William Styron's Sophie's Choice are key examples. Another is the novel of internment or persecution (other than in the Holocaust), in which characters find themselves imprisoned or deprived of their civil rights as a direct result of war. Alexander Solzhenitsyn's One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (about imprisonment in a Russian labor camp), and Joy Kogawa's Obasan (about Canada's deportation and internment of its citizens of Japanese descent during WWII) are two examples of novels that address war from alternative perspectives. Concentration camp inmates during the Holocaust The Holocaust was Nazi Germanys systematic genocide (ethnic cleansing) of various ethnic, religious, national, and secular groups during World War II. Early elements include the Kristallnacht pogrom and the T-4 Euthanasia Program established by Hitler that killed some 200,000 people. ... A.M. Klein (February 14, 1909-August 20, 1972) was a Canadian author. ... The Second Scroll is a 1951 novella by the Jewish-Canadian writer A.M. Klein. ... Primo Levi Primo Levi (July 31, 1919 - April 11, 1987) was an Italian chemist and author of memoirs, short stories, poems, and novels. ... If Not Now, When? is the English title of the Italian novelist Primo Levis 1982 novel, Se non ora, quando?. It recounts the saga of numerous members of a Jewish Resistance Movement in Nazi-occupied Russia and Poland during World War II. It is one of the key war... William Styron is an American novelist, born in Newport News, Virginia on June 11, 1925. ... Sophies Choice (1979) is a novel written by William Styron about a young American Southerner who wants to be a writer and befriends Nathan, who is Jewish, and his beautiful lover Sophie, a Polish (but not Jewish) survivor of the Nazi concentration camps. ... Solzhenitsyn was exiled from the Soviet Union for his book The Gulag Archipelago. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... Joy Nozomi Kogawa (born 1935) in Vancouver, BC. She was sent to an internment camp during World War Two. ... Obasan is a 1981 novel by the Japanese-Canadian author Joy Kogawa. ...

Vietnam and recent developments

After World War II, the war that has attracted the greatest number of novelists is the Vietnam War. Graham Greene's The Quiet American was the first novel to explore the origins of the Vietnam war in the French colonial atmosphere of the 1950s. Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried is a cycle of Vietnam vignettes that reads like a novel. The Sorrow of War, by Vietnamese novelist Bao Ninh, is a poignant account of the war from another perspective. Combatants Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) United States of America South Korea Thailand Australia New Zealand the Philippines Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) National Liberation Front (Viet Cong) Commanders Strength ~1,200,000 (1968) ~420,000 (1968) Casualties South Vietnamese dead: 1,250,000+ US dead: 58,226 US... Graham Greene Henry Graham Greene, OM (October 2, 1904 – April 3, 1991) was a prolific English novelist, playwright, short story writer and critic whose works explore the ambiguities of modern man and ambivalent moral or political issues in a contemporary setting. ... The Quiet American (ISBN 0099478390) is a novel written by Graham Greene in 1955. ... Tim OBrien can refer to: American author Tim OBrien American bluegrass musician Tim OBrien Irish-born cricketer Sir Timothy (Tim) Carew OBrien (5 November 1861 - 9 December 1948), who played 5 test matches for England and captained England in one test in 1895/6. ... The Things They Carried is a collection of related vignettes by Tim OBrien, about a squad of American soldiers in the Vietnam War, originally published in hardcover by Houghton Mifflin, 1990. ... In theatre and script writing, these are a short, impressionistic, scenes that focus on one moment or gives one impression about a character, an idea or a setting. ... Bảo Ninh (born on October 18, 1952) is a Vietnamese novelist and short story writer. ...

Since the 1980s, the war novel has continued to be a popular genre, producing both international bestsellers and many award-winning successes for novelists around the world. In the wake of postmodernism and the absence of wars equalling the magnitude of the two world wars, the majority of war novelists now have little direct experience of war, concentrating instead on how memory and the ambiguities of time affect the meaning and experience of war. In her Regeneration trilogy, British novelist Pat Barker reimagines World War I from a contemporary perspective. Ian McEwan's novels Black Dogs and Atonement take a similarly retrospective approach to World War II, including such events as the British retreat from Dunkirk in 1941 and the Nazi invasion of France. The work of W.G. Sebald, most notably Austerlitz, is a postmodern inquiry into German's struggle to come to terms with its troubled past. Memory is the ability of the brain to store, retain, and subsequently recall information. ... In biology, regeneration is the ability to recreate lost or damaged tissues, organs and limbs. ... Pat Barker (born May 8, 1943) is an English writer and historian. ... Ian McEwan (born June 21, 1948) is a British novelist, sometimes nicknamed Ian Macabre because of the nature of his early work. ... Black Dogs is a 1992 novel by the Booker Prize-winning British author Ian McEwan. ... The Atonement is the central doctrine of Christianity: everything else derives from it. ... Location of Dunkirk in the arrondissement of Dunkirk Location within France Dunkirks seafront Map of Dunkirk courtesy of the Calgary Highlanders. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Nazism. ... W. G. (Winifried Georg Maximilian) Sebald (18 May 1944, Wertach im Allgäu–14 December 2001, Norfolk, United Kingdom) was a German writer and academic. ... At the Battle of Austerlitz (December 2, 1805), during the Napoleonic War of the Third Coalition, a French force of approximately 73,000 under Napoleon decisively defeated a joint Russo_Austrian force of over 89,000, commanded by Russian General Kutuzov with General von Weyrother commanding the Austrian contingent. ...

Some contemporary war novels are less philosophical and historical than the ones just mentioned, emphasizing action and intrigue above thematic depth. Tom Clancy's The Hunt For Red October is a technically-detailed account of submarine espionage during the Cold War, and many of John LeCarre's spy novels are basically war novels for an age in which bureaucracy often replaces open combat. Another recent adaptation of the war novel is the apocalyptic Christian novel, which focuses on the final showdown between universal forces of good and evil. Tim LaHaye is the novelist most readily associated with this genre. Many fantasy novels, too, use the traditional war novel as a departure point for depictions of fictional wars in imaginary realms. Tom Clancy Thomas Leo Clancy Jr. ... Harper Collins 1993 paperback edition The Hunt for Red October, Tom Clancys first novel, was published in 1984. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... The Cold War was the protracted geostrategic, economic, and ideological struggle that emerged after World War II between the global superpowers of the Soviet Union and the United States, supported by their respective and emerging alliance partners. ... ... As a noun, Christian is an appellation and moniker deriving from the appellation Christ, which many people associate exclusively with Jesus of Nazareth. ... Timothy F. LaHaye (b. ... Look up Fantasy in Wiktionary, the free dictionary For other definitions of fantasy, see fantasy (psychology). ...

So far, the post 9-11 literary world has produced few war novels that address current events in the war on terrorism. One recent example, however, is Chris Cleave's Incendiary (2005) which made headlines after its publication, for appearing to anticipate the 7 July 2005 London bombings. Judging by past trends, it is likely that the recent burgeoning of terrorism and combat around the world will eventually produce yet another wave of war novels, once those currently involved have time to reflect on their experiences. 9-11 can refer to: The September 11, 2001 attacks A collection of interviews of Noam Chomsky by a variety of European publications and individual interviewers during the month after the September 11, 2001 attacks September 11 (month-day date notation) 9 November (day-month date notation) The North American... The War on Terrorism or War on Terror (in U.S. foreign policy circles, Global War on Terrorism or GWOT; recently also Long War) is a controversial campaign by the United States government and some of its allies with the stated goal of ending international terrorism by stopping terrorist groups... Incendiary is a novel by British writer Chris Cleave. ... The 7 July 2005 London bombings were a series of co-ordinated suicide bombings that struck Londons public transport system during the morning rush hour. ...

Further reading

Other significant war novelists

• Martin Amis (Time's Arrow - Holocaust)
• David Bergen (The Time in Between - Vietnam)
• Elias Canetti (Auto da Fe - WWI)
• Hugo Claus (Sorrow of Belgium - WWI)
• Stuart Cloete (Rags of Glory - South African War)
• F.M. Cutlack (Breaker Morant - South African War)
• E.L. Doctorow (The March - US Civil War)
• William Faulkner (Soldier's Pay - WWI)
• Sebastian Faulks (Birdsong - WWI)
• Timothy Findley (The Wars, Famous Last Words - WWI/ II)
• Ford Madox Ford (Parade's End - WWI)
• Charles Frazier (Cold Mountain - US Civil War)
• Robert Graves (I Claudius, et. al. - Roman Wars)
• Francis Itani (Deafening - WWI)
• Ha Jin (War Trash - Korean War)
• Thomas Keneally (Schindler's Ark - Holocaust)
• D.H. Lawrence (Kangaroo - WWI)
• Robert Ludlum (The Bourne Identity et. al. - Cold War)
• Norman Mailer (The Naked and the Dead - WWII)
• Colin McDougall (Execution - WWII)
• Boris Pasternak (Dr. Zhivago - Russian Revolution)
• Henryk Sienkiewicz (The Trilogy - Polish historical)
• J.R.R. Tolkien (The Lord of the Rings - fantasy w/ WWI connections)
• Kurt Vonnegut (Slaughterhouse Five - WWII)
• Evelyn Waugh (Brideshead Revisited, Sword of Honour - WWII)

Photo of Martin Amis by Robert Birnbaum Martin Amis (born August 25, 1949) is a British novelist. ... David Bergen is a Canadian novelist from Winnipeg, Manitoba. ... Elias Canetti, Nobel Laureate in Literature Elias Canetti (Ruse 25 July 1905- Zurich, 13 August 1994) was a Bulgarian-born British-Austrian novelist and Nobel Prize in Literature winner, who wrote in German. ... Hugo Maurice Julien Claus (born April 5, 1929 in Bruges, Belgium) is a prolific Flemish novelist, poet, playwright, painter and film director. ... Edgar Lawrence Doctorow (born January 6, 1931, New York, New York) is a writer who has written several critically aclaimed novels that blend history and social criticism. ... William Faulkner photographed 1954 by Carl Van Vechten William Cuthbert Faulkner (September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962) was a Nobel Prize-winning novelist from Mississippi. ... Sebastian Faulks Sebastian Faulks (born 20 April 1953, England, United Kingdom) is a journalist and former Literary Editor of The Independent newspaper who became a novelist. ... Timothy Irving Frederick Findley, OC , O. Ont. ... Ford Madox Ford (December 17, 1873 - June 26, 1939) was an English novelist and publisher. ... Charles Frazier, American novelist, was born in 1950 in Raleigh, North Carolina. ... Portrait of Robert Graves (circa 1974) by Rab Shiell Robert von Ranke Graves (July 24, 1895–December 7, 1985) was an English scholar, best remembered for his work as a poet and novelist. ... Francis Itani (born 1942) is a novelist, short story writer, and poet based in Ottawa, Ontario. ... Jin Xuefei (金雪飛; born February 21, 1956) is a contemporary Chinese-American writer using the pen name Ha Jin (哈金). Jin was born in Liaoning, China in 1956. ... Thomas Keneally (born October 7, 1935) also Tom Keneally, is an Australian novelist. ... D. H. Lawrence David Herbert Lawrence (11 September 1885 - 2 March 1930) was one of the most important, certainly one of the most controversial, English writers of the 20th century, who wrote novels, short stories, poems, plays, essays, travel books, and letters. ... The Scarlatti Inheritance, Ludlums first book, publ. ... Norman Mailer, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1948 Norman Kingsley Mailer (born January 31, 1923) is an American writer and, along with Truman Capote, is considered an innovator of the nonfictional novel. ... Colin McDougall (1917-1984) was a Canadian author best known for his 1958 Governor Generals Award-winning novel Execution. ... Boris Pasternak (1890-1960). ... Henryk Sienkiewicz Henryk Adam Aleksander Pius Sienkiewicz (pronounce: [γεnrɨk ɕenkieviʧ]) (May 5, 1846 - November 15, 1916) was a Polish novelist, one of the outstanding writers of the second half of the 19th century. ... J. R. R. Tolkien in 1916. ... Kurt Vonnegut Kurt Vonnegut Jr. ... Evelyn Waugh, as photographed in 1940 by Carl Van Vechten Arthur Evelyn St. ...

Critical studies of the war novel

• Philip D. Beidler, American Literature and the Experience of Vietnam (U Georgia Press)
• Bernard Bergonzi, Heroes’ Twilight: A Study of the Literature of the Great War (Macmillan).
• Peter Buitenhuis, The Great War of Words: British, American and Canadian Propaganda and Fiction, 1914-1933 (UBC Press).
• Evelyn Cobley, Representing War: Form and Ideology in First World War Narratives (U of Toronto Press).
• Stanley Cooperman. World War I and the American Novel (Johns Hopkins UP).
• Paul Fussell, The Great War and Modern Memory (Oxford UP).
• David Craig and Michael Egan. Extreme Situations: Literature and Crisis from the Great War to the Atom Bomb (Macmillan).
• Saul S. Friedman, ed. Holocaust Literature: A Collection of Critical, Historical, and Literary Writings (Greenwood Press)
• Horowitz, Sara R, Voicing the Void: Muteness and Memory in Holocaust Fiction (SUNY UP). ISBN 0791431304
• Madison and Schaefer, eds. Encyclopedia of American War Literature (Greenwood Press). ISBN 0313306486
• Dagmar Novak, Dubious Glory: The Canadian Novel and the Two World Wars (Peter Lang).
• Edmund Wilson, Patriotic Gore: Studies in the Literature of the American Civil War (WW Norton).

Paul Fussell (born 1924, Pasadena, California) is a cultural historian and a professor emeritus of English literature of the University of Pennsylvania. ... Edmund Wilson Edmund Beecher Wilson (1856 - 1939) was an American geneticist. ...

See also

• American Civil War
• Epic poetry
• Paul Fussell
• Ernest Hemingway
• The Holocaust in Art and Literature
• Napoleonic Wars
• Alexander Solzhenitsyn
• Stendhal
• Leo Tolstoy
• Vietnam War
• World War I
• World War II

- plus other authors and works with links in the main text of this article Combatants United States of America Confederate States of America Commanders Abraham Lincoln Ulysses S. Grant Jefferson Davis Robert E. Lee Strength 1,556,678 1,064,200 Casualties KIA: 110,100 Total dead: 359,500 Wounded: 275,200 KIA: 74,500 Total dead: 198,500 Wounded: 137,000+  The American... The epic is a broadly defined genre of poetry, and one of the major forms of narrative literature. ... Paul Fussell (born 1924, Pasadena, California) is a cultural historian and a professor emeritus of English literature of the University of Pennsylvania. ... Ernest Hemingway, 1950 Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist and short story writer. ... This article is in need of attention. ... Combatants Allies: • United Kingdom, • Prussia, • Austria, • Russia France Commanders Strength Casualties Full list Full list The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars fought during Napoleon Bonapartes rule over France. ... Solzhenitsyn was exiled from the Soviet Union for his book The Gulag Archipelago. ... Marie-Henri Beyle (January 23, 1783 – March 23, 1842), better known by his penname Stendhal, was a 19th century French writer. ... Leo Tolstoy, pictured late in life Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy (help· info) (Russian: Лев Никола́евич Толсто́й; commonly referred to in English as Leo Tolstoy) (September 9, 1828 – November 20, 1910, N.S.; August 28, 1828 – November 7, 1910, O.S.) was a Russian novelist, social reformer, pacifist, Christian anarchist, vegetarian, moral thinker and... Combatants Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) United States of America South Korea Thailand Australia New Zealand the Philippines Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) National Liberation Front (Viet Cong) Commanders Strength ~1,200,000 (1968) ~420,000 (1968) Casualties South Vietnamese dead: 1,250,000+ US dead: 58,226 US... Combatants Allies: • Serbia, • Russia, • France, • Romania, • Belgium, • British Empire and Dominions, • United States, • Italy, • ...and others Central Powers: • Germany, • Austria-Hungary, • Ottoman Empire, • Bulgaria Commanders {{{commander1}}} {{{commander2}}} Strength {{{strength1}}} {{{strength2}}} Casualties 5 million military, 3 million civilian (full list) 3 million military, 3 million civilian (full list) {{{notes}}} World War... Combatants Allies: • Soviet Union, • UK & Commonwealth, • USA, • France/Free France, • China, • Poland, • ...and others Axis: • Germany, • Japan, • Italy, • ...and others Commanders Strength Casualties Full list Full list World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a large scale military conflict that took place between 1939 and 1945. ...