From Here to Eternity

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From Here to Eternity

novel by Jones

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June 26, 2026

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From Here to Eternity is a 1951 novel by James Jones. It depicts the lives of U.S. Army soldiers stationed in Hawaii in the period leading up to the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. The novel draws heavily on Jones's own military experiences and focuses on the daily lives and personal struggles of the servicemen. It was adapted into a highly successful 1953 film that won eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture.12

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American literature
Realism and metafiction
…in an ambitious trilogy (From Here to Eternity [1951], The Thin Red Line [1962], and Whistle [1978]) that centered on loners who resisted adapting to military discipline. Younger novelists, profoundly shaken by the bombing of Hiroshima and the real threat of human annihilation, found the conventions of realism inadequate…
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…in an ambitious trilogy (From Here to Eternity [1951], The Thin Red Line [1962], and Whistle [1978]) that centered on loners who resisted adapting to military discipline. Younger novelists, profoundly shaken by the bombing of Hiroshima and the real threat of human annihilation, found the conventions of realism inadequate…
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novel
Scope, or dimension
…of World War II in From Here to Eternity (1951), though a very ambitious project, repels through indifferent writing and sentimental characterization; Norman Mailer’s Naked and the Dead (1948), an equally ambitious military novel, succeeds much more because of a tautness, a concern with compression, and an astringent objectivity that…
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…of World War II in From Here to Eternity (1951), though a very ambitious project, repels through indifferent writing and sentimental characterization; Norman Mailer’s Naked and the Dead (1948), an equally ambitious military novel, succeeds much more because of a tautness, a concern with compression, and an astringent objectivity that…
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James Jones
…American novelist best known for From Here to Eternity (1951), a novel about the peacetime army in Hawaii just before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.
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…American novelist best known for From Here to Eternity (1951), a novel about the peacetime army in Hawaii just before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.
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From Here to Eternity
…based on the best-selling novel From Here to Eternity (1951) by James Jones. The sprawling and steamy book was considered unfilmable until Columbia Pictures head Harry Cohn accepted the somewhat toned-down script written by Daniel Taradash. Director Fred Zinnemann insisted that the film be shot in black-and-white to underscore
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…based on the best-selling novel From Here to Eternity (1951) by James Jones. The sprawling and steamy book was considered unfilmable until Columbia Pictures head Harry Cohn accepted the somewhat toned-down script written by Daniel Taradash. Director Fred Zinnemann insisted that the film be shot in black-and-white to underscore
Read More