The Centurions (Lartéguy novel)

The Centurions

Author	Jean Lartéguy
Original title	Les centurions
Translator	Xan Fielding
Country	United States
Language	French, English
Publication date	1960
Media type	Print
Preceded by	La tragédie du Maroc interdit
Followed by	Les prétoriens

The Centurions (French title: Les Centurions) is a novel written by French journalist and former soldier Jean Lartéguy following a French airborne battalion through the First Indochina War, Algerian War, and Suez Crisis. It was translated from the original French into English by Xan Fielding. The novel included the first use of the so-called "ticking time bomb" scenario. In 1966, The Centurions was adapted into a motion picture, Lost Command, that starred Anthony Quinn.

The Centurions was highly successful in France at the time of its writing and sold over 420,000 copies. Indochina expert Bernard Fall called it "one of France's greatest bestsellers since World War II." In 1972, the American journal The French Review stated that Lartéguy "almost overnight became something of a household" name in France after its publication, and that during the 1960s, he was one of the most widely read authors in the nation. It went on to say that Larteguy, beginning with The Centurions, was partly responsible for a revival of novel reading in France where, at the time according to statistics cited from Le Figaro Littéraire, 38% of adults had never read a book.

As American involvement in the Vietnam War increased, it was studied by American officers and Special Forces soldiers. The book regained currency with the onset of the Global War on Terrorism and the insurgency phase of the Iraq War. Since then, it has often been quoted or analyzed in works on counter-insurgency. Some individuals who have either publicly praised The Centurions or quoted it in their own work include: