The Winds of War
First edition cover
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| Author | Herman Wouk |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | The Winds of War |
| Genre | War novel |
| Publisher | Little, Brown and Company |
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Publication date
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15 November 1971 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 885 pp (first edition, hardback) |
| ISBN | (first edition, hardback) |
| OCLC | 495738 |
| 813/.5/4 | |
| LC Class | PZ3.W923 Wi3 PS3545.O98 |
| Followed by | War and Remembrance |
The Winds of War is Herman Wouk's second book about World War II, the first being The Caine Mutiny (1951). Published in 1971, it was followed up seven years later by War and Remembrance; originally conceived as one volume, Wouk decided to break it in two when he realized it took nearly 1000 pages just to get to the attack on Pearl Harbor. In 1983, it became a highly successful miniseries on the ABC television network.
The novel features a mixture of real and fictional characters that are all connected to the extended family of Victor "Pug" Henry, a fictional middle-aged Naval Officer and confidant of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The story arc begins six months before Germany's invasion of Poland in 1939 and ends shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor in late 1941, when the United States and, by extension, the Henry family, enters the war as well.
Wouk interspersed the narrative text with epistolic "excerpts" taken from a book written by one of the book's fictional characters, German general Armin von Roon, while he was in prison for war crimes. Victor Henry translates the volume in 1965 after coming across Von Roon's German version. While the texts provide the reader with a German outlook at the war, Henry occasionally inserts notes as counterpoint to some of von Roon's statements.
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Wikipedia