On the Beach (Vintage International)
by Nevil Shute
List Price:
Our Price: $8.00
You Save: $7.00 (47%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $6.88 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Nevil ShuteEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2010-02-09
ISBN: 0307473996
Number of pages: 320
Publisher: Vintage
Book Reviews of On the Beach (Vintage International)
Book Review: We live as much as we can
Summary: 5 Stars
I had trouble reading the first fifty or so pages of this book. Shute's cadences are hard to get a handle on, and he has some awkward attributive tags on his dialogue. I initially had no sympathy for half the characters.
I had trouble reading the last thirty pages of this book. Once I picked up the rhythm that Shute used to tell his story I became immersed in the world he created. The book changed from a post-apocalyptic science fiction novel to something greater. On the Beach transcends generic boundaries and becomes an elegy for the human race in an extinction that has not happened yet. I had trouble reading because of the tears in my eyes.
On the Beach is one of the most emotionally powerful books I have read in a long time. After putting it down, I tried to reflect and determined it had been almost a decade, when I read Lawrence's _Sons and Lovers_ that I was so moved by a book. I have a tender heart, but this book is not emotionally manipulative in a transparent way that cheapens the effect. On the Beach is powerful because it asks and answers fundamental questions about our being in a way that is truthful to what it means t be human.
Shute asks: "What do we do in the face of death?" He shows that we live as much as we can. We love. We make plans for the future. While we face death individually, we move towards it collectively. We are all cosigned to the same fate, but we do not have the certainty of the time that his characters do. On the Beach is an extended metaphor in a way, and as such is both an elegy and a celebration of what it means to be human. Sometimes that is beauty in the face of horror, and both come from the same root.
Summary of On the Beach (Vintage International)
Nevil Shute?s most powerful novel?a bestseller for decades after its 1957 publication?is an unforgettable vision of a post-apocalyptic world.After a nuclear World War III has destroyed most of the globe, the few remaining survivors in southern Australia await the radioactive cloud that is heading their way and bringing certain death to everyone in its path. Among them is an American submarine captain struggling to resist the knowledge that his wife and children in the United States must be dead. Then a faint Morse code signal is picked up, transmitting from somewhere near Seattle, and Captain Towers must lead his submarine crew on a bleak tour of the ruined world in a desperate search for signs of life. Both terrifying and intensely moving, On the Beach is a remarkably convincing portrait of how ordinary people might face the most unimaginable nightmare.
Classics Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Classics Books
Native sonby Richard Wright
Perennial Library; Published: 1987; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.75
Native Son: And How Bigger Was Bornby Richard Wright
Perennial; Published: 1993-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $60.00
Raphael and the Noble Taskby Catherine Salton
Harper; Published: 2000-10-24; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $5.49
Price in other shops:
Island (Perennial Classics)by Aldous Huxley
Harper Perennial Modern Classics; Published: 2002-07-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.00
Price in other shops:
A Tree Grows in Brooklynby Betty Smith
Harper; Published: 2001-11-13; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $14.82
Price in other shops:
The Great Divorce CDby C. S. Lewis
HarperAudio; Published: 2003-11-25; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $12.90
Price in other shops:
Great Expectationsby Charles Dickens
Macmillan Pub Co; Published: 1979-06; Paperback; Book
Price in other shops:
This Side of Paradiseby Fitzgerald
Scribner Paper Fiction; Published: 1988-09-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.95
Price in other shops:
Black Coffee (Poirot)by Agatha Christie
Harper Collins Pb; Published: 2002-12-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $68.32
Slouching Towards Bethlehem (1960s)by Joan Didion
Flamingo; Published: 2001-04-17; Paperback; Book
Best price: $22.25
Similar Books and other products
The Atomic Bazaar: Dispatches from the Underground World of Nuclear Traffickingby William Langewiesche
Farrar, Straus and Giroux; Published: 2008-04-29; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.99
Price in other shops:
One Hell of a Gamble: Khrushchev, Castro, and Kennedy, 1958-1964: The Secret History of the Cuban Missile Crisisby Aleksandr Fursenko, Timothy Naftali
W. W. Norton & Company; Published: 1998-08; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.97
Price in other shops:
Racing the Enemy: Stalin, Truman, and the Surrender of Japanby Tsuyoshi Hasegawa
Belknap Press of Harvard University Press; Published: 2006-09-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $20.82
Price in other shops:
The Kennedy Tapes: Inside the White House during the Cuban Missile CrisisW. W. Norton & Company; Published: 2002-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.45
Price in other shops:
The Fate of the Earth and The Abolition (Stanford Nuclear Age Series)by Jonathan Schell
Stanford University Press; Published: 2000-05-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $18.00
Price in other shops:
A Canticle for Leibowitzby Walter M. Miller Jr.
Harper Voyager; Published: 2006-05-09; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.99
Price in other shops:
A Town Like Alice (Vintage International)by Nevil Shute
Vintage; Published: 2010-02-09; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.88
Price in other shops:
Ronald Reagan and His Quest to Abolish Nuclear Weaponsby Paul Lettow
Random House Trade Paperbacks; Published: 2006-02-14; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.08
Price in other shops:
Earth Abidesby George R. Stewart
Del Rey; Published: 2006-03-28; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.50
Price in other shops:
Alas, Babylonby Pat Frank
Harper Perennial Modern Classics; Published: 2005-07-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.00
Price in other shops: