Cheap The Cruel Sea (Book) (Nicholas Monsarrat) Price

Related Products

Customer Reviews of The Cruel Sea

Was a classic, still a classic.
I've read this one several times over several years (first as a college history class assignment), and it still amazes me how Monsarrat is able to capture the spirit and tribulations of men at sea during war time. If you're at all interested in WW II or naval operations, you must read this book, as Monsarrat penetratingly explores the psyches, motivations and character of the book's principal characters. As the war in the North Atlantic goes on, the reader grows with the characters - who are for the most part Royal Naval Reservists or newbie volunteers, rather than professional Royal Navy "lifers". Together, the men and the ship go through their shared baptism of fire against the U-Boat scourge during the dark days of 1940-1942 convoy duty. This book, like Alistair MacLean's HMS Ulysses, is a true naval history classic. Don't skip it.

---

Probably the best WWII naval novel written
The cold gripping fear, frustration,and agony of the convoy escorts in the North Atlantic during WWII. The physical and emotional sacrafices of the men assigned to escort duty to protect the life blood of Great Britan. Monsarrat is a fantastic story teller, filling the reader with emotions in a way that very few writers will ever master. The realization that Command is really lonely,and the second guessing of descisions is a tough pill for Captain Ericson to swallow. These sailors are not Regular Navy from a Family lineage of Naval service, rather the average Joe brought together by the war. Yet they form a strong fighting unit. As as in every war, death is not picky about whom it takes. A great book that will be hard to put down till it is finished. Give it some time and you will read it again.

---

Misplaced Death
Andrew Mendelson's review mentions a "misplaced death". He misses the point it was as un-necessary and as useless as many in the war - and that is one of the points of this classic war novel. Monserrat writes well about the sea because he was at sea and this story is one of his strongest because he tells it from the point of view of someone who witnessed it for real.

The Cruel Sea is an extensive fictionalising, reworking and fleshing out of his wartime short stories "HM Corvette, East Coast Corvette, Corvette Command", published during the war when it was quite clear he did not expect to survive the Battle of the Atlantic on which the bulk of the Cruel Sea is based. The Cruel Sea is taughtly drawn, superbly observed and records the transition from amateur civilians into trained professional killers with all the physical, and emotional casualites that were incurred along the way.

The 1953 movie (also available on Amazon) is also a good adaption of the tale.