Introduction & Overview of The Caine Mutiny by Herman Wouk

The Caine Mutiny Introduction

Herman Wouk's best-selling novel The Caine Mutiny, subtitled A Novel of World War II, remains one of the greatest American novels to come out of World War II. Wouk, himself a WWII veteran who had served aboard minesweepers in the South Pacific, won a Pulitzer Prize in 1952 for this account of a mutiny aboard a fictional minesweeper, the USS Caine. Commercially speaking, Wouk is the most successful writer of his generation. In critical terms, his work is sneered at or altogether ignored. At a time when American ideals were questioned and literature was full of rebellious heroes, Wouk championed conservative morals such as valor, chivalry, patriotism, and loyalty. Almost half a century after its publication, Wouk's morally idealistic novel remains popular.