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The Bridge over the River Kwai
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- This article is about the novel. For the film, see The Bridge on the River Kwai.
 2007 paperback edition |
|
| Author | Pierre Boulle |
|---|---|
| Original title | Le Pont de la Rivière Kwai |
| Country | France |
| Language | French |
| Genre(s) | War novel |
| Publisher | Julliard |
| Publication date | 1952 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| ISBN | NA |
The Bridge over the River Kwai (French: Le Pont de la Rivière Kwai) is a novel by Pierre Boulle, published in 1952. The story is fictional, but uses the construction of the Burma Railway, in 1942-43, as its historical setting. The novel deals with the plight of World War II Allied prisoners of war forced to build the 415 kilometre (258 mile) railway, by Japanese forces. The novel won France's Prix Ste Beuve in 1952.
The story is based on the building in 1943 of one of the railway bridges over the Khwae Yai at a place called Tamarkan five kilometres from the Thai town of Kanchanaburi. This was part of a project to link existing Thai and Burmese railway lines to create a route from Bangkok, Thailand to Rangoon, Burma (now Myanmar) to support the Japanese occupation of Burma. About 100,000 conscripted Asian labourers and 16,000 prisoners of war died on the whole project. Boulle had been a prisoner of the Japanese in Southeast Asia and his story of collaboration was based on his experience of some French officers. However, he chose instead to implicate British officers in his book.
The novel was made into a film by David Lean in 1957, The Bridge on the River Kwai.