The Bridge on the River Kwai (Roman)
The bridge on the Kwai (original title: Le Pont de la Rivière Kwaï ) is a 1952 novel by Pierre Boulle , which won the French literary prize Prix Ste Beuve . It is about the suffering of Allied prisoners of war who, in World War II, for the Japanese the bridge over the Kwai , then the Mae Nam Mae Klong (Mae Klong River) , in the course of the Thailand-Burma Railway ("Death Railway" / " Death Railway ") had to build. The only German translation to date comes from Gottfried Beutel, which was supplemented and revised in 1979 by Erich Thanner .
Historical background
The book and the later film adaptation by David Lean : The Bridge on the Kwai (Great Britain / USA 1957) , with Alec Guinness in the lead role, are based on a true story, the construction of a railway bridge in the western Thai provincial town of Kanchanaburi in 1942. The bridge is Part of a railway line that was built to connect the Thai and Burmese railway lines. The connection was intended to create a continuous line from Bangkok in Thailand to Rangoon in Burma to provide logistical support for the Japanese occupation of Burma . Around 100,000 Asian forced laborers and 16,000 prisoners of war were killed during the construction of the line, which is why it was named "Death Railway".
literature
- Pierre Boulle: The Bridge on the Kwai . 8th, unabridged and approved edition. Heyne -Taschenbuch 5835, Munich 1993, ISBN 3-453-01297-6 (license from Zsolnay-Verlag, Vienna / Hamburg).