TheBestseller
Observatory

Best Sellers

Hardcover Fiction

Week of September 16, 1951

FictionNonfiction
WeekMonth
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1
THE CAINE MUTINY
Herman Wouk
Cover of THE CAINE MUTINY

THE CAINE MUTINY

by Herman Wouk · Doubleday

48 wks at #1 · 22 on list

Each decade new readers discover the characters and curious activities aboard the U.S.S. "Caine in this classic tale of pathos, humor, and scope.

3
THE CRUEL SEA
Nicholas Monsarrat
Cover of THE CRUEL SEA

THE CRUEL SEA

by Nicholas Monsarrat · Alfred A. Knopf

5 wks on list

Based on the author's own experiences, this book presents the story of the crew of HMS Compass Rose, a corvette assigned to protect convoys in World War Two. It offers descriptions of agonizing U-boat hunts. It tells of ordinary, heroic men who had to face a brutal menace which would strike without warning from the deep.

4
THE CATCHER IN THE RYE
J.D. Salinger
Cover of THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

by J.D. Salinger · Little, Brown and Company,

8 wks on list

'If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.' The first of J. D. Salinger's four books to be published, The Catcher in the Rye is one of the most widely read and beloved of all contemporary American novels. 'The handbook of the adolescent heart' The New Yorker

7
A WOMAN CALLED FANCY
Frank Yerby
Cover of A WOMAN CALLED FANCY

A WOMAN CALLED FANCY

by Frank Yerby · Dial Press

17 wks on list

The golden hawk is a pulsating novel of adventure, revenge and exotic love in the West Indies of the seventeenth century, when the might of imperial Spain was making its last great stand to retain its conquests in the New World. A woman called Fancy is the author's first novel to have a female protagonist. Set in Augusta, Georgia, the novel covers the period from 1880 to 1894 and shows the rise of the heroine, a beautiful South Carolina woman, from poverty to prominence among Augusta's aristocrats.

9
2
LUCY CARMICHAEL
Margaret Kennedy
Cover of LUCY CARMICHAEL

LUCY CARMICHAEL

by Margaret Kennedy · Rinehart & Company

4 wks on list

Lucy Carmichael is jilted at the altar on her wedding day and takes a job which gives her a second chance at romance. The job at an educational institute for the cultural benefit of the local community brings Lucy into contact with a group of characters who will influence how she sees the world.

11
2
THE TROUBLED AIR
Irwin Shaw
Cover of THE TROUBLED AIR

THE TROUBLED AIR

by Irwin Shaw · Random House

13 wks on list

Director of radio program is asked to fire five characters because Fascists suspect them of Communism.

15
NEW
MOONFLEET
John Meade Falkner
Cover of MOONFLEET

MOONFLEET

by John Meade Falkner · Little, Brown and Company

1 wks on list

Elogiada en la brillante construcción de sus personajes por Conrad, de ella dijo R. L. Stevenson: \"Moonfleet es la novela que siempre quise escribir, pero lo único que pude hacer fue La isla del tesoro\".\r Un siglo después, Georges Remi (Hergé) reconocería el paralelismo de sus famosos personajes Tintín y Haddock con los protagonistas de Moonfleet: John Trenchard, muchacho sediento de aventuras, y su compañero Elzevir, el viejo lobo de mar, contrabandista y bebedor de ron.\r La furia del deseo de vivir del joven muchacho frente a la ternura de verse continuado en él por parte del viejo marino trazan fuertes líneas maestras en esta historia de acción en la que no falta ningún elemento para saciar el hambre de aventuras: un fantasma, una pista escrita en el medallón de un cadáver, un tesoro oculto, un contrabandista bebedor, un joven soñador, una belleza seductora, un asesinato, una huida, un traidor, una venganza, un naufragio, un regreso. Y el mar como paisaje engañoso, añorado, cruel, que acuna la narración con la inevitable melodía de la gran literatura clásica. Pero lo que convierte El Diamante de Moonfleet en una obra maestra universal es algo mucho más difícil de conseguir: su autor, Meade Falkner, queriendo contar la aventura de unos hombres, terminó construyendo una historia sobre el ser humano.\r

Historical bestseller data sourced from the New York Times Book Review, archived by Hawes Publications.