The troubled infantryman Robert E. Lee Prewitt, one of the key characters in James Jones’ From Here to Eternity, is a former boxer and passionate bugler. His independence and intransigence lead to conflicts with his superior officers and ultimately to his tragic end.

In this recording, Jones reads the famous scene where Prewitt plays Taps at Schofield Barracks in Hawaii. The passage is a masterpiece of writing, in which Taps becomes “the requiem of the common soldier.” Jones’ emotionally powerful reading brings out the loneliness, fear, dignity, and courage of the soldier’s lot.

The Thin Red Line, Jones’ second war novel, is set in Guadalcanal and is notable for its explicit and harrowing depiction of battle. As in From Here to Eternity, its characters are enlisted men and officers who feel trapped in a situation they can neither control nor often understand. The book is a telling commentary on the violence done to soldiers, as well as by them.