''Without Seeing the Dawn'' is a 1947 novel by

Philippine The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

author Stevan Javellana. Its plot was derived from one of José Rizal's character in the Spanish-language novel '' Noli Me Tangere'' or ''Touch Me Not''. Javellana's 368-paged book has two parts, namely ''Day'' and ''Night''. The first part, ''Day'', narrates the story of a pre-war barrio and its people in the

Panay Island Panay is the sixth-largest and fourth-most populous island in the Philippines, with a total land area of and has a total population of 4,542,926 as of 2020 census. Panay comprises 4.4 percent of the entire population of the country. The City ...

particularly in

Iloilo Iloilo (), officially the Province of Iloilo ( hil, Kapuoran sang Iloilo; krj, Kapuoran kang Iloilo; tl, Lalawigan ng Iloilo), is a province in the Philippines located in the Western Visayas region. Its capital is the City of Iloilo, the ...

. The second part, ''Night'', begins with the start of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

in both the U.S. and the Philippines, and retells the story of the resistance movement against the occupying Japanese military forces of the barrio people first seen in ''Day''. It narrates the people's "grim experiences" during the war.No. 173: "Without Seeing the Dawn"
(...) "''Stevan Javellana’s 'Without Seeing the Dawn' tells of the grim experiences of war during the Japanese Occupation.''" (...) First published in 1947, Javellana's novel sold 125,000 copies in the U.S. and was reprinted in

paperback A paperback (softcover, softback) book is one with a thick paper or paperboard cover, and often held together with glue rather than stitches or staples. In contrast, hardcover (hardback) books are bound with cardboard covered with cloth, ...

edition in Manila by Alemar's-Phoenix in 1976.Florentino, Alberto and Francisco Arcellana, Without Seeing the Dawn: A Review (''Javellana: Did He Die Without Seeing the Dawn? - The Odyssey of a Young Writer’s First and Only Novel Without Seeing the Dawn''), PALH Book Reviews (undated)
retrieved on: June 16, 2007 The same novel was made into a film by the Filipino filmmaker and director,

Lino Brocka Catalino Ortiz Brocka (April 3, 1939 – May 22, 1991) was a Filipino film director. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential and significant filmmakers in the history of Philippine cinema. He co-founded the organization Concerned Ar ...

under the title ''Santiago!'', which starred the Filipino actor and later presidential candidate, Fernando Poe, Jr. and the Filipino actress,

Hilda Koronel Hilda Koronel (born Susan Reid; January 17, 1957) is a MMFF, FAMAS, Luna and Urian award-winning Filipino actress. Born to a Filipino mother and an American father who was a serviceman in Clark Air Base, she has starred in around 45 films, ma ...

. It was also made into a miniseries film for Philippine

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

. The published novel received praises from the

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

New York Sun ''The New York Sun'' is an American online newspaper published in Manhattan; from 2002 to 2008 it was a daily newspaper distributed in New York City. It debuted on April 16, 2002, adopting the name, motto, and masthead of the earlier New York ...

and

Chicago Sun The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the '' Chicago ...

. ''Without Seeing the Dawn'', the novel, became the culmination of Javellana's short-story

writing Writing is a medium of human communication which involves the representation of a language through a system of physically inscribed, mechanically transferred, or digitally represented symbols. Writing systems do not themselves constitute h ...

career. The said novel was also known under the title ''The Lost Ones''. It was adapted into the Filipino television play ''Malayo Pa Ang Umaga''.

References

1947 novels Historical novels Novels set during World War II Philippine English-language novels Novels set in the Philippines {{1940s-WWII-novel-stub

See also

References