Catch-22: Introduction by Malcolm Bradbury Hardcover - 1995
by Joseph Heller; Introduction by Malcolm Bradbury
Catch-22 is like no other novel we have ever read. It has its own style, its own rationale, its own extraordinary character. It moves back and forth from hilarity to horror. It is outrageously funny and strangely affecting. National ads/media.
About this book
Catch-22 is Joseph Heller’s first novel and his most acclaimed work. Set during World War II, the novel uses a distinctive non-chronological third-person omniscient narration, mainly focusing on the life of Captain John Yossarian, a U.S. Army Air Forces B-25 bombardier. Occasionally, the narrator also shows us how other characters, such as the chaplain or Hungry Joe, experience the world around them. As the novel’s events are described from the different points of view through separate out-of-sequence storylines, the timeline of Catch-22 develops along with the plot.
The novel's title refers to a plot device that is repeatedly invoked in the story. Catch-22 starts as a set of paradoxical requirements whereby airmen mentally unfit to fly did not have to, but could not actually be excused. By the end of the novel, the phrase is invoked as the explanation for many unreasonable restrictions. “Catch-22” has since entered the English language and can be understood as an unsolvable logic puzzle, a difficult situation from which there is no escape.
Upon publication, the book was not a best seller in the United States. It was merely a cult favorite until the publication of the paperback edition in 1962, which set record sales — most likely benefitting from a national debate about the pointlessness of the Vietnam War. Catch-22 has since been ranked as one of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century by the Modern Library, one of the 20th century's top 100 novels by the Radcliffe Publishing Course, and one of the 100 greatest novels of all time by The Observer.
First Edition Identification
Simon & Schuster first published Catch-22 in June of 1961. The first edition is bound in blue cloth, the top edges of its pages are stained red, and the statement “First Printing” appears on the copyright page. The dust jacket of the first edition has the original $5.95 price on the bottom of the front flap and author's picture on the back panel with no blurbs.
Details
- Title Catch-22: Introduction by Malcolm Bradbury
- Author Joseph Heller; Introduction by Malcolm Bradbury
- Binding Hardcover
- Edition First Thus
- Pages 624
- Volumes 1
- Language ENG
- Publisher Everyman's Library, New York
- Date 1995-10-17
- ISBN 9780679437222 / 0679437223
- Weight 1.42 lbs (0.64 kg)
- Dimensions 8.4 x 5.28 x 1.37 in (21.34 x 13.41 x 3.48 cm)
- Reading level 1140
-
Themes
- Chronological Period: 1940's
- Library of Congress subjects War stories, World War, 1939-1945
- Library of Congress Catalog Number 95234876
- Dewey Decimal Code FIC
Media reviews
Citations
- Library Journal, 01/01/1996, Page 150
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Catch-22
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