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CATCH-22
by Heller, Joseph
- Used
- near fine
- Hardcover
- first
- Condition
- NEAR FINE/NEAR FINE
- Seller
-
Portland, Oregon, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
Simon and Schuster, 1961. First Edition. Hardcover with Dust Jacket. NEAR FINE/NEAR FINE. First Printing. 443 pp. Blue cloth, white stamped spine lettering, red topstain, deckled fore edge. Trivial offsetting to endpapers beyond the DJ flaps and some very faint fading around the extremities, little smudge to FFEP, otherwise very clean and fresh with tight, square binding; DJ shows some light rubbing to tips and a very small nick to tail of spine, else crisp and bright with price of $5.95 intact. A very nice copy of Heller's modern classic, which dared to lampoon even The Great War, mocking the constitutive contradictions of the bureaucratic war machine which it birthed.
Synopsis
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.
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Details
- Bookseller
- Arches Bookhouse
(US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 503005
- Title
- CATCH-22
- Author
- Heller, Joseph
- Format/Binding
- Hardcover with Dust Jacket
- Book Condition
- Used - NEAR FINE
- Jacket Condition
- NEAR FINE
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Edition
- First Edition
- Binding
- Hardcover
- Publisher
- Simon and Schuster
- Date Published
- 1961
- Keywords
- , , , , , , , ,
Terms of Sale
Arches Bookhouse
30 day return guarantee, with full refund including original shipping costs for up to 30 days after delivery if an item arrives misdescribed or damaged.
About the Seller
Arches Bookhouse
Biblio member since 2022
Portland, Oregon
About Arches Bookhouse
Brick & mortar humanities bookshop in Portland, OR. Philosophy, history, theology, literature, art.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Spine
- The outer portion of a book which covers the actual binding. The spine usually faces outward when a book is placed on a shelf....
- Fore Edge
- The portion of a book that is opposite the spine. That part of a book which faces the wall when shelved in a traditional...
- Fine
- A book in fine condition exhibits no flaws. A fine condition book closely approaches As New condition, but may lack the...
- Crisp
- A term often used to indicate a book's new-like condition. Indicates that the hinges are not loosened. A book described as crisp...
- Flap(s)
- The portion of a book cover or cover jacket that folds into the book from front to back. The flap can contain biographical...
- Cloth
- "Cloth-bound" generally refers to a hardcover book with cloth covering the outside of the book covers. The cloth is stretched...
- Rubbing
- Abrasion or wear to the surface. Usually used in reference to a book's boards or dust-jacket.
- Tight
- Used to mean that the binding of a book has not been overly loosened by frequent use.
- Tail
- The heel of the spine.
- Jacket
- Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...
- First Edition
- In book collecting, the first edition is the earliest published form of a book. A book may have more than one first edition in...
- FFEP
- A common abbreviation for Front Free End Paper. Generally, it is the first page of a book and is part of a single sheet that...
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