Catch-22
by Joseph Heller
- Used
- very good
- Hardcover
- first
- Condition
- Very Good/Very Good
- Seller
-
Tomball, Texas, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
First Edition/Stated First Printing; A Very Good book in a Very Good Original dust jacket. A handsome example of this classic of 20th century literature and basis for many movie and TV adaptations. This volume is in very good condition showing some light sunning and fading to the boards, mild off-setting to the end papers, some light shelf wear to the spine ends, and a loose front hinge to the first few pages. Housed in a clean and bright very good dust jacket that shows some light rubbing, chipping, and creasing to the spine ends and edges, a couple of horizontal scratches to the front panel, and a few short closed tears to the top edges that have been tape repaired to the verso. Not price clipped ($5.95 intact) and not ex-library; overall, a highly presentable and collectible copy.
In archival protection and ships in a sturdy box.
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.
Read More: Identifying first editions of Catch-22
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Details
- Bookseller
- Grayshelf Books, ABAA, IOBA (US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 3558
- Title
- Catch-22
- Author
- Joseph Heller
- Book Condition
- Used - Very Good
- Jacket Condition
- Very Good
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Binding
- Hardcover
- Publisher
- Simon & Schuster
- Place of Publication
- USA
- Date Published
- 1961
- Weight
- 0.00 lbs
- Keywords
- First Edition, Hardcover
- Bookseller catalogs
- Military Fiction; Classic Literature; World War II History;
Terms of Sale
Grayshelf Books, ABAA, IOBA
Bryan H. Young D.V.M.dba Grayshelf Books, 19111 Desert Eagle Dr., Tomball, Tx 77377Email - bhydvm@gmail.comWe accept payment by Paypal, Visa, Mastercard, checks, or money orders.Texas residents please add 8% sales tax.We guarantee all books to be as described.Additional scans of books will be provided upon request.
30 day full money back guarantee to include shipping costs if an item arrives damaged or not as described in listing.
About the Seller
Grayshelf Books, ABAA, IOBA
About Grayshelf Books, ABAA, IOBA
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Shelf Wear
- Shelf wear (shelfwear) describes damage caused over time to a book by placing and removing a book from a shelf. This damage is...
- Verso
- The page bound on the left side of a book, opposite to the recto page.
- Price Clipped
- When a book is described as price-clipped, it indicates that the portion of the dust jacket flap that has the publisher's...
- Hinge
- The portion of the book closest to the spine that allows the book to be opened and closed.
- Jacket
- Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...
- Edges
- The collective of the top, fore and bottom edges of the text block of the book, being that part of the edges of the pages of a...
- Rubbing
- Abrasion or wear to the surface. Usually used in reference to a book's boards or dust-jacket.
- Chipping
- A defect in which small pieces are missing from the edges; fraying or small pieces of paper missing the edge of a paperback, or...
- 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....