Slaughterhouse-Five (Modern Library 100 Best Novels)
Slaughterhous-Five is one of the world's great anti-war books. Centering on the infamous fire-bombing of Dresden, Billy Pilgrim's odyssey through time reflects the mythic journey of our own fractured lives as we search for meaning in what we are afraid to know.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
Review:
Kurt Vonnegut's absurdist classic Slaughterhouse-Five introduces us to Billy Pilgrim, a man who becomes unstuck in time after he is abducted by aliens from the planet Tralfamadore. In a plot-scrambling display of virtuosity, we follow Pilgrim simultaneously through all phases of his life, concentrating on his (and Vonnegut's) shattering experience as an American prisoner of war who witnesses the firebombing of Dresden.
About the Author:
Don't let the ease of reading fool you--Vonnegut's isn't a conventional, or simple, novel. He writes, "There are almost no characters in this story, and almost no dramatic confrontations, because most of the people in it are so sick, and so much the listless playthings of enormous forces. One of the main effects of war, after all, is that people are discouraged from being characters..." Slaughterhouse-Five (taken from the name of the building where the POWs were held) is not only Vonnegut's most powerful book, it is as important as any written since 1945. Like Catch- 22, it fashions the author's experiences in the Second World War into an eloquent and deeply funny plea against butchery in the service of authority. Slaughterhouse-Five boasts the same imagination, humanity, and gleeful appreciation of the absurd found in Vonnegut's other works, but the book's basis in rock-hard, tragic fact gives it a unique poignancy--and humor.
Kurt Vonnegut was a master of contemporary American literature. His black humor, satiric voice, and incomparable imagination first captured America's attention in The Sirens of Titan in 1959 and established him as "a true artist" with Cat's Cradle in 1963. He was, as Graham Greene declared, "one of the best living American writers.” Mr. Vonnegut passed away in April 2007.
From the Hardcover edition.
From the Hardcover edition.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
Buy New
Learn more about this copy
US$ 8.46
Shipping:
FREE
From United Kingdom to U.S.A.
Top Search Results from the AbeBooks Marketplace
Stock Image
Slaughterhouse-Five (Paperback)
Published by
Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group Inc, United States
(1991)
ISBN 10: 0440180295
ISBN 13: 9780440180296
New
Paperback
Quantity: 10
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Paperback. Condition: New. Repr. Language: English. Brand new Book. Kurt Vonnegut's masterpiece, Slaughterhouse-Five is "a desperate, painfully honest attempt to confront the monstrous crimes of the twentieth century" (Time). Selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best novels of all time Slaughterhouse-Five, an American classic, is one of the world's great antiwar books. Centering on the infamous World War II firebombing of Dresden, the novel is the result of what Kurt Vonnegut described as a twenty-three-year struggle to write a book about what he had witnessed as an American prisoner of war. It combines historical fiction, science fiction, autobiography, and satire in an account of the life of Billy Pilgrim, a barber's son turned draftee turned optometrist turned alien abductee. As Vonnegut had, Billy experiences the destruction of Dresden as a POW. Unlike Vonnegut, he experiences time travel, or coming "unstuck in time." An instant bestseller, Slaughterhouse-Five made Kurt Vonnegut a cult hero in American literature, a reputation that only strengthened over time, despite his being banned and censored by some libraries and schools for content and language. But it was precisely those elements of Vonnegut's writing--the political edginess, the genre-bending inventiveness, the frank violence, the transgressive wit--that have inspired generations of readers not just to look differently at the world around them but to find the confidence to say something about it. Authors as wide-ranging as Norman Mailer, John Irving, Michael Crichton, Tim O'Brien, Margaret Atwood, Elizabeth Strout, David Sedaris, Jennifer Egan, and J. K. Rowling have all found inspiration in Vonnegut's words. Jonathan Safran Foer has described Vonnegut as "the kind of writer who made people--young people especially--want to write." George Saunders has declared Vonnegut to be "the great, urgent, passionate American writer of our century, who offers us . . . a model of the kind of compassionate thinking that might yet save us from ourselves." More than fifty years after its initial publication at the height of the Vietnam War, Vonnegut's portrayal of political disillusionment, PTSD, and postwar anxiety feels as relevant, darkly humorous, and profoundly affecting as ever, an enduring beacon through our own era's uncertainties. Seller Inventory # ABZ9780440180296
Buy New
US$ 8.46
Convert currency
Stock Image
Slaughterhouse-Five (Modern Library 100 Best Novels)
Published by
Dell
(1991)
ISBN 10: 0440180295
ISBN 13: 9780440180296
New
Mass Market Paperback
Quantity: > 20
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Mass Market Paperback. Condition: New. Brand New!. Seller Inventory # 0440180295
Buy New
US$ 8.47
Convert currency
Seller Image
Slaughter House Five (Modern Library 100 Best Novels) Mass Market Paperback
Published by
Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group
(1998)
ISBN 10: 0440180295
ISBN 13: 9780440180296
New
Soft Cover
Quantity: 10
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Soft Cover. Condition: new. Seller Inventory # 9780440180296
Buy New
US$ 8.51
Convert currency
Seller Image
Slaughterhouse-Five: Or the Children's Crusade, a Duty-Dance with Death (Paperback or Softback)
Published by
Dell Publishing Company 11/3/1991
(1991)
ISBN 10: 0440180295
ISBN 13: 9780440180296
New
Paperback or Softback
Quantity: 10
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Paperback or Softback. Condition: New. Slaughterhouse-Five: Or the Children's Crusade, a Duty-Dance with Death. Book. Seller Inventory # BBS-9780440180296
Buy New
US$ 8.95
Convert currency
Stock Image
Slaughterhouse-Five, Or The Children's Crusade, A Duty-Dance With Death (1991 Copyright)
Published by
Bantam Dell
(1991)
ISBN 10: 0440180295
ISBN 13: 9780440180296
New
Soft cover
Quantity: 1
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Soft cover. Condition: New. No Jacket. New 1991 Copyright In Soft Cover Format, Slaughterhouse-Five, Or The Children's Crusade, A Duty-Dance With Death, With Chapters 1-10, 215 Pages And Pictorial Red And Yellow Cover, ISBN 10: 0440180295 (1991 Copyright) L2. Seller Inventory # 506020
Buy New
US$ 5.84
Convert currency
Stock Image
Slaughterhouse-Five Format: MassMarket
Published by
Penguin Random House
(1991)
ISBN 10: 0440180295
ISBN 13: 9780440180296
New
Softcover
Quantity: > 20
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Condition: New. Brand New. Seller Inventory # 0440180295
Buy New
US$ 5.85
Convert currency
Stock Image
Slaughterhouse-Five (Modern Library 100 Best Novels)
Published by
Dell
(1991)
ISBN 10: 0440180295
ISBN 13: 9780440180296
New
Mass Market Paperback
Quantity: > 20
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Mass Market Paperback. Condition: NEW. Clean and crisp and new!. Seller Inventory # 3531601649
Buy New
US$ 9.99
Convert currency
Seller Image
Slaughterhouse-Five: Or the Children's Crusade, a Duty-Dance with Death (Mass Market Paperback)
Published by
Dell Publishing Company, New York
(1991)
ISBN 10: 0440180295
ISBN 13: 9780440180296
New
Mass Market Paperback
Quantity: 1
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Mass Market Paperback. Condition: new. Mass Market Paperback. Slaughterhous-Five is one of the world's great anti-war books. Centering on the infamous fire-bombing of Dresden, Billy Pilgrim's odyssey through time reflects the mythic journey of our own fractured lives as we search for meaning in what we are afraid to know. "Slaughterhous-Five is one of the world's great anti-war books. Centering on the infamous fire-bombing of Dresden, Billy Pilgrim's odyssey through time reflects the mythic journey of our own fractured lives as we search for meaning in what we are afraid to know. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability. Seller Inventory # 9780440180296
Buy New
US$ 10.62
Convert currency
Stock Image
Slaughterhouse-Five
Published by
Dell
(1991)
ISBN 10: 0440180295
ISBN 13: 9780440180296
New
Softcover
Quantity: 2
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Condition: New. Spend Less, Read More. Seller Inventory # 577QB20011B9_ns
Buy New
US$ 7.02
Convert currency
Stock Image
Slaughterhouse-Five
Published by
Dell
(1991)
ISBN 10: 0440180295
ISBN 13: 9780440180296
New
Softcover
Quantity: 1
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Condition: New. Seller Inventory # 572QFE000WFV_ns
Buy New
US$ 7.02
Convert currency