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Catch-22
by Joseph Heller
- Used
- Hardcover
- Signed
- first
- Condition
- Very Good+/Good+
- Seller
-
Los Angeles, California, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
Catch-22, Joseph Heller. First Edition, SECOND PRINTING, signed and inscribed by Heller to Olive Plunkett on front flyleaf. In original dust jacket.
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
- Owl Creek Books
(US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- OCB0009
- Title
- Catch-22
- Author
- Joseph Heller
- Book Condition
- Used - Very Good+
- Jacket Condition
- Good+
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Edition
- First Edition, Second Printing
- Binding
- Hardcover
- Publisher
- Simon & Schuster, Inc.
- Place of Publication
- New York
- Date Published
- 1961
- Weight
- 0.00 lbs
- Keywords
- signed
Terms of Sale
Owl Creek Books
30 day return guarantee, with full refund including original shipping costs for up to 30 days after delivery if an item arrives misdescribed.
About the Seller
Owl Creek Books
Biblio member since 2021
Los Angeles, California
About Owl Creek Books
Vintage & Rare. Finely curated and hand-selected for your reading and collecting enjoyment.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Inscribed
- When a book is described as being inscribed, it indicates that a short note written by the author or a previous owner has been...
- 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...
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