_-_Kurt_Vonnegut.jpg) First edition cover | |
| Author | Kurt Vonnegut |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Dark comedy Satire Science fiction War novel Metafiction Postmodernism |
| Publisher | Delacorte |
Publication date | March 31, 1969[1] |
| Publication place | United States |
| Pages | 190 (First Edition)[2] |
| ISBN | 0-385-31208-3 (first edition, hardback) |
| OCLC | 29960763 |
| 813.54 | |
| LC Class | PS3572.O5 S6 1994 |
Slaughterhouse-Five, or, The Children's Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death is a 1969 semi-autobiographic science fiction-infused anti-war novel by Kurt Vonnegut. It follows the life experiences of Billy Pilgrim, from his early years, to his time as an American soldier and chaplain's assistant during World War II, to the post-war years. Throughout the novel, Billy frequently travels back and forth through time. The protagonist deals with a temporal crisis as a result of his post-war psychological trauma. The text centers on Billy's capture by the German Army and his survival of the Allied firebombing of Dresden as a prisoner of war, an experience that Vonnegut endured as an American serviceman. The work has been called an example of "unmatched moral clarity"[3] and "one of the most enduring anti-war novels of all time".[3]
- ^ Strodder, Chris (2007). The Encyclopedia of Sixties Cool. Santa Monica Press. p. 73. ISBN 9781595809865.
- ^ "Publication: Slaughterhouse Five". www.isfdb.org.
- ^ a b Powers, Kevin, "The Moral Clarity of ‘Slaughterhouse-Five’ at 50", The New York Times, March 23, 2019, Sunday Book Review, p. 13.