Slaughterhouse-Five

Slaughterhouse-Five, or the Children's Crusade
First edition cover
AuthorKurt Vonnegut
LanguageEnglish
GenreDark comedy
Satire
Science fiction
War novel
Metafiction
Postmodernism
PublisherDelacorte
Publication date
March 31, 1969[1]
Publication placeUnited States
Pages190 (First Edition)[2]
ISBN0-385-31208-3 (first edition, hardback)
OCLC29960763
813.54
LC ClassPS3572.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]

  1. ^ Strodder, Chris (2007). The Encyclopedia of Sixties Cool. Santa Monica Press. p. 73. ISBN 9781595809865.
  2. ^ "Publication: Slaughterhouse Five". www.isfdb.org.
  3. ^ a b Powers, Kevin, "The Moral Clarity of ‘Slaughterhouse-Five’ at 50", The New York Times, March 23, 2019, Sunday Book Review, p. 13.