 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (July 2007) |
.jpg) Cover of first edition (hardcover) | |
| Author | Philip K. Dick |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Arthur Hawkins |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Science fiction |
| Publisher | J. B. Lippincott Company |
Publication date | 1959 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
| Pages | 221 |
Time Out of Joint is a science fiction novel by American writer Philip K. Dick, first published in novel form in the United States in 1959. An abridged version was also serialised in the British science fiction magazine New Worlds Science Fiction in several installments from December 1959 to February 1960.
The novel epitomizes many of Dick's themes with its concerns about the nature of reality and ordinary people in ordinary lives having the world unravel around them.[1] The title is a reference to Shakespeare's play Hamlet.[2] The line is uttered by Hamlet after being visited by his father's ghost and learning that his uncle Claudius murdered his father; in short, a shocking supernatural event that fundamentally alters the way Hamlet perceives the state and the universe ("The time is out of joint; O cursed spite!/That ever I was born to set it right!" [I.V.211-2]), much as do several events in the novel.
- ^ Canaan, Howard (2008). "Time and Gnosis in the Writings of Philip K. Dick". Hungarian Journal of English and American Studies (HJEAS). 14 (2): 335–355. ISSN 1218-7364. JSTOR 41274434.
- ^ "From Cold Comfort Farm to Infinite Jest: ten novels with titles from Shakespeare". The Telegraph. 24 March 2016. Retrieved 13 August 2020.