Slaughterhouse-five

Provides in-depth commentary on characters, themes, and the historical and social context of 300 most-studied literary works, including novels, plays, poems, speeches, and short stories, both international and American.

Published at the height of the Vietnam War protests, Slaughterhouse-Five seized the imaginations of thousands of young people and made Vonnegut into an overnight sensation. Now, more than forty years after its publication, scholars are only beginning to assess Vonnegut's unique achievement with this stoic yet compassionate treatment of what remains one of the most deadly military strikes in European history.

Captured by Germans after World War II’s Battle of the Bulge, soldier Kurt Vonnegut and other POWs were taken to Dresden, where they were confined in a cement shed used for butchering livestock: "Schlachthof-fünf," or "Slaughterhouse-Five." Several weeks later, American and British planes firebombed Dresden, killing 135,000 civilians and leveling the city. Amazingly, the POWs survived, by taking cover in an underground meat locker. Vonnegut spent two decades coming to grips with the experience; he dealt with it openly at last in his novel Slaughterhouse-Five (1969). Sampling key critical perspectives on this frequently banned work, this Bloom’s Guide also provides insightful information about the author, the book’s characters, and an annotated bibliography that serves as an ideal jumping-off point for further study.

In this new collection of critical essays, students of literature will find information about the author's life and other works, an index for quick reference, notes on the contributing writers, and an introductory essay by noted literary scholar Harold Bloom.

Kurt Vonnegut is one of the most popular and admired authors of post-war American literature--famous both for his playful and deceptively simple style as well as for his scathing critiques of social injustice and war. His lauded works such as Slaughterhouse-Five are frequently studied in high school and college literature courses. Bloom's How to Write about Kurt Vonnegut assists young writers with composing effective essays about Vonnegut, with a chapter devoted to good essay writing.

Kurt Vonnegut's darkly comic work became a symbol for the counterculture of a generation. From his debut novel, Player Piano (1951) through seminal 1960's novels such as Cat's Cradle (1963) and Slaughterhouse-Five (1969) up to the recent success of A Man Without A Country (2005), Vonnegut's writing has remained commercially popular, offering a satirical yet optimistic outlook on modern life.

A witty, intelligent, first-person account of what Kurt Vonnegut, Jerzy Kosinski, Donald Barthelme, and other important writers of the last three decades wrote, how they wrote it, and what it means for the development of American fiction.

A collection of reminiscences that illuminate the career and private life of the iconic author of Slaughterhouse-Five.

In a volume that is penetrating, introspective, incisive, and laugh-out-loud funny, one of the great men of letters of this age-or any age-holds forth on life, art, sex, politics, and the state of America's soul.