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Time out of joint

  • Philip K. Dick

3.86

7 ratings

Time Out of Joint is a dystopian 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. The title is a reference to Shakespeare's play Hamlet. The line is uttered by Hamlet to Horatio 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.

Ragle Gumm is an ordinary man leading an ordinary life, except that he makes his living by entering a newspaper contest every day -- and winning, every day. But he gradually begins to suspect that his life -- indeed his whole world -- is an illusion, constructed around him for the express purpose of keeping him docile and happy. But if that is the case, what is his real world like, and what is he actually doing every day when he thinks he is guessing 'Where Will The Little Green Man Be Next?'

Genres

  • American Science fiction
  • Fiction
  • Psychological aspects
  • Psychological aspects of Puzzles
  • Puzzles
  • Science fiction, American
  • Space and time
  • Suburban life
  • Fiction, general
  • FICTION / Science Fiction / General
  • FICTION / Literary
  • Englisch
  • Science-fiction
  • Fiction, science fiction, general
  • Jeux intellectuels
  • Romans, nouvelles
  • Aspect psychologique
  • Vie de la banlieue
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About the author

  • Philip K. Dick

    16 December 1928 - 2 March 1982

    3.79

    624 ratings · 691 works

Editions

  • Edition cover

    Suma

    Sep 13, 2018

  • Edition cover

    Pocket/Presses Pocket

    Feb 28, 1987

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    Pocket/Presses Pocket

    Feb 28, 1987

  • Edition cover

    Penguin

    Jun 13, 1969

Edition cover

FISCHER Taschenbuch

Jan 23, 2019

  • Edition cover

    Dt. Erstausg.

    Haffmans

    1995

  • Edition cover

    Wilhelm Goldmann Verlag

    Feb 24, 1978

  • Edition cover

    Heyne

    September 1, 2002

  • Edition cover

    New Ed edition

    Penguin USA (P)

    March 1994

  • Edition cover

    Penguin USA (P)

    March 1994

  • Edition cover

    New Ed edition

    Gollancz

    September 11, 2003

  • Edition cover

    1st Vintage Books ed.

    Vintage Books

    2002

  • Edition cover

    [1st. ed.]

    Lippincott

    1959

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    Gregg Press

    1979

  • Edition cover

    Science Fiction Book Club

    1961

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    Penguin

    1969

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    Dell

    1979

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    Carroll & Graf Pub

    December 1987

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    Bluejay Books

    1984

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    Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

    2012

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    1st Mariner Books ed.

    Mariner Books

    2012