The Catcher in the Rye: Annotations and Study Aids

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Since his debut in 1951 as "The Catcher in the Rye," Holden Caulfield has been synonymous with "cynical adolescent."

Holden narrates the story of a couple of days in his sixteen-year-old life, just after he's been expelled from prep school, in a slang that sounds edgy even today and keeps this novel on banned book lists.

His constant wry observations about what he encounters, from teachers to phonies (the two of course are not mutually exclusive), capture the essence of the eternal teenage experience of alienation.

80 pages, Paperback

First published July 16,1951

This edition

Format
80 pages, Paperback
Published
December 1, 1999 by Klett
ISBN
9783125738089
ASIN
3125738083
Language
English
Characters More characters
  • Holden Caulfield

    Holden Caulfield

    The 16-year-old protagonist of author J. D. Salingers The Catcher in the Rye. Holden is naive and at the same time resentful of the adult world. One of his most striking qualities is his powerful revulsion for all things "phony". At six feet, two-an...

  • Robert Ackley

    Robert Ackley

    Holdens next-door neighbor at Pencey Prepmore...

  • Stradlater

    Stradlater

    Holdens roommate at Pencey Prepmore...

  • Phoebe Caulfield

    Phoebe Caulfield

    Holdens 10 year old sister who he loves a lot because she listens and understands him more than others. more...

  • Allie Caulfield

    Allie Caulfield

    Holdens younger brother who died three years before the novel from leukemia.more...

  • D.B Caulfield

    D.b Caulfield

    Holdens older brother who wrote a volume of short storiesmore...

About the author

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Works, most notably novel The Catcher in the Rye (1951), of American writer Jerome David Salinger often concern troubled, sensitive adolescents.

People well know this author for his reclusive nature. He published his last original work in 1965 and gave his last interview in 1980. Reared in city of New York, Salinger began short stories in secondary school and published several stories in the early 1940s before serving in World War II. In 1948, he published the critically acclaimed story "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" in The New Yorker, his subsequent home magazine. He released an immediate popular success. His depiction of adolescent alienation and loss of innocence in the protagonist Holden Caulfield especially influenced adolescent readers. Widely read and controversial, sells a quarter-million copies a year.

The success led to public attention and scrutiny: reclusive, he published new work less frequently. He followed with a short story collection, Nine Stories (1953), of a novella and a short story, Franny and Zooey (1961), and a collection of two novellas, Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction (1963). His last published work, a novella entitled "Hapworth 16, 1924", appeared in The New Yorker on June 19, 1965.

Afterward, Salinger struggled with unwanted attention, including a legal battle in the 1980s with biographer Ian Hamilton. In the late 1990s, Joyce Maynard, a close ex-lover, and Margaret Salinger, his daughter, wrote and released his memoirs. In 1996, a small publisher announced a deal with Salinger to publish "Hapworth 16, 1924" in book form, but the ensuing publicity indefinitely delayed the release.

Another writer used one of his characters, resulting in copyright infringement; he filed a lawsuit against this writer and afterward made headlines around the globe in June 2009. Salinger died of natural causes at his home in Cornish, New Hampshire.

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