Novel
The Catcher in the Rye
J. D. Salinger · 1951
Synopsis
Holden Caulfield, sixteen, is expelled from Pencey Prep, in Pennsylvania, just before Christmas, for failing four subjects out of five. He leaves school earlier than planned, so as not to be at home when his parents learn the news, and spends three days in New York between the Edmont Hotel and the bars. He rings old acquaintances, asks a taxi driver where the ducks in Central Park go when the pond freezes, and lets the lift operator send him a prostitute, with whom he only talks. He slips into his parents' home at night to see his little sister, Phoebe.
Context
On the day of the landing, the author had six chapters of the book on him, according to his biographers. Holden had already appeared in short stories, one of which was accepted by the magazine in 1941 and published in 1946. The novel is published by Little, Brown on 16 July 1951; the Book-of-the-Month Club, which makes it its summer selection, wanted to change its title, which the author refused. He had his photograph removed from the third printing onwards. The book was the most censored in American high schools from 1961 to 1982, and one of the most taught.
Who it is for
A short novel, in the first person and in spoken language. Translated by Jean-Baptiste Rossi in 1953, by Annie Saumont in 1986, then by Alice Déon with Jean Esch in 2026.
Prizes and reception
More than sixty-five million copies sold; tenth among the most challenged books in the United States in the 1990s.
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