Examines the background and themes of "Catcher in the Rye," discusses the novel's censorship, and examines the character of Holden Caulfield

J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye (1951) is a twentieth-century classic. Despite being one of the most frequently banned books in America, generations of readers have identified with the narrator, Holden Caulfield, an angry young man who articulates the confusion, cynicism and vulnerability of adolescence with humour and sincerity. This guide to Salinger’s provocative novel offers: an accessible introduction to the text and contexts of The Catcher in the Rye a critical history, surveying the many interpretations of the text from publication to the present a selection of new critical essays on the The Catcher in the Rye, by Sally Robinson, Renee R. Curry, Denis Jonnes, Livia Hekanaho and Clive Baldwin, providing a range of perspectives on the novel and extending the coverage of key critical approaches identified in the survey section cross-references between sections of the guide, in order to suggest links between texts, contexts and criticism suggestions for further reading. Part of the Routledge Guides to Literature series, this volume is essential reading for all those beginning detailed study of The Catcher in the Rye and seeking not only a guide to the novel, but a way through the wealth of contextual and critical material that surrounds Salinger’s text.

J. D. Salinger's 1951 novel, The Catcher in the Rye, is the definitive coming-of-age novel and Holden Caulfield remains one of the most famous characters in modern literature. This jargon-free guide to the text sets The Catcher in the Rye in its historical, intellectual and cultural contexts, offering analyses of its themes, style and structure, and presenting an up-to-date account of its critical reception.

A good book has the power to touch readers and provide insightful commentary into the human condition and current events. This title examines the greatest literary hits to take America by storm from the 1950s to present day.

Anyone who has read J. D. Salinger's New Yorker stories - particularly A Perfect Day for Bananafish, Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut, The Laughing Man, and For Esme - With Love and Squalor, will not be surprised by the fact that his first novel is full of children. The hero-narrator of The Catcher in the Rye is an ancient child of sixteen, a native New Yorker named Holden Caulfield. Through circumstances that tend to preclude adult, secondhand description, he leaves his prep school in Pennsylvania and goes underground in New York City for three days. The boy himself is at once too simple and too complex for us to make any final comment about him or his story. Perhaps the safest thing we can say about Holden is that he was born in the world not just strongly attracted to beauty but, almost, hopelessly impaled on it. There are many voices in this novel: children's voices, adult voices, underground voices-but Holden's voice is the most eloquent of all. Transcending his own vernacular, yet remaining marvelously faithful to it, he issues a perfectly articulated cry of mixed pain and pleasure. However, like most lovers and clowns and poets of the higher orders, he keeps most of the pain to, and for, himself. The pleasure he gives away, or sets aside, with all his heart. It is there for the reader who can handle it to keep.

"The Catcher in the Rye" (in other translations - "Break on the edge of rye fields of childhood," "Catcher in the grain field," English The Catcher in the Rye -. The Catcher in the Rye," 1951) - a novel by American writer Jerome Salinger. In it on behalf of the 16-year old boy named Holden in a very blatant form it tells about his heightened perception of American reality and the rejection of the common canons and morality of modern society. The work was immensely popular among young people and among the adult population, have a significant impact on world culture of the second half of the XX century. The novel was translated almost all world languages. In 2005, Time magazine included the novel in the list of the 100 best English-language novels written since 1923, and publisher Modern Library [en] included in its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. However, despite this, at the same time in the US the novel has often been criticized, and the prohibition of the large amount of obscene language.

Presents a collection of critical essays on Salinger and his works as well as a chronology of events in the author's life.

Looks at gender-related themes in ninety-six of the most frequently taught works of fiction, including "Anna Karenina," "Brave New World," "Great Expectations," and "Lord of the Flies."

An introduction to Salinger's "The Catcher in the Rye" discusses the author's life, his perceptions of society in the 1950s, and the novel's plot, characters, and themes.

Five essays focus on various aspects of the novel from its ideology within the context of the Cold War and portrait of a particular American subculture to its account of patterns of adolescent crisis and rich and complex narrative structure.