HomeGroupsTalkZeitgeist
Search Site
This site uses cookies to deliver our services, improve performance, for analytics, and (if not signed in) for advertising. By using LibraryThing you acknowledge that you have read and understand our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Your use of the site and services is subject to these policies and terms.

Results from Google Books

Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.

Loading...

The Catcher in the Rye

by J. D. Salinger

Other authors: See the other authors section.

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingConversations / Mentions
66,492104714 (3.79)3 / 1098
Story of Holden Caufield with his idiosyncrasies, penetrating insight, confusion, sensitivity and negativism. Holden, knowing he is to be expelled from school, decides to leave early. He spends three days in New York City and tells the story of what he did and suffered there.
1950s (6)
Read (25)
AP Lit (41)
scav (26)
100 (34)
Cooper (41)
Teens (3)
Read (3)
Loading...

Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book.

» See also 1098 mentions

English (978)  Spanish (20)  Italian (11)  French (11)  Dutch (5)  Danish (3)  Norwegian (2)  Catalan (2)  German (2)  Hungarian (2)  Portuguese (Portugal) (1)  Croatian (1)  Slovak (1)  Portuguese (1)  Finnish (1)  Icelandic (1)  Swedish (1)  Hebrew (1)  Greek (1)  All languages (1,045)
Showing 1-5 of 978 (next | show all)
Ok, well, I don't know how I feel after reading this book. Obviously it is a masterpiece and I really enjoyed reading it, but I was torn in some places. I know a lot of authors leave their characters and/or books a little open ended so the reader can fill in the blanks for themselves, and this was one of those type of books. My problem is that I don't like to figure out for myself what happened. If I wanted to do that, I would have wrote the book, but these are Salinger's characters and not mine, and I would rather have him tell me what happened in Holden's life.
Other than that, it was excellent, Holden has one hell of an adventure, and he is one hell of an interesting kid. As I read through the book (in one night) I found that my reading kept pace with the book, which was very quick, and when I stopped reading for a little for one reason or another, it was almost like I had to catch my breath and slow down, recovering from Holden's crazy world back into my own. Like I said about Catch 22, there is a reason this book is a classic bestseller. It speaks for itself, you don't need me to tell you to read it, but if you haven't read it in a while or at all, it might be a good time to spend some quality time with Holden Caulfield. ( )
  MrMet | Apr 28, 2023 |
One of the finest books from yesteryears ( )
  BookReviewsCafe | Apr 27, 2023 |
An interesting read, especially if you're feeling directionless. ( )
  Drake.Sully | Apr 22, 2023 |
My whole freshman English class hated our teacher for making us read this. But I loved it. ( )
  tmilaandlc | Apr 9, 2023 |
Christ, what an asshole. ( )
  Jon_Hansen | Mar 5, 2023 |
Showing 1-5 of 978 (next | show all)
“Holden Caulfield is supposed to be this paradigmatic teenager we can all relate to, but we don’t really speak this way or talk about these things,” Ms. Levenson said, summarizing a typical response. At the public charter school where she used to teach, she said, “I had a lot of students comment, ‘I can’t really feel bad for this rich kid with a weekend free in New York City.’ ”
 
"Some of my best friends are children," says Jerome David Salinger, 32. "In fact, all of my best friends are children." And Salinger has written short stories about his best friends with love, brilliance and 20-20 vision. In his tough-tender first novel, The Catcher in the Rye (a Book-of-the-Month Club midsummer choice), he charts the miseries and ecstasies of an adolescent rebel, and deals out some of the most acidly humorous deadpan satire since the late great Ring Lardner.
added by Shortride | editTime (Jul 16, 1951)
 
Holden's story is told in Holden's own strange, wonderful language by J. D. Salinger in an unusually brilliant novel.
 
This Salinger, he's a short story guy. And he knows how to write about kids. This book though, it's too long. Gets kind of monotonous. And he should've cut out a lot about these jerks and all at that crumby school. They depress me.
 

» Add other authors (77 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Salinger, J. D.primary authorall editionsconfirmed
Avati, JamesCover artistsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Östergren, KlasTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Böll, HeinrichMitwirkendersecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Fonalleras, Josep MariaTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Judit, GyepesTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Mitchell, MichaelCover designersecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Riera, ErnestTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Saarikoski, PenttiTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Schönfeld, EikeÜbersetzersecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Schroderus, ArtoTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Schuchart, MaxTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Zhongxu, SunTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed

Is contained in

Has the (non-series) sequel

Has as a study

Has as a commentary on the text

Has as a student's study guide

Has as a teacher's guide

You must log in to edit Common Knowledge data.
For more help see the Common Knowledge help page.
Canonical title
Original title
Alternative titles
Information from the Dutch Common Knowledge. Edit to localize it to your language.
Original publication date
People/Characters
Important places
Important events
Related movies
Awards and honors
Epigraph
Dedication
To my mother
First words
"If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want the truth."
Quotations
I'm quite illiterate but I read a lot.
You don’t have to think too hard when you talk to teachers.
I do not even like ... cars... I’d rather have a goddamn horse. A horse is at least human, for God’s sake.”
I always pick a gorgeous time to fall over a suitcase or something.
The best thing, though, in that museum was that everything always stayed right where it was. Nobody'd move.... Nobody'd be different. The only thing that would be different would be you.
Last words
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
Disambiguation notice
Publisher's editors
Blurbers
Original language
Canonical DDC/MDS
Canonical LCC
Story of Holden Caufield with his idiosyncrasies, penetrating insight, confusion, sensitivity and negativism. Holden, knowing he is to be expelled from school, decides to leave early. He spends three days in New York City and tells the story of what he did and suffered there.

No library descriptions found.

Book description
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.

J.D. Salinger's classic novel of teenage angst and rebellion was first published in 1951. The novel was included on Time's 2005 list of the 100 best English-language novels written since 1923. It was named by Modern Library and its readers as one of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. It has been frequently challenged in the court for its liberal use of profanity and portrayal of sexuality and in the 1950's and 60's it was the novel that every teenage boy wants to read.
Haiku summary
Boy in funny hat
Wanders around N.Y.C.
Phonies everywhere.
(Christopher451)
A quoi bon la vie. Ses chemins nous mènent au trou. Attrape mon coeur!
Bottle up your grief.
Men do not have emotions.
Lie until you die.
(alsocass)

Popular covers

Quick Links

Rating

Average: (3.79)
0.5 87
1 818
1.5 90
2 1601
2.5 228
3 3723
3.5 694
4 5768
4.5 586
5 6117

Is this you?

Become a LibraryThing Author.

Hachette Book Group

3 editions of this book were published by Hachette Book Group.

Editions: 0316769487, 0316769177, 0316769533

Penguin Australia

2 editions of this book were published by Penguin Australia.

Editions: 014023750X, 0241950430

 

About | Contact | Privacy/Terms | Help/FAQs | Blog | Store | APIs | TinyCat | Legacy Libraries | Early Reviewers | Common Knowledge | 188,368,476 books! | Top bar: Always visible