The Hardback Centenary Edition
Part of a beautiful,four-book series issued by Penguin to honour the centennial of the author's birth,this hardback centenary edition of J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye is a worthy testament to a novel that changed the course of fiction.
Originally published in 1951,with its frank,open delivery and subject of teenage alienation,The Catcher in the Rye instantly became a touchstone for disaffected youth. Holden Caulfield,the maelstrom of contradictions and repressed rage at the tale's centre,emerges as an everyman for a disaffected generation,a boy adrift in time. Through a series of encounters - old friends,random strangers - Caulfield's story is that of coming of age,a young man profoundly shocked by the understanding that all innocence must end.
Viewed today,Salinger's debut continues to pack a narrative punch and can be seen as one of the foundation works of a counter-culture that within two decades had transformed society. Like Kurt Vonnegut's much-later Slaughterhouse-Five,The Catcher in the Rye is a tangential response to the horror and combat of the Second World War: like Vonnegut,Salinger was posted to Europe and witnessed atrocity that forever altered his worldview. In Holden Caulfield,he found a voice for that pain.
Penguin's centenary set - including The Catcher in the Rye,Franny and Zooey,Raise High the Roof Beam,Carpenters and For Esme,with Love and Squalor - include artwork and text personally and painstakingly reassembled from the original editions by Hamish Hamilton's publishing director,Simon Prosser. The series is presented with new endpapers and boards.
Publisher: Penguin Books LtdISBN: 9780241984758Number of pages: 240Weight: 291 gDimensions: 205 x 137 x 22 mm
MEDIA REVIEWS
'He wrote a perfect novel and it changed US culture forever.'- TheIndependent
'His work meant a lot to me when I was a young person and his writing still sings.'- Dave Eggers
'It was a very pure voice he had. There was no one like him.'- Martin Amis
'He was the poet of youthful alienation before youth really knew what that was.'- The Sunday Times
'Tough-tender... It charts the miseries and ecstasies of an adolescent rebel (in) acidly humorous deadpan satire.'- TIME
J. D. Salinger
One of America's most accomplished and influential short story writers and novelists,J.D. (Jerome David) Salinger remains best known for his iconic cult masterpiece,The Catcher in the Rye. His other works include For Esmé - with Love and Squalor,Raise High the Roof Beam,Carpenters and Franny and Zooey.
Visit the J. D. Salinger author page
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