J. D. Salinger remains well known for a single novel: The Catcher in the Rye, which was hailed as "brilliant" upon its publication in 1951. While several of the short short stories Salinger also wrote and published in popular magazines during the 1950s were eventually collected in book form, it remains Catcher in the Rye that has kept his name a familiar one, particularly among the many young readers who have found in the novel's teen protagonist, Holden Caulfield, an attitude of rebellion against the world of "phoniness" that serves as a model for their own rejection of adult values and mores.

While Salinger's novel reaches teen readers on one level, it also holds an appeal to adult readers who are aware of its complexity. The subject of considerable critical scrutiny in the years since its publication, The Catcher in the Rye has earned comparisons to The Adventures of...