Holden and Philip

[novelsryou]

Is Maugham's Philip Carey just a club footed Holden Caulfield? Discuss.

[dfloyd]

Catcher in the Rye, I see no commonality, hence no reason for discussion.

[novelsryou]

Catcher in the Rye, I see no commonality, hence no reason for discussion.

Aren't they a couple whiners trying to find their way.

[Emil Miller]

Aren't they a couple whiners trying to find their way.

Somerset Maugham wasn't given to laughter but, if he had read Catcher in the Rye, he would have done so at the question raised in the original post.
I haven't read it either but there has been enough discussion in this forum about it to convince me that it's an overblown tale of American teenage angst; whereas Of Human Bondage is a Bildungsroman of great literary merit.

[dfloyd]

to compare widely diversified stories and their characters. I see this in the questions asked by students who belong to this forum, and by certain critics. Harold Bloom, regardless of his stature, recently compared the Judge in Blood Meridian to Moby Dick, which I think is a ludicrous comparison. Many here have criticisized Catcher, but I think it primarily is because the novel was published in 1951 rather than 2001. Young students of today do not relate well with what was being written 60 years ago. Just as I have a hard time relating to a forum poster who doesn't punctuate his/her sentences properly and avoids capitilization at all costs.

But without criticizing Catcher, any comparison between Salinger's novel and Maugham's masterpiece is also ludicrous.

[novelsryou]

Catcher in the Rye, I see no commonality, hence no reason for discussion.


Holden did mention Maugham's Of Human Bondage.

[glover7]

to compare widely diversified stories and their characters. I see this in the questions asked by students who belong to this forum, and by certain critics. Harold Bloom, regardless of his stature, recently compared the Judge in Blood Meridian to Moby Dick, which I think is a ludicrous comparison. Many here have criticisized Catcher, but I think it primarily is because the novel was published in 1951 rather than 2001. Young students of today do not relate well with what was being written 60 years ago. Just as I have a hard time relating to a forum poster who doesn't punctuate his/her sentences properly and avoids capitilization at all costs.

But without criticizing Catcher, any comparison between Salinger's novel and Maugham's masterpiece is also ludicrous.

Poetic justice'd.