Franny and Zooey

1961 hardcover
Author	J. D. Salinger
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre(s)	Novel
Publisher	Little, Brown
Released	Fall 1961
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages	201 pp
ISBN	ISBN 0-316-76954-1 (hc)
Preceded by	Nine Stories
Followed by	Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction

Franny and Zooey is a 1961 pair of stories, published together in book form, by J. D. Salinger, the author best known for The Catcher in the Rye. Both stories take place in November 1955. The stories originally appeared in The New Yorker magazine and were published in book form in September 1961. Franny and Zooey are two members of the Glass family, a frequent focus of Salinger's writings. Salinger writes about the Glass family in Raise High the Roof-Beam, Carpenters, Seymour -- An Introduction, Hapworth 16, 1924 and Nine Stories. Image File history File links Frannyzoey. ... Jerome David Salinger (born January 1, 1919) (pronounced ) is an American author best known for The Catcher in the Rye, a classic novel that has enjoyed enduring popularity since its publication in 1951. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... A novel (from French nouvelle Italian novella, new) is an extended, generally fictional narrative, typically in prose. ... Little, Brown and Company is a publishing house established by Charles Coffin Little and his partner, James Brown. ... A hardcover (or hardback or hardbound) book is bound with rigid protective covers (typically of cardboard covered with cloth or heavy paper) and a stitched spine. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article may require cleanup. ... Nine Stories book cover Nine Stories (1953) is collection of short stories by American fiction writer J. D. Salinger. ... See also: 1960 in literature, other events of 1961, 1962 in literature, list of years in literature. ... Jerome David Salinger (born January 1, 1919) (pronounced ) is an American author best known for The Catcher in the Rye, a classic novel that has enjoyed enduring popularity since its publication in 1951. ... The Catcher in the Rye is a novel by J.D. Salinger. ... Look up November in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... 1955 (MCMLV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The New Yorker is an American magazine that publishes reportage, criticism, essays, cartoons, poetry and fiction. ... The Glass family is a group of fictional characters that have been featured in a number of J.D. Salingers short stories. ... Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters is the second in the Glass Family series written by J D Salinger. ... Seymour: An Introduction is a story in the Glass Family series by J. D. Salinger. ... Hapworth 16, 1924 is the youngest of J.D. Salingers Glass Family stories, in the sense that the narrated events happen chronologically before all other Glass stories. ... Nine Stories book cover Nine Stories (1953) is collection of short stories by American fiction writer J. D. Salinger. ...

Plot introduction

The first story, named for Franny Glass, is a significantly shorter story than the second. It tells the tale of a female undergraduate at a prestigious women's liberal arts college, possibly Wellesley, who is becoming disenchanted with the selfishness and inauthenticity she perceives all around her. Franny Glass is a fictional character and member of the Glass family featured in many of J. D. Salingers short stories. ... In some educational systems, undergraduate education is post-secondary education up to the level of a Bachelors degree. ... A liberal arts college is an institution of higher education found in the United States, offering programs in the liberal arts at the post-secondary level. ... Wellesley is the name of various places in the world including: Wellesley, Massachusetts Wellesley College is a private college in Wellesley, Massachusetts. ...

The second story, named for Zooey Glass, who is Franny's older brother (by five years), is much longer. Zooey is a somewhat emotionally toughened genius who at the age of twelve had "a vocabulary on an exact par with Mary Baker Eddy's." As Franny suffers a spiritual and existential breakdown in her parents' Manhattan living room--leaving her mother, Bessie, deeply concerned--Zooey comes to her aid, offering brotherly love, understanding, and words of sage advice. The Glass family is a group of fictional characters that have been featured in a number of J.D. Salingers short stories. ... The Borough of Manhattan, highlighted in yellow, lies between the East River and the Hudson River. ...

Plot summary

Franny

Franny is the story of Franny Glass's weekend date with her collegiate boyfriend, Lane Coutell. The story opens with Lane, awaiting Franny's train arrival, re-reading her latest glowing letter. It is the weekend of the famous Harvard-Yale football game, and Franny has come into Boston to spend the weekend with Lane. She is carrying with her a book, which turns out to be The Way of a Pilgrim, a Russian religious text that explores the idea of continuous prayer and spiritual illumination. The two go out for lunch. Lane is ambitious and pretentious. He takes Franny to a fashionable lunch spot, and tries to impress her with his news of receiving a suggestion to publish his latest paper on Flaubert. Franny is clearly upset, questioning the importance of college education and the worth of Lane's friends. She is smoking, sweating, and feeling faint and must excuse herself to visit the restroom, where, after a crying spell, she regains her composure. She returns to the table, where Lane questions her on the small book she has been carrying. She responds nonchalantly that the book is titled The Way of a Pilgrim and tells the story of how a Russian wanderer learns the power of "praying without ceasing." The "Jesus Prayer," as it is known, involves internalizing the prayer to a point where, in a manner similar to a Zen koan, it becomes unconscious, almost like a heartbeat, ultimately leading to spiritual enlightenment. Lane is less interested in the story than in keeping their timetable for the party and football game, though when Franny faints, he tends to her and postpones the weekend's activities. After she wakes, he goes to get a taxi, and leaves Franny alone--practicing the act of praying without ceasing. Franny Glass is a fictional character and member of the Glass family featured in many of J. D. Salingers short stories. ... United States simply as football, is a competitive team sport that is both fast-paced and strategic. ... The Way of a Pilgrim is the English title of an 19th century anonymous Russian work, seemingly autobiographical, likely by an Athonite monk, detailing the narrators journey across the country while practicing the Jesus Prayer devoutly, with the help of a prayer rope, and studying the Philokalia. ... Mary Magdalene in prayer. ... Gustave Flaubert Gustave Flaubert (December 12, 1821 – Croisset, May 8, 1880) is counted among the greatest Western novelists. ... The Way of a Pilgrim is the English title of an 19th century anonymous Russian work, seemingly autobiographical, likely by an Athonite monk, detailing the narrators journey across the country while practicing the Jesus Prayer devoutly, with the help of a prayer rope, and studying the Philokalia. ... Christogram with Jesus Prayer in Romanian: Doamne Iisuse Hristoase, Fiul lui Dumnezeu, miluieÅŸte-mă pe mine păcătosul. ... A kō·an (公案; Japanese: kōan, Chinese: gōng-àn) is a story, dialogue, question, or statement in the history and lore of Chan (Zen) Buddhism, generally containing aspects that are inaccessible to rational understanding, yet that may be accessible to intuition. ... This article is about a religious term. ...

Zooey

Zooey is a subtly moving story that paints an intimate portrait of the Glass Family. The unusual upbringing of the children, with radio appearances as child geniuses and philosophy around the dinner table, has created a unique bond among them. Though they are not affectionate and close in a typical sense, they understand each other more than anyone else could. The isolation of the Glass children from others is clearly set up in Franny, making it the perfect story to precede Zooey. The Glass family is a group of fictional characters that have been featured in a number of J.D. Salingers short stories. ...

Zooey is set on Monday, two days after Franny. The story begins with Zooey, smoking and soaking in a tub, reading a four-year-old letter from his brother Buddy. His mother Bessie enters the bathroom, and the two have a long discussion, centering upon Bessie's worries about his sister Franny, whose existential depression seen in Franny has progressed to a state of emotional collapse. After Bessie leaves, Zooey gets dressed and moves into the living room, where he finds Franny on the sofa with her cat Bloomberg and begins speaking with her. After upsetting Franny by questioning her motives for reciting the "Jesus Prayer," Zooey retreats into the former bedroom of Seymour and Buddy, Franny and Zooey's older brothers. After contemplation, Zooey telephones Franny, pretending to be their brother Buddy. Franny discovers the ruse, but she and Zooey continue to talk. Knowing that Franny reveres their eldest brother Seymour--the psychologist, spiritual leader, and confidante of the family, who committed suicide years earlier while on vacation with his wife--Zooey shares with her some words of wisdom that Seymour once gave him. By the end of the call, as the fundamental "secret" of Seymour's advice is revealed, Franny seems, in a moment reminiscent of a mystical satori, to find profound existential illumination in what Zooey has told her. Buddy Glass is a fictional character and member of the Glass family featured in many of J. D. Salingers short stories. ... Bessie Glass (née Gallagher) is a fictional character best known as a member of J. D. Salingers Glass family. ... Look up depression in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Christogram with Jesus Prayer in Romanian: Doamne Iisuse Hristoase, Fiul lui Dumnezeu, miluieşte-mă pe mine păcătosul. ... Seymour Glass was the oldest of the children in J. D. Salingers fictional Glass Family. ... Mysticism from the Greek μυστικός (mystikos) an initiate (of the Eleusinian Mysteries, μυστήρια (mysteria) meaning initiation[1]) is the pursuit of achieving communion or identity with, or conscious awareness of, ultimate reality, the divine, spiritual truth, or God through direct experience, intuition, or insight; and the belief that such experience is an... Satori (悟 Japanese satori; Chinese: wù - from the verb Satoru) is a Japanese Buddhist term for enlightenment. ...

Major themes

The pair of stories makes an excellent companion to The Catcher in the Rye, as themes of angst and intellectual insecurity are present in both. Together, the two books served to define a generation in the 1960s, although Franny and Zooey has lost a great deal of its status over the years and receded into the shadow of Catcher. Franny Glass attempts to facilitate some kind of metaphysical escape from who she is through the prayer she recites; upon discovering that she is locked into her own state of being, she suffers a nervous breakdown. Her situation is deeply symbolic of the adolescent situation on the whole, and its message appealed to large audiences at the time.

Salinger's known interest in mystical teachings such as Zen Buddhism and Hindu Vedanta are evident throughout the book, particularly in a brief section in "Zooey" that includes quotations from nonfictional spiritual texts. There's also a discussion of whether the book is a "mystical story" or a "love story" in the opening section of "Zooey," as speculated by the book's "narrator," Buddy Glass (who decides it's the latter). Gerald Rosen, in his short 1977 book Zen in the Art of J. D. Salinger, observes that Franny and Zooey [sic] could be interpreted as a modern Zen tale, with the main protagonist, Franny, progressing from a state of ignorance to the deep wisdom of enlightenment. A woodblock print by Yoshitoshi, (Japan, 1887) depicting Bodhidharma the founder of Chinese Zen. ... Hinduism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... This article includes a list of works cited but its sources remain unclear because it lacks in-text citations. ...

Release details

• 1961, United States, Little, Brown and Company ISBN 0-316-76954-1, Hardback

Little, Brown and Company is a publishing house established by Charles Coffin Little and his partner, James Brown. ...

Trivia

The actress Zooey Deschanel was named after Salinger's protagonist. Zooey Claire Deschanel (born January 17, 1980) is an American actress. ...

External links

• Pari (at IMDB): An Iranian movie, unauthorized adaptation of Franny and Zooey and A Perfect Day for Bananafish.