Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN num: 9780140237535
ISBN number: 0140237534
Label: Penguin Books
Manufacturer: Penguin Books
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 150
Printing Date: 1998-10
Publishing house: Penguin Books
Sale Popularity Level: 487847
Studio: Penguin Books
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
This is a collection of nine exceptional short stories from the author of 'The Catcher in the Rye', J D Salinger. The book includes two of Salinger's most famous and critically acclaimed pieces, which helped to establish him among contemporary literary greats. The title story - a soldier's recollection of his meeting with a young girl, Esme, before being sent into combat - prompted a flood of readers' letters when it was very first published in 'The New Yorker in 1950'. The haunting, 'A Perfect Day for Bananafish' is the very first of the author's many stories to feature the Glass family and follows eldest sibling, Seymour Glass, and his wife, Muriel, as they honeymoon in Florida.
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Rated by buyers 
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Excellent book of short stories. Here's the deal as I understand it. This title was the English name for the book, "Nine Stories" because of the popularity of the Esme story in England. Either book is the same. Classic Salinger. His last long story published only in the New Yorker, is available on the New Yorker DVD collection which is very cheap online these days. Google it. Ciao.
Rated by buyers -
As far as I can tell (based on a quick google search), this book has exactly the same contents as "Nine Stories." I highly recommend "Nine Stories," but I'm not sure why the publisher felt the need to re-release it under a different title. I would give it 5 stars, but it loses one for potentially misleading customers. Perhaps they wanted to capitalize on the buzz surrounding the band We Are Scientists, who released an album called "With Love and Squalor"?
Rated by buyers 
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For 'Esme with Love and Squalor' is one of Salinger's best stories. It also appears in his very first collection of stories called 'Nine Stories.'
It tells the story of an American G.I. who for one part of the story is in Devon England where he is in training. On one lonely day off he goes into a tea-room and meets an English child and her small brother. Her name is 'Esme' and she is a precocious beautiful and sensitive child with whom the G.I. has a friendly, and somewhat from his point- of- view ironic conversation. The language is pure Salingerese. The little brother acts up and is chided by his sister. He recites a riddle , : What did one wall say to another" and hilariously gives the answer "Meet you at the corner" When the soldier returns the answer at his asking another time he gets upset. But at parting the soldier asks him the question and the little boy gets his spirit back by again giving the answer. More important the soldier and the little girl in some way assauge each other's loneliness. She is lonely for her father who has been lost in the war. He is lonely, lonely.
The scene then changes to an Army headquarters in the heart of the European theatre. The same soldier is on the verge of breakdown when he receives a letter from Esme , which somehow brings him back to a sense that there is something beautiful, whole , humane in the world, something worth living for.
The story of course must be read to be felt truly. My summary is poor. It is such a beautiful story.
I truly suggest you read it. "It will make you laugh. It will make you cry. And you will never forget it."
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