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De Daumier-Smith's Blue Period
33 pages, Unknown Binding
First published January 1, 1952
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About the author
J.D. Salinger
146 books16.2k followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.
Works, most notably novel The Catcher in the Rye (1951), of American writer Jerome David Salinger often concern troubled, sensitive adolescents.
People well know this author for his reclusive nature. He published his last original work in 1965 and gave his last interview in 1980. Reared in city of New York, Salinger began short stories in secondary school and published several stories in the early 1940s before serving in World War II. In 1948, he published the critically acclaimed story "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" in The New Yorker, his subsequent home magazine. He released an immediate popular success. His depiction of adolescent alienation and loss of innocence in the protagonist Holden Caulfield especially influenced adolescent readers. Widely read and controversial, sells a quarter-million copies a year.
The success led to public attention and scrutiny: reclusive, he published new work less frequently. He followed with a short story collection, Nine Stories (1953), of a novella and a short story, Franny and Zooey (1961), and a collection of two novellas, Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction (1963). His last published work, a novella entitled "Hapworth 16, 1924", appeared in The New Yorker on June 19, 1965.
Afterward, Salinger struggled with unwanted attention, including a legal battle in the 1980s with biographer Ian Hamilton. In the late 1990s, Joyce Maynard, a close ex-lover, and Margaret Salinger, his daughter, wrote and released his memoirs. In 1996, a small publisher announced a deal with Salinger to publish "Hapworth 16, 1924" in book form, but the ensuing publicity indefinitely delayed the release.
Another writer used one of his characters, resulting in copyright infringement; he filed a lawsuit against this writer and afterward made headlines around the globe in June 2009. Salinger died of natural causes at his home in Cornish, New Hampshire.
Works, most notably novel The Catcher in the Rye (1951), of American writer Jerome David Salinger often concern troubled, sensitive adolescents.
People well know this author for his reclusive nature. He published his last original work in 1965 and gave his last interview in 1980. Reared in city of New York, Salinger began short stories in secondary school and published several stories in the early 1940s before serving in World War II. In 1948, he published the critically acclaimed story "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" in The New Yorker, his subsequent home magazine. He released an immediate popular success. His depiction of adolescent alienation and loss of innocence in the protagonist Holden Caulfield especially influenced adolescent readers. Widely read and controversial, sells a quarter-million copies a year.
The success led to public attention and scrutiny: reclusive, he published new work less frequently. He followed with a short story collection, Nine Stories (1953), of a novella and a short story, Franny and Zooey (1961), and a collection of two novellas, Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction (1963). His last published work, a novella entitled "Hapworth 16, 1924", appeared in The New Yorker on June 19, 1965.
Afterward, Salinger struggled with unwanted attention, including a legal battle in the 1980s with biographer Ian Hamilton. In the late 1990s, Joyce Maynard, a close ex-lover, and Margaret Salinger, his daughter, wrote and released his memoirs. In 1996, a small publisher announced a deal with Salinger to publish "Hapworth 16, 1924" in book form, but the ensuing publicity indefinitely delayed the release.
Another writer used one of his characters, resulting in copyright infringement; he filed a lawsuit against this writer and afterward made headlines around the globe in June 2009. Salinger died of natural causes at his home in Cornish, New Hampshire.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
November 23, 2023
4,5
Рассказы Сэлинджера не так просты, как кажутся. Их нужно расшифровывать, и за обычными явлениями оказываются смыслы, которые могут давать множественность трактовок разными читателями и, в особенности, критиками и литературоведами.
Фабула довольно проста: молодой художник, но уже с несколькими наградами на выставках, отправляется в далекий и незнакомый Монреаль преподавать в заочной школе живописи. Он попадает в дом к эмигрантской семье японского происхождения, там же находится и его рабочее место. На стенах развешаны работы Йошото, который предпочитал голубые тона. Чтобы добиться уважения и признания, он рассказывает про себя всякие небылицы, что, дескать, он и потомок Домье, и даже знаком с Пикассо (как известно, в работах Пикассо можно выделить голубой период – это ранний этап, который характеризуется повышенным вниманием к проблеме одиночества). Он страшно одинок, но работа его привлекает. В основном в числе его учеников довольно бездарные люди, но одна ученица, сестра Ирма из монастыря, обладает несомненным талантом, а может даже гениальностью. Она нарисовала рисунок, в котором изображена евангельская сцена перенесения тела Иисуса Христа, но особенно его поразила центральная фигура женщины в голубом, не показывающей явные признаки скорби, но он без сомнений узнает в ней Марию-Магдалену. Восхищенный и фантазирующий, что монахиней может быть юная особа, еще не получившая постриг, он пишет ей пространное письмо и получает в ответ письмо от настоятельницы, которая сообщает, что отец Циммерман запрещает сестре Ирме более заниматься живописью. Понимая, что он лишился единственного ученика, могущего стать настоящим художником, он пишет письма остальным ученикам, что им не следует более рисовать. Он решает написать еще одно письмо сестре Ирме и даже попытаться с ней встретиться. Возвращаясь домой, он видит в витрине магазина ортопедических принадлежностей с уродливыми бандажами и прочими товарами по уходу за больными женщину, которая на манекене зашнуровывала каркас. Она упала, и он протянул через стекло ей руки, желая поддержать при падении. Его пальцы больно стукнулись о стекло. Через мгновение его глаза ослепила невероятная по силе вспышка. Он снова взглянул на витрину, но женщины больше не было. Вернувшись домой, он написал письмо тем бездарным ученикам, что администрация выслала им письма по ошибке, и они могут продолжать обучение, а сестре Ирме отправлять письмо не стал.
Большинство критиков пишут о вспышке, как о ключевом моменте рассказа. Что на него снизошло озарение. Мне кажется, что ключевой момент, когда его рука нашла преграду в виде витринного стекла, когда он пытался помочь, но не в его силах было преодолеть эту невидимую, но прочную преграду. А вспышка действительно символизирует озарение, но вследствие именно того факта, что рука помощи не могла достичь нуждающегося в ней. И именно поэтому он решает не мешать обучающимся бездарностям продолжать тратить деньги и время на то, что им недоступно в силу отсутствия таланта, и не помогать действительно одаренной, самобытной художнице преодолеть препятствия на ее пути для того, чтобы реализовать свой потенциал в этом мире, полном уродливых вещей, как те ортопедические принадлежности в витрине.
И все же нравственный посыл этого рассказа – позвольте всему течь своим чередом и не вмешивайтесь в судьбы людей со своей помощью – не вызывает у меня отклика. Люди должны помогать друг другу. Тогда таланты преодолеют невидимые преграды, а те, кто талантлив в чем-то другом, пойдут искать свое призвание, не занимая место, которое, быть может, ждет своего будущего гения.
Рассказы Сэлинджера не так просты, как кажутся. Их нужно расшифровывать, и за обычными явлениями оказываются смыслы, которые могут давать множественность трактовок разными читателями и, в особенности, критиками и литературоведами.
Фабула довольно проста: молодой художник, но уже с несколькими наградами на выставках, отправляется в далекий и незнакомый Монреаль преподавать в заочной школе живописи. Он попадает в дом к эмигрантской семье японского происхождения, там же находится и его рабочее место. На стенах развешаны работы Йошото, который предпочитал голубые тона. Чтобы добиться уважения и признания, он рассказывает про себя всякие небылицы, что, дескать, он и потомок Домье, и даже знаком с Пикассо (как известно, в работах Пикассо можно выделить голубой период – это ранний этап, который характеризуется повышенным вниманием к проблеме одиночества). Он страшно одинок, но работа его привлекает. В основном в числе его учеников довольно бездарные люди, но одна ученица, сестра Ирма из монастыря, обладает несомненным талантом, а может даже гениальностью. Она нарисовала рисунок, в котором изображена евангельская сцена перенесения тела Иисуса Христа, но особенно его поразила центральная фигура женщины в голубом, не показывающей явные признаки скорби, но он без сомнений узнает в ней Марию-Магдалену. Восхищенный и фантазирующий, что монахиней может быть юная особа, еще не получившая постриг, он пишет ей пространное письмо и получает в ответ письмо от настоятельницы, которая сообщает, что отец Циммерман запрещает сестре Ирме более заниматься живописью. Понимая, что он лишился единственного ученика, могущего стать настоящим художником, он пишет письма остальным ученикам, что им не следует более рисовать. Он решает написать еще одно письмо сестре Ирме и даже попытаться с ней встретиться. Возвращаясь домой, он видит в витрине магазина ортопедических принадлежностей с уродливыми бандажами и прочими товарами по уходу за больными женщину, которая на манекене зашнуровывала каркас. Она упала, и он протянул через стекло ей руки, желая поддержать при падении. Его пальцы больно стукнулись о стекло. Через мгновение его глаза ослепила невероятная по силе вспышка. Он снова взглянул на витрину, но женщины больше не было. Вернувшись домой, он написал письмо тем бездарным ученикам, что администрация выслала им письма по ошибке, и они могут продолжать обучение, а сестре Ирме отправлять письмо не стал.
Большинство критиков пишут о вспышке, как о ключевом моменте рассказа. Что на него снизошло озарение. Мне кажется, что ключевой момент, когда его рука нашла преграду в виде витринного стекла, когда он пытался помочь, но не в его силах было преодолеть эту невидимую, но прочную преграду. А вспышка действительно символизирует озарение, но вследствие именно того факта, что рука помощи не могла достичь нуждающегося в ней. И именно поэтому он решает не мешать обучающимся бездарностям продолжать тратить деньги и время на то, что им недоступно в силу отсутствия таланта, и не помогать действительно одаренной, самобытной художнице преодолеть препятствия на ее пути для того, чтобы реализовать свой потенциал в этом мире, полном уродливых вещей, как те ортопедические принадлежности в витрине.
И все же нравственный посыл этого рассказа – позвольте всему течь своим чередом и не вмешивайтесь в судьбы людей со своей помощью – не вызывает у меня отклика. Люди должны помогать друг другу. Тогда таланты преодолеют невидимые преграды, а те, кто талантлив в чем-то другом, пойдут искать свое призвание, не занимая место, которое, быть может, ждет своего будущего гения.
June 29, 2022
This, to me, is probably the funniest of the Salinger short stories I've read so far. His writing had such cinematic detail, I'd say it seems almost needless except that it makes every story feel so autobiographical. Probably very crucial to this story so centered on art and artistry. Such a gentle story, like the Laughing Man but less pathos, more humor. As a final note, we all need to meet Sister Irma, someone needs to make it happen.
January 15, 2019
“The most singular difference between happiness and joy is that happiness is a solid and joy a liquid.” This story is a liquid of joy towards solid happiness! Please read it!
April 9, 2020
Everyone is a nun.
May 12, 2021
"The worst that being an artist could do to you would be that it would make you slightly unhappy constantly. However, this is not a tragic situation, in my opinion. "
June 18, 2025
Easily the funniest of the Salinger stories I've read lately.
I literally laughed out loud at this line, when an applicant to the art school "stated her favorite artists were Rembrandt and Walt Disney. She said she only hoped that she could some day emulate them."
The title character is never honest with others, and questionably honest even with himself.
This story is partially set in Canada, but there are many other reasons why it deserves 5 artistic stars.
I literally laughed out loud at this line, when an applicant to the art school "stated her favorite artists were Rembrandt and Walt Disney. She said she only hoped that she could some day emulate them."
The title character is never honest with others, and questionably honest even with himself.
This story is partially set in Canada, but there are many other reasons why it deserves 5 artistic stars.
May 16, 2021
Wonderful, artfully written short story about a young man looking for validation in life after a heartbreaking situation. So much detail written into these characters. Hilarious, random events lead the protagonist back to where he should’ve been all along.
This just leaves one question: Who is Sister Irma???
I love “the Event” in front of the medical shop. Mostly the part where he reaches out to catch her only to have the tips of his fingers bump the glass.
This just leaves one question: Who is Sister Irma???
I love “the Event” in front of the medical shop. Mostly the part where he reaches out to catch her only to have the tips of his fingers bump the glass.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 23, 2020
The most singular difference between happiness and joy is that happiness is a solid and joy a liquid.
December 13, 2022
I really loved this short story!
September 19, 2025
#Binge Reviewing my previous Reads # Short Stories/Anthology
This one is one of those Salinger stories that quietly sneaks up on you, starting out as satire and ending somewhere much stranger and more luminous. It follows a 19-year-old American who, after a vaguely sketched European past, returns to New York and takes a job teaching correspondence art courses at a dubious-sounding academy. He adopts a grandiose pseudonym—Jean de Daumier-Smith—and writes pompous critiques to faceless students, convinced of his own importance as an artist and a teacher.
The setup is comic, even farcical: the faux-French name, the ridiculous letters, and the art-school grift. It could be a straight parody of pretentious youth or a Barthelme-esque riff on imposture and cultural aspiration. But as the story unfolds, it reveals something subtler, a flicker of genuine spiritual yearning under all the affectation.
The correspondence courses become a kind of mirror. De Daumier-Smith writes letters full of false authority but slowly begins to be moved by one student’s work, a nun’s drawings of children in a convent. These images—clumsy but sincere—disturb him. They break through his cynicism, even his fraudulence.
What began as a hustle starts to resemble a conversion experience. In a way that feels very Salinger, the comic mask slips and a raw longing for transcendence peeks out. The story isn’t about art instruction so much as about what happens when an impostor confronts the real thing—humility, devotion, and unselfconscious creation. This turn is handled without sentimentality, but with a tenderness that makes the narrator’s self-awareness sting.
The postmodern energy here isn’t in obvious metafictional tricks but in Salinger’s tonal layering. The narrative keeps undermining itself, oscillating between irony and sincerity. De Daumier-Smith is both ridiculous and sympathetic, a parody of a young artist and a real seeker. The whole correspondence-school setup feels like a Borges miniature—a labyrinth of letters and imagined pupils, a network of false identities generating real effects.
And the climax, which I won’t spoil, is as much about language and perception as it is about plot: a moment where something transcendent flickers through the mundane. It’s a revelation framed not as dogma but as a personal, ineffable experience, as though grace could sneak in through a mail slot.
What makes the story endure is its refusal to settle. It begins as a satire of pretension and ends as a meditation on humility. It’s a story about frauds that believes in the possibility of authentic art; a story about a self-invented European persona that finds redemption in a cloistered nun’s sketches. Salinger’s prose, with its meticulous rhythms and sly humour, captures that doubleness — the young man’s pose and the shattering of that pose. “De Daumier-Smith’s Blue Period” becomes, in the end, less a story about art school than about the longing to be saved by beauty, even when you’ve dressed yourself in a false name.
It’s quietly funny, gently devastating, and leaves you with that particular Salinger aftertaste — the feeling that somewhere beneath all our poses, something innocent and redemptive might still be waiting.
Most recommended.
This one is one of those Salinger stories that quietly sneaks up on you, starting out as satire and ending somewhere much stranger and more luminous. It follows a 19-year-old American who, after a vaguely sketched European past, returns to New York and takes a job teaching correspondence art courses at a dubious-sounding academy. He adopts a grandiose pseudonym—Jean de Daumier-Smith—and writes pompous critiques to faceless students, convinced of his own importance as an artist and a teacher.
The setup is comic, even farcical: the faux-French name, the ridiculous letters, and the art-school grift. It could be a straight parody of pretentious youth or a Barthelme-esque riff on imposture and cultural aspiration. But as the story unfolds, it reveals something subtler, a flicker of genuine spiritual yearning under all the affectation.
The correspondence courses become a kind of mirror. De Daumier-Smith writes letters full of false authority but slowly begins to be moved by one student’s work, a nun’s drawings of children in a convent. These images—clumsy but sincere—disturb him. They break through his cynicism, even his fraudulence.
What began as a hustle starts to resemble a conversion experience. In a way that feels very Salinger, the comic mask slips and a raw longing for transcendence peeks out. The story isn’t about art instruction so much as about what happens when an impostor confronts the real thing—humility, devotion, and unselfconscious creation. This turn is handled without sentimentality, but with a tenderness that makes the narrator’s self-awareness sting.
The postmodern energy here isn’t in obvious metafictional tricks but in Salinger’s tonal layering. The narrative keeps undermining itself, oscillating between irony and sincerity. De Daumier-Smith is both ridiculous and sympathetic, a parody of a young artist and a real seeker. The whole correspondence-school setup feels like a Borges miniature—a labyrinth of letters and imagined pupils, a network of false identities generating real effects.
And the climax, which I won’t spoil, is as much about language and perception as it is about plot: a moment where something transcendent flickers through the mundane. It’s a revelation framed not as dogma but as a personal, ineffable experience, as though grace could sneak in through a mail slot.
What makes the story endure is its refusal to settle. It begins as a satire of pretension and ends as a meditation on humility. It’s a story about frauds that believes in the possibility of authentic art; a story about a self-invented European persona that finds redemption in a cloistered nun’s sketches. Salinger’s prose, with its meticulous rhythms and sly humour, captures that doubleness — the young man’s pose and the shattering of that pose. “De Daumier-Smith’s Blue Period” becomes, in the end, less a story about art school than about the longing to be saved by beauty, even when you’ve dressed yourself in a false name.
It’s quietly funny, gently devastating, and leaves you with that particular Salinger aftertaste — the feeling that somewhere beneath all our poses, something innocent and redemptive might still be waiting.
Most recommended.
April 9, 2021
It's so funny and it lets me acknowledge the lies we still do sometimes..any generation has its own humor but still...this makes me feel so many interesting things about the main character just because he is incredible! Being 19 and the only thing he has are some hair down his mouth and ambition..a dream! Very calming little joy for me in times or Corona.
July 12, 2025
“Everyone is a nun.”
LOVE THIS ONE so funny. really encapsulates the way that we are when we are 19 so enamored and unable to tear ourselves away from what we believe to be the plan until the real passion and plan reveals itself. This is so good.
LOVE THIS ONE so funny. really encapsulates the way that we are when we are 19 so enamored and unable to tear ourselves away from what we believe to be the plan until the real passion and plan reveals itself. This is so good.
August 21, 2025
I think my favorite of Salinger's short stories that I've read so far.
Hilarious, human, and heartbreaking in its own way, the story explores the lies we tell others and start to believe ourselves, and the pretentions that can elevate and sabotage our self-perception.
Hilarious, human, and heartbreaking in its own way, the story explores the lies we tell others and start to believe ourselves, and the pretentions that can elevate and sabotage our self-perception.
December 27, 2022
3.5 stars, very funny and my favorite so far
February 5, 2023
Very, very funny. The funniest of Salinger's short stories I've read so far. He creates such real feeling characters. Highly recommend this one.
August 9, 2025
Excellent
March 18, 2025
Love makes people do crazy things..or at least that's what they say. The one we know as Mr. Daumier-Smith is a pathological liar for his own gain of course. But there is one thing he won't lie about and that is his analysis on art. I mean, that's the only time I (the reader) could trust his words. There are not many books I'd read over again but, this I would. I would buy the copies and give them out for free just so others can enjoy it too. Like a good tv series, this book made me want more.
But seriously...
This is probably one of my favorite short stories. It seems many books written in the 50s incorporated characters who'd change their identity due to convenience or inconveniences (depending on the situation)–which I mean, hey, they were 16 years new to social security cards lol. In this day and age, in a first world country at least, people can't even think without the algorithm (at least) finding you. I wonder how many personality disorders there were even?
But seriously...
This is probably one of my favorite short stories. It seems many books written in the 50s incorporated characters who'd change their identity due to convenience or inconveniences (depending on the situation)–which I mean, hey, they were 16 years new to social security cards lol. In this day and age, in a first world country at least, people can't even think without the algorithm (at least) finding you. I wonder how many personality disorders there were even?
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews