'There was another yellow butterfly, like one of the sunflecks had come loose' WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY RICHARD HUGHES Depicting the gradual disintegration of the Compson family through four fractured narratives, The Sound and the Fury explores intense, passionate family relationships where there is no love, only self-centredness. At its heart this is a novel about lovelessness - 'only an idiot has no grief; only a fool would forget it. What else is there in this world sharp enough to stick to your guts?'
This Guide explores the wealth of critical material generated by these two exceptional works of modernist fiction. From the initially mixed critical responses to the novels in the early 1930s, the Guide follows the enormous growth of interest in Faulkner's work across six decades. New writings shaped by a range of critical theories are discussed, offering the reader a clear view of the place now given to one of America's most innovative and influential novelists.
Structure, text, and internal relationships are examined in this study, against the novel's cultural and historical background and in the context of Faulkner's life and work.
The Sound and the Fury is a novel by the American author William Faulkner. It employs several narrative styles, including stream of consciousness. Published in 1929, The Sound and the Fury was Faulkner's fourth novel, and was not immediately successful. In 1931, however, when Faulkner's sixth novel, Sanctuary, was published—a sensationalist story, which Faulkner later said was written only for money—The Sound and the Fury also became commercially successful, and Faulkner began to receive critical attention.The Sound and the Fury is set in Jefferson, Mississippi, in the first third of the 20th century. The novel centers on the Compson family, former Southern aristocrats who are struggling to deal with the dissolution of their family and its reputation. Over the course of the 30 years or so related in the novel, the family falls into financial ruin, loses its religious faith and the respect of the town of Jefferson, and many of them die tragically.William Cuthbert Faulkner (September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962) was an American writer and Nobel Prize laureate from Oxford, Mississippi. Faulkner wrote novels, short stories, screenplays, poetry, essays, and a play. He is primarily known for his novels and short stories set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, based on Lafayette County, Mississippi, where he spent most of his life. The Sound and the Fury is a novel by the American author William Faulkner: This innovative and pioneering novel is known for its exploration of themes of identity, memory, and legacy. Faulkner's writing is complex and layered, challenging readers to grapple with the complexities of human consciousness and the mysteries of the human experience. Key Aspects of the Book "The Sound and the Fury": Stream of Consciousness: The book employs a unique and innovative technique known as stream of consciousness, providing readers with an intimate look into the consciousness of its characters. Legacy and Memory: The book explores the themes of legacy and memory, highlighting the ways in which the past shapes and informs the present. Human Consciousness: The book provides readers with a profound exploration of human consciousness and the complexities of the human mind. William Faulkner was an American writer and Nobel Laureate, known for his distinctive voice, complex syntax, and innovative narrative techniques. Born in 1897, he wrote several visionary works of fiction, including "As I Lay Dying" and "Absalom, Absalom!"
From comedian and journalist Faith Salie, of NPR's Wait Wait…Don't Tell Me! and CBS News Sunday Morning, a collection of daring, funny essays chronicling the author's adventures during her lifelong quest for approval Faith Salie has done it all in the name of validation. Whether she’s trying to impress her parents with a perfect GPA, undergoing an exorcism to save her toxic marriage, or baking a 3D excavator cake for her son’s birthday, Salie is the ultimate approval seeker—an “approval junkie,” if you will. In this collection of daring, honest essays, Salie shares stories from her lifelong quest for gold stars, recounting her strategy for winning (very Southern) high school beauty pageant; her struggle to pick the perfect outfit to wear to her divorce; and her difficulty falling in love again, and then conceiving, in the years following her mother’s death. With thoughtful irreverence, Salie reflects on why she tries so hard to please others, and herself, highlighting a phenomenon that many people—especially women—experience at home and in the workplace. Equal parts laugh-out loud funny and poignant, Approval Junkie is one woman’s journey to realizing that seeking approval from others is more than just getting them to like you—it's challenging yourself to achieve, and survive, more than you ever thought you could.
Arguably one of the greatest novels written in modern times, William Faulkner’s masterpiece The Sound and the Fury is the story of the Compsons, a traditional upper-class family in Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi, who are on the brink of personal and financial ruin. Narrated in stream-of-consciousness, The Sound and the Fury introduces such memorable characters as the autistic Benjy, rebellious Caddy, obsessed Quentin, and wealth-seeking Jason, as well as their black servant Dilsey. In the telling of their own personal stories, each character reveals the events behind the decline of their family and the loss of their money, faith, respect, and each other. Faulkner’s fourth novel, and sixth on the Modern Library’s list of 100 best English-Language novels of the twentieth century, The Sound and the Fury takes its name from a passage from William Shakespeare’s Macbeth. The novel did not become successful until the publication of The Sanctuary, Faulkner’s sixth novel, in 1931, but then achieved great critical success and contributed to the author’s 1949 Nobel Prize in Literature. The Sound and Fury was adapted by James Franco for film in 2014 starring himself, Jon Hamm, Tim Blake Nelson, and Joey King. HarperPerennial Classics brings great works of literature to life in digital format, upholding the highest standards in ebook production and celebrating reading in all its forms. Look for more titles in the HarperPerennial Classics collection to build your digital library.
Now a Netflix film starring Tom Holland and Robert Pattinson A dark and riveting vision of 1960s America that delivers literary excitement in the highest degree. In The Devil All the Time, Donald Ray Pollock has written a novel that marries the twisted intensity of Oliver Stone’s Natural Born Killers with the religious and Gothic overtones of Flannery O’Connor at her most haunting. Set in rural southern Ohio and West Virginia, The Devil All the Time follows a cast of compelling and bizarre characters from the end of World War II to the 1960s. There’s Willard Russell, tormented veteran of the carnage in the South Pacific, who can’t save his beautiful wife, Charlotte, from an agonizing death by cancer no matter how much sacrificial blood he pours on his “prayer log.” There’s Carl and Sandy Henderson, a husband-and-wife team of serial killers, who troll America’s highways searching for suitable models to photograph and exterminate. There’s the spider-handling preacher Roy and his crippled virtuoso-guitar-playing sidekick, Theodore, running from the law. And caught in the middle of all this is Arvin Eugene Russell, Willard and Charlotte’s orphaned son, who grows up to be a good but also violent man in his own right. Donald Ray Pollock braids his plotlines into a taut narrative that will leave readers astonished and deeply moved. With his first novel, he proves himself a master storyteller in the grittiest and most uncompromising American grain.
For forty years Charles Alavoine has sleepwalked through his life. Growing up as a good boy in the grip of a domineering mother, he trains as a doctor, marries, opens a medical practice in a quiet country town, and settles into an existence of impeccable bourgeois conformity. And yet at unguarded moments this model family man is haunted by a sense of emptiness and futility. Then, one night, laden with Christmas presents, he meets Martine. It is time for the sleeper to awake.
