LORD, WHAT ABOUT HIM?

THE SOUND AND THE FURY
Friday, February 24, 2023 by Linda Wood Rondeau

FICTION FRIDAY

REVISITING THE CLASSICS

THE SOUND AND THE FURY

WILLIAM FAULKNER

ABOUT THE BOOK

The Sound and the Fury was published in 1929, his third book. It was not well received until after he received the Nobel Prize for later work. Set in Jefferson, Mississippi, mainly in the 1920s (one part set in 1910), The Sound and the Fury centers on the once proud and flourishing Compson family now struggling with family crisis after crisis tearing the family apart. There is Benjy, a disabled adult, his brothers Quentin and Jason, and a sister Caddy. Three of the four parts are told from the brothers’ points of view. The fourth part is told from the point of view of the black servant who shows more sense, compassion, and spiritual truths than the family she serves. Many of the Compsons face tragedy and death. The book is written with raw truth.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Faulker was born in New Albany, Mississippi but lived most of his childhood years in Oxford, Mississippi. Rejected for military service when WWI broke out, chiefly due to his short stature, Faulkner joined the Royal Canadian Air Force but did not serve in combat. After the war, he returned to Oxford and attended the University of Mississippi for three semesters before dropping out. He also had dropped out of high school.

During the Great Depression, in need of income to support his family, Faulker was offered work in Hollywood as a screenwriter and accepted the work.

Two of his works, A Fable (1954) and his last novel The Reivers (1962), won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

Faulkner spent his boyhood listening to stories told to him by his elders including those about the Civil War, slavery, the Ku Klux Klan, and the Faulkner family, stories that greatly influenced his work. He was especially drawn to the idiocy of intelligent people who hung to outmoded traditions and glories of the past.

Faulkner died from a heart attack on July 6, 1962, following a fall from his horse the prior month.

INTERESTING FACTS

When Faulkner began writing the story that would develop into The Sound and the Fury, it "was tentatively titled ‘Twilight,’ and narrated by a fourth Compson child.” Ultimately, he decided the story should be a novel. The title is inspired by William Shakespeare’s Macbeth.

Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

In 1945, Faulkner wrote a "Compson Appendix" to be included with future printings of The Sound and the Fury containing a history of the Compson family from 1699 to 1945

In 1918, Faulkner's surname changed from "Falkner" to "Faulkner". According to one story, a careless typesetter made an error. When the misprint appeared on the title page of his first book, Faulkner was asked whether he wanted the change. He supposedly replied, "Either way suits me."

Faulkner was awarded the 1949 Nobel Prize in Literature for "his powerful and artistically unique contribution to the modern American novel.” He disliked the attention, so much so that his 17-year-old daughter learned of the Nobel Prize only when she was called to the principal's office during the school day.

Faulkner is buried with his family in St. Peter's Cemetery in Oxford

From 1932 to 1954, Faulkner worked on around 50 films.

WHAT READERS CAN LEARN

The four parts of the novel relate to many of the same episodes, each from a different point of view and therefore with emphasis on different themes and events. This meshing of backstory with present action does make for difficult reading, especially since the characters are unreliable narrators of their own stories. And yet, the book is powerfully moving. His ability to show the reader the world in which the characters live is extraordinary. He also brings the reader into the heart and mindset of the characters.

Readers will sympathize with the crumbling importance of a once proud family and the efforts of southern culture to keep the idea of slavery and servitude as good and necessary.

WHAT WRITERS CAN LEARN

The Sound and the Fury is a widely influential work of literature and is a good example of how to recreate the thought processes of a character. This is a good book to study for those who desire to write in a stream of consciousness.

* The edition I read: Vintage Internation Edition 1990

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