Books by William Faulkner

A landmark in American fiction, Light in August explores Faulkner's central theme: the nature of evil. Joe Christmas - a man doomed, deracinated and alone - wanders the Deep South in search of an identity, and a place in society. Yet after the sacrifice, there is new life, a determined ray of light in Faulkner's complex and tragic world.

A complex, intense American novel of family from the winner of the Nobel Prize for LiteratureWith an introduction by Richard HughesEver since the first furore was created on its publication in 1929, The Sound and the Fury has been considered one of the key novels of this century.

The death and burial of Addie Bundren is told by members of her family, as they cart the coffin to Jefferson, Mississippi, to bury her among her people.

This postbellum Greek tragedy is the perfect introduction to Faulkner's elaborate descriptive syntax. Quentin Compson and Shreve, his Harvard roommate, are obsessed with the tragic rise and fall of Thomas Sutpen. As a poor white boy, Sutpen was turned away from a plantation owner's mansion by a black butler.

Saligheden står på spil, da et ungt og nyforelsket par flygter tværs over Amerika, bort fra både ægteskab, børn og dagligdag.Ti år tidligere står den ligeledes på spil, da en straffefange tvinges uden for fængslets fredsommelige mure, ud på en vild og oversvømmet Mississippiflod, hvor opgaven bliver at redde en højgravid kvinde.Der er noget galt. Det viser sig nemlig, at den gravide kvinde slet ikke er den hjælpeløse prinsesse, som straffefangen ellers barnagtigt havde håbet på, at hun ville være, og det andet pars kærlighedshistorie … den starter ved sin katastrofale ende.De to handlingsforløb er ubeslægtede, men alligevel løfter de hinanden med deres skiftevist morsomme og mørke bidrag, så de tilsammen fortæller én samlet historie om både lidenskab og fortabelse, håb og selvopofrelse.Dette værk, som rummer to historier, har en særlig udgivelseshistorie. Da den første gang blev udgivet i 1939, havde redaktøren imod forfatterens ønsker ændret og censureret teksten og tilmed fjernet dens forenende titel, så bogen i stedet fik navn efter den ene af de to historier, nemlig ‘De vilde palmer’. Derefter blev bogen genudgivet i både 1946 og 1958, men uden den ene af de to historier, så kun ‘Den gamle’ stod tilbage. Derimellem, i 1954, blev historierne igen trykt sammen, dog denne gang uden den kontra­punktiske opstilling. Her er for første gang på dansk en oversættelse efter det originale ­manuskript under den tiltænkte titel ‘Hvis jeg glemmer dig, Jerusalem’.

William Faulkner is one of the most significant American writers of the twentieth century, but success was elusive with his first novel, Soldiers' Pay, in 1926. The promising young author had not yet achieved the reputation that would lead to the 1949 Nobel Prize in Literature and two Pulitzer Prizes. Soldiers' Pay reflects Faulkner's gift for keen observations, embracing his Southern experience, as well as his experimental narrative techniques blended with literary modernism. He captures the post-World War I atmosphere of the Lost Generation on American soil and explores the war's emotional impact on three weary veterans and their hometown in Georgia.

Considered one of the most influential novels in American fiction in structure, style, and drama, As I Lay Dying is a true 20th-century classic. The story revolves around a grim yet darkly humorous pilgrimage, as Addie Bundren's family sets out to fulfill her last wishto be buried in her native Jefferson, Mississippi, far from the miserable backwater surroundings of her married life. Narrated in turn by each of the family membersincluding Addie herselfas well as others the novel ranges in mood, from dark comedy to the deepest pathos.

"A man is the sum of his misfortunes." -William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury

The Mansion completes Faulkner's great trilogy of the Snopes family in the mythical county of Yoknapatawpha, Mississippi, which also includes The Hamlet and The Town. Beginning with the murder of Jack Houston, and ending with the murder of Flem Snopes, it traces the downfall of this indomitable post-bellum family, who managed to seize control of the town of Jefferson within a generation.

This novel won both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award in 1955. An allegorical story of World War I, set in the trenches in France and dealing ostensibly with a mutiny in a French regiment, it was originally considered a sharp departure for Faulkner. Recently it has come to be recognized as one of his major works and an essential part of the Faulkner oeuvre. His descriptions of the war "rise to magnificence," according to The New York Times, and include, in Malcolm Cowley's words, "some of the most powerful scenes he ever conceived."

"What a pleasure! . . . Essential for understanding Faulkner, and a good read for everybody." -Noel Polk

Spolit, feckless Temple Drake, the daughter of a judge, runs away from school with an unsuitable man. Abandoned by him with a gang of moonshiners, Temple falls into the clutches of the psychotic Popeye, one of the most grotesque characters of Faulkner's imagination.

Seven dramatic stories which reveal Faulkner's compassionate understanding of the Deep South. His characters are humble people who live out their lives within the same small circle of the earth, who die unrecorded. Their epitaphs make a fitting introduction to one of the great American writers of the century.

Faulkner's final novel is a tale of three Mississippi travellers. Ned, Boon and young Lucius travel to Memphis in a stolen car to find love and fortune. Once there, Ned trades in the car for a racehorse, Lucius comes of age, and Boon sets about trying to win the heart of a prostitute named 'Miss Corrie'.

Included are classics of short-form fiction such as 'A Bear Hunt', 'A Rose for Emily', 'Two Soldiers' and 'The Brooch'. Faulkner's ability to compress his epic vision into narratives of such grace and tragic intensity defines him as one of the finest and most original writers America has ever produced.

'The past is never dead. The night before the execution, a lawyer pleads with Temple to intercede, but will the past allow for justice or absolution in the present? Switching between narrative prose and play script, this is Faulkner's haunting sequel to his earlier bestseller, Sanctuary.

In a series of episodes set during and after the American Civil War Faulkner profiles the people of the South - who might surrender but could never be vanquished.

An elderly, proud black farmer, Lucas Beauchamp, is wrongfully arrested for the murder of a white man. The lynch mob are baying for his blood. His sole hope lies with a young white boy, bent on repaying an old favour, who with the help of Lucas's cynical lawyer will work to find the truth and hatch a risky plot to prove his innocence.

'Between grief and nothing I will take grief'In New Orleans in 1937, a man and woman embark on a headlong flight into the wilderness of illicit passion, fleeing her husband and the temptations of respectability.

A group of soldiers travel by train across the United States in the aftermath of the First World War. Moved by his condition, a few civilian fellow travellers decided to see him home to Georgia, to a family who believed him dead, and a fiancee who grew tired of waiting. Faulkner's first novel deals powerfully with lives blighted by war.