book cover of The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner

The Sound and the Fury

Novel by William Faulkner

Blurb

“I give you the mausoleum of all hope and desire. . . . I give it to you not that you may remember time, but that you might forget it now and then for a moment and not spend all of your breath trying to conquer it. Because no battle is ever won he said. They are not even fought. The field only reveals to man his own folly and despair, and victory is an illusion of philosophers and fools.” —from The Sound and the Fury

The Sound and the Fury is the tragedy of the Compson family, featuring some of the most memorable characters in literature: beautiful, rebellious Caddy; the manchild Benjy; haunted, neurotic Quentin; Jason, the brutal cynic; and Dilsey, their black servant. Their lives fragmented and harrowed by history and legacy, the character’s voices and actions mesh to create what is arguably Faulkner’s masterpiece and one of the greatest novels of the twentieth century.

First Published

1929

Member Reviews Write your own review

Millefleur

Millefleur

I went into this book blind, having read everything of Cormac McCarthy's and moving onto Faulkner, first with As I Lay Dying and then this. I got about 5 pages in then went to Wikipedia, confirmed I wasn't insane with a quick skim through the overview so as not to spoil the story, and jumped back in. I won't pretend I found it an easy read; sentences needed re-reading, some pieces of the puzzle didn't click together until later, and often I found myself drawn into the text at an ever increasing pace until I hit a punctuation mark and realised I had no comprehension of what I had just read. I hope to read it again one day, armed now with a knowledge of the timeline; upon completing it I felt I'd just completed a puzzle as handfuls of the pieces were hurled at me, now I've seen the completed picture I can go back and enjoy each piece as it comes. Absorbing though confusing, well worth a read but perhaps arm yourself first with a summary.

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