The story of the dissolution of the once aristocratic Compson family, told through the minds of three of its members, including the imbecilci Benjy - 'the tale told by an idiot'. In very different ways they prove inadequate to their own family history, unable to deal with either the responsibility of the past or the imperatives of the present . The structure of the book - three monologues followed by an objective account of the family history - operates in the same way as a classical symphony, as each 'movement' reacts against, enlarges and qualifies the others. The title implies a tale 'signifying nothing', but this is a ruse - Faulkner's vision is tragic in the full sense of the word. His honesty and his craft separate us from the fate of his characters - by teaching us to understand them he gives us a chance to prevail.

 

Details

ISBN: 9780099475019
Audience: General
Format: Paperback
Number of Pages: 288
Publication Date: 19 Jan 1995
Publisher: Vintage Publishing
Publication City, Country: London, United Kingdom
Dimensions (cm): 19.8(H) x 12.9(L) x 1.8(W)
Weight (gm): 202

 

Reviews

One of the most important works of American literature this century -- Observer
Faulkner has inexhaustible invention, powerful imagination, and he writes like an angel -- Arnold Bennett
For range of effect, philosophical weight, originality of style, variety of characterisation, humour and tragic intensity [Faulkner's works] are without equal in our time and country -- Robert Penn Warren
Its unlike anything else in literature... The experience of reading it seemed closer to the experience of life than anything provided by a neatly contrived story line... After the war I read all I could of William Faulkner, and he continued to present some unique and, it seemed to me, valid way of looking at life -- Nicholas Mosley * Guardian *
Not only was the book a kind of beginning for me, but that it endured still, it moved me deeply and remains "the damndest book I ever read" -- Niall Williams * Sunday Times *

 

Author Biography

William Faulkner was born in 1897 in Mississippi. He left high school at fifteen to work in his grandfather's bank. Rejected by the US military in 1915, he joined the Canadian flyers but was still in training when the war ended. Returning home he studied at the University of Mississippi. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1950. He died in 1962.