The Sound and the Fury is one of William Faulkner's most celebrated novels, and a landmark of American literature. Famous for its non-chronological structure and experimental style, the novel focuses on the once-prominent Compson family, descendants of planter aristocrats who have declined in both social standing and material wealth. As white landowners in the fictional county of Yoknapatawpha in Mississippi, they continue to employ an African-American family to serve them. Each of the Compson parents has withdrawn from responsibility for their children, so the matriarch of the servant family, Dilsey, effectively raises their three sons and daughter.
Each of the four parts of the novel is told from a different point of view, with each of the first three sections narrated by a different Compson son. In the first chapter, set on the day before Easter Sunday in 1928, the narrator is the mentally disabled thirty-three-year-old Benjy. The second chapter enters the mind of troubled Harvard student Quentin, who is finishing his year at the university. The third chapter, set on Good Friday, 1928, is narrated by the callous and mercenary brother Jason, who now works as a clerk at a farming supply store; and finally, on Easter Sunday 1928, the perspective is that of an omniscient narrator, though the main character of the section emerges as Dilsey. Central to each of the sons' sections is their sister Caddy, whose rebellion as a young woman brings pain upon Benjy, profoundly disturbs Quentin, enrages Jason, and accelerates the family's already precipitous decline.
The book is noted for its nonlinearity, not only in the order of its four narratives but in the sequences of events recorded within the first two of them: Faulkner makes heavy use of a "stream-of-consciousness" style to relate Benjy's and Quentin's memories and thoughts, which jump around temporally.
The Sound and the Fury was Faulkner's fourth novel, written after a lengthy struggle to have his third novel published. He later wrote that the novel arose from a single image, that of the character Caddy climbing a tree as a small child.
Perfect for readers who appreciate challenging, innovative literature that pushes the boundaries of storytelling, The Sound and the Fury offers an unforgettable journey into the complexities of memory, family, and the American South. Faulkner's masterful use of multiple perspectives and stream-of-consciousness technique creates a reading experience that will reward you with new discoveries on every encounter. This Nobel Prize-winning author's greatest achievement belongs on every serious reader's shelf.
The source for this public-domain ebook is Standard Ebooks (standardebooks.org). Ebooks from other sources often have typos, inconsistent spelling, missing accent marks, and missing punctuation. Ebooks from Standard Ebooks are proofread line by line against a scan of the original printed pages, then proofread agai