Absalom, Absalom! [Hardcover]

William Faulkner (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 10, 2002

Absalom! Absalom! is William Faulkner’s major work--his most important and ambitious contribution to American literature. In the dramatic texture of this story of the founding, flourishing and decay of the plantation of Sutpen's Hundred, and of the family that demonic Stephen Sutpen brought into the world a generation before the Civil War, there rises the lament of the South for its own vanished splendor. From its magnificent and bold inception, when with his wild Negroes the founder of the great plantation appeared out of nowhere to seize his hundred square miles of land and build his mansion, through the destruction of the Civil War and its aftermath, and the drab beginnings of the new South, the narrative is colored by the author’s glowing imagery, his command of a powerful and magical prose style. Beneath its brilliant surface and dark undercurrents, the novel sweeps backward and forward through time. The story in all its ramifications becomes crystallized in the mind of a relative of this strange family, young Quentin Compson, a Harvard student. At the terrifying and abrupt end of the tale there remain in the crumbling shell of the old house only the dying son of its builder, an ancient Negro woman who had been his slave, and the idiot mulatto youth who was to be the only direct descendant of the Sutpen blood.

This edition is set from the first American edition of 1936 and commemorates the seventy-fifth anniversary of Random House.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“For range of effect, philosophical weight, originality of style, variety of characterization, humor, and tragic intensity, [Faulkner’s works] are without equal in our time and country.” —Robert Penn Warren
 
“He is the greatest artist the South has produced. . . . Indeed, through his many novels and short stories, Faulkner fights out the moral problem which was repressed after the nineteenth century [yet] for all his concern with the South, Faulkner was actually seeking out the nature of man. Thus we must turn to him for that continuity of moral purpose which made for greatness of our classics.” —Ralph Ellison --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From the Inside Flap

Absalom! Absalom! is William Faulkner?s major work--his most important and ambitious contribution to American literature. In the dramatic texture of this story of the founding, flourishing and decay of the plantation of Sutpen's Hundred, and of the family that demonic Stephen Sutpen brought into the world a generation before the Civil War, there rises the lament of the South for its own vanished splendor. From its magnificent and bold inception, when with his wild Negroes the founder of the great plantation appeared out of nowhere to seize his hundred square miles of land and build his mansion, through the destruction of the Civil War and its aftermath, and the drab beginnings of the new South, the narrative is colored by the author?s glowing imagery, his command of a powerful and magical prose style. Beneath its brilliant surface and dark undercurrents, the novel sweeps backward and forward through time. The story in all its ramifications becomes crystallized in the mind of a relative of this strange family, young Quentin Compson, a Harvard student. At the terrifying and abrupt end of the tale there remain in the crumbling shell of the old house only the dying son of its builder, an ancient Negro woman who had been his slave, and the idiot mulatto youth who was to be the only direct descendant of the Sutpen blood.

This edition is set from the first American edition of 1936 and commemorates the seventy-fifth anniversary of Random House.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 392 pages
• Publisher: Random House (September 10, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375508724
• ISBN-13: 978-0375508721
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (143 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,481,733 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Born in 1897 in New Albany, Mississippi, William Faulkner was the son of a family proud of their prominent role in the history of the south. He grew up in Oxford, Mississippi, and left high school at fifteen to work in his grandfather's bank.

Rejected by the US military in 1915, he joined the Canadian flyers with the RAF, but was still in training when the war ended. Returning home, he studied at the University of Mississippi and visited Europe briefly in 1925.

His first poem was published in The New Republic in 1919. His first book of verse and early novels followed, but his major work began with the publication of The Sound and the Fury in 1929. As I Lay Dying (1930), Sanctuary (1931), Light in August (1932), Absalom, Absalom! (1936) and The Wild Palms (1939) are the key works of his great creative period leading up to Intruder in the Dust (1948). During the 1930s, he worked in Hollywood on film scripts, notably The Blue Lamp, co-written with Raymond Chandler.

William Faulkner was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1949 and the Pulitzer Prize for The Reivers just before his death in July 1962.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

141 of 148 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Intense Southern Gothic, September 12, 2001

By 

Bryan A. Pfleeger (Metairie, Louisiana United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Absalom, Absalom! The Corrected Text (Paperback)

Absalom, Absalom! is Faulkner's great novel of the rise and fall of the Sutpen dynasty and a great allegory of the rise and fall of the Old South. It should be noted that first of all this is probably Faulkner's greatest and most difficult work.

The book told through three interconnected narratives tells the life story of Thomas Sutpen. The story parallels the rise of the Old South. The narratives are not straight forward and present a constant challenge to the reader. But if the reader does not close the book in despair the rewards are great indeed.

The mood of the storytelling alone is worth the price of admission here. The long flowing sentences are marvels and testaments to Faulker's skill as a writer. The narrative drive makes reading the book almost like reading Greek tragedy. We gets views of Sutpens life from several townspeople and also across generations.

This is the first book that I've read in a long time that made me feel like I had accomplished something when I finished it. You don't so much read this novel as you become lost in it. Jump in get your feet wet and prepare for some of the most intense Southern gothic that you are ever likely to read.

94 of 99 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars beyond incredible...., February 16, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Absalom, Absalom! (Modern Library College Editions) (Paperback)

My favorite book used to be The Sound and the Fury, but Absalom! Absalom! simply blew that away! A novel of themes dating back to the Bible and Greek tragedies--love, hubris, fratricide, incest--juxtaposed with the most peculiarly American of settings. Despite what many readers might say (my one friend said this was the first and last book she's started reading that she could simply not finish), it's not that diffiuclt once you get in the rhythm--reading aloud to yourself helps as well. While I would place this at the top of my "greatest books ever written" list, I would not recommend it to a first-time Faulkner reader. I'd read (in this order) The Unvanquished, As I Lay Dying, The Sound and the Fury, Go Down Moses, and Light in August before tackling Absalom! The Unvanquished is probably your best bet to start out on--its stream of consciousness style is not nearly as extreme as in Sound, Absalom, or even As I Lay. This book is worth all the page-long sentences and multiple voices...It's the finest work of not just Faulkner but of American writers as a whole.

72 of 75 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Confusing & Aggrivating, but Enjoyable Because of It, April 21, 2000

By 

Chris (Unites States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Absalom, Absalom! The Corrected Text (Paperback)

I struggled through this aggravating yet breathtaking book, but I don't think very many people can say they've read it and not struggled through it for Faulkner is still experimenting with style, and in this novel, considered by many to be his masterpiece, he does this by writing confusing page-long sentences for which he became famous (or should I say infamous) - this overall effect, combined with Faulkner's overuse of SAT vocabulary, makes the book a hard but worthwhile read; some read it and love every word of it, some read the first fifty pages and say it's "unreadable" - I happened to really enjoy it, but then again, I am a big Faulkner fan, and these sentences I'm writing are written in the same style Faulkner uses in Absalom, Absalom! - so if you think this style is annoying, don't even pick up this book! The story itself is told from a twisted angle: Quentin Compson (yes, the same Quentin Compson from The Sound and the Fury) hears the story of Thomas Sutpen's life and of his desire to forge a dynasty in Jefferson, Missisippi, a desire which failed due to the actions of Sutpen's children and of Sutpen himself - this story is told to Quentin from various different members of the Jefferson community (each account is slightly twisted or bias, and the reader, along with Quentin, is left to patch the "true" story together from the myriad accounts) in an attempt by Faulkner to show how a community tells and twists a story as it passes through the town - Faulkner masterfully succeeds at this, but in doing so, he only gives the reader enough information to just keep the story going, and things happen later in the book that explain the mysteries in the beginning. I recommend this book if you DON'T read for quick, coherent plot development, but rather, if you like hearing stories told in unique ways, if you like figuring out what's happening on your own instead of having everything being told to you up front, if you can stand mile-long, ungrammatically correct sentences, and if you like Faulkner (warning, this is NOT a suitable introduction for a reader who is new to Faulkner), otherwise I recommend you stay away from this book, and if you really want to read Faulkner, start with something easier, like Light in August, or even As I LayDying, then perhaps move on to The Sound and the Fury and finally, when you think you can handle it, challenge yourself and move onto the confusing but rewarding world of Faulkner's most twisted work, Absalom, Absalom!