Customer Reviews

Big Woods: The Hunting Stories of William Faulkner

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Of course the short stories here are excellent, but it is terrible that the origional Part Four of The Bear has been removed. Anyone who enjoys The Bear owes it to themselves to find a complete copy (it will have five parts) because Part Four is arguably the most important and meaningful portion of the entire story!

I've occasionally used this collection as required reading for troubled and directionless young adult males. "The Race at Dawn" provides an excellent starting place for a discussion for the need to complete their education. The review from 1999 by "A READER" comments about "The Bear" being incomplete; all five sections are printed in the version collected in "Go Down Moses."

I'm re-reading this book and really enjoying the stories (read it as tales in a novel). The book really puts different views to various people's ways of looking at the same stories and family histories. Read this and know why Faulkner is considered one of the best American novelists of all time. His people ring true, and two stories, "The Old People" and "The Bear", are just fantastic.

The essence of political conservatism is the yearning for the best of the culture and moral clime of the past--the sense that something of value to our souls has been lost in the headlong rush of human social progress. Political liberalism, on the other hand, assumes that bureaucrats and technocrats can improve upon centuries old social structures, cultural inheritances and moral codes. But there is one area where the roles of the two are reversed and that is when it comes to the environment. The American Left has a long standing love affair with nature; from Jefferson to Thoureau, Teddy Roosevelt to Al Gore, there is a pastoral strain to liberal politics, a kind of religious belief in an Edenic past and a nearly Biblical sense that man's attempts to control nature have a corrupting influence.

This sentiment has perhaps never been treated more beautifully in our Literature than in Faulkner's great short novel, The Bear. The story of a succession of hunting seasons is basically a warning from Faulkner that as we destroy the wilderness we threaten the traditions and values of our society. Nature is symbolized by the cagey ancient ursine, Old Ben. Most of the tale is told by Ike McCaslin, who is 10 years old as it begins. Initially he flounders through the woods, but as he surrenders himself to the primordial forces of Nature, he is able to sense the bear's presence. Another year, when he sets aside his gun and compass and other accouterments of civilization, he is finally able to see the bear. Gradually he earns his way into the aristocracy of the wild, until, together with Sam Fathers (part black, part Indian, he represents a kind of noble savage) and Boon Hogganbeck (a sort of elemental force of nature) and a suicidally fearless dog named Lion, he hunts down Old Ben after the bear violates the unwritten code of the woods by attacking a horse. But even as Old Ben succumbs, he will take some of them with him and his parting signals the end of a way of life.

Despite some too obscure interior monologue passages, this is Faulkner's most accessible work. It is the only Faulkner I've ever actually reread and it is so rife with symbolism and ulterior meanings, that you can always find something new in it. And, for whatever reason, it is further evidence that sports writing brings out the best in almost every author (see also "Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu" by John Updike), in fact, it is often anthologized in Greatest Sports Story collections. Regardless of where you find it, or which version you read, it is well worth a shot.

GRADE: B+

I bought this book online because it is the only place that I could find it. I read it in two days and loved every second to it. The short storys in this book for the most part entwine into one another. The storys focus on two weeks of the year spent in the Big Woods hunting bear and deer. The shorts in this are very good. Hope this helps you.

This is a good book for hunters or adventures people. This book by William Faulkner Big Woods hunting stories is an interesting book.
This fiction book is about a bunch of people who go out in a big river bottom and there is a big bear that they call old Ben and they can't ever kill him but this time when they go out they have a special feeling that they might get the old two toed bear. Do they get the bear? You will have to read this book to figure it out. Then there best hound lion who was the only hound good enough to come close to Old Ben dies after a chase. Then the next time they go out they find a big buck that looks like there is a wooden rocking chair on his head. You probably wonder if they get it but you are going to have to read it yourself to find out.
I would give this book three stars because it jumped around a lot and was hard to make sense for me. I would recommend this book to people who like to read adventure books because it is adventures. This book also had parts in between that could of been left out and the book would have been just as good.