The Reivers [Paperback]

William Faulkner (Author)

Book Description

Release date: September 1, 1992

This grand misadventure is the story of three unlikely thieves, or reivers: 11-year-old Lucius Priest and two of his family's retainers. In 1905, these three set out from Mississippi for Memphis in a stolen motorcar. The astonishing and complicated results reveal Faulkner as a master of the picaresque.

Editorial Reviews

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Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Vintage (September 1, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679741925
• ISBN-13: 978-0679741923
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.9 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (37 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #74,077 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

58 of 61 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Temptation! June 8, 2001

By Donald Mitchell HALL OF FAMETOP 100 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:School & Library Binding

When I first tried to read The Reivers about 35 years ago, I found the book hard to get into. I found that happening again this time, but my advice to you is to stick with it. Past the opening scenes, you'll find the story wrapping its gentle tendrils around your mind and enjoyably taking you back to a simpler time when automobiles were new, and people acted in less restrained ways when they had the chance.

The experience of reading this book is like sitting on your grandfather's knee listening to him describe his youth. Sit back, take a deep breath, relax, and settle in for a most entertaining story that should not be hurried.

The book's title is filled with irony. Although ostensibly looking at the temptations that cause people to steal, underlying that surface message is a more subtle one of how people in power use that power to steal dignity and opportunity from others. Before the story ends, everyone in the book is a reiver (an older term for thief) of something or of human dignity.

The book opens with Boon Hogganback losing his temper and trying to shoot a man who insulted him. Fortunately, Boon is a bad shot. That's also the bad news because he wounds a young black girl and shoots out a store window. It will take him a long time to pay the damages.

The story then shifts to Boon's equally impulsive infatuation with the automobile that the narrator's grandfather has purchased, but doesn't intend to drive. Boon craftily overcomes grandfather's reluctance, and the family is soon riding with Boon as the driver.

When the narrator's other grandfather dies, the family leaves town by train for the funeral leaving Boon with an automobile.... Boon and Lucius Priest (our 11 year-old narrator) find themselves unable to resist the temptation to "borrow" the car for four days and head to Memphis for 80 miles over unpaved roads. After many adventures (like getting across streams without bridges), they arrive in Memphis. Lucius notices that there is something strange about the boarding house that they are visiting. It turns out to be a house of ill fame, and just as soon as they settle in the car disappears!

The story will remind you of Huckleberry Finn. Boon is a Tom Sawyer-like character, and Ned McCaslin (his grandfather's black handyman) is like Jim. The trip to and from Memphis is like Huck's trip down the Mississippi. The plot is filled with humor, and soon revolves around the most complicated scheme imaginable for getting the car back.

The book also has many elements of Don Quixote with Lucius, Ned, and Boon taking turns playing that role. Despite their lies, misappropriations, and misbehavior, they are constantly trying to do the right thing. One of the most beautiful moments is Lucius speaking up for the honor of Boon's lady friend who works in the "boarding house." This spontaneous and generous act sets off a series of responses by the other characters that redeem and uplift them.

If you have tried to read other Faulkner stories, you will find this one much more accessible. On the other hand, it moves in deliberate, convoluted ways that require your attention and patience. You will be rewarded, however, because each tiny element is important to the overall picture being portrayed and story being developed.

For those who like excitement, you should know that a major part of the story revolves around a series of horse races with serious bets involved. As soon as you get closer to the horse races, you will find yourself totally engrossed in the story and wondering how it will all turn out. The suspense is excellent, and you will probably be surprised in many pleasant ways by the story's resolution.

After you read this book, you should think about how one should handle the clash between society's expectations and rules, and the needs of those in trouble. How should the gap be covered?

Let temptation make you stronger and more virtuous in the ways that count!

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23 of 24 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars An entertaining conclusion to an incredible career January 3, 2002

By Steve

Format:Paperback

Some fans of Faulkner have bemoaned the fact that his final novel is not a profound summation of his heftier, more philosophical works (as though Faulkner could have foreseen his own death and owed his readers that much). While it is true that The Reivers is a much lighter (and more comical) work than those commonly regarded as Faulkner's "masterpieces," it is still worthy of attention. For one thing, The Reivers is Faulkner at his most entertaining; unburdened by the need to address the darker symptoms of the human condition, he is free to let his imagination run wild: the trials and triumphs of young Lucius Priest and his travelling companions make for some hilarious scenes and leave the reader feeling far more bouyant at the novel's close that, say, at the end of The Sound and the Fury or Absalom, Absalom!. The Reivers also features two additional benefits: the divine Miss Reba (second only to Granny Millard as Faulkner's most entertaining and resourceful female character); and the much-appreciated absence of that nosy and annoying popinjay Gavin Stevens. While one might read The Reivers as a Bildungsroman (Lucius's growth and awakening to the realities of the world around him are clearly underscored throughout the novel), I prefer to see it as a simple, amusing and satisfying story from a man who, by the end of his life, had done more to explore the human condition than most writers ever attempt - and was content to leave it at that.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Last hurrah, with a smile September 9, 2005

By Mary Ann Zettelmaier

Format:Paperback

While there is little of Faulkner's work that DOESN'T rate five stars, this last of his stories earns them unquestionably and merits every bit of perseverance it might take to read it to the end, and to savor the sly humor, the right-on characterizations, the irony about class, role, virtue, etc., that take the reader from Jefferson, Mississippi, to Memphis and back. As a coming-of-age story, one might compare it to THE BEAR and INTRUDER IN THE DUST. As an adventure in rollicking humor, it's reminiscent of the "Spotted Horses" section of THE HAMLET. Having made those comparisons, it's still important to emphasize that THE REIVERS stands on its own as a last testament to Faulkner's ability to knock you over with his moral vision and his uncanny insight into human beings. If there's a difference from his earlier great works that make profound moral statements, e.g., THE SOUND AND THE FURY and ABSALOM, ABSALOM!, it's that an older man is much gentler and more forgiving about human foibles but is still effective in making his point. P.S. Keep a dictionary with old words in it nearby.....you can't always find "reivers" and "callipygian" in the newer ones.

24 of 28 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A childhood adventure June 9, 2004

By Fred Camfield

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

William Faulkner had previously won the Nobel Prize in literature in 1949, and the Pulitzer Prize for fiction (in 1955 for "A Fable"). This novel won him a second Pulitzer Prize. It was published in 1962, the year of his death.

The novel is written in the style of an older man reminiscencing about his youth. Some of the individual sentences ramble and digress, as do some parts of the story, put gradually the plot moves forward. Not everyone will like the writing style. I found the beginning of the novel hard to get into; but as the plot progressed it was hard to put down.
It is written as a first person narrative with some dialogue.

The setting is in May 1905. Lucius Priest is an 11-year old boy living in a Mississippi town about 80 miles from Memphis, normally a two day drive over dirt roads if it's not raining and the roads are dry. Boon Hogganbeck, of somewhat unknown ancestry, was more or less inherited by the Priest family and works in the family's livery stable as the night man when he is not acting as the driver of an automobile purchased by Lucius's grandfather, a banker in the town. Ned McCaslin is the black coachman for the family.

When the adults in the family are called away to the Gulf coast for a funeral, Boon, Lucius, and Ned "borrow" the grandfather's automobile to make a trip to Memphis where they stay overnight in a bordello that Boon has visited in the past. Things become complicated when Ned trades the automobile for a stolen racehorse. Ned has a way with animals, and sees potential in the horse (which has previously lost all of its races). The plot has an interesting ending, and Ned is smarter than people may have thought....

Along the way, Lucius learns to drive the automobile, defends a woman's honor, and learns a lot about life that he would never have learned in school. Read more ›