From Library Journal
Designed for the nonspecialist, like other fine volumes in Facts On File's "Literary A to Z" series, this work is intended as a supplement to help readers negotiate Faulkner's amazing modernist aesthetic, which led into the postmodernist movement. Anyone who has struggled with the extraordinary style and narrative inventiveness of Faulkner will appreciate the assistance. The work contains over 1500 cross-referenced entries on all of Faulkner's works (poems, short stories, novels, letters, essays, speeches, and screenplays); the names, places, events, and ideas associated with them; their critical and popular reception; historical and social influences; and Faulkner's family relations. Four appendixes (covering character family trees, major library holdings and other bibliographic lists, a chronology, and assorted writings) round out the work. The most recent notable reference on Faulkner is Robert W. Hamblin and Charles A. Peek's A William Faulkner Encyclopedia (Greenwood, 1999), which is more scholarly in tone (and has signed essays) but covers much of the same material at a cost of $95. Public and school libraries that do not own the Hamblin/Peek title will be well served by this somewhat less expensive title; academic libraries should consider both. Highly recommended as an erudite treatise on all things Faulkner.DNeal Wyatt, Chesterfield P.L., VA
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From
Abe, a character in
Sartoris, to
Zsettlani, a term used to identify a group of soldiers in
A Fable, this volume provides both the literary scholar and the general reader with more than 1,500 cross-referenced, alphabetically arranged entries. Each entry varies in length from a few sentences, like
Sol (another
Sartoris character), to three or more pages for
The Unvanquished, a novel in the Yoknapatawpha County cycle. Entries encompass a wide range of topics relating to Faulkner's life and work. They include titles, places (historical and fictional), events, ideas, and characters from his writings. Biographical entries cover friends, family, Faulkner biographer Joseph Blotner, and writers such as Ernest Hemingway--whom Faulkner did not hold in high regard.
Following the entries, one finds five extensive appendixes: a chronology of works and adaptations; a list of resources such as library holdings, bibliographies, and conferences; family trees for the Faulkners as well as for fictional families like the Compsons; Faulkner's appendix to The Sound and the Fury; and a time line of Faulkner's life.
A William Faulkner Encyclopedia (Greenwood, 1999) covers some similar as well as some unique topics but, with 400 entries, does not offer the same level of specificity. The most recent addition to the Facts On File Literary A to Z series provides a wealth of information in just one volume and is recommended for public, academic, and high-school libraries where Faulkner is studied at length. RBB
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