Light in August: The Corrected Text (Modern Library) (Hardcover)

by William Faulkner (Author) "Sitting beside the road, watching the wagon mount the hill toward her, Lena thinks, 'I have come from Alabama: a fur piece..." (more)
Key Phrases: dont reckon, aint none, part nigger, Doc Hines, Byron Bunch, Lucas Burch (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
To declare that Light in August is William Faulkner's finest work would be to invoke debate of irreconcilable conclusion. Yet for many followers of Faulkner, this novel showcases many of his best moments and characters. As usual, he mines the rich soil of Mississippi mud to create his subjects, this time in the form of Reverend Gail Hightower, Lena Grove and Joe Christmas. The issue of black and white and rich and poor is prevalent, though to draw lines that clear would be a disservice to Faulkner's immensely layered text and the multicolored beauty of his writing. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review
?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 the greatness of our classics.? ?Ralph Ellison -- Review

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 528 pages
• Publisher: Modern Library (April 2, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 067964248X
• ISBN-13: 978-0679642480
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.8 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #359,103 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The South rises, July 15, 2000

By	Michael Battaglia - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Light in August (Modern Library College Editions Series) (Paperback)

Nothing is ever simple in a Faulkner book. However plainly the people talk, however straightforward that the situations seem, there are layers and layers of things to dig through to find the ultimate truth, if indeed there is any. I've already read Sound and the Fury and as glorious as that book was, this novel absolutely captivated me. It's Faulkner's way with words, he's not flashy like some contemporary authors, preferring to slowly wind his way into your consciousness with his gift of writing. It's only as you read, maybe as you peruse a passage for the second time do you see the little details that you missed the first time out, the choice of a word here, the flow of a paragraph. And his characters, all beautifully drawn, with flaws and cracks and everything, but even the farthest gone of his lowlives has some pearl of wisdom to impart, his pillars all have dark secrets. In short they're just like his, if we lived in the South at the turn of the century. Faulkner captures it all, weaving his characters together with the skill of a master, no seams showing, everything seeming to happen naturally. Even when the story detours to tell someone's backstory, it seems to come at the perfect moment. If I sound a bit fawning, that's because this book deserves it, nothing puts together the picture of a time better than this, and as an aspiring writer I am in sincere awe of Faulkner's ability to reflect even the more complex of emotions with a word or a sentence. He has to be read to be believed and it definitely must be experienced. Just immerse yourself in a time and place thought long gone, that still lurks in the corners of people's thoughts and the traditions that never die.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Brilliance in the Deep South., August 6, 2000

By	Chandler Merrell (Roswell, GA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Light in August: The Corrected Text (School & Library Binding)

This was my second experience with Faulkner, I read 'The Bear' in college some 25 years ago. 'The Bear' was written when Faulkner decided that he would no longer take it easy on the reader and stopped punctuating.

Reading 'Light in August' is not quite as frustrating; more like driving over a mountain, everyime you hit a straightaway you see another switchback on the horizon.

The story is not complicated but the characters are and Faulkner interweaves his passionate story by taking you as far back as three generations to make the reader understand from whom some characters evolved.

The best and most important character is Joe Christmas, the abused mulatto with no sense of heritage whose atrocious act is central to the goings on.

The passion with which Faulkner writes was simply unmatched by his contemporaries.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A highbrow tear-jerker, February 9, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Light in August (Bookcassette(r) Edition) (Audio Cassette)

Faulkner again proved himself a master of American literature with his tragic story of Joe Christmas, a truly unlucky and unloved fellow whose life of rejection has led him to make some truly unwise choices. Crafted in Faulkner's signature intellectual, sometimes verbose, style, this novel is an important examination of some major flaws in the typical American character. We all identify with the characters in this book.