Novels 1930-1935: As I Lay Dying, Sanctuary, Light in August, Pylon (Library of America) by William Faulkner, Noel Polk, Joseph Blotner

From the Publisher

Between 1930 and 1935, William Faulkner came into full possession of the genius and creativity that made him America's greatest writer of the 20th century. As I Lay Dying is a dark comedy, full of horror and compassion, of a rural Mississippi family bearing the corpse of their matriarch to burial in town. Sanctuary, a violent novel of sex and social class that moves from Mississippi back roads to the fleshpots of Memphis, features a sadistic gangster named Popeye and a debutante with an affinity for evil. Light in August, a near-religious vision of the hopeful stubborness of ordinary life, is perhaps Faulkner's most moving work. Pylon, a tale of barnstorming aviators, examines bonds of loyalty and desire among three men and a woman. All are presented in restored texts as part of The Library of America's new, authoritative edition of Faulkner's complete works.

Library Journal

The Library of America begins publication of 20th-century writers with corrected texts of four novels from the midpoint of Faulkner's career. The corrections eliminate past editorial adjustments and present the works according to Faulkner's original intentions, based on extant typescripts and galley revisions. For example, editors often changed Faulkner's deliberately unusual punctuation to make his texts more appealing to general audiences; restored now are the ``Faulknerian'' dashes, missing apostrophes, compound words, and lengthy unpunctuated passages. Pylon received the most extensive revision, but all the changes are significant, and at last readers can enjoy and ponder these works in the form intended by their author. A distinguished addition to a distinguished series. Starr E. Smith, Georgetown Univ. Lib., Washington, D.C.

What People Are Saying

Edmund Wilson
Faulkner. belongs to the full-dressed post-Flaubert group of Conrad, Joyce, and Proust.

Robert Penn Warren
For all the 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.

Ralph Ellison
For all his concern with the South, Faulkner was actually seeking out the nature of man. Thus we must return to him for that continuity of moral purpose which made for the greatness of our classics.

Details from Seller

• ISBN: 0940450267
• Publisher: Library of America
• Pub. Date: December 1985
• Condition:

Comments from the Seller: Brand New Book. Devoted to your 100% satisfaction. Money back guaranteed. Over 10 million happy customers.