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The Snopes Trilogy #1-3
Snopes: The Hamlet, The Town, The Mansion
Here, published in a single volume as he always hoped they would be, are the three novels that comprise William Faulkner’s famous Snopes trilogy, a saga that stands as perhaps the greatest feat of this celebrated author’s incomparable imagination. The Hamlet, the first book of the series chronicling the advent and rise of the grasping Snopes family in mythical Yoknapatawpha County, is a work that Cleanth Brooks called “one of the richest novels in the Faulkner canon.” It recounts how the wily, cunning Flem Snopes dominates the rural community of Frenchman’s Bend—and claims the voluptuous Eula Varner as his bride. The Town, the central novel, records Flem’s ruthless struggle to take over the county seat of Jefferson, Mississippi. Finally, The Mansion tells of Mink Snopes, whose archaic sense of honor brings about the downfall of his cousin Flem. “For all his concerns with the South, Faulkner was actually seeking out the nature of man,” noted Ralph Ellison. “Thus we must turn to him for that continuity of moral purpose which made for the greatness of our classics.”
1088 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1959
458 people are currently reading
1703 people want to read
About the author
William Faulkner
1,352 books10.7k followersWilliam Cuthbert Faulkner was an American writer. He is best known for his novels and short stories set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi, a stand-in for Lafayette County where he spent most of his life. A Nobel laureate, Faulkner is one of the most celebrated writers of American literature and often is considered the greatest writer of Southern literature.
Faulkner was born in New Albany, Mississippi, and raised in Oxford, Mississippi. During World War I, he joined the Royal Canadian Air Force, but did not serve in combat. Returning to Oxford, he attended the University of Mississippi for three semesters before dropping out. He moved to New Orleans, where he wrote his first novel Soldiers' Pay (1925). He went back to Oxford and wrote Sartoris (1927), his first work set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County. In 1929, he published The Sound and the Fury. The following year, he wrote As I Lay Dying. Later that decade, he wrote Light in August, Absalom, Absalom! and The Wild Palms. He also worked as a screenwriter, contributing to Howard Hawks's To Have and Have Not and The Big Sleep, adapted from Raymond Chandler's novel. The former film, adapted from Ernest Hemingway's novel, is the only film with contributions by two Nobel laureates.
Faulkner's reputation grew following publication of Malcolm Cowley's The Portable Faulkner, and he was awarded the 1949 Nobel Prize in Literature for "his powerful and unique contribution to the modern American novel." He is the only Mississippi-born Nobel laureate. Two of his works, A Fable (1954) and The Reivers (1962), won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Faulkner died from a heart attack on July 6, 1962, following a fall from his horse the month before. Ralph Ellison called him "the greatest artist the South has produced".
Faulkner was born in New Albany, Mississippi, and raised in Oxford, Mississippi. During World War I, he joined the Royal Canadian Air Force, but did not serve in combat. Returning to Oxford, he attended the University of Mississippi for three semesters before dropping out. He moved to New Orleans, where he wrote his first novel Soldiers' Pay (1925). He went back to Oxford and wrote Sartoris (1927), his first work set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County. In 1929, he published The Sound and the Fury. The following year, he wrote As I Lay Dying. Later that decade, he wrote Light in August, Absalom, Absalom! and The Wild Palms. He also worked as a screenwriter, contributing to Howard Hawks's To Have and Have Not and The Big Sleep, adapted from Raymond Chandler's novel. The former film, adapted from Ernest Hemingway's novel, is the only film with contributions by two Nobel laureates.
Faulkner's reputation grew following publication of Malcolm Cowley's The Portable Faulkner, and he was awarded the 1949 Nobel Prize in Literature for "his powerful and unique contribution to the modern American novel." He is the only Mississippi-born Nobel laureate. Two of his works, A Fable (1954) and The Reivers (1962), won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Faulkner died from a heart attack on July 6, 1962, following a fall from his horse the month before. Ralph Ellison called him "the greatest artist the South has produced".
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 54 reviews
July 30, 2011
Faulkner tells the story of the rise of the Snopes family through three novels,"The Hamlet"; "The Town"; and "The Mansion." It is a stunning cycle of stories depicting the decay of the south as it is overtaken by new social values at odds with the past.
At times the story is told by an apparent omniscient narrator. At others it is solely told from the perspective of specific voices, especially the attorney Gavin Stevens, his nephew Chick Mallison, and V.K. Ratkliff, a travelling salesman, vending sewing machines on the installment plan.
The Snopes clan arrives in Yoknapatawpha County in force in the late 1890s, although Faulkner gives us glimpses of the family in "The Unvanquished" and "Sanctuary." However, Faulkner's ultimate symbol of the changing south appears in the form of Flem Snopes in "The Hamlet," published in 1940.
Consider Flem Snopes synonymous with amoral greed, the darkest side of capitalism. Flem will rise from sharecropper to banker over the span of forty years. In an effort to portray himself as a respectable member of Jefferson, i.e. Oxford, Mississippi, society, he will rid the town of his own family members, using them for his own purposes until he discards them when they are no longer useful.
In addition to Flem, Faulkner creates more memorable Snopes: Mink, Wallstreet Panic, Montgomery Ward, and Clarence Eggleston Snopes. Then there is Eck Snopes,so innocent, so decent, that V.K. Ratkliff insists he could not have been a Snopes at all, surmising that Eck's mother had improved the family gene pool by trysting with someone outside the Snopes family.
On simple terms, the Snopes trilogy indicates that you can have love or money, but you can't have both. Flem's greatest opportunity comes from his marriage to Eula Varner after she is becomes pregnant by a young man from one of the old aristocratic families. He will provide a name to a bastard child. However, he will never be Eula's lover. She will find that comfort from another source. Flem will accept playing the cuckold as long as it serves his purposes.
Gavin Stevens, his nephew Chick, and Ratliff will make it their mission to protect Jefferson from the Snopes clan. This trio represents the decency of democratic progress in the face of southern decay. These men are the moral foils to the amoral greed of Flem Snopes.
The Snopes novels have waxed and waned in their value in the Faulkner Canon through years of critical analysis. For this reader, these novels establish Faulkner's true place in post modern literature. While maintaining the major aspects of southern literature in the use of legend, myth, time and place, Faulkner's County is a microcosm for a larger universe of human values.
These three novels provide enough material for a review much more in depth, and deserving of much critical study. For the purpose of this review, however, it is enough to say that these novels show Faulkner's storytelling ability at its finest, covering humor, farce, pathos, and tragedy. Perhaps it is because I have waited to attaining the age of 59 to read these novels, that I find them as accessible as they are. My earliest encounters with Faulkner were more than forty years ago when I lacked the maturity and experience to understand the complexities of his earlier works.
Through my life I have returned to Faulkner's earlier works and understood many things I did not as a young high school student, just as Chick fails to understand the significance of the social change in his town when he tagged along at the heels of his Uncle Gavin. By the time of Faulkner's publication of "The Mansion" in 1959, Chick is equally capable of interpreting the significance of Flem Snopes and his influence on Jefferson society. Perhaps so it must be for all of us. And it is an illustration of why we must return time and again to the works of literature to reexamine their significance in light of our own growing experience as human beings. So it is with Faulkner's trilogy of Snopes novels.
As has been my custom, this review may appear to be quite generic. However, it is always my purpose to avoid spoilers so I do not deprive the reader of the joys of the discovery of Faulkner's twists and turns of plot and structure. There are countless joys to be found in these three novels. By all means, mine these books to find the treasure they contain.
At times the story is told by an apparent omniscient narrator. At others it is solely told from the perspective of specific voices, especially the attorney Gavin Stevens, his nephew Chick Mallison, and V.K. Ratkliff, a travelling salesman, vending sewing machines on the installment plan.
The Snopes clan arrives in Yoknapatawpha County in force in the late 1890s, although Faulkner gives us glimpses of the family in "The Unvanquished" and "Sanctuary." However, Faulkner's ultimate symbol of the changing south appears in the form of Flem Snopes in "The Hamlet," published in 1940.
Consider Flem Snopes synonymous with amoral greed, the darkest side of capitalism. Flem will rise from sharecropper to banker over the span of forty years. In an effort to portray himself as a respectable member of Jefferson, i.e. Oxford, Mississippi, society, he will rid the town of his own family members, using them for his own purposes until he discards them when they are no longer useful.
In addition to Flem, Faulkner creates more memorable Snopes: Mink, Wallstreet Panic, Montgomery Ward, and Clarence Eggleston Snopes. Then there is Eck Snopes,so innocent, so decent, that V.K. Ratkliff insists he could not have been a Snopes at all, surmising that Eck's mother had improved the family gene pool by trysting with someone outside the Snopes family.
On simple terms, the Snopes trilogy indicates that you can have love or money, but you can't have both. Flem's greatest opportunity comes from his marriage to Eula Varner after she is becomes pregnant by a young man from one of the old aristocratic families. He will provide a name to a bastard child. However, he will never be Eula's lover. She will find that comfort from another source. Flem will accept playing the cuckold as long as it serves his purposes.
Gavin Stevens, his nephew Chick, and Ratliff will make it their mission to protect Jefferson from the Snopes clan. This trio represents the decency of democratic progress in the face of southern decay. These men are the moral foils to the amoral greed of Flem Snopes.
The Snopes novels have waxed and waned in their value in the Faulkner Canon through years of critical analysis. For this reader, these novels establish Faulkner's true place in post modern literature. While maintaining the major aspects of southern literature in the use of legend, myth, time and place, Faulkner's County is a microcosm for a larger universe of human values.
These three novels provide enough material for a review much more in depth, and deserving of much critical study. For the purpose of this review, however, it is enough to say that these novels show Faulkner's storytelling ability at its finest, covering humor, farce, pathos, and tragedy. Perhaps it is because I have waited to attaining the age of 59 to read these novels, that I find them as accessible as they are. My earliest encounters with Faulkner were more than forty years ago when I lacked the maturity and experience to understand the complexities of his earlier works.
Through my life I have returned to Faulkner's earlier works and understood many things I did not as a young high school student, just as Chick fails to understand the significance of the social change in his town when he tagged along at the heels of his Uncle Gavin. By the time of Faulkner's publication of "The Mansion" in 1959, Chick is equally capable of interpreting the significance of Flem Snopes and his influence on Jefferson society. Perhaps so it must be for all of us. And it is an illustration of why we must return time and again to the works of literature to reexamine their significance in light of our own growing experience as human beings. So it is with Faulkner's trilogy of Snopes novels.
As has been my custom, this review may appear to be quite generic. However, it is always my purpose to avoid spoilers so I do not deprive the reader of the joys of the discovery of Faulkner's twists and turns of plot and structure. There are countless joys to be found in these three novels. By all means, mine these books to find the treasure they contain.
September 17, 2011
Sho' now. I certainly am not fit to give ol' windbags anything less than 5 stars. A true epic masterpiece, that's all. If brevity is the soul of wit, as the man says, then this book is as soulless as they come. No, that's not right. Sho', it has soul. Plenty. Just none in the direction of brevity. Why use 3 words when 30 would do? Sho. If you ever have spent a spell on the front porch of your grandparents and listened to them spin a yarn - and if you happen to be graced with a Southern birth - then you know rightly the kind of dense prose that saturates each page of this here work. What I am saying is that the whole concept of minimalism hadn't even breathed one bit of breath on these novels. Oh, but the insights into the Southern mind, no, the Mississippi mind, of the first half of the 20th century. The characters, the charlatans, the vices, the ideologies, the humanity... sho' now.
on-hold
April 29, 2013Just finished The Hamlet portion of the trilogy today. Aside from a portion of Eula's chapter that I found a bit unfathomable, I really enjoyed this book, with Faulkner's creative use of language and construction, the apparently highly fertile and seemingly without scruples Snopes clan, so many features.
Looking back to Eula's chapter, and keeping in mind past reading of Faulkner, I'm wondering if any incoherence in this chapter is reflecting the acknowledged state of Eula's mind. She did not take in or comprehend the world around her, so the chapter devoted to her shares some of the same cognitive failings.
I'm looking forward to returning to complete the trilogy after which I will complete my review.
Looking back to Eula's chapter, and keeping in mind past reading of Faulkner, I'm wondering if any incoherence in this chapter is reflecting the acknowledged state of Eula's mind. She did not take in or comprehend the world around her, so the chapter devoted to her shares some of the same cognitive failings.
I'm looking forward to returning to complete the trilogy after which I will complete my review.
November 13, 2018
UPDATE:
I have finished all three books in the trilogy - The Hamlet, The Town, and The Mansion. What a juicy, compelling, revealing, intricate, and layered masterpiece this Snopes trilogy is. It is almost as if each story and each recalling is wrapped around the preceding story, as each book is wrapped around the preceding book -- The Hamlet being the starting thread, then The Town is wrapped around The Hamlet, then The Mansion is wrapped around The Town... until this sphere, this wondrous yarn wrapped and twined around itself, has grown into this perfect tale that begins and ends on one brilliant, sturdy, thread.
Faulkner is an extraordinary storyteller, and a master of stunning prose. From beginning to end, this reading experience has been a pure pleasure.
I'll end this with one of my many favorite quotes from this trilogy:
...So when we first saw Mrs Snopes walking in the Square giving off that terrifying impression that in another second her flesh itself would burn her garments off, leaving not even a veil of ashes between her and the light of day, it seemed to us we were watching Fate...
--------
Below is my earlier review of the first novel, The Hamlet.
I have just finished the first novel of this Snopes trilogy - The Hamlet. It was grand storytelling, it was funny and it was sad and sometimes it was unbelievable, but that last bit didn't matter because the characters were so terrific I couldn't put it down. This is Faulkner the Storyteller at his finest as he familiarizes us with Jefferson City and the folks of Yoknapatawpha County. There is nothing dense or difficult about The Hamlet, altho' some Southerners have taken issue with Faulkner's characterizations of the citizens of Yoknapatawpha County, insisting that people of the south are not as they have been represented in this story.
As for me, I think these characters are bigger than some geographical identity. I think Faulkner has painted pictures of our humanity. Sometimes we are great, and sometimes we are very silly. Most times, tho', we are a soupy mixture of both whipped up and thrown on top of ordinary. I will return to this trilogy and the second novel - The Town - in a month when I finish the trilogy with a GR group, and I'm really looking forward to it.
I have finished all three books in the trilogy - The Hamlet, The Town, and The Mansion. What a juicy, compelling, revealing, intricate, and layered masterpiece this Snopes trilogy is. It is almost as if each story and each recalling is wrapped around the preceding story, as each book is wrapped around the preceding book -- The Hamlet being the starting thread, then The Town is wrapped around The Hamlet, then The Mansion is wrapped around The Town... until this sphere, this wondrous yarn wrapped and twined around itself, has grown into this perfect tale that begins and ends on one brilliant, sturdy, thread.
Faulkner is an extraordinary storyteller, and a master of stunning prose. From beginning to end, this reading experience has been a pure pleasure.
I'll end this with one of my many favorite quotes from this trilogy:
...So when we first saw Mrs Snopes walking in the Square giving off that terrifying impression that in another second her flesh itself would burn her garments off, leaving not even a veil of ashes between her and the light of day, it seemed to us we were watching Fate...
--------
Below is my earlier review of the first novel, The Hamlet.
I have just finished the first novel of this Snopes trilogy - The Hamlet. It was grand storytelling, it was funny and it was sad and sometimes it was unbelievable, but that last bit didn't matter because the characters were so terrific I couldn't put it down. This is Faulkner the Storyteller at his finest as he familiarizes us with Jefferson City and the folks of Yoknapatawpha County. There is nothing dense or difficult about The Hamlet, altho' some Southerners have taken issue with Faulkner's characterizations of the citizens of Yoknapatawpha County, insisting that people of the south are not as they have been represented in this story.
As for me, I think these characters are bigger than some geographical identity. I think Faulkner has painted pictures of our humanity. Sometimes we are great, and sometimes we are very silly. Most times, tho', we are a soupy mixture of both whipped up and thrown on top of ordinary. I will return to this trilogy and the second novel - The Town - in a month when I finish the trilogy with a GR group, and I'm really looking forward to it.
October 27, 2018
This entire saga is a thing to behold.
Individually, I rated the three books that make up this single volume as follows:
- The Hamlet: 3 stars (stylistically, the most ornate and artistic of the three, but felt too disjointed to me as a single volume)
- The Town: 4 stars (the story really starts to take root in this volume)
- The Mansion: 5 stars (much of this reframes or even summarizes what has past, but it's layered in such a way to make it still feel fresh and pull you in as if your fate was wedded to the characters')
---------------------------------------------------
WORDS & PHRASES THAT SULLIED MY BROCA'S AREA
coeval | hackamore | cachinnant | pismire | maleate | byre | nympholept | pretermitted | desuetude | cognomen | droit de seigneur | hoicked | aurochs | nepenthe | surcease | purlieus | obsequy
"Even when you get rid of one Snopes, there’s already another one behind you even before you can turn around."Indeed, the Snopes family is insidious and they'll burrow deep into your psyche long after you've turned the last page on this epic. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of what still feels like a very American form of "happiness." Blood may be thicker than water, but money still makes most of the world go 'round...
Individually, I rated the three books that make up this single volume as follows:
- The Hamlet: 3 stars (stylistically, the most ornate and artistic of the three, but felt too disjointed to me as a single volume)
- The Town: 4 stars (the story really starts to take root in this volume)
- The Mansion: 5 stars (much of this reframes or even summarizes what has past, but it's layered in such a way to make it still feel fresh and pull you in as if your fate was wedded to the characters')
---------------------------------------------------
WORDS & PHRASES THAT SULLIED MY BROCA'S AREA
coeval | hackamore | cachinnant | pismire | maleate | byre | nympholept | pretermitted | desuetude | cognomen | droit de seigneur | hoicked | aurochs | nepenthe | surcease | purlieus | obsequy
September 6, 2012
Faulkner remains an enigma to many, even to students of 20th Century American Literature. I struggled most of my younger days with Faulkner, knowing he was an accalimed, Nobel Laureate, but feeling like a tourist in a strange land. After a bout with him in a HS English class I left with the feeling Id just witnessed something significant but impenetrable. College level courses shed no light on the density and at times obtuseness of his prose. I heard glowing praise of his work but sensed even the professors were a bit bewildered. Yes there was something big going on here but its damn hard to explain it.
I became stubborn about my grasp of this icon and through good fortune was given an opportunity to travel to Oxford, Miss and spend some time in "his own postage stamp of native soil".
It was like Dorothy opening the door to Oz. Maybe it was the air, or the latitude of Northern Mississippi or perhaps best the visual understanding that being there in his town, his house, his own "Yaknapawtha" that lit the bulb but things began to fall in place.
The "Snopes Triology" ( The Hamlet, The Town, The Mansion) is on the surface the epic tale of cunning, cleverness, deceipt and ruthlessness winning over honesty, hard work and integrity. Its a dark opinion and a dishartning road trip but as in all Faulkneria there is justice, there is humanity and there is a universality that begets "I know someone like that" and "this can happen today".
Taking on this trilogy is no day at the beach, but with a heads up attitude and a willingness to be transported will result in a sense of having witnessed the decent and rebirth of the human spirit.
I became stubborn about my grasp of this icon and through good fortune was given an opportunity to travel to Oxford, Miss and spend some time in "his own postage stamp of native soil".
It was like Dorothy opening the door to Oz. Maybe it was the air, or the latitude of Northern Mississippi or perhaps best the visual understanding that being there in his town, his house, his own "Yaknapawtha" that lit the bulb but things began to fall in place.
The "Snopes Triology" ( The Hamlet, The Town, The Mansion) is on the surface the epic tale of cunning, cleverness, deceipt and ruthlessness winning over honesty, hard work and integrity. Its a dark opinion and a dishartning road trip but as in all Faulkneria there is justice, there is humanity and there is a universality that begets "I know someone like that" and "this can happen today".
Taking on this trilogy is no day at the beach, but with a heads up attitude and a willingness to be transported will result in a sense of having witnessed the decent and rebirth of the human spirit.
June 19, 2020
Written from 1925 to the end of the 50s, Faulkner becomes more accessible as this trilogy reaches conclusions of story lines. I am no Faulkner expert: sometimes I'm left with a Ball of Confusion rolling round in my head. But there are some great storylines, and a final, simple one maintains the structure of the last volume. Make what you will of the titles: "The Hamlet", "The Town", and finally "The Mansion". Poor to rich? Smarter? Meaner? Stages of human development? All of that? Your call. Overall, very enjoyable. And "The Mansion" is the one Faulkner book that I feel I completely 'got'. For scholars/academia, that probably sounds like a bad thing. But you really haven't read Southern Gothic if you haven't touched on Faulkner, imo. And today, James Lee Burke seems to me to be the Faulkner of the 21st century.
March 27, 2009
I am not a person to reread too many books, but this book has a permanent place on my nightstand. Before bed, if I'm not in the mood to read anything that I'm currently reading, I grab this book, randomly flip it open and start reading. It's just that amazingly enjoyable!
July 4, 2020
The greatest trilogy in American literature.
August 13, 2007
Wal now, iffen I were ta tell ya jest sommat about this ere book, jest enuff so's you'd be wantin ter read it but not so much that ye wouldn' half ter read it, then I reckon about alls I could say is that it's this ere sorter soap oprey set up in the north of Mississippi runnin down inter Memphis a bit, durin the early part, or leastways the first half of it, of the 20th centery and that theys Snopes and dramy and reglar folks jest livin or tryin to and Snopes, and color and Snopes and tragedy and Snopes and comedy (cause who caint laugh or leastways chuckle a bit at folks who ud name their own children names like Wallstreet Panic or Admiral Dewey or Watkins Products or Mongomery Ward -nor even Flem)and more Snopes what sometimes jest seem ter crawl outten the woodwork and sometimes stay put fer good and all and sometime come an go and sometimes aint even really true Snopes but what has the name anyway and I reckon you jest have ter read it yerself ter really git the gist of it but iffen yer goin ter (read it that is) you'd best do it when yer brain pan is sparking real good cause this ere Faulkner feller he writes real writin and as you already probly noticed, readin real writin takes a heap more thinkin and listin and heart than jest readin regler readin does.
March 31, 2012
This book made me want to move to Yoknapatwa county. I don't know if that's spelled right. I don't care. Because Yoknapatwa county is the intentionally silly made up name county that surrounds Oxford, Mississippi where William Faulkner lived. It's a real place. I don't know how many of the characters are based on real people, but it sure feels like they are. You can actually research the history of the characters and the people who inspired them, because there are volumes and volumes written on Faulkner, Yoknapatwa county and those who peopled it.
It's an unbelievable place, Yoknapatwa county. I seriously wish I could just move there. That's the only way to describe these three books. They make me want to go live there.
It's an unbelievable place, Yoknapatwa county. I seriously wish I could just move there. That's the only way to describe these three books. They make me want to go live there.
August 6, 2012
What a wonderful 3 weeks I have just spent in Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha County. I feel like a resident there who sees these characters walk the streets of Frenchman's Bend and Jefferson every day. This is Faulkner's genius, I think; to put you "there" with dialogue and descriptions in real time. Gavin Stevens and V.K. Ratliffe are 2 of my very favorite fictional characters in literature. And Wallstreet Panic Snopes is the best name ever. I leave it up to scholars to discuss symbolism and metaphorical devices. I just know that I loved residing in Faulknerland for a while, with the knowledge that I will meet some of these characters again.
July 16, 2008
Accessible Faulkner, that rolls along like Dickens at his best. Gavin Stevens has always been one of my favorite denizens of Yoknapatawpha County, and the question of the Snopeses has always been one of the most interesting Faulkner issues. The three novels here had some substantial sections edited out, probably because of their graphic sexual content, and those are now restored, so there were substantial sections of each novel that were new to me.
October 14, 2009
I fully believe that Faulkner deserved the Nobel Prize simply for inventing the character of Flem Snopes. Not to mention Eck, Mink, I.O., Admiral Dewey, Montgomery Ward, and (last but not least) Wallstreet Panic Snopes. People who compare Cormac McCarthy to Faulkner have missed something very important: Faulkner wrote some of the funniest scenes in all of literature, even when the surrounding story was piercingly sad or grim.
June 16, 2016
I appreciated reading this trilogy on my Kindle. I might not have finished the individual titles as readily had I picked them up separately. The books are paginated, but not individually. The series has 1066 pages, and, for instance, The Mansion starts on page 677. There are few typos, but very few, and when they do occur, the meaning is easily discerned.
Reviews will be found under the individual title:
The Hamlet
The Town
The Mansion
Reviews will be found under the individual title:
The Hamlet
The Town
The Mansion
May 17, 2011
Reading Faulkner by starting with The Sound and the Fury, as my college literature professor forced me to do, is a big mistake. The Snopes trilogy is much more accessible, filled with dark humor and simple plots. I reread the Snopes Trilogy every three or four years just for the pure pleasure of the language. To fully enjoy Faulkner it helps to have been raised in a small town in the pre-modern South, but it isn't necessary.
October 24, 2007
I like this Faulkner better than the self-consciously literary one of 'Absalom, Absalom'. This is more of the back porch Bill, I guess, "just" a storyteller. My favorite scene is when V.K. Ratliff, the sewing-machine agent, a bit of an outsider to the Yoknapatawpha world and a cannier man than most, realizes that he, too, has been taken in by one of Flem Snopes's schemes.
April 6, 2009
Anyone who really wants to love faulkner must spend quality time with the snopes. Just reading these three alone will give you an amazingly comprehensive view of everything this man accomplished with his work.
December 21, 2013
Takes forever to read, but time well-spent. Now I'm inspired.
April 20, 2024
Woefully convoluted, but I finished it. He made me work for what little I got out of it, though.
September 1, 2012
Faulkner wrote this trilogy over a long period of time - decades, in fact. "The Hamlet" was written in the 1920s, with "The Town" and "The Mansion" completed much later, in the 1950s. I found "The Hamlet" to be more entertaining than the others, though the plot thickens and the characters deepen as the story goes on. But the enjoyment is not quite up to par in the later works, primarily because Faulkner developed a somewhat overwrought style of writing in his later years that detracts from, rather than adds to, the overall experience of his work. For me, his earlier works, such as "As I Lay Dying," are far better for being a bit less flowery. However, I will say this: The Snopes clan are unique in literature, and everyone should read at least "The Hamlet" to get an idea about them. I realized about halfway through "The Hamlet" - and this sense continued as I read the later works - that Faulkner, very subtly and cleverly, wrote in such a way as to make the reader feel just as frustrated and bewildered with the Snopes as the characters in the book are. I've never experienced anything quite like it. The reader isn't simply drawn into the story. The emotions - the confusion over their actions ("What the hell are they up to?"), the slow creep of surprise as we - the characters and reader alike - realize we've all been duped, and then the growing frustration as we further realize that though the Snopes appear to be clueless idiots, they are actually far more clever even than we and there is not one damn thing we can do to alter the course of events or our feelings about them. There is no way for the reader to know what they are about until the citizens themselves know - Faulkner doesn't drop any clues or provide any foreshadowing. And in this sense the later works are brilliant in their way, for Faulkner uses verbage to enhance the reader's confusion, to make us feel that we have no idea what's going on. And that's exactly how all the citizens of Jefferson feel with respect to the Snopes and their various plans. And then, as the story spins out, thread by thread, the plans become more and more clear, until the reader, like the citizens of Jefferson, can trace back and see exactly what the Snopes did, and how. But if you don't have a high tolerance for frustration and are not patient enough to wait for the plot to show itself, you won't care for the two later books in the trilogy. "The Hamlet" is the most straightforward of the three and is the best read, in my view. Give that one a try, and if you like it, proceed to the others.
August 29, 2010
When Faulkner wrote about the Southern aristocracy from which he sprang, his stories were psychologically complex, but not really complimentary. His subjects are often thuggish and brutal.
But here, in his most epic set of novels, he reaches back and finds a special sort of loathing -- common throughout the world, and by no means unique to the US South -- of the old-money aristocrat for the grasping, small-minded nouveau riche.
It is striking how -- apart from the outcasts Mink (a cracker murderer) and Linda (who becomes a Communist) -- the Snopes family are rarely allowed to speak for themselves, and as characters they are more ciphers than real people. Flem Snopes himself -- like the Julius Caesar of Shakespeare's telling -- is the eponymous character but not really the protagonist, and everything we know about him is related by the set of respectable small-town lawyers and salesmen who observe his family's rise in stupefied helplessness. Flem, like some sort of satanic monk, is single-minded in his pursuit of money and power, but also impotent. His wife is a studied contrast to him: plucked from the rural gentry into which Flem Snopes has insinuated himself, she is also barely allowed to exist as a person and instead is presented as a sexual goddess, of whom Faulkner and his characters write and speak in exlicitly mythological terms.
The last of the three novels (The Mansion) was completed late in Faulkner's life (1959), and so it takes Yoknapatawpha County up to the very cusp of the time when the Old South would have changed forever. You have to wonder how the scions of the various Compsons, Sartorises, McCaslins and Snopeses would have reacted when the first SNCC volunteers showed up to register the black sharecroppers to vote.
But here, in his most epic set of novels, he reaches back and finds a special sort of loathing -- common throughout the world, and by no means unique to the US South -- of the old-money aristocrat for the grasping, small-minded nouveau riche.
It is striking how -- apart from the outcasts Mink (a cracker murderer) and Linda (who becomes a Communist) -- the Snopes family are rarely allowed to speak for themselves, and as characters they are more ciphers than real people. Flem Snopes himself -- like the Julius Caesar of Shakespeare's telling -- is the eponymous character but not really the protagonist, and everything we know about him is related by the set of respectable small-town lawyers and salesmen who observe his family's rise in stupefied helplessness. Flem, like some sort of satanic monk, is single-minded in his pursuit of money and power, but also impotent. His wife is a studied contrast to him: plucked from the rural gentry into which Flem Snopes has insinuated himself, she is also barely allowed to exist as a person and instead is presented as a sexual goddess, of whom Faulkner and his characters write and speak in exlicitly mythological terms.
The last of the three novels (The Mansion) was completed late in Faulkner's life (1959), and so it takes Yoknapatawpha County up to the very cusp of the time when the Old South would have changed forever. You have to wonder how the scions of the various Compsons, Sartorises, McCaslins and Snopeses would have reacted when the first SNCC volunteers showed up to register the black sharecroppers to vote.
January 15, 2008
The BEST Faulkner. This is the first time the trilogy has been published as such, and reading these novels successively is crucial if you're going to read them at all. An interesting thing about the trilogy is that, more often than not, the characters/narrators are dealing with their own confusion about what is going on. They don't understand what Snopes is up to and all of their efforts to keep up with him and his closed-door dealings make them guess, revise, tell half-truths, and so on. If you trust in the fact that the book makes everything clear eventually, and it does, then you can just sort of immerse yourself and forge ahead. Every story that's told gets returned to and retold from other perspectives as you go along. One suggestion is that you look to Ratliff as the pragmatic conscience and guide to what's "really going on," while Gavin Stevens represents an idealistic desire to make things better than they are (in a way, these are two sides to Faulkner's narrative impulse). Ultimately, Flem Snopes is trying to exist outside of history and narrative, and thus it's difficult for the citizens of Jefferson and Frenchman's Bend to maintain their sense of community and identity when he's dominating all their local "plotlines" with confusion. The trilogy itself is about storytelling and history, so Faulkner sort of interrogates the reader's need to master every detail as it unfolds; he'd rather put the reader in a more immediate sense of things, sort of like what William James called "the blooming, buzzing confusion" of present time. That said, it's really a very controlled and ultimately reliable series of novels.
May 11, 2007
Collection
Though Faulkner writes about Mississipi and Yoknapatawpha, his own imaginary territory of 2400 Miles sq. with 15611 inhabitants, centered by Jefferson city, but I always see every single part of the world in his novels, where the characters are suffering of the situation which is imposed by visible and invisible powers, but they keep going on with life as they have no other possibilities ...
فالکنر در رمان "آبشالوم، آبشالوم" به "یوکناپاتوفا"، سرزمین خیالی اش در اطراف می سی سی پی اشاره می کند. بنا بر نوشته ی فالکنر، "یوکناپاتوفا" 2400 مایل مربع مساحت، و 15611 نفر جمعیت دارد، و مرکزش شهر "جفرسن" است. اغلب آثار بلند و کوتاه فالکنر پس از آبشالوم، آبشالوم، در همین منطقه ی فرضی جنوب مرکزی ایالات متحده ی آمریکا می گذرد، جایی که سرخپوستان بومی، سیاهان برده، اربابان سنگدل و... در فضایی فالکنری بسر می برند، و نمونه ای ست از جامعه ی آمریکای هم عصر فالکنر. بسیاری از نویسندگان بعد از فالکنر به این رسم زیبا پیوستند، و اگرچه مشخصات شهر - سرزمینشان را با عدد و رقم معین نکرده اند، اما از زندگی شخصیت ها، وقایع قصه ها و فضای خلق شده، می توان به مشخصات این شهر – سرزمین ها پی برد. "ماکوندو"ی گابریل گارسیا مارکز یکی از همین شهر- سرزمین هاست. همین طور "بمبای" سلمان رشدی، و... تقریبن تمامی نویسندگان بزرگ پس از فالکنر، او را به نوعی پیش کسوت خود می دانند، و بزرگانی چون خورخه لوئیس بورخس، گابریل گارسیا مارکز، ماریو بارگاس یوسا، سلمان رشدی، و ... در کار نویسندگی از فالکنر به عنوان یک استاد، یاد می کنند.
Though Faulkner writes about Mississipi and Yoknapatawpha, his own imaginary territory of 2400 Miles sq. with 15611 inhabitants, centered by Jefferson city, but I always see every single part of the world in his novels, where the characters are suffering of the situation which is imposed by visible and invisible powers, but they keep going on with life as they have no other possibilities ...
فالکنر در رمان "آبشالوم، آبشالوم" به "یوکناپاتوفا"، سرزمین خیالی اش در اطراف می سی سی پی اشاره می کند. بنا بر نوشته ی فالکنر، "یوکناپاتوفا" 2400 مایل مربع مساحت، و 15611 نفر جمعیت دارد، و مرکزش شهر "جفرسن" است. اغلب آثار بلند و کوتاه فالکنر پس از آبشالوم، آبشالوم، در همین منطقه ی فرضی جنوب مرکزی ایالات متحده ی آمریکا می گذرد، جایی که سرخپوستان بومی، سیاهان برده، اربابان سنگدل و... در فضایی فالکنری بسر می برند، و نمونه ای ست از جامعه ی آمریکای هم عصر فالکنر. بسیاری از نویسندگان بعد از فالکنر به این رسم زیبا پیوستند، و اگرچه مشخصات شهر - سرزمینشان را با عدد و رقم معین نکرده اند، اما از زندگی شخصیت ها، وقایع قصه ها و فضای خلق شده، می توان به مشخصات این شهر – سرزمین ها پی برد. "ماکوندو"ی گابریل گارسیا مارکز یکی از همین شهر- سرزمین هاست. همین طور "بمبای" سلمان رشدی، و... تقریبن تمامی نویسندگان بزرگ پس از فالکنر، او را به نوعی پیش کسوت خود می دانند، و بزرگانی چون خورخه لوئیس بورخس، گابریل گارسیا مارکز، ماریو بارگاس یوسا، سلمان رشدی، و ... در کار نویسندگی از فالکنر به عنوان یک استاد، یاد می کنند.
January 14, 2008
What would later be known as the Snopes trilogy, chronicles the rise of the Snopes family which represent to Faulkner all that is greedy, white trash, cunning and terrible about the rise of ruthless country-come-to-town folks in the modern south.
The Hamlet is loosely about the rise of Flem Snopes the family's patriarch who drags his family from the poverty and darkness of the deep woods and into economic dominance of the small village of Frenchman's Bend.
As with many Fualkner novels, the main character is understood indirectly from the experiences that he or she causes in the lives of others.
This book while fractured in its narrative and overall a bit scatterbrained, is full of rich surprises.
I found myself at the beginning of the book being somewhat impressed with Flem even though I had expected to see him as a villain.
The description of Flem's future wife Eula through the wrecked desires of her schoolteacher are unforgettable.
Also there is an extremely strange section where Faulkner describes the world through the eyes of one of Flem's idiot cousins who is deeply in love with a cow.
Yes it sounds crazy I found this particular section to be some of the most beautiful prose I have ever read.
Overall a very strange book but one unlike I have ever read before.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 11, 2012
Five stars isn't nearly enough for this masterpiece. A comprehensive and intricate look at the many personalities that make up Yoknapatawpha County. Like all of the best Faulkner novels, this book presents worlds within worlds. Comic set pieces that reveal great psychological depths; Tortured scenes of anger and revenge that hinge on silly misunderstandings; great studies of love, hate, envy, ambition, parenthood, childhood, and horse trading. Like the bible or Huckleberry Finn, this is a book to return to again and again for the rest of your life. You will never fail to get something new from it. One of my all time faves.
September 1, 2011
It has been many years since I have picked up anything by Faulkner, but this edition has been beckoning me from my bookshelf for many years. Having just completed The Hamlet portion of the Snopes Trilogy, I laughed aloud for a good part of it. What a great story teller! Apparently this edition includes many pages that were not included in previous editions for fear of offending readers. And unlike the critical mass of what I read, its characters will remain embedded in my mind forever.
March 24, 2013
It was a good but very long. It was about a family living in Yoknapatawpa's, Mississippi a small town.. It covered all the generations of the family called Snopes. Most of the details of this family were sad. It covered the period of the First World War to after the Second World War. The story had a few funny parts, but it also showed how people were treated in the South, especially the Negro race. It is a moving story, and is considered a Classic. If you can devote the time to read it, it is well worth reading.
January 31, 2008
Man..what didn't I learn. This is a lesson in life, in the changes that took place in america in the 19th century. Lots of stories and asides, but I loved this book and it will definately need a second read through to realy appreciate it
November 20, 2013
See my review of The Hamlet here:
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See my review of The Town here:
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See my review of The Mansion here:
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See my review of The Town here:
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See my review of The Mansion here:
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