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William Faulkner: Novels 1942–1954
The years 1942 to 1954 saw William Faulkner’s rise to literary celebrity—sought after by Hollywood, lionized by the critics, awarded a Nobel Prize in 1950 and the Pulitzer and National Book Award for 1954. But, despite his success, he was plagued by depression and alcohol and haunted by a sense that he had more to achieve—and a finite amount of time and energy to achieve it.
This Library of America volume collects the novels written during this crucial period; defying the odds, Faulkner continued to break new ground in American fiction. He delved deeper into themes of race and religion and furthered his experiments with fictional structure and narrative voice. These newly restored texts, based on Faulkner’s manuscripts, typescripts, and proof sheets, are free of the changes introduced by the original editors and are faithful to the author’s intentions.
Go Down, Moses (1942) is a haunting novel made up of seven related stories that explore the intertwined lives of black, white, and Indian inhabitants of Yoknapatawpha County. It includes “The Bear,” one of the most famous works in all American fiction, with its evocation of “the wilderness, the big woods, bigger and older than any recorded document.”
Characters from Go Down, Moses reappear in Intruder in the Dust (1948). Part detective novel, part morality tale, it is a compassionate story of a black man on trial and the growing moral awareness of a southern white boy.
Requiem for a Nun (1951) is a sequel to Sanctuary. With an unusual structure combining novel and play, it tells the fate of the passionate, haunted Temple Drake and the murder case through which she achieves a tortured redemption. Prose interludes condense millennia of local history into a swirling counterpoint.
In A Fable (1954), a recasting of the Christ story set during World War I, Faulkner wanted to “try to tell what I had found in my lifetime of truth in some important way before I had to put the pen down and die.” The novel, which earned a Pulitzer Prize, is both an anguished spiritual parable and a drama of mutiny, betrayal, and violence in the barracks and on the battlefields.
This Library of America volume collects the novels written during this crucial period; defying the odds, Faulkner continued to break new ground in American fiction. He delved deeper into themes of race and religion and furthered his experiments with fictional structure and narrative voice. These newly restored texts, based on Faulkner’s manuscripts, typescripts, and proof sheets, are free of the changes introduced by the original editors and are faithful to the author’s intentions.
Go Down, Moses (1942) is a haunting novel made up of seven related stories that explore the intertwined lives of black, white, and Indian inhabitants of Yoknapatawpha County. It includes “The Bear,” one of the most famous works in all American fiction, with its evocation of “the wilderness, the big woods, bigger and older than any recorded document.”
Characters from Go Down, Moses reappear in Intruder in the Dust (1948). Part detective novel, part morality tale, it is a compassionate story of a black man on trial and the growing moral awareness of a southern white boy.
Requiem for a Nun (1951) is a sequel to Sanctuary. With an unusual structure combining novel and play, it tells the fate of the passionate, haunted Temple Drake and the murder case through which she achieves a tortured redemption. Prose interludes condense millennia of local history into a swirling counterpoint.
In A Fable (1954), a recasting of the Christ story set during World War I, Faulkner wanted to “try to tell what I had found in my lifetime of truth in some important way before I had to put the pen down and die.” The novel, which earned a Pulitzer Prize, is both an anguished spiritual parable and a drama of mutiny, betrayal, and violence in the barracks and on the battlefields.
1110 pages, Hardcover
First published October 1, 1994
11 people are currently reading
246 people want to read
About the author
William Faulkner
1,353 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 - 13 of 13 reviews
October 28, 2020
El cuarto y penúltimo volumen de la serie publicada por la Librería de América, contiene trabajos publicados en la época cuando
William FAULKNER
se ganó el estatus de "rockstar" de la literatura estadounidense: recibió el Premio Nobel en 1050 y el Pulitzer y el National Book Award en 1954. Como sucede con frecuencia, la cúspide de su fama coincide con periodos de depresión y alcoholismo.
Las novelas incluidas aqui son:
Las novelas incluidas aqui son:
Go Down, Moses (1942, 3 estrellas): siete narraciones interrelacionadas que exploran las relaciones de blancos, negros y pieles rojas en el mítico condado de Yoknapatawpha, a través de la historia de los descendientes de Lucius Carrothers McCaslin: los McCaslin y los Beauchamp (reseña más extensa aquí)
Intruder in the Dust (1948, 4 estrellas): Parte novela policiaca, parte cuento moral, narra cómo un niño blanco salva a un mulato (Lucas Beauchamp, que también aparece en el libro anterior) de una acusación injusta (reseña más extensa aquí).
Requiem for a Nun (1951, 2 estrellas): La continuación a "Santuario" tiene una estructura muy extraña, mitad obra de teatro, mitad narración, que no me enganchó para nada, por eso las pocas estrellas.
A Fable (1954, 2 estrellas): publicada después de ganar el Nobel, es la historia del Mesías actuando en la I Guerra Mundial. Me pareció floja, aunque en su momento fue muy elogiada y le valió a FAULKNER el premio Pulitzer!
June 16, 2025
William Faulkner, always a complicated read, fascinating, dark, often difficult to follow, but entrancing. One must read to the usually bitter end about the people in Faulkner's writings. And as a study in psychology, correlating Faulkner's characters and storylines with his own experiences and opinions provides a complete study into the human existence. A must read/study for every thinking person.
March 17, 2018
I read Go Down Moses and Intruder in the Dust. I love how Faulkner captures the isolation and small town feel of the Deep South, as well as the racial conflicts. Not always an easy read but worth it. I was surprised at the similarities of Intruder to To Kill a Mokimgbird
May 1, 2023
I read (and rated) only Nun because I’d already read Intruder, I wasn’t interested in the others, and recently I’ve run into this quote a few times: "The past is never dead. It's not even past." The quote is better than the story.
May 18, 2017
Another four masterpieces. All of these novels, A Fable especially, show Faulkner in peak form.
March 22, 2023
Go Down, Moses is a great collection. The other 3 all have flashes of Faulkner's brilliance but also were weighed down by less engaging stories.
Read
April 19, 2022Requiem for a Nun was the novel that got me targeted and thrown-out of St. John's College. One of my proudest moments! :)
February 14, 2021
Faulkner’s periodic prose encapsulates a reining in of South’s bloody past, lurching, inexorably, toward the present. Disorienting, reader concentrates, following story through dense prose. It’s okay; is rewarding.
“Go Down, Moses” is multi - generational saga, where people and Mississippi county change, facing uncertain progress. “The Bear” is classic novella about hunter, from teenage to older, confronting title animal. Bear is symbolic of unbridled freedom and America’s longevity. “Intruder in the Dust” shows black man, accused of murder, seeking help from young, white, boy - moral conscience of events. “Requiem for a Nun” has white woman, atoning for immoral injustice of black housekeeper and “A Fable” sees mercy in chaotic World War I. Faulkner’s fictions remind how far we have to go in race relations.
“Go Down, Moses” is multi - generational saga, where people and Mississippi county change, facing uncertain progress. “The Bear” is classic novella about hunter, from teenage to older, confronting title animal. Bear is symbolic of unbridled freedom and America’s longevity. “Intruder in the Dust” shows black man, accused of murder, seeking help from young, white, boy - moral conscience of events. “Requiem for a Nun” has white woman, atoning for immoral injustice of black housekeeper and “A Fable” sees mercy in chaotic World War I. Faulkner’s fictions remind how far we have to go in race relations.
July 2, 2013
A Fable is really weird - Christ as a French private in WW1 who shuts the front down by laying down his weapon and getting others to follow. If you go to Roanoke, Faulkner's home in Oxford MS, you can see where he wrote the outline for this one out on the walls of his writing room. Go Down Moses is good too. Great edition. Good and peculiar collection.
December 30, 2012
From this collection, Go Down, Moses.
August 2, 2013
See my reviews of individual works in this collection.
December 1, 2021
July 3, 2021. Go Down, Moses
July 17, 2021. Intruder In The Dust
July 25, 2021. Requiem For A Nun
July 17, 2021. Intruder In The Dust
July 25, 2021. Requiem For A Nun
Want to read
August 25, 2017Today reading this for Intruder in the Dust...
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews