William Faulkner: Novels 1957–1962

by William Faulkner, Noel Polk (Editor)

William Faulkner's fictional chronicle of Yoknapatawpha County culminates in his three last novels, rich with the accumulated history and lore of the microcosmic domain where he set most of his novels and stories. Faulkner wanted to use the time remaining to him to achieve a summing-up of his fictional world.. "The Town (1957) is the second novel in the Snopes trilogy that began with The Hamlet. Here the rise of the rapacious Flem Snopes and his extravagantly extended family, as they connive their way into power in the county seat of Jefferson is filtered through three separate narrative voices. Faulkner was particularly proud of the two women characters - the doomed Eula and her daughter Linda - who stand at the novel's center.. "Flem's relentless drive toward wealth and control plays itself out in The Mansion (1959), in which a wronged relative, the downtrodden sharecropper Mink Snopes, succeeds in avenging himself and bringing down the corrupt Snopes dynasty.. "His last novel, The Reivers: A Reminiscence (1962), is distinctly mellower and more elegiac than his earlier work. A picaresque adventure set early in the twentieth century and involving a Memphis brothel, a racehorse, and a stolen automobile, it evokes the world of childhood with a final burst of comic energy.

Genres: Fiction, Novels, 20th Century, American, Literature

1020 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

William 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".

Reviews

[Martin Hernandez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Las tres novelas que integran el tomo final de la colección publicada por la Librería de América me resultaron un tanto aburridas. Evidentemente el William FAULKNER que escribió The Town, The Mansion y The Reivers es un escritor agotado, desgastado. Por una parte, eso hace que estas novelas sean mucho más accesibles que sus trabajos previos, pero quizá eso es lo que me hizo falta al leerlas: la complejidad, el reto. Esto no disminuye que FAULKNER es un narrador brillante, y particularmente en las primeras dos novelas incluso hay una vena cómica que no tenía antes.
The Town y The Mansion concluyen la trilogía de la extravagante familia SNOPES, mientras que The Reivers narra una aventura de enredos que me recordó mucho a las pelìculas del Hollywood de mediados del siglo pasado.

[Brendan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Faulkner's final three novels are fantastic, wrapping up the epic tale of the Snopeses and leaving the world he created with a funny, whimsical tale of horse thievery. A fitting end to a stellar career.

[Rado Baťo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Much more accessible than his most famous works which means it's almost ordinary reading. The notorious difficulty is gone, but the thrilling Faulknerian magic is also gone. These are the great narratives and very good books in general. Any lesser writer would kill to write them. But they are just not at the same level of greatness as The Sound and the Fury or Absalom, Absalom! is.

[Erik · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Town and The Mansion are very good and make for a great literary experience when read with The Hamlet. The Reivers was a disappointing finish to Faulkner's remarkable career.

[Karl Kraus · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a review of the LoA edition, not of the novels.

As always with LoA Faulkner volumes, the Notes are sparse, arbitrary, and generally unhelpful. Two of countless examples: "Four F" -- the military (un)fitness classification -- is annotated; "Murat" is not; go figure. We are also presented with a transcription of the typescript for the first published edition of *The Mansion* and not Faulkner's own corrected edition (i.e., corrected to reconcile contradictions and discrepancies with regard to the earlier Snopes novels), published posthumously in 1964. First thought best thought triumphs over Fassung letzter Hand? Astonishing that literary textual criticism as practiced right now hasn't caught up with the musicological editorial practices of several generations ago.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

The last three novels of Faulkner in one volume. For the most there's no Faulknerian modernism, instead just great characters and stories. Although, in chronicling folks like Flem Snopes, he -- Faulkner-- does love to layer on the parenthetical statements. Great humor runs throughout, too. The Reivers, especially, is just funny. It's a romp of crazy characters and wacky situations. "Eleven years old and already knife-cut in a whore house brawl." That about sums it up.

[Barbara Lovejoy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the book I had from the library but I only read The Reivers--my 7th book from Marilyn Green Faulkner's 36 Back to the Best Books. We watched the DVD last night. I am so glad we saw the movie while I was reading the book. It helped me follow the story a lot more. This book was filled with great messages I want to apply to my life.

[Christopher Sutch · Rating 3 out of 5]

See my reviews of the individual novels contained in this volume.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

7/25/2021: The Town

[Joey · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Reviers was easily my favorite