William Styron, The Collected Novels: Lie Down in Darkness, Set This House on Fire, The Confessions of Nat Turner, and Sophie's Choice

by William Styron

Four classic novels—including the Pulitzer Prize–winning Confessions of Nat Turner—by a master of twentieth-century fiction

Lie Down in Darkness is William Styron’s stunning a classic portrait of one Southern family’s tragic spiral into destruction. Set This House on Fire is a story of evil and redemption involving three American men whose paths converge on a film shoot in Italy at the close of the 1940s, hailed as “one of the finest novels of our time” by the San Francisco Chronicle.Gripping and unforgettable, The Confessions of Nat Turner is the Pulitzer-winning portrait of the leader of America’s bloodiest slave revolt. And Sophie’s Choice is the National Book Award–winning novel of love, survival, and regret, set in Brooklyn in the wake of the Second World War.



Taken together, these four novels—exploring themes of good and evil, sin and atonement, and the ineradicable bonds of place and family—represent Styron at the pinnacle of his literary brilliance.

Genres: Classics, Fiction, Literary Fiction, Novels

ebook

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

William Styron (1925–2006), born in Newport News, Virginia, was one of the greatest American writers of his generation. Styron published his first book, Lie Down in Darkness, at age twenty-six and went on to write such influential works as the controversial and Pulitzer Prize–winning The Confessions of Nat Turner and the international bestseller Sophie’s Choice.

Reviews

[Realini Ionescu · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Confessions of Nat Turner by William Styron


The Confessions of Nat Turner is a phenomenal novel that has won the Pulitzer Prize for Literature in 1968 and has been included on the All-TIME 100 Novels list: http://entertainment.time.com/2005/10...

The author, William Styron has written the National Book Award for 1980, Sophie’s Choice, which has also been included on a best books list, The Modern Library 100 Best Novels: http://www.modernlibrary.com/top-100/...
Finally, Darkness Visible, by the same genius writer is considered one of the fifty classics of psychology, dealing with depression, a condition about which William Styron clearly knew so much.

A group of slaves have rebelled in 1831, in Southampton, Virginia, The United States and “The Leader of the Late Insurrection” was Nathaniel Turner, an African American who claimed in his confessions to have been inspired by God, the documents have later inspired this mesmerizing book.
This is not an easy read, with pleasant descriptions and happy events, although it is not all gore and horror, terrifying scenes are part of this narrative, for they formed the core of the history of slavery, the entrapment, gruesome sailing to the Americas and then exploitation in the plantations and around the farms of the slave owners.

Part of the reason why this novel is so compelling is the fact that it is not one sided, trying to justify the slave revolt, the cruelty and killings on one side, or the white people who kept slaves, had racist attitudes and strongly believed that slavery would last more than one thousand years, given the inferiority of the “nigger” –as they called them in that dark age- race and the inherit majesty of the white race.
In the beginning of the book, we already know the result of the slave revolt- if we had not been aware before- that has ended with many dead, on both sides, women and children included, and the leaders are in prison, Nat Turner among them, while some of the core group have already died in battle.

Thomas Gray is the white prosecuting attorney and he has what would be a disqualifying relationship with the “defense” in the modern age, but at that time both sides believed the accused is guilty and he will hang in a matter of days and the only important issue is that of having the Confessions and answers to some questions that still puzzle investigators, like why did the leader of the revolt kill only one person and that a white, defenseless girl?

Nat Turner remembers his life and the story is told in the first person, with details about the first master, Samuel Turner, who wanted the African Americans- at that time it seems that those who viewed them in a friendly way called them “darkies”- to emancipate, receive education and eventually their freedom, but not before receiving a solid footing, without which they would be lost on their own.
Kind as he seemed to have been and anyway ahead of his times and most of the other whites, Samuel Turner still makes some unpardonable mistakes, even if unintentionally, such as selling two young slaves and then all the rest with one exception, when he is approaching financial ruin.

Eventually, Nat Turner is transferred to Reverend Eppes, who is supposed to set him free when he is twenty one or so, but the vicious clergy is not just a homosexual with pedophile instincts, but a ruthless man who is abusing the young man in other ways, if not sexually and in the end, he sells the very smart and educated African American to a couple of brothers, brutal, stupid and illiterate.
As soon as they buy their new slave, they use the whip on him and when he asks for some food, he gets whipped instead of nourished and they are set to go on the wrong road, when Nat Turner has to stop them and explain the mistake, shocking the duo when he re4veals that he can read and therefore knows the way, which was pointed on a sign they had just passed.

In the version presented by William Styron, Nat Turner has visions that he believes to be from God, who is telling him to start a war against the white race, to rally the support of the other black men, which he starts doing just after a fight between two slaves, attended by other African American who were taking pleasure in it, until the hero explains that all this is wrong and they should cheer when the white masters are suffering and not fight each other.
In fact, since we already know the end from the start, the failure of the rebellion is brought about by some mistakes, tactical errors and maybe the fact that the protagonist allows one white person to escape and she alerts others, thus stopping the rebels within a mile from the town of Jerusalem, Virginia, but it was mostly crashed by the lack of response of the majority of the African Americans, who, instead of embracing the uprising, they actually fought against it, alongside their white masters…

Perhaps it is easy to understand the penchant that a reader feels to side with the hero, against the white oppressors, who had been abusing, killing, exploiting their slaves for decades, maybe even in the case of owners who had been rather kind with their black servants, but when they decide to kill women and children, it becomes the point where the reader understands that this is a compelling, complex book, interested more in the messages that can be discerned than in depicting a rosy picture of the heroes fighting against evil with immaculate, innocent minds.

Furthermore, Margaret Whitehead is a beautiful, decent, white, compassionate girl who talks to the protagonist with sincerity and understanding, mentions the fights she had with much less sympathetic, racist friends, defending the “darkies” –as she calls them- and speaking with admiration about Nat Turner, who feels hatred, instead of returning the decent feelings and showing the younger friend some pity, alas.
The strategy and tactics required by this mean confrontation are clear, in order to have a chance to win, nobody could be spared, for if they forgive and allow one to live, there would be another and then more, leading to alarm in the neighboring farms, the army being sent and the final defeat of the revolt.

This is what actually happened, but it is still difficult to feel close to a hero that gets so cruel to innocent bystanders, especially Margaret, even when all the atrocities committed by their race is accounted for…

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a bargain, no doubt about it. So far I've read The Confessions of Nat Turner, and about half of Set This House on Fire. Nat Turner gets all the stars, Set This House, no stars, not one, doubt if I will finish it. Update later.

[Barbara Jeffcott]

Just finished Lie Down in Darkness. I'm really unclear as to why anyone would want to read this novel; the characters are all irredeemable and unpleasant. I guess the author was trying to make a point about mental illness and how it can affect even those if us lucky enough to have all the advantages in life.
I'm struggling with whether or not to go on the next book in this omnibus.

[David Chinoy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Classic writing

This printing of Styron’s four classic novels is well done and a great way to have them all in one place. His prose is poetic, and I have greatly enjoyed reading his work 30 years after reading them them the first time.

[Cuauhtémoc Rossell Castañeda · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favourite was (for much) “The Confessions of Nat Turner”