These Thirteen

by William Faulkner

These 13 is a 1931 collection of short stories written by William Faulkner, and dedicated to his first daughter, Alabama, who died nine days after her birth on January 11, 1931, and to his wife Estelle.
These 13, Faulkner's first release of short stories, contained the following stories:
"Victory"
"Ad Astra"
"All the Dead Pilots"
"Crevasse"
"Red Leaves"
"A Rose for Emily"
"A Justice"
"Hair"
"That Evening Sun"
"Dry September"
"Mistral"
"Divorce in Naples"
"Carcassonne"

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories, Classics, Literary Fiction, Southern, Southern Gothic, Literature

358 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1931

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

[Carlos · Rating 2 out of 5]

RESEÑA de «Estos Trece», cuentos de Faulkner
Traducción: José María Valverde

Esta primera colección de relatos de William Faulkner se publicó en 1931, el mismo año que su novela «Santuario». Pero al menos dos de las trece historias que la forman, concretamente la famosa «A Rose for Emily» y «Read Leaves», ya se habían publicado un año antes en revistas.

De los trece relatos de esta colección, voy a referirme a cuatro, que son los que se ajustan a mi PLAN de lectura:

“A Rose for Emily” (1930);
“That Evening Sun” (1931);
“Ad Astra” (1931);
“All the Dead Pilots” (1931).

En mi PLAN, agrupo los relatos de Faulkner en el orden en que fueron publicados —fuera en revista o en libro— y conforme a un asunto unificador, que en este grupo es su pertenencia al ciclo de los Compson (El ruido y la furia, Absalón) o de los Sartoris (Banderas en el polvo).

Hay un quinto relato perteneciente a este grupo de mi PLAN de lecturas, que leí hace ya cerca de un año. Se titula «Había una reina», pero no se publicó en «Estos Trece», sino en la segunda colección de relatos de Faulkner, titulada «Dr Martino y otras historias». Fue publicada en 1934.

De los cinco del PLAN, hay un solo relato que me ha parecido sobresaliente: «Una rosa para Emily». En la antología «Grandes Cuentos de Terror y de lo Sobrenatural», de la Modern Library lo consideran, y con razón, una pieza notable del género.

La digna y misteriosa figura de Miss Emily Grierson, que tras un oscuro affair con un forastero muere 30 años después en su vieja y decadente casona asistida solo por un silencioso sirviente negro, es una historia gótica en la tradición de un Robert Louis Stevenson, pero situada en el sur de los EEUU. Al climax se llega en la línea final.

«Había una reina» (recuérdese que no forma parte de «Estos Trece») no tiene la misma entidad. Podría ser el epílogo de la novela «Banderas en el polvo», cuando la anciana Miss Jenny, la joven Narcisa, su hijo Benbow y la negra Elnora es todo lo que queda del linaje de los Sartoris.

También un mero episodio, esta vez de la saga de los Compson, es el relato «That Evening Sun» (Aquel sol del atardecer). Narrado en retrospectiva por un Quentin Compson de 24 años, cuenta un intrascendente episodio que tiene por protagonista a Nancy, una lavandera negra. Podría ser un episodio de «El ruido y la furia».

Los otros dos relatos de «Estos Trece» leídos en esta ocasión, es decir «Ad Astra» y «All the Dead Pilots», me han parecido francamente malos. Escritos en un estilo abigarrado y difícil de entender, recrean de manera confusa una serie de intrascendentes episodios de la guerra que tiene por protagonista a los gemelos Sartoris, ambos aviadores como Faulkner.

Post Scriptmun

En la misma línea de relatos francamente malos de Faulkner, con mal estilo, mala estructura narrativa, confusos y odiosos de leer está «Red Leaves» (Hojas Rojas), sobre la relación entre indios y negros en los primeros años de Jefferson.

Es un relato en seis partes que se publicó originalmente en el Saturday Evening Post (octubre de 1930) y luego en «Estos trece» (1931), pero luego Faulkner lo integró en el grupo de historias que denominó "El campo, el pueblo, el yermo" en su colección «Collected Stories» (Cuentos reunidos) de 1950. Lo he dejado fuera de la reseña principal por no formar parte de mi PLAN de lecturas en torno a las sagas Compson-Sartoris. Su inglés me resultó tan pesado, que acabé leyéndolo en la traducción de José María Valverde (Seix Barral, Aguilar).

[R.K. Cowles · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 1/2 stars

[Camille · Rating 2 out of 5]

2,5/5

[Boukhalfa Inal Ahmed · Rating 4 out of 5]

Elle eut donc à nouveau de la famille sous son toit, et tout le monde s'apprêta à suivre les événements. Tout d'abord il ne se passa rien. Ensuite, nous fûmes convaincus qu'ils allaient se marier. Nous apprîmes que Miss Emily était allée chez le bijoutier et avait commandé un nécessaire de toilette pour homme, avec les initiales H.B. sur chaque pièce. Deux jours après nous apprîmes qu'elle avait acheté un trousseau d'homme complet y compris une chemise de nuit, et nous dîmes : "Ils sont mariés." Nous étions vraiment contents. Nous étions contents parce que les deux cousines étaient encore plus Grierson que Miss Emily ne l'avait jamais été.
Nous ne fûmes donc pas surpris lorsque, quelque temps après que les rues furent terminées, Homer Barron s'en alla. On fut un peu déçu qu'il n'y ait pas eu de réjouissances publiques mais on crut qu'il était parti pour préparer l'arrivée de Miss Emily ou pour lui permettre l'arrivée de se débarrasser des cousines. (Nous formions alors une véritable cabale et nous étions tous les alliés de Miss Emily pour l'aider à circonvenir les cousines.) Ce qu'il y a de certain, c'est qu'au bout d'une semaine, elles partirent. Et, comme nous nous y attendions, trois jours ne s'étaient pas écoulés que Homer Barron était de retour dans notre ville. Un voisin vit le nègre le faire entrer par la porte de la cuisine, un soir, au crépuscule.
Nous ne revîmes plus jamais Homer Barron et, pendant quelques temps, nous ne vîmes pas Emily non plus. Le nègre entrait et sortait avec son panier de marché, mais la porte d’entrée restait close. De temps à autre, nous la voyions un moment à sa fenêtre, comme le soir où les hommes allèrent répandre de la chaux chez elle, mais pendant plus de six mois, elle ne parut pas dans les rues. Nous comprîmes qu'il fallait aussi s'attendre à cela ; comme si cet aspect du caractère de son père qui avait si souvent contrarié sa vie de femme avait été trop virulent trop furieux pour mourir.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is divided into three parts. The first part includes "Victory," "Ad Astra," "All the Dead Pilots," and "Crevasse." These focus around the experiences of soldiers who served in The Great War. The language and the droll humor hit me that this is a significant influence on Joseph Heller.

The second part includes "Red Leaves" with the Chickasaw along with "A Justice" where the tribe moves a steamboat from the river to their home while the chief uses trickery to keep people in line. I read some analysis of this story and it seems that metaphor may be heavily used by Faulkner in his stories. It would make sense, because otherwise the surface story is often meandering and thin. "Hair" uses a lot of words for a character study. "That Evening Sun" is a cruel portrayal of a white family’s indifference about the fear one of the Black servants has about the vengeful anger of her common-law husband.

Two in this section struck a chord. "A Rose for Emily" is one that’s been on my list to read for a while, and it is an interestingly grim reflection on holding onto the past, be it personal relationships or the antebellum South. The closing scene is deliciously gruesome. "Dry September" is an unblinking view on a lynching. Certainly brought to mind DuBois’s story “Jesus Christ in Georgia.”

The third part includes stories in Italy related to The Great War and post-war sailors including "Mistral" and "Divorce in Naples." The language and the droll humor hit me that this is a significant influence on Joseph Heller, especially the bits about Nately’s whore. "Carcassonne" was an odd prose poem about a man, possibly a merchant sailor, arguing with his skeleton.

As a whole, this book did not convert me into a Faulkner fan, but it did give me a bit more appreciation for his style and his impact.

[Anders Mickelson · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Gray is the third man . During all the while that they crept between flares from shellhole to shellhole , he has been working himself nearer to the sergeant - major and the Officer ; in the glare of that first rifle he can see the gap in the wire toward which the Officer was leading them , the moiled rigid glints of the wire where bullets have nicked the mud and rust from it , and against the glare the tall , leaping shape of the sergeant - major ."

“ Tomorrow is just another name for today . ”

"a long diminishing noise of rubber and asphalt like tearing silk"

"Two packs can look as human , as utterly human and spent , as two shoes ."

"The hall was dark ; there was no sound in it . There was nothing in it save the cold smell of sunless plaster and silence and the smell of living , of where people have , and will have , lived ."

"They both called it Philly ; George in a proprietorial tone , as if he had created Philadelphia in order to produce Carl , though it later appeared that George had not discovered Carl until Carl had been to sea for a year already ."

[Raime · Rating 3 out of 5]

1. Victory - 8/10
2. Ad astra - 3/10 (Sartoris goes to a bar during WW1), (“There should never have been an alliance between Frenchmen and Englishmen,” the subadar said. He spoke without effort; invisible, his effortless voice had an organ quality, out of all proportion to his size. “Different nations should never join forces to fight for the same object. Let each fight for something different; ends that do not conflict, each in his own way.”)
3. All the dead pilots - 4/10 (Sartoris is a pilot)
4. Crevasse - 4/10 (medical team carries a wounded through a shell cratered field)
5. Red leaves - 4/10 (indians and a house slave)
6. A rose for Emily - 4/10
7. A justice - 7/10 (in a way a sequel to red leaves)
8. Hair - 8/10 (nice emotional thing)
9. That evening sun - 4/10 (story from a sound and fury family)
10. Dry september - 3/10 (character appearance from Hair)
11. Mistral - 1/10 (totally confusing story about two soldiers in Italian mountain village)
12. Divorce in Naples - 1/10 (confusing story about sailors)
13. Carcassonne - 0/10 (word salad)

[Tavia Li · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve always admired Faulkner’s short fiction, and These Thirteen is no exception—it’s a haunting, quietly powerful collection. The first story draws you into the psychological void of a WWI soldier with sparse yet deeply effective prose. There’s no grandiosity, just an unflinching portrayal of spiritual exhaustion.

The second part shifts to Faulkner’s Southern roots, and here his writing feels most visceral. There’s a distinct Sound and the Fury flavor in the air—oppressive, decaying, and rich with unspoken trauma. The discomfort isn’t loud, but it lingers. His depiction of the American South is like staring at a clump of hair caught in a drain—repulsive, yet too real to look away. Everyone in these stories seems trapped in a reality too deeply ingrained to escape. There’s no salvation offered, and none expected.

By contrast, the third section reads almost like a nocturne—gentler in tone, more lyrical, but still tinged with quiet sorrow.

[Sophie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Une écriture ciselée et toujours aussi magistrale. Et retrouver au détour de quelques nouvelles ce Sud des états unis qu'il dépeint si bien. Vraiment un très beau recueil

[J M-B · Rating 3 out of 5]

The stories are of varying quality but it is interesting to read portrayals of characters from Faulkner's major novels - for example, in 'All the Dead Pilots'.

[James Fiocca · Rating 5 out of 5]

need to reread at some point

[Tim Lepczyk]

Only read, "That Evening Sun" review follows: http://digitaldunes.blogspot.com/2010/11/that-evening-sun-william-faulkner-point.html.

[Lonely Shikari · Rating 2 out of 5]

Иные рассказы сумбурны, иные – хороши, всё вместе оставляет какое-то смазанное и невнятное ощущение.

[Crystal Hunter]

Some very good, some so-so.