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Bất Khuất
Bất Khuất không chỉ kể về lòng dũng cảm hay khí phách miền Nam, mà còn là câu hỏi về đạo đức, danh dự và sự thay đổi giá trị sống khi thế giới cũ sụp đổ. Faulkner vừa lãng mạn hóa, vừa chất vấn lý tưởng tinh thần hiệp sĩ miền Nam (Southern chivalry), đặt người đọc trước nghịch lý: chiến tranh có thể tạo ra những anh hùng, nhưng cũng tàn phá tận gốc nền tảng đạo lý. Trong bảy câu chuyện nối liền như một dòng ký ức, Faulkner dẫn người đọc bước vào thế giới phức tạp của họ, nơi danh dự và định kiến, khát vọng và mất mát quấn chặt nhau như những sợi khói sau tàn phá. Ông không dựng tượng đài, cũng không phủ nhận, mà quan sát lắng nghe, giải mã cách họ nhìn thế giới và cách niềm tin đã dẫn họ đi qua những lựa chọn không thể đảo ngược. Bất Khuất như là một khúc sử thi trầm lắng, cho thấy di sản của xung đột không nằm trong bảo tàng, mà len lỏi trong cách con người đối xử với nhau, rằng đôi khi “cuộc chiến” chỉ bắt đầu sau khi tiếng súng đã ngừng...
Trong Bất khuất, William Faulkner triển khai một loạt thủ pháp đặc trưng, vừa mang dấu ấn chủ nghĩa hiện đại, vừa bám sâu vào truyền thống kể chuyện miền Nam Hoa Kỳ. Ông chọn điểm nhìn giới hạn qua nhân vật Bayard Sartoris ở nhiều giai đoạn tuổi đời khác nhau, để độc giả chứng kiến chiến tranh và hậu chiến qua con mắt của một người đang trưởng thành, tạo nên hiệu ứng “trưởng thành cùng ký ức”, nơi những gì người kể nhìn thấy không chỉ là sự kiện, mà còn là sự thay đổi của chính bản thân. Faulkner vận dụng dòng ý thức đan xen với lời kể mạch lạc, giữ cho câu chuyện vừa có nhịp điệu nội tâm, vừa bám sát diễn tiến bên ngoài. Ngôn ngữ của ông mang đậm chất khẩu ngữ miền Nam, kết hợp các câu dài, cấu trúc lặp và nhịp điệu chậm, tạo cảm giác cho người đọc như đang nghe kể chuyện bên hiên nhà. Bên cạnh đó, ông cũng triển khai kết cấu mảnh ghép, mỗi chương là một đơn vị độc lập nhưng vẫn gắn kết trong trục phát triển của nhân vật Bayard Sartoris, vừa góp phần khắc họa tiến trình đạo đức và tâm lý của nhân vật, vừa thể hiện quan điểm quá khứ không phải một dòng chảy liền mạch, mà là tập hợp những lát cắt rời rạc, được kể lại và tái kiến tạo qua thời gian.
Trong Bất khuất, William Faulkner triển khai một loạt thủ pháp đặc trưng, vừa mang dấu ấn chủ nghĩa hiện đại, vừa bám sâu vào truyền thống kể chuyện miền Nam Hoa Kỳ. Ông chọn điểm nhìn giới hạn qua nhân vật Bayard Sartoris ở nhiều giai đoạn tuổi đời khác nhau, để độc giả chứng kiến chiến tranh và hậu chiến qua con mắt của một người đang trưởng thành, tạo nên hiệu ứng “trưởng thành cùng ký ức”, nơi những gì người kể nhìn thấy không chỉ là sự kiện, mà còn là sự thay đổi của chính bản thân. Faulkner vận dụng dòng ý thức đan xen với lời kể mạch lạc, giữ cho câu chuyện vừa có nhịp điệu nội tâm, vừa bám sát diễn tiến bên ngoài. Ngôn ngữ của ông mang đậm chất khẩu ngữ miền Nam, kết hợp các câu dài, cấu trúc lặp và nhịp điệu chậm, tạo cảm giác cho người đọc như đang nghe kể chuyện bên hiên nhà. Bên cạnh đó, ông cũng triển khai kết cấu mảnh ghép, mỗi chương là một đơn vị độc lập nhưng vẫn gắn kết trong trục phát triển của nhân vật Bayard Sartoris, vừa góp phần khắc họa tiến trình đạo đức và tâm lý của nhân vật, vừa thể hiện quan điểm quá khứ không phải một dòng chảy liền mạch, mà là tập hợp những lát cắt rời rạc, được kể lại và tái kiến tạo qua thời gian.
282 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1938
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About the author
William Faulkner
1,392 books10.8k 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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September 29, 2017
Ringo is black and Bayard is white in this novel set during the American Civil War (1861-65). We meet the friends when they are both 12. They are busy recreating the Battle of Vicksburg with a heap of wood chips behind the smokehouse of the Sartoris manse. This is near Jefferson, Mississippi, part of Faulkner’s fictional Yoknapatawpha County.
The boys view each other as friends. Though they know they were born into a system of master and slave, they have absolutely nothing between themselves other than the knowledge that they are equals, if only to each other. Their friendship becomes the lens through which we observe a horrendous war of brothers against brothers, which is fought in the wings.
The boys were nursed at the same breast, have been together all their lives, share the same bedroom, and are one another’s best wartime consiglieres. Colonel Sartoris, Bayard’s father, the ostensible Master, treats them both like sons and considers Ringo the smarter of the two. Ringo is always the talker while Bayard narrates at some unspecified temporal remove. It’s only when they grow older, though they’re still dedicated to each other, that the grow apart emotionally. By this time they’re 24.
Faulkner’s touch—all but one chapter here was published by Saturday Evening Post in the 1930s—is as light as air. It is all but completely without the mannered highflown vocabulary and rambling, dissociative digressions that marked his bourbon-soaked late writing.
General William Tecumseh Sherman has swept through Jefferson on his March to the Sea, and the Satoris manse is burned. Granny, the widower Colonel’s mother-in-law, then begins a scam of requisitioning mules from the Union Army, using forged army letterhead, which she sells back to other Union army regiments for $50 a head. This as a means of keeping locals, both black and white, with food on the table.
Diverting scenes include Drusilla’s forced marriage to Colonel Satoris, since she had spent a year dressed as a man fighting with his regiment and, naturally, must in that period have surrendered many times to his amorous advances—must in fact be pregnant; any deviation from this presumed narrative being for the many prattling ladies of post-Civil War Jefferson not just hard to believe, but inconceivable.
I had always grouped The Unvanquished in my mind with Faulkner’s later novels, which are not my favorites. But this is really a mid-career work. It was written before The Wild Palms and The Hamlet, which in my view is a masterwork. The prose wobbles once or twice in the last chapter—a foreshadowing of future turgidities—but then the ship rights itself, comes smoothly to its conclusion. It’s a light novel, relatively speaking. A rare item in the Faulkner bibliography.
Be advised: Some may be offended by the racist language here. Faulkner is writing of a time when, with Lincoln just elected, the U.S. was all but torn apart by the slavery issue. Most of the time the n-word is used solely as a descriptor, but sometimes in the pejorative sense. (For the facts see David Herbert Donald’s Lincoln and Frederick Douglass: Autobiographies.) Highly recommended.
The boys view each other as friends. Though they know they were born into a system of master and slave, they have absolutely nothing between themselves other than the knowledge that they are equals, if only to each other. Their friendship becomes the lens through which we observe a horrendous war of brothers against brothers, which is fought in the wings.
The boys were nursed at the same breast, have been together all their lives, share the same bedroom, and are one another’s best wartime consiglieres. Colonel Sartoris, Bayard’s father, the ostensible Master, treats them both like sons and considers Ringo the smarter of the two. Ringo is always the talker while Bayard narrates at some unspecified temporal remove. It’s only when they grow older, though they’re still dedicated to each other, that the grow apart emotionally. By this time they’re 24.
Faulkner’s touch—all but one chapter here was published by Saturday Evening Post in the 1930s—is as light as air. It is all but completely without the mannered highflown vocabulary and rambling, dissociative digressions that marked his bourbon-soaked late writing.
General William Tecumseh Sherman has swept through Jefferson on his March to the Sea, and the Satoris manse is burned. Granny, the widower Colonel’s mother-in-law, then begins a scam of requisitioning mules from the Union Army, using forged army letterhead, which she sells back to other Union army regiments for $50 a head. This as a means of keeping locals, both black and white, with food on the table.
Diverting scenes include Drusilla’s forced marriage to Colonel Satoris, since she had spent a year dressed as a man fighting with his regiment and, naturally, must in that period have surrendered many times to his amorous advances—must in fact be pregnant; any deviation from this presumed narrative being for the many prattling ladies of post-Civil War Jefferson not just hard to believe, but inconceivable.
I had always grouped The Unvanquished in my mind with Faulkner’s later novels, which are not my favorites. But this is really a mid-career work. It was written before The Wild Palms and The Hamlet, which in my view is a masterwork. The prose wobbles once or twice in the last chapter—a foreshadowing of future turgidities—but then the ship rights itself, comes smoothly to its conclusion. It’s a light novel, relatively speaking. A rare item in the Faulkner bibliography.
Be advised: Some may be offended by the racist language here. Faulkner is writing of a time when, with Lincoln just elected, the U.S. was all but torn apart by the slavery issue. Most of the time the n-word is used solely as a descriptor, but sometimes in the pejorative sense. (For the facts see David Herbert Donald’s Lincoln and Frederick Douglass: Autobiographies.) Highly recommended.
August 30, 2025
راوی کودکی ۱۲ ساله به نام بایارد سارتوریس فرزند کلنل جان سارتوریس (سرهنگ یکی از گروهان جبهه ی جنوب)هست و ماجرا در خلال جنگ داخلی ایالات متحده شمالی و جنوبی امریکا در سال ۱۸۶۸میلادی رخ میده و تا سال ۱۸۷۶ که دوران بازسازی و ۲۴ سالگی بایارد هست ادامه داره.
علت جنگ این بود که ابتدا شمال خواستار حفظ یکپارچگی کشور بود ولی جنوب میخواست شیوه ی برده داری و روش اقتصادی خودش (برای کشت پنبه و توتون به برده ها نیاز داشتن) رو ادامه بده ولی شمال مخالف گسترش برده داری بود.
سیرداستان خیلی اروم و در عین حال به سبک سیال فاکنر جلو میره، از ماجرای بامزه ی پس گرفتن قاطرها توسط بایارد و رینگو و ننه جون با جعل امضای شمالی ها و فروختنشون به خود شمالی ها و پول به جیب زدن و پخش پول های حاصل بین سیاه ها و برده ها توسط ننه جون تا اتفاقات تلخی که بعدها میفته و یاداوری میکنه که قلم فاکنر همیشه تراژدی به دنبال داره. بزرگ شدن بایارد و رینگو (همبازی و خدمتکار سیاه پوست بایارد) و تغییرکردن با تجربه های تلخی که زندگی براشون رقم میزنه باعث رشد شخصیتی و پایداری روح اون ها میشه.
انتخاب اسم «تسخیرناپذیر/ The Unvanquished» توسط فاکنر دوحالت داره: ۱-هم میتونه حالت طعنه آمیز داشته باشه چون در جریان جنگ، جنوبی ها خونه هاشون آتیش زده شد، اسب ها و قاطرهاشون رو ازشون گرفتن، برده هاشون ازاد شدن و عملا همه زندگیشون از هم پاشید. پس ایا چیزی هم مونده که تسخیرناپذیر باشه؟جز غرورشون: چون جنوبی ها معتقد بودن درسته که در جنگ باختند ولی روح و غرورشون هرگز تسخیر نشده.
۲- هم میتونه اشاره به بایارد سارتوریس داشته باشه که داستان از زبان اون روایت میشه و در این حین از کودکی به بلوغ و بزرگسالی میرسه و دچار رشد اخلاقی و شخصیتی میشه و حاضر نمیشه چرخه ی انتقام و خشونت رو ادامه بده و در مقابل وسوسه ی انتقام و ... تسلیم نمیشه.
تا وسط های کتاب به نظر یه کتاب معمولی و بامزه میاد، ولی از نیمه به بعد فاکنر آدمو مثل همیشه غافلگیر میکنه :))))
ترجمه ی آقای پرویز داریوش یکم سنگین بود ولی خب به خاطر اینکه چاپ افست بود و سانسور کمتری نسبت به چاپ های جدید داره، خوندنش می ارزید.
شهریور ۱۴۰۴
علت جنگ این بود که ابتدا شمال خواستار حفظ یکپارچگی کشور بود ولی جنوب میخواست شیوه ی برده داری و روش اقتصادی خودش (برای کشت پنبه و توتون به برده ها نیاز داشتن) رو ادامه بده ولی شمال مخالف گسترش برده داری بود.
سیرداستان خیلی اروم و در عین حال به سبک سیال فاکنر جلو میره، از ماجرای بامزه ی پس گرفتن قاطرها توسط بایارد و رینگو و ننه جون با جعل امضای شمالی ها و فروختنشون به خود شمالی ها و پول به جیب زدن و پخش پول های حاصل بین سیاه ها و برده ها توسط ننه جون تا اتفاقات تلخی که بعدها میفته و یاداوری میکنه که قلم فاکنر همیشه تراژدی به دنبال داره. بزرگ شدن بایارد و رینگو (همبازی و خدمتکار سیاه پوست بایارد) و تغییرکردن با تجربه های تلخی که زندگی براشون رقم میزنه باعث رشد شخصیتی و پایداری روح اون ها میشه.
انتخاب اسم «تسخیرناپذیر/ The Unvanquished» توسط فاکنر دوحالت داره: ۱-هم میتونه حالت طعنه آمیز داشته باشه چون در جریان جنگ، جنوبی ها خونه هاشون آتیش زده شد، اسب ها و قاطرهاشون رو ازشون گرفتن، برده هاشون ازاد شدن و عملا همه زندگیشون از هم پاشید. پس ایا چیزی هم مونده که تسخیرناپذیر باشه؟جز غرورشون: چون جنوبی ها معتقد بودن درسته که در جنگ باختند ولی روح و غرورشون هرگز تسخیر نشده.
۲- هم میتونه اشاره به بایارد سارتوریس داشته باشه که داستان از زبان اون روایت میشه و در این حین از کودکی به بلوغ و بزرگسالی میرسه و دچار رشد اخلاقی و شخصیتی میشه و حاضر نمیشه چرخه ی انتقام و خشونت رو ادامه بده و در مقابل وسوسه ی انتقام و ... تسلیم نمیشه.
تا وسط های کتاب به نظر یه کتاب معمولی و بامزه میاد، ولی از نیمه به بعد فاکنر آدمو مثل همیشه غافلگیر میکنه :))))
ترجمه ی آقای پرویز داریوش یکم سنگین بود ولی خب به خاطر اینکه چاپ افست بود و سانسور کمتری نسبت به چاپ های جدید داره، خوندنش می ارزید.
شهریور ۱۴۰۴
January 17, 2022
Faulkner packed a lot into this novel, comprised of linked short stories, that recounts episodes in the lives of the Sartoris family of Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi, from 1862 to 1873. The narrative follows the coming of age of Bayard, son of Confederate Colonel John Sartoris, but it also explores race and gender in the South during the Civil War and Reconstruction. Although there are disjunctions between stories, it's a very straightforward, chronological narrative for a Faulkner book, and a good introduction to the McCaslin, Sartoris, and Snopes families, which feature elsewhere in his work.
It was jarring to me to read the account of Col. Sartoris's murder of two men for trying to organize Black voters to elect a Black Sheriff, his confiscation of the ballot box, his relocation of the election to his home in the country, and his arranging for one of his former soldiers to fill out all the ballots for the white candidate. As images of the Confederate flag waving inside the U.S. Capitol fill news coverage today on the anniversary of the insurrection last year, I can't help but remember that, in Requiem for a Nun, Faulkner famously wrote "The past is never dead. It's not even past."
It was jarring to me to read the account of Col. Sartoris's murder of two men for trying to organize Black voters to elect a Black Sheriff, his confiscation of the ballot box, his relocation of the election to his home in the country, and his arranging for one of his former soldiers to fill out all the ballots for the white candidate. As images of the Confederate flag waving inside the U.S. Capitol fill news coverage today on the anniversary of the insurrection last year, I can't help but remember that, in Requiem for a Nun, Faulkner famously wrote "The past is never dead. It's not even past."
May 15, 2015
"Ringo said, "And don't yawl worry about Granny. She cide what she want and then she kneel down about ten seconds and tell God what she aim to do and then she git up and do hit. And them that don't like it can git outer the way or git trompled."
There you have two of my favorite characters in Faulkner: Granny, brave, indomitable, pious, stubborn, a strong southern woman to the core. And Ringo, smarter than his master, conniving, loyal, always thinking, always there with what was needed. This tale is told by Bayard Sartoris, but it's not really his story. It's a tale of the end of the Civil War and beyond, told with Faulkner's sly humor and knowledge of the hearts and minds of the people who survived and lived with the aftermath. This is a good book to start with for those new to William Faulkner, and may be my favorite one yet.
There you have two of my favorite characters in Faulkner: Granny, brave, indomitable, pious, stubborn, a strong southern woman to the core. And Ringo, smarter than his master, conniving, loyal, always thinking, always there with what was needed. This tale is told by Bayard Sartoris, but it's not really his story. It's a tale of the end of the Civil War and beyond, told with Faulkner's sly humor and knowledge of the hearts and minds of the people who survived and lived with the aftermath. This is a good book to start with for those new to William Faulkner, and may be my favorite one yet.
May 11, 2015
Even if I struggled with streams of thought or with following the action or with unfamiliarity of Faulkner’s style, there was the ending. Oh, the ending. How important it is to a book and how seldom it can redeem the faults one has had with the book up to that point. But here we follow a boy of twelve from childhood to manhood, true manhood. Until the end we do not know what truly lies in his heart.
This book begs to be read again to gather those clues of Bayard’s coming into his own. To see him become a symbol of the post-Civil War south in which enmities must be put aside and retribution must stop. In which the south must rise again and shed the bonds of the past.
Though I went straight from finishing the book to writing this review, it’s clear that this is one of those books whose genius becomes apparent upon reflection. I recently had the same experience with The Remains of the Day. Which, though being a three star reading experience, received 5 stars for its genius of execution.
Highly recommended for group reads and discussion.
This book begs to be read again to gather those clues of Bayard’s coming into his own. To see him become a symbol of the post-Civil War south in which enmities must be put aside and retribution must stop. In which the south must rise again and shed the bonds of the past.
Though I went straight from finishing the book to writing this review, it’s clear that this is one of those books whose genius becomes apparent upon reflection. I recently had the same experience with The Remains of the Day. Which, though being a three star reading experience, received 5 stars for its genius of execution.
Highly recommended for group reads and discussion.
May 14, 2015
The Unvanquished is a coming-of-age novel set during the American Civil War and Reconstruction. Six of the seven stories were individually published in the Saturday Evening Post and Scribners before Faulkner finished it as a novel. The book is narrated by Bayard Sartoris as he looks back on his life on a Mississippi plantation from age 12 to 24.
The young Bayard thinks of war as a great adventure, and he has a "hero worshiping" attitude toward his father, Colonel John Sartoris, who leads a Confederate regiment. Bayard and Ringo, a 12-year-old slave boy, have been raised together. The first stories involve adventures where Bayard and Ringo seem largely unaware of the politics and racial tensions that exist.
As the war progresses there are many instances of heroism exhibited by ordinary people--including the young boys and my favorite character, Granny. She uses a forgery scheme to fool the Union soldiers so that the community does not go hungry. Waves of freed slaves move North to find the River Jordan, but things are not that easy. Racial and class distinctions still exist.
During the difficult Reconstruction period, John Sartoris is shown to be domineering and hot-tempered, letting nothing stand in his way to success. He sent Bayard to law school because he wanted his son to be able to take the law into his own hands. But the mature Bayard has different ideas about honor and manhood. Bayard wants an end to violence in their community, and a new code of honor based on law and justice.
Although the book has many moral themes throughout, the story also has many humorous and touching episodes that temper the tragic moments. Slavery on the Sartoris plantation is described in much more benign terms than what frequently existed. The book ended with the feeling that change was brewing, and it wouldn't come easily.
This book is a May group read for the "On the Southern Literary Trail" group.
The young Bayard thinks of war as a great adventure, and he has a "hero worshiping" attitude toward his father, Colonel John Sartoris, who leads a Confederate regiment. Bayard and Ringo, a 12-year-old slave boy, have been raised together. The first stories involve adventures where Bayard and Ringo seem largely unaware of the politics and racial tensions that exist.
As the war progresses there are many instances of heroism exhibited by ordinary people--including the young boys and my favorite character, Granny. She uses a forgery scheme to fool the Union soldiers so that the community does not go hungry. Waves of freed slaves move North to find the River Jordan, but things are not that easy. Racial and class distinctions still exist.
During the difficult Reconstruction period, John Sartoris is shown to be domineering and hot-tempered, letting nothing stand in his way to success. He sent Bayard to law school because he wanted his son to be able to take the law into his own hands. But the mature Bayard has different ideas about honor and manhood. Bayard wants an end to violence in their community, and a new code of honor based on law and justice.
Although the book has many moral themes throughout, the story also has many humorous and touching episodes that temper the tragic moments. Slavery on the Sartoris plantation is described in much more benign terms than what frequently existed. The book ended with the feeling that change was brewing, and it wouldn't come easily.
This book is a May group read for the "On the Southern Literary Trail" group.
February 18, 2021
“Boş kilisede diz çöktük. İkimizin arasında küçük kalmıştı, ufacıktı; konuşması, alçak perdeden, açık seçik ve sakindi, ne hızlı ne de yavaştı; sesi, sakin ve telaşsızdı, ama güçlü çıkıyordu. "Günah işledim. Hırsızlık ettim. Ülkemin düşmanı da olsa, komşuma zarar verecek yalanlar söyledim. Dahası, bu çocukları da günaha soktum. Şimdi burada onların günahlarını da üstüme alıyorum," dedi. O bol güneşli yumuşak günlerden biriydi. Kilisenin içi serindi; dizlerimin altındaki taban döşemesi soğuktu. Pencerenin hemen dışında yeni sararmaya başlamış bir ceviz dalı vardı; güneş vurduğunda, yaprakları altın gibi parlıyordu. "Ancak, bu günahları çıkar uğruna, ya da açgözlülükten işlemedim," dedi Büyükanne. "Öç almak için de işlemedim. Ne Sen, ne bir başkası, aksini söyleyemezsiniz. İlkin, adalet uğruna günah işledim. Daha sonra, adaletten öte şeyler uğruna; Senin ken di ��aresiz kullarını – kutsal bir davaya babalarını gönderen çocukları, kocalarını gönderen kadınları, oğullarını gönderen yaşlı insanları doyurmak, giydirmek için günah işledim; gerçi Sen bu davayı kaybetmemizi uygun gördün, ama olsun. Kazandığım her şeyi onlarla paylaştım. Evet, bir kısmını kendime alıkoy dum, ama bu konuda en iyi kararı ancak ben verebilirim, çünkü benim de bakmak zorunda olduğum ve belki de şu anda yetim kalmış kimseler var. Senin gözünde bu bir günahsa, o da benim boynuma olsun. Amin."
Yazarın, daha önceden Çılgın Palmiyeler kitabını okumuştum. Yenilmeyenler ise her ne kadar kronolojide ilerilerde kalsa da Yoknapatawpha ile tanışmak ve ilerlemek için en ideal başlangıç kitaplarından birisi. Hikaye güney ordusunun yenilgisinin ardından Albay John Sartoris’in evine dönüşüyle başlıyor. Ancak burada hikayenin odağı, savaş süresince büyükannesi Rosa Millard ve siyahi arkadaşı Ringo ile çiftlikte kalan ve on yaşından yirmi dört yaşına kadarki süreçte gelişimini- evrimini takip ettiğimiz Bayard. Faulkner’ın intikam almanın öğütücü heyecanını erken yaşlarda tatmış bir çocuğun; çocukluktan yetişkinliğe geçişini karakterin tüm köşelerini ve çatlaklarını ufak nüanslarla aktarması çok etkileyici.
Arka planda savaşın, büyük ailelerin, fakir beyazların, kölelerin ve yıkılmış güneyin etkileyici bir tasviri var. Ayrıca Rosa Millard ile; adalet duygusunu, azmi, cömertliği ve gücüyle güneyli kadının prototipini, Drusilla ile ise isyanı erkekler tarafından ciddiye alınmayan, kadınlar tarafından ise yanlış yorumlanıp dışlanan, kendi duygusallığını bastıran yalnız kadınların dünyalarını olağanüstü bir şekilde ve bazı noktalarda ironik bir dil kullanarak anlatıyor. Yenilmeyenler, yenilginin bambaşka bir yorumu; cesaret, onur ve adalet üzerine muazzam bir kitap.
“Ancak genç bir insan inançlarına bağlı kalma cesaretini gösterebilirdi - genç olduğu için bedel ödeme kaygısı taşımadan 'korkak' sayılmayı göze alabilecek, genç oluşunu korkaklığa bahane etmeyecek ölçüde genç biri.”
“Bir çocuğun kabul edebileceği, içine sindirebileceği şeylerin bir sınırı vardır -inanabileceği değil, kabul edebileceği şeylerin- çünkü çocuklar, zamanla her şeye inanabilirler ama inanılmaz olayları yaşadıkları sırada, onları gerçek diye kabul etmeleri güçtür. "
“Eskiden hayat sıkıcıydı. Aptalca bir şeydi. Babanın doğduğu evde yaşardın; aynı zenci kölelerin kızları ve oğulları, babanın oğullarını, kızlarını emzirir, onlara bakarlardı; sonra sen de büyür, uygun bir gence âşık olur, zamanı gelince de, belki annenin gelinliğini giyerek, onunla evlenir, belki annenin düğün armağanı gümüş yemek takımları şimdi sana verilirdi; derken bir daha yerinden kımıldamamak üzere yerleşir, çocukların olur, onları besler, yıkar, büyütürdün; sonra sen de kocan da sessizce ölür, belki bir yaz günü öğleden sonra, akşam yemeği vaktinden hemen önce, birlikte gömülürdünüz. Ne aptallık, değil mi? Ama şimdi kendi gözlerinle görüyorsun işte; şimdi durum iyi; evdi, gümüş takımlardı diye kaygılanma ya gerek yok artık; çünkü evler yakılıyor, gümüşler çalınıyor; zenciler için kaygılanmaya da gerek kalmadı çünkü bütün gece yollarda taban tepiyor, yerli malı Jordan Irmağı'nda boğulmak için can atıyorlar; çocuk sahibi olup onları yıkamak, beslemek, altlarını değiştirmek kaygısı da kalmıyor çünkü genç erkekler atlarına binip gidiyor, o güzel savaşlarda ölüyorlar; ayrıca, yalnız başına yatmak zorunda bile değilsin, uyumak zorunda bile değilsin; bu yüzden yapman gereken tek şey, arada bir köpeğe sopayı göstermek ve 'Hiçbir şey için teşekkürler Tanrım,' demektir. "
“Profesör Wilkins'in sevdiğinden daha az sevdiği için değildi bu; bir kadındı ve kadınlar erkeklerden daha akıllıdırlar; erkeklerin aklı olsa, yenildiklerini bile bile iki yıl daha savaşmaya devam ederler miydi?”
“Buck ve Buddy Amcalar, toprağın insanlara değil, insanların toprağa ait olduklarına inanıyorlardı; toprak, insanlar ancak ına karşı doğru davranırlarsa, üstünde yaşamalarına, onu kullanmalarına, ondan yararlanmalarına izin verir, öyle davranmazlarsa, tıpkı pirelerinden kurtulmak isteyen bir köpek gibi, silkelenip onları sırtından atarmış.”
"Asla unutmayacaksın. Ben unutturmam sana. Adam öldürmekten daha kötü şeyler var, Bayard. Ölmekten daha kötü şeyler var. Bazen düşünüyorum da, bir erkeğin başına gelebilecek en güzel olay, bir şeyi -en iyisi bir kadını- çok, çok, çok sevmek ve genç yaşta ölmektir; çünkü o zaman erkek inancından sapmamış, olması gereken kişi olmuştur."
"Yılan'ın simgesi otuz yaşındaki kadınları ve yazılarında onları anlatan erkekleri düşündüm, yaşamla edebiyat arasında de rin bir uçurum bulunduğunu anladım - anladım ki, hayatı her yönüyle yaşayabilenler, yaşıyor; yaşayamayıp da bunun acısını içlerinde yeterince derinden duyanlar, yazar oluyorlar. "
Yazarın, daha önceden Çılgın Palmiyeler kitabını okumuştum. Yenilmeyenler ise her ne kadar kronolojide ilerilerde kalsa da Yoknapatawpha ile tanışmak ve ilerlemek için en ideal başlangıç kitaplarından birisi. Hikaye güney ordusunun yenilgisinin ardından Albay John Sartoris’in evine dönüşüyle başlıyor. Ancak burada hikayenin odağı, savaş süresince büyükannesi Rosa Millard ve siyahi arkadaşı Ringo ile çiftlikte kalan ve on yaşından yirmi dört yaşına kadarki süreçte gelişimini- evrimini takip ettiğimiz Bayard. Faulkner’ın intikam almanın öğütücü heyecanını erken yaşlarda tatmış bir çocuğun; çocukluktan yetişkinliğe geçişini karakterin tüm köşelerini ve çatlaklarını ufak nüanslarla aktarması çok etkileyici.
Arka planda savaşın, büyük ailelerin, fakir beyazların, kölelerin ve yıkılmış güneyin etkileyici bir tasviri var. Ayrıca Rosa Millard ile; adalet duygusunu, azmi, cömertliği ve gücüyle güneyli kadının prototipini, Drusilla ile ise isyanı erkekler tarafından ciddiye alınmayan, kadınlar tarafından ise yanlış yorumlanıp dışlanan, kendi duygusallığını bastıran yalnız kadınların dünyalarını olağanüstü bir şekilde ve bazı noktalarda ironik bir dil kullanarak anlatıyor. Yenilmeyenler, yenilginin bambaşka bir yorumu; cesaret, onur ve adalet üzerine muazzam bir kitap.
“Ancak genç bir insan inançlarına bağlı kalma cesaretini gösterebilirdi - genç olduğu için bedel ödeme kaygısı taşımadan 'korkak' sayılmayı göze alabilecek, genç oluşunu korkaklığa bahane etmeyecek ölçüde genç biri.”
“Bir çocuğun kabul edebileceği, içine sindirebileceği şeylerin bir sınırı vardır -inanabileceği değil, kabul edebileceği şeylerin- çünkü çocuklar, zamanla her şeye inanabilirler ama inanılmaz olayları yaşadıkları sırada, onları gerçek diye kabul etmeleri güçtür. "
“Eskiden hayat sıkıcıydı. Aptalca bir şeydi. Babanın doğduğu evde yaşardın; aynı zenci kölelerin kızları ve oğulları, babanın oğullarını, kızlarını emzirir, onlara bakarlardı; sonra sen de büyür, uygun bir gence âşık olur, zamanı gelince de, belki annenin gelinliğini giyerek, onunla evlenir, belki annenin düğün armağanı gümüş yemek takımları şimdi sana verilirdi; derken bir daha yerinden kımıldamamak üzere yerleşir, çocukların olur, onları besler, yıkar, büyütürdün; sonra sen de kocan da sessizce ölür, belki bir yaz günü öğleden sonra, akşam yemeği vaktinden hemen önce, birlikte gömülürdünüz. Ne aptallık, değil mi? Ama şimdi kendi gözlerinle görüyorsun işte; şimdi durum iyi; evdi, gümüş takımlardı diye kaygılanma ya gerek yok artık; çünkü evler yakılıyor, gümüşler çalınıyor; zenciler için kaygılanmaya da gerek kalmadı çünkü bütün gece yollarda taban tepiyor, yerli malı Jordan Irmağı'nda boğulmak için can atıyorlar; çocuk sahibi olup onları yıkamak, beslemek, altlarını değiştirmek kaygısı da kalmıyor çünkü genç erkekler atlarına binip gidiyor, o güzel savaşlarda ölüyorlar; ayrıca, yalnız başına yatmak zorunda bile değilsin, uyumak zorunda bile değilsin; bu yüzden yapman gereken tek şey, arada bir köpeğe sopayı göstermek ve 'Hiçbir şey için teşekkürler Tanrım,' demektir. "
“Profesör Wilkins'in sevdiğinden daha az sevdiği için değildi bu; bir kadındı ve kadınlar erkeklerden daha akıllıdırlar; erkeklerin aklı olsa, yenildiklerini bile bile iki yıl daha savaşmaya devam ederler miydi?”
“Buck ve Buddy Amcalar, toprağın insanlara değil, insanların toprağa ait olduklarına inanıyorlardı; toprak, insanlar ancak ına karşı doğru davranırlarsa, üstünde yaşamalarına, onu kullanmalarına, ondan yararlanmalarına izin verir, öyle davranmazlarsa, tıpkı pirelerinden kurtulmak isteyen bir köpek gibi, silkelenip onları sırtından atarmış.”
"Asla unutmayacaksın. Ben unutturmam sana. Adam öldürmekten daha kötü şeyler var, Bayard. Ölmekten daha kötü şeyler var. Bazen düşünüyorum da, bir erkeğin başına gelebilecek en güzel olay, bir şeyi -en iyisi bir kadını- çok, çok, çok sevmek ve genç yaşta ölmektir; çünkü o zaman erkek inancından sapmamış, olması gereken kişi olmuştur."
"Yılan'ın simgesi otuz yaşındaki kadınları ve yazılarında onları anlatan erkekleri düşündüm, yaşamla edebiyat arasında de rin bir uçurum bulunduğunu anladım - anladım ki, hayatı her yönüyle yaşayabilenler, yaşıyor; yaşayamayıp da bunun acısını içlerinde yeterince derinden duyanlar, yazar oluyorlar. "
April 9, 2022
Faulkner Yoknapatawpha megyéje nem hely, hanem mentális állapot. Ebben a minőségében nem az amerikai Délhez kötődik, hanem bármely korszakhoz, amely újratermeli. Egy rothadó társadalomban élsz, de megszeretted a rothadás szagát? Yoknapatawpha-i vagy. Elemi dühöt érzel a gazdag jenkik iránt, akik demokráciára akarnak tanítani téged? Akik a maguk morális felsőbbrendűségük tudatában el akarják neked magyarázni, hogy rabszolgát tartani rossz, holott ez neked az identitásod része? Yoknapatawpha-i vagy. A változás félelemmel tölt el, mert ez számodra a hagyománytól való távolodással egyenértékű? És ennek a hagyománynak ugyanúgy részei a becsület bonyolult (és nem ritkán véres) rítusai, mint a legpitiánerebb ügyeskedés? Yoknapatawpha-i vagy. Bele vagy zárva a saját rossz döntéseid következményébe, amelyek bénító spirálként kényszerítenek újabb és újabb rossz döntésekre? Yoknapatawpha-i vagy.
Yoknapatawphából emigrálni se lehet. Mert ahová mész, viszed magaddal, a szokásaiddal együtt, mint lényed titkos összetevőjét. Yoknapatawphát lebontani, felszámolni: sziszifuszi munka. Talán reménytelen is. Gondolom, mégis próbálkozni kell vele.
Rég olvastam már Faulknert, és most nagyon jól esett. A töredezettségen, a szétesettségen átrágva magunkat eljutni egy mélyebb konzekvenciáig, ezt nagyon tudja az öreg.
October 16, 2017
Yenilmeyenler'de aslında yenilenleri anlatıyor Faulkner. Savaşı o kadar büyük bir ustalıkla arka plana alıyor ki, cephenin gerisindeki bir çocuk, bir köle çocuk ve yaşlı bir kadının mücadelesine yani esas "yenilmeyenler"e kitliyor okuyucuyu. Güneyli bir yazar olmanın verdiği etkiyle iç savaşın güney tarafını daha net çiziyor haliyle. Ama bana kalırsa bu kitap, Amerikan iç savaşını anlatmaktan ziyade, bütün savaşları ve savaşın götürülerini anlatmasıyla övgüyü hak ediyor.
Bir de köle- efendi ilişkisi, aile yapısının kol kırılır yen içinde kalır yapıda olması (ki bunu Ses ve Öfke'de de net bir şekilde görmüştük) bence Faulkner'ın takıntılı olduğu konulardan. Yine harika bir üslupla anlatmış. Kitap boyunca sanki ben de kendime yer seçtim, yaşlı kadınlar çocukların arasındaydım, onlarla birlikte yıkımdan arda kalan topraklarda hayatta kalmaya çalıştım. Bindikleri at arabalarının toprak yolda bıraktığı iz bile zihnimde hala capcanlı. Kitap bittiğinde tarifsiz bir duygu durumu içindeydim. Yenilmiş olmama rağmen hayatta kalmış gibi. Tavsiye ederim.
Bir de köle- efendi ilişkisi, aile yapısının kol kırılır yen içinde kalır yapıda olması (ki bunu Ses ve Öfke'de de net bir şekilde görmüştük) bence Faulkner'ın takıntılı olduğu konulardan. Yine harika bir üslupla anlatmış. Kitap boyunca sanki ben de kendime yer seçtim, yaşlı kadınlar çocukların arasındaydım, onlarla birlikte yıkımdan arda kalan topraklarda hayatta kalmaya çalıştım. Bindikleri at arabalarının toprak yolda bıraktığı iz bile zihnimde hala capcanlı. Kitap bittiğinde tarifsiz bir duygu durumu içindeydim. Yenilmiş olmama rağmen hayatta kalmış gibi. Tavsiye ederim.
May 28, 2016
این کتابِ بیزبان بهراستی زیرِ فشار زورآور مترجمِ دشوارگو و قلنبهنویس تباه شده است. اگر گیراییهایی هم در نسخهی اصلی موجود بوده، از خلال ترجمهی مغلق و پیچیدهی پرویز داریوش، یکسره از میان رفته است. آشفتگی ذهن مترجم را از همان آغاز پیشگفتارش بر کتاب، بهروشنی میتوان دریافت:
«اینکه آنگاه که ابزارها سنگی و سنگین هم نبود یا نشده بود، این استعداد عظیم همپالگیانِ ما در خواستن و بهدستآوردن اعمال و خدمات موردنیاز از آنان که همپالگی نیستند، اما در روش یا رفتار یکساناند معمول بود یا نه، آشکار نمیتواند بود. اما بعد از سنگیشدن و در طول خط دراز عمر همپالگیان که درهرحال از یک شب تجاوز نکرده است، پس از مدتی آهنینشدن ابزارها و آشنایییافتن بیشتر و کاملتر یا نزدیکتر به کامل، زیراکه کمال دراینباره هنوز حاصل نشده است، با ریزش باران یا سقوط برف یا وزش باد و لرزۀ زمین یا امکانِ برداشتِ قوت بیشتر از بذر مساوی از فرشِ همهجاموجود یا آشنایی با همۀ اینها، همپالگیان به جنبش درآمدند و به هر طرف که دانستند یا پنداشتند میدانند، پیش رفتند. به هر حال برای ایشان در حد تجربۀ نزدیک به علم بود که آن برداشت افزونتر است، یا ریزش باران در آنگاه که باید مناسبتر است، یا سقوط برف و ممانعت از جریان آب که در عمل همواره یا غالباً متلازم بوده است و با کشتار جنبندگان زیر فرشِ همهجاموجود، بستگی بیشتر دارد. در این حال با اعضایی دیگر از نوع خود مواجه یا طرف شدند و به هر حال برخورد کردند و جنبنده یا ساکن بر طرف خود تفوق یافت و حاصلِ آن، پدیدۀ مخصوص یا خاص این همپالگیان بوده و هست که در میان جانداران یا جانوران و به مفهوم عامتر حیوانات دیگر نظیری نداشته است: اسارت و بیگاری» (تسخیرناپذیر، ویلیام فاکنر، ترجمۀ پرویز داریوش، تهران: امیرکبیر، ۱۳۳۵، ص۵).
متن خود داستان هم از این اشکال خالی نیست. محض اطلاع، بخشی درخشان ازحیث درازگویی را از متن کتاب نقل میکنم:
«آن سال تابستان پیش از آنکه به دانشکده بروم تا گواهینامهی حقوق را که پدرم لازم دانسته بود، بگیرم و چهار سال درست بعد از آن روز تابستان، هنگام غروب، که پدرم و دروزیلا مانع بخشدارشدن کاس بنبو شده بودند و بدون آنکه ازدواج کرده باشند، به خانه برگشتند و خانم هبرشام آنها را سوار کالسکهی خودش کرد و بردشان به شهر و شوهرش را از توی سوراخ تاریکی که در بانک جدید داشت، بیرون کشید و وادارش کرد قرار کفیل پدرم را درمورد کشتن آن دو فرصتطلب شمالی امضا کند و بعد پدرم و دروزیلا را خودش پیش کشیش برد و آنقدر ایستاد تا عقدشان بسته شد، من درست بیست سال داشتم.» (همان، ص۲۵۸). در اینجا بین نهاد جملهي اصلی و گزاره، صدوپنج واژه فاصله افتاده است!
«اینکه آنگاه که ابزارها سنگی و سنگین هم نبود یا نشده بود، این استعداد عظیم همپالگیانِ ما در خواستن و بهدستآوردن اعمال و خدمات موردنیاز از آنان که همپالگی نیستند، اما در روش یا رفتار یکساناند معمول بود یا نه، آشکار نمیتواند بود. اما بعد از سنگیشدن و در طول خط دراز عمر همپالگیان که درهرحال از یک شب تجاوز نکرده است، پس از مدتی آهنینشدن ابزارها و آشنایییافتن بیشتر و کاملتر یا نزدیکتر به کامل، زیراکه کمال دراینباره هنوز حاصل نشده است، با ریزش باران یا سقوط برف یا وزش باد و لرزۀ زمین یا امکانِ برداشتِ قوت بیشتر از بذر مساوی از فرشِ همهجاموجود یا آشنایی با همۀ اینها، همپالگیان به جنبش درآمدند و به هر طرف که دانستند یا پنداشتند میدانند، پیش رفتند. به هر حال برای ایشان در حد تجربۀ نزدیک به علم بود که آن برداشت افزونتر است، یا ریزش باران در آنگاه که باید مناسبتر است، یا سقوط برف و ممانعت از جریان آب که در عمل همواره یا غالباً متلازم بوده است و با کشتار جنبندگان زیر فرشِ همهجاموجود، بستگی بیشتر دارد. در این حال با اعضایی دیگر از نوع خود مواجه یا طرف شدند و به هر حال برخورد کردند و جنبنده یا ساکن بر طرف خود تفوق یافت و حاصلِ آن، پدیدۀ مخصوص یا خاص این همپالگیان بوده و هست که در میان جانداران یا جانوران و به مفهوم عامتر حیوانات دیگر نظیری نداشته است: اسارت و بیگاری» (تسخیرناپذیر، ویلیام فاکنر، ترجمۀ پرویز داریوش، تهران: امیرکبیر، ۱۳۳۵، ص۵).
متن خود داستان هم از این اشکال خالی نیست. محض اطلاع، بخشی درخشان ازحیث درازگویی را از متن کتاب نقل میکنم:
«آن سال تابستان پیش از آنکه به دانشکده بروم تا گواهینامهی حقوق را که پدرم لازم دانسته بود، بگیرم و چهار سال درست بعد از آن روز تابستان، هنگام غروب، که پدرم و دروزیلا مانع بخشدارشدن کاس بنبو شده بودند و بدون آنکه ازدواج کرده باشند، به خانه برگشتند و خانم هبرشام آنها را سوار کالسکهی خودش کرد و بردشان به شهر و شوهرش را از توی سوراخ تاریکی که در بانک جدید داشت، بیرون کشید و وادارش کرد قرار کفیل پدرم را درمورد کشتن آن دو فرصتطلب شمالی امضا کند و بعد پدرم و دروزیلا را خودش پیش کشیش برد و آنقدر ایستاد تا عقدشان بسته شد، من درست بیست سال داشتم.» (همان، ص۲۵۸). در اینجا بین نهاد جملهي اصلی و گزاره، صدوپنج واژه فاصله افتاده است!
June 7, 2015
The Unvanquished: Faulkner's Civil War
The Unvanquished was chosen as a group read by . Special thanks to Co-Moderator Co-Moderator Diane Barnes, "Miss Scarlette," for nominating this novel. "The Trail" continues to explore the works of William Faulkner. It is my hope that we will one day complete all of them.
Darn it. This review will be temporarily interrupted as a result of my having failed to do something I should have accomplished earlier in the day. Another facet of the aging process. However, with age comes the patience to read Faulkner. For a third time. That is, the same novel. Younger readers should not consider the above commentary derogatory in any sense. However, studies have shown that internet learning have made students less patient in seeking/analyzing informations. That is all. I'm outta here. Later...
The Unvanquished was chosen as a group read by . Special thanks to Co-Moderator Co-Moderator Diane Barnes, "Miss Scarlette," for nominating this novel. "The Trail" continues to explore the works of William Faulkner. It is my hope that we will one day complete all of them.
He was besotted with history, his own and those of people around him. He lived within this history, and the history became him.--Robert Penn Warren, speaking of William Faulknerto Jay Parini, August, 1987, source material for One Matchless Time: A Life of William Faulkner
Darn it. This review will be temporarily interrupted as a result of my having failed to do something I should have accomplished earlier in the day. Another facet of the aging process. However, with age comes the patience to read Faulkner. For a third time. That is, the same novel. Younger readers should not consider the above commentary derogatory in any sense. However, studies have shown that internet learning have made students less patient in seeking/analyzing informations. That is all. I'm outta here. Later...
March 11, 2012
I first read The Unvanquished half a century ago, because I had been told that it was the best Faulkner novel to start with. (Actually, it's not a novel at all, but a linked series of short stories with the same characters.) Seeing the Civil War through the eyes of Bayard Sartoris, son of a Southern war hero, and Ringo (short for Marengo), a former family slave who is Bayard's age, was nothing short of brilliant. I loved the book even more the second time around, and I definitely understood it more.
In the six stories (and the seventh, "An Odor of Verbena," which serves as a coda), Faulkner memorializes the culture of the Deep South through the horrors of the war and the Reconstruction that followed. That culture included some amazing characters, such as Uncle Buck McCaslin:
What draws the boys' revenge is the murder of Bayard's grandmother, Miss Rosa Millard, who is one of Faulkner's most memorable characters. After the Sartoris house has been burned down by the Yankees, she goes after the Yanks for stealing her mules. As a result of a misunderstanding, the Union soldiers give her over a hundred mules. She then sets herself up in business re-selling these mules to the North, and then -- using a clever forgery -- getting the mules back, eliminating the U.S. brand on their haunches, and selling them back yet again. In the process, she partners with the wildly unreliable Ab Snopes; and this is what draws Grumby to her.
After Bayard's father has been gunned down by a former business partner, the father's friends solemnly gather around Bayard
In the six stories (and the seventh, "An Odor of Verbena," which serves as a coda), Faulkner memorializes the culture of the Deep South through the horrors of the war and the Reconstruction that followed. That culture included some amazing characters, such as Uncle Buck McCaslin:
There was more to Uncle Buck and [his brother] Buddy than just that. Father said they were ahead of their time; he said they not only possessed, but put into practice, ideas about social relationship that maybe fifty years after they were both dead people would have a name for. These ideas were about land. They believed that land did not belong to people but that people belonged to land and that the earth would permit them to live on and out of it and use it only so long as they behaved and that if they did not behave right, it would shake them off just like a dog getting rid of fleas. [Italics mine]This would be a major theme in Faulkner's stories and novels in the years to come. (I think particularly of the Snopes family that was to move in on Yoknapatawpha County.) In this book, the example of Grumby's Independents exemplified the McCaslin code. Grumby is a guerrilla who is more into theft, rapine, and murder than he is for the Confederate cause. In the interstices between the withdrawal of the Southern forces and the return of the Yankees after Appomattox, he fattens like a tick until Bayard and Ringo catch up with him.
What draws the boys' revenge is the murder of Bayard's grandmother, Miss Rosa Millard, who is one of Faulkner's most memorable characters. After the Sartoris house has been burned down by the Yankees, she goes after the Yanks for stealing her mules. As a result of a misunderstanding, the Union soldiers give her over a hundred mules. She then sets herself up in business re-selling these mules to the North, and then -- using a clever forgery -- getting the mules back, eliminating the U.S. brand on their haunches, and selling them back yet again. In the process, she partners with the wildly unreliable Ab Snopes; and this is what draws Grumby to her.
After Bayard's father has been gunned down by a former business partner, the father's friends solemnly gather around Bayard
with the unctuous formality which the Southern man shows in the presence of death -- that Roman holiday engendered by mist-born Protestantism grafted onto this land of violent sun, of violent alteration from snow to heat-stroke which has produced a race impervious to both.How that man can write! I am no Southerner myself, though my heart skips a beat when I see in this and his other books a clarity and a love for the land of his birth.
May 27, 2015
A boy, twelve years old, is growing up the middle of the Civil War--the American one, though in many ways it could be any civil war. Bayard and his best friend Ringo make maps of the battle fields in the rich soil and play soldier on the family plantation. War is an adventure, a Romantic dream of valor and anything other than glorious victory seems impossible.
Bayard’s awakening is at first a thing happening at the animal level, a consciousness that is ancient—the way a dog detects something new, alien, and ultimately threatening. When his father comes home from the battlefields Bayard smells something, something that at first he mis-names….
“Then I began to smell it again, like each time he returned, like the day back in the spring when I rode up on the drive standing in one of his stirrups - that odor in his clothes and beard and flesh too which I believed was the smell of powder and glory, the elected victorious but know better now: know now to have been only the will to endure, a sardonic and even humorous declining of self-delusion which is not even kin to that optimism which believes that that which is about to happen to us can possibly be the worst which we can suffer.”
The sentence structure is often as tortured as the war-ravaged land; the dialect is thick, at times impenetrable. I was totally lost more than once. Everything happens in impressionistic flashes--sharp, quick, intensely felt, not fully understood—it is quite wonderful though difficult to follow.
"…all of a sudden he was just kind of hanging there against the lighted doorway like he had been cut out of tin in the act of running and was inside the cabin and the door shut black again almost before we knew what we had seen."
Still, it is worth persevering for moments like this one—where Ringo and Bayard encounter the vast, onward-rushing masses of slaves, taking to the roads, heading for the Union lines and the hope of freedom:
"It was as if Ringo felt it too and that the railroad, the rushing locomotive which he hoped to see symbolised it — the motion, the impulse to move which had already seethed to a head among his people, darker than themselves, reasonless, following and seeking a delusion, a dream, a bright shape which they could not know since there was nothing in their heritage, nothing in the memory even of the old men to tell the others, 'This is what we will find'; he nor they could not have known what it was yet it was there - one of those impulses inexplicable yet invincible which appear among races of people at intervals and drive them to pick up and leave all security and familiarity of earth and home and start out, they dont know where, empty handed, blind to everything but a hope and a doom."
In the book’s final chapters Bayard faces his father, the man he once hero-worshiped, and sees the "spurious forensic air of lawyers and the intolerant eyes which in the last two years had acquired that transparent film ...which the eyes of carnivorous animals have…which I have seen before on the eyes of men who have killed too much, who have killed so much that never again as long as they live will they ever be alone."
At the close, Bayard must choose between old codes of honor and manliness and a very different kind of courage.
Content rating PG: The scenes of war were not particularly graphic, but the incessant use of the word ‘nigger’ grated on my nerves and others might have a similar reaction. It’s part of the background of the times, though, and probably gives an accurate sense of the way people spoke and thought.
Bayard’s awakening is at first a thing happening at the animal level, a consciousness that is ancient—the way a dog detects something new, alien, and ultimately threatening. When his father comes home from the battlefields Bayard smells something, something that at first he mis-names….
“Then I began to smell it again, like each time he returned, like the day back in the spring when I rode up on the drive standing in one of his stirrups - that odor in his clothes and beard and flesh too which I believed was the smell of powder and glory, the elected victorious but know better now: know now to have been only the will to endure, a sardonic and even humorous declining of self-delusion which is not even kin to that optimism which believes that that which is about to happen to us can possibly be the worst which we can suffer.”
The sentence structure is often as tortured as the war-ravaged land; the dialect is thick, at times impenetrable. I was totally lost more than once. Everything happens in impressionistic flashes--sharp, quick, intensely felt, not fully understood—it is quite wonderful though difficult to follow.
"…all of a sudden he was just kind of hanging there against the lighted doorway like he had been cut out of tin in the act of running and was inside the cabin and the door shut black again almost before we knew what we had seen."
Still, it is worth persevering for moments like this one—where Ringo and Bayard encounter the vast, onward-rushing masses of slaves, taking to the roads, heading for the Union lines and the hope of freedom:
"It was as if Ringo felt it too and that the railroad, the rushing locomotive which he hoped to see symbolised it — the motion, the impulse to move which had already seethed to a head among his people, darker than themselves, reasonless, following and seeking a delusion, a dream, a bright shape which they could not know since there was nothing in their heritage, nothing in the memory even of the old men to tell the others, 'This is what we will find'; he nor they could not have known what it was yet it was there - one of those impulses inexplicable yet invincible which appear among races of people at intervals and drive them to pick up and leave all security and familiarity of earth and home and start out, they dont know where, empty handed, blind to everything but a hope and a doom."
In the book’s final chapters Bayard faces his father, the man he once hero-worshiped, and sees the "spurious forensic air of lawyers and the intolerant eyes which in the last two years had acquired that transparent film ...which the eyes of carnivorous animals have…which I have seen before on the eyes of men who have killed too much, who have killed so much that never again as long as they live will they ever be alone."
At the close, Bayard must choose between old codes of honor and manliness and a very different kind of courage.
Content rating PG: The scenes of war were not particularly graphic, but the incessant use of the word ‘nigger’ grated on my nerves and others might have a similar reaction. It’s part of the background of the times, though, and probably gives an accurate sense of the way people spoke and thought.
December 29, 2020
The Unvanquished is a book consisting of seven episodes with the first six episodes published as essays and short stories in The Saturday Evening Post from 1934 through 1936 while he was working on Absalom, Absalom! After its publication, William Faulkner then proposed to Random House that these stories be made into a book about the Civil War. Faulkner subsequently wrote the final chapter "An Odor of Verbena" to complete the series that covered the final years of the Civil War and into the Reconstruction period from 1862 through 1873. This was my favorite episode in the book with its beautiful prose.
It is in these stories that we are introduced to the Sartoris family and several other families of Yoknapatawpha. We begin to see how these characters are shaped by the legacy and mythology of the Civil War. As the book opens Bayard Sartoris and his slave friend Ringo are playing in the dirt on the Sartoris plantation, both about twelve years of age, and inseparable since their birth. It is at this time that Colonel John Sartoris comes home briefly after the defeat in the battle of Vicksburg. This is a coming-of-age story of Bayard's growth from childhood to maturity with all of the moral dilemmas that must be dealt with in the backdrop of the Civil War raging all around them.
One of my favorite quotes is the prayer in the church by Granny Millard, with Bayard and Ringo kneeling beside her at the altar:
"But I did not sin for gain or for greed," Granny said. "I did not sin for revenge; I defy You or anyone to say I did. I sinned first for justice. And after that first time, I sinned for more than justice: I sinned for the sake of food and clothes for Your own creatures who could not help themselves; for children who had given their fathers, for wives who had given their husbands, for old people who had given their sons, to a holy cause, even though You have seen fit to make it a lost cause. What I gained, I shared with them. It is true that I kept some of it back, but I am the best judge of that because I, too, have dependents who may be orphans, too, at this moment for all I know. And if this be sin in Your sight, I take this on my conscience too. Amen."
It is in these stories that we are introduced to the Sartoris family and several other families of Yoknapatawpha. We begin to see how these characters are shaped by the legacy and mythology of the Civil War. As the book opens Bayard Sartoris and his slave friend Ringo are playing in the dirt on the Sartoris plantation, both about twelve years of age, and inseparable since their birth. It is at this time that Colonel John Sartoris comes home briefly after the defeat in the battle of Vicksburg. This is a coming-of-age story of Bayard's growth from childhood to maturity with all of the moral dilemmas that must be dealt with in the backdrop of the Civil War raging all around them.
One of my favorite quotes is the prayer in the church by Granny Millard, with Bayard and Ringo kneeling beside her at the altar:
"But I did not sin for gain or for greed," Granny said. "I did not sin for revenge; I defy You or anyone to say I did. I sinned first for justice. And after that first time, I sinned for more than justice: I sinned for the sake of food and clothes for Your own creatures who could not help themselves; for children who had given their fathers, for wives who had given their husbands, for old people who had given their sons, to a holy cause, even though You have seen fit to make it a lost cause. What I gained, I shared with them. It is true that I kept some of it back, but I am the best judge of that because I, too, have dependents who may be orphans, too, at this moment for all I know. And if this be sin in Your sight, I take this on my conscience too. Amen."
December 9, 2023
Once every year or so I dip back for a Faulkner, wondering if he still holds up for me. So much is written about this man, and what other authors think of him and his style. But I like to make up my own mind. This slender, yellowing volume I sample because it happened to be at hand, the right size (small) and it struck my fancy. I’m in the last week two weeks of employment, after 35 years on the job, and I am certain I will remember this book as one I read at the end of my career in science, as that is how my brain makes associations. (I still remember what I was doing whilst reading books in my youth or listening to music). Another reason was I noticed my father-in-law’s inscription in the front – it was signed by him and dated 6-17-11 – meaning he read it during one of our vacations together back in 2011. He was one of my best friends, and the one person with whom I shared the most books – he passed away in January and I miss him every day.
I understand this book was actually a series of short stories published in the Saturday Evening Post, with the exception of the final one written to tie the book together. But the whole comes together nicely, I would not suspect it wasn’t intended as a single novel, as it covers mostly the years of the civil war in Faulkner’s fictional Mississippi town based on Faulkner’s northern MS experiences. I visited his home in the late 90s with my wife, a lovely experience, and I remember he had drawn his final epic tale in pictures on the wall of his bedroom. This book was published after Intruders in the Dust (which I read & reviewed) yet covers the time period before that one – mainly through the eyes of a confederate sympathizing boy during the war. Bayard and his slave friend Ringo are inseparable – in fact Ringo is the more intrepid, talented one and often drives the action. His father, man of the house (John Sartoris), is off to war, doing what men do and leaving the children and womenfolk to clean up the mess and keep the homestead viable. Bayard’s mother is long dead, so his main influence is Granny, a sprightly and capable woman who seeks to keep the family (including slaves) intact, fed and alive. She and Ringo develop a scam and take advantage of the resident Union armies, using the proceeds to keep her neighbor’s farms and plantations funded. Most of the chapters have a Tom Sawyer / Huck Finn feel to them (Faulkner’s main influence had to be Twain), and these characters exude life and humor – the violence is more abstract, but the language feels completely authentic as I can imagine our author missing that. The turns of phrase, the pride, the cultural oddities seem true and truly enlightening to me. The final chapter gathers the emotion of our protagonist, now a young man, and his hot-blooded, mannish cousin Drusilla upon the murder of his father. How he manages his honor, and his life is a fascinating piece of writing leading to a brilliant denouement. I won’t spoil the plot, but my reading at the end gathered my breathless focus, and Faulkner’s artistry elicited real emotion and understanding in this reader. It hit me again, as it often does, of this author’s special talents and contribution to mankind, beyond the little towns just south of Memphis (a day’s drive for me) and why he was worthy of the Nobel Prize and (most notably), 5 stars from me in Goodreads in the year of our lord 2023.
Faulkner was born in the time of my grandparents, so as a young boy the end of the civil war was only 35 years or so old, so he would certainly have heard real stories from real veterans in the small dusty town of his youth. This is analogous to me hearing stories about the 1930s and 1940s from my grandparents, which they regaled with meticulous detail. I love the quote from Faulkner that the past is not even past – or some such, meaning history carries through in our memories, our bodies, our DNA, and is cumulative, perhaps even cyclical. I think about that and how I might leave something for my kids, and grandkids, to keep the circle unbroken (yet without stifling, so that line is to be nimbly threaded, hopefully with the subtlety and beauty of art).
I understand this book was actually a series of short stories published in the Saturday Evening Post, with the exception of the final one written to tie the book together. But the whole comes together nicely, I would not suspect it wasn’t intended as a single novel, as it covers mostly the years of the civil war in Faulkner’s fictional Mississippi town based on Faulkner’s northern MS experiences. I visited his home in the late 90s with my wife, a lovely experience, and I remember he had drawn his final epic tale in pictures on the wall of his bedroom. This book was published after Intruders in the Dust (which I read & reviewed) yet covers the time period before that one – mainly through the eyes of a confederate sympathizing boy during the war. Bayard and his slave friend Ringo are inseparable – in fact Ringo is the more intrepid, talented one and often drives the action. His father, man of the house (John Sartoris), is off to war, doing what men do and leaving the children and womenfolk to clean up the mess and keep the homestead viable. Bayard’s mother is long dead, so his main influence is Granny, a sprightly and capable woman who seeks to keep the family (including slaves) intact, fed and alive. She and Ringo develop a scam and take advantage of the resident Union armies, using the proceeds to keep her neighbor’s farms and plantations funded. Most of the chapters have a Tom Sawyer / Huck Finn feel to them (Faulkner’s main influence had to be Twain), and these characters exude life and humor – the violence is more abstract, but the language feels completely authentic as I can imagine our author missing that. The turns of phrase, the pride, the cultural oddities seem true and truly enlightening to me. The final chapter gathers the emotion of our protagonist, now a young man, and his hot-blooded, mannish cousin Drusilla upon the murder of his father. How he manages his honor, and his life is a fascinating piece of writing leading to a brilliant denouement. I won’t spoil the plot, but my reading at the end gathered my breathless focus, and Faulkner’s artistry elicited real emotion and understanding in this reader. It hit me again, as it often does, of this author’s special talents and contribution to mankind, beyond the little towns just south of Memphis (a day’s drive for me) and why he was worthy of the Nobel Prize and (most notably), 5 stars from me in Goodreads in the year of our lord 2023.
Faulkner was born in the time of my grandparents, so as a young boy the end of the civil war was only 35 years or so old, so he would certainly have heard real stories from real veterans in the small dusty town of his youth. This is analogous to me hearing stories about the 1930s and 1940s from my grandparents, which they regaled with meticulous detail. I love the quote from Faulkner that the past is not even past – or some such, meaning history carries through in our memories, our bodies, our DNA, and is cumulative, perhaps even cyclical. I think about that and how I might leave something for my kids, and grandkids, to keep the circle unbroken (yet without stifling, so that line is to be nimbly threaded, hopefully with the subtlety and beauty of art).
December 7, 2025
Damn William Faulkner and the literary conundrum he presents to me. He was a prose genius, whether writing convoluted, moss-entwined stream of consciousness as in Absalom, Absalom!, or the more stripped-down prose found here in The Unvanquished. Unfortunately, he was also as soaked and pickled with the toxic, Lost Cause ideology of his region as he was in the bourbon of his cherished mint juleps.
When his subject matter is the Civil War and Reconstruction in Mississippi as it is here, it is impossible for me not to conflate Faulkner’s written words with his public statements. Without that, I might be able to read this as a period piece painting a historic and cultural scene. But in light of his 1956 words to a journalist, explaining his position on the Federal government imposing integration on Mississippi — “If it came to fighting I’d fight for Mississippi against the United States even if it meant going out into the street and shooting Negroes.” — I cannot read this book apart from the knowledge of who Faulkner was deep in his heart.
Splitting the difference between admiration of his writing and disgust for his toxic attachment to morally bankrupt ideology, I give this one a tortured three stars.
When his subject matter is the Civil War and Reconstruction in Mississippi as it is here, it is impossible for me not to conflate Faulkner’s written words with his public statements. Without that, I might be able to read this as a period piece painting a historic and cultural scene. But in light of his 1956 words to a journalist, explaining his position on the Federal government imposing integration on Mississippi — “If it came to fighting I’d fight for Mississippi against the United States even if it meant going out into the street and shooting Negroes.” — I cannot read this book apart from the knowledge of who Faulkner was deep in his heart.
Splitting the difference between admiration of his writing and disgust for his toxic attachment to morally bankrupt ideology, I give this one a tortured three stars.
June 2, 2015
Having read Flags in the Dust last year made this a special read along with the OTSLT group now. To see the very early years of Bayard Sartoris with his father and Grandmother, the skirmishes with Yankee troops, as well as Granny's clever hoodwinking of same to support those dependent on her during those very hard times has been exciting. Faulkner's vision of these people and their land is so consistent as to be amazing. To see the forebears of the Snopes and others adds to enjoyment of other books read (and yet to come)
There are many moments in the book that I want to hold on to but I will read it again for certain. Granny was such a figure of courage, pride and certainty in an uncertain time. This is my favorite of her moments.
She just said "Come"and turned and went on, not
toward the cabin, but across the pasture toward the
road. We didn't know where we were going until we
reached the church. She went straight up the aisle
to the chancel and stood there until we came up.
"Kneel down," she said.
We knelt in the empty church.She was small between
us, little; she talked quiet, not loud, not fast, not
slow;..."I have sinned. I have stolen and I have borne
false witness against my neighbor, though that neighbor
was an enemy of my country. And more than that. I have
caused these children to sin. I hereby take their sin
upon my conscience....But I did not sin for gain or
for greed," Granny said. "I did not sin for revenge.
I defy You or anyone to say I did. I sinned first for
justice..." (p 147)
There are many forms of justice in The Unvanquished and Faulkner seems to be very much concerned with the evolution of that concept in his characters' lives.
I am looking forward to my next Faulkner book.
There are many moments in the book that I want to hold on to but I will read it again for certain. Granny was such a figure of courage, pride and certainty in an uncertain time. This is my favorite of her moments.
She just said "Come"and turned and went on, not
toward the cabin, but across the pasture toward the
road. We didn't know where we were going until we
reached the church. She went straight up the aisle
to the chancel and stood there until we came up.
"Kneel down," she said.
We knelt in the empty church.She was small between
us, little; she talked quiet, not loud, not fast, not
slow;..."I have sinned. I have stolen and I have borne
false witness against my neighbor, though that neighbor
was an enemy of my country. And more than that. I have
caused these children to sin. I hereby take their sin
upon my conscience....But I did not sin for gain or
for greed," Granny said. "I did not sin for revenge.
I defy You or anyone to say I did. I sinned first for
justice..." (p 147)
There are many forms of justice in The Unvanquished and Faulkner seems to be very much concerned with the evolution of that concept in his characters' lives.
I am looking forward to my next Faulkner book.
November 13, 2020
On sanottu, että Voittamattomat on johdatus Faulknerin maailmaan ja hänen kirjoistaan tuttuun Sartorisin sukuun. No ei ole ainakaan ensimmäisenä tuttavuutena. En todellakaan suosittele sellaiseksi.
Jos et ole koskaan lukenut Faulkneria, älä aloita tästä. Aloita jostain muusta, koska Faulkner on kirjallisuuden uudistaja ja hänen maailmansa aukeaa peremmin muista kirjoista. Silti Voittamattomat on taas yksi aivan loistava kirja häntä-täytyy-lukea -kirjailijalta.
Minusta Faulkner kirjoitti todella haastavia kirjoja. Ja oli samalla kiehtovan salamyhkäinen. Lisäksi hän teki tämän kaiken kirjailijana ainutlaatuisen hätkähdyttävällä taidolla.
Faulkner oli kirjailija, joka luotti lukijan päättelykykyyn ja myös kykyyn tajuta myötätuntoa. Faulkneria luetaan loogisesti, ei tunteella, mutta kun pääset jyvälle kumpikin aivopuolisko järisee.
Tämä maailma. Tämä aikakausi. Se meni, mutta jätti jälkensä. Ja niin on jättänyt Faulkner myös minuun. Voittamattomat ei luonnollisesti ollut Faulknerin pääteos, mutta se oli erittäin, erittäin hienoa kirjallisuutta.
Jos et ole koskaan lukenut Faulkneria, älä aloita tästä. Aloita jostain muusta, koska Faulkner on kirjallisuuden uudistaja ja hänen maailmansa aukeaa peremmin muista kirjoista. Silti Voittamattomat on taas yksi aivan loistava kirja häntä-täytyy-lukea -kirjailijalta.
Minusta Faulkner kirjoitti todella haastavia kirjoja. Ja oli samalla kiehtovan salamyhkäinen. Lisäksi hän teki tämän kaiken kirjailijana ainutlaatuisen hätkähdyttävällä taidolla.
Faulkner oli kirjailija, joka luotti lukijan päättelykykyyn ja myös kykyyn tajuta myötätuntoa. Faulkneria luetaan loogisesti, ei tunteella, mutta kun pääset jyvälle kumpikin aivopuolisko järisee.
Tämä maailma. Tämä aikakausi. Se meni, mutta jätti jälkensä. Ja niin on jättänyt Faulkner myös minuun. Voittamattomat ei luonnollisesti ollut Faulknerin pääteos, mutta se oli erittäin, erittäin hienoa kirjallisuutta.
May 27, 2015
This is a group of stories told by Bayard Sartoris a 14-15 year old boy in Mississippi about his family's plight during the Civil war. An interesting cast of characters; his Father Colonel John Sartoris, Granny Rosa , who steals and resells mules to the Calvary , his cousin Drusilla, who rides in disguise with the soldiers, and his best friend , the recently freed slave Ringo ( who has the books best lines ) That these chapters were submitted by Faulkner to the Saturday Evening Post as serial reads made sense as they never truly came together as one story for me. I also found Bayard and Ringo's thoughts a little jovial for the situation and subject matter . I guess I'll just chalk that up to their youth. This is my second W.F. , the first being The Sound and The Fury which I didn't care for much. ( Just try reading a page of it out loud) Since that was 2 stars, I'll give this one 3 .
December 28, 2016
The sequel to Sartoris, published a decade later. Great account of Southern women in the rebel army and at home stealing horses from the Yankees. Or maybe it's mules: Faulkner also has a fine short story or novella about horse-traders, Spotted Horses.
Read this half a century ago, so I shall avoid spoilers by having forgotten most of it. Doesn't seem to be on my shelf anymore, either. Time seems to eat books, which are his* enemy and contradiction.
*Father T
Read this half a century ago, so I shall avoid spoilers by having forgotten most of it. Doesn't seem to be on my shelf anymore, either. Time seems to eat books, which are his* enemy and contradiction.
*Father T
February 2, 2015
A fun and strangely dark novel from Faulkner. I like when he allowed himself do some deadpan comedy.
August 25, 2014
A Faulkner sentence stretches on and on indefinitely, connected by seemingly purposelessly by numerous ands and semicolons, as if it were attempting to contain everything it possibly could from the scene it describes, both past and future, to the point where almost no action occurs, even when two major characters face each other in an office of law, two pistols drawn; the guns are not shot within the sentence, but rather described as not shot then later remembered to have been shot.
In addition, Faulkner's main method of describing thing is to say they are not their opposites: a cold day is described as not hot. Thus these mammoth sentences which attempt to contain everything cannot contain anything; they can only list the things they cannot contain, slowly outlining what they mean in an arduous but eventually effective way, forcing their reader to trace the path along with them and become complicit in their creation.
These are just a few reasons why Faulkner is so goddamn hard to read. Especially in this collection of action based short stories, which seem to offer little reward for the difficult process of reading them. A short review: the first half is brilliant, the second half is spotty but also where the book is at its best, if only for moments (the ending of the election story is a great example of this)
In addition, Faulkner's main method of describing thing is to say they are not their opposites: a cold day is described as not hot. Thus these mammoth sentences which attempt to contain everything cannot contain anything; they can only list the things they cannot contain, slowly outlining what they mean in an arduous but eventually effective way, forcing their reader to trace the path along with them and become complicit in their creation.
These are just a few reasons why Faulkner is so goddamn hard to read. Especially in this collection of action based short stories, which seem to offer little reward for the difficult process of reading them. A short review: the first half is brilliant, the second half is spotty but also where the book is at its best, if only for moments (the ending of the election story is a great example of this)
March 18, 2017
If ever there was a novel that could tidily serve as the alien's guide to America right now, this would serve nicely. It's also one of those books that corners you and forces you into liking and loathing most of its characters all at once.
Originally a collection of mildly interlocking short stories about the teenage son of a rogue Confederate officer, Faulkner threw these together into one of his best, most accessible stories. There is so much ambiguity here, moral, political and otherwise that, though it's tempting to dip into it by way of review, I think that any of it would spoil what is an often surprising, funny, and disturbing novel.
This one often gets short thrift by Faulknerians or whatever, but I found it one of my faves.
Originally a collection of mildly interlocking short stories about the teenage son of a rogue Confederate officer, Faulkner threw these together into one of his best, most accessible stories. There is so much ambiguity here, moral, political and otherwise that, though it's tempting to dip into it by way of review, I think that any of it would spoil what is an often surprising, funny, and disturbing novel.
This one often gets short thrift by Faulknerians or whatever, but I found it one of my faves.
August 3, 2015
Easily my favorite Faulkner! There are many more to be read, so I have much learn. This may have been his novel for novices and easy to follow. The violent death of Grumby was "(he didn't scream, he never made a sound) and the pistol both at the same time was level and steady as a rock." I don't know if that sounds like revenge and the death of a scoundrel to you, but I had to go back and search for the violence just to be sure a death transpired. Subtle violence with little or no blood! Compared with everything else I read that was refreshing.
June 26, 2015
All the stories are good, mostly previously published in The Saturday Evening Post in the late thirties when he was "stirring the pot" making some quick cash while he worked on Absalom.
Each of the intertwined tales concerns two boys, one white and one black, growing up after the trauma of the Civil War. Colonel Sartoris, the fading patriarch, presides over the desiccated landscape and the ruins of Southern gentility. They work well together, complementing each other and keeping the narrative intact. You can see why the stories sold- they're suspenseful, dramatic, accessible (not so many of Faulkner's infamous ultra-long sentences) and vivid.
And then it all leads up to the final story, the one Faulkner never sold to the magazines: An Odor of Verbena. It's a Masterpiece. I read it with my heart in my throat. When it was finished, I was that good kind of exhausted you get when you read something particularly powerful. It grabbed me by the guts and wouldn't let go until I finished the last sentence. You could have knocked me over with a sneeze.
It's sinister, kinda sexy in a subtly kinky way, hypnotic, tragic, all-too-human but humane, weaving the thematic concerns (I mean the aforementioned "Southern codes of gentility", though it should be remarked that I am not Southern and so just kind of assume I can begin to understand the essential values in this cultural tradition from what I gather out of hearsay and various fictions) of Sound and Absalom (a relatively distilled version of its labyrinthine plot appears as marginal gloss here) as well as elements of Macbeth and Great Expectations.
But never mind all that. Just crack open the tome, enjoy each story on its own worthy merits, and prepare to savor the final tale's sweet, intoxicating, doom-laden aroma for yourself.
May 17, 2015
So intrinsic to a time, place, core feeling that my words can't do it justice. Thinking of Granny for awhile before my meager descriptive reaction.
Later.
This work is perfection. The mix of dialect and formal word beauty phenomenal. There is not a nuance unvisited, nor a gut clench obscured.
These, IMHO, are the best bloomed characters in all his masterful and effusive publishing. The boys, John, Granny, Drusila and every character in every full flower of their identity and force. There are at least 3 quotable paragraphs a page in this novel. Depth of instinct coupled with profound cognition tested. Stuff to remember.
It's far more than a coming-of-age story. It's embedded in the end of surrender that is never a surrender. At the end of a trial that is only the beginning of yet another. And also still at the same time and forward, a constant, consistent, continual hurricane of secure self-identity for "us". They being the Yankees and the disingenuous to loyalty.
This was read from a classics collection of Faulkner books and stories that are grouped by years. This being in the 1936-40 volume. The pages fine and nearly transparent, the whole with a red ribbon for a gentle page saver. What a treat to read this now for the first time. I would never have appreciated it as much when I was young. But in such a finely detailed form, the read was a flashback to reading in all its pleasures.
Over time, because they make you work at it, I will read other Faulkner that I had not visited. Coupling this with some other dialect and Southern works(and his niece's memoir)just recently absolutely doubled the pleasure, if that's possible. 6 stars for enjoyment!
Later.
This work is perfection. The mix of dialect and formal word beauty phenomenal. There is not a nuance unvisited, nor a gut clench obscured.
These, IMHO, are the best bloomed characters in all his masterful and effusive publishing. The boys, John, Granny, Drusila and every character in every full flower of their identity and force. There are at least 3 quotable paragraphs a page in this novel. Depth of instinct coupled with profound cognition tested. Stuff to remember.
It's far more than a coming-of-age story. It's embedded in the end of surrender that is never a surrender. At the end of a trial that is only the beginning of yet another. And also still at the same time and forward, a constant, consistent, continual hurricane of secure self-identity for "us". They being the Yankees and the disingenuous to loyalty.
This was read from a classics collection of Faulkner books and stories that are grouped by years. This being in the 1936-40 volume. The pages fine and nearly transparent, the whole with a red ribbon for a gentle page saver. What a treat to read this now for the first time. I would never have appreciated it as much when I was young. But in such a finely detailed form, the read was a flashback to reading in all its pleasures.
Over time, because they make you work at it, I will read other Faulkner that I had not visited. Coupling this with some other dialect and Southern works(and his niece's memoir)just recently absolutely doubled the pleasure, if that's possible. 6 stars for enjoyment!
July 25, 2018
This is a great one. I thought I had read this book years back, but I must have only read a few stories in the collection. The Unvanquished is a collection of closely connected short stories that focus on the Sartoris family during and immediately following the Civil War. But calling this "a collection" is a bit misleading. You should not approach this book without first reading it from beginning to end. I don't know what Faulkner was thinking when he wrote these stories without later providing some sort of connective work to transform the stories into an actual novel. Maybe it was just money, as each story would originally appear separately in the Saturday Evening Post. Or maybe it was Faulkner (a Modernist at heart) experimenting with the form of the novel. If so, it's a mild experiment, since as you read on you will think of these stories as part of a whole. It is interesting to note that the much more radical experiment in novel writing, The Wild Palms, would immediately follow The Unvanquished. Anyway, getting back to this book, I've read several of these stories here and there (mostly in the essential The Portable Faulkner). Great stories, no doubt, but to remove them from their original Unvanquished setting seems something of a crime since they have so much more power in the original collection. The final story, "An Odor of Verbena," will now forever be etched in my mind as one of Faulkner's greatest short stories. I liked it before, but it haunts me now. Highly recommended.
August 17, 2020
უჰ ისეთი გემრიელი, პირის ჩასატკბარუნებელი, ფოლკნერული ფოლკნერი აღმოჩნდა ეს ახალნათარგნი The Unvanquished.
ზაზა ჭილაძე რომ არ გვყავდეს რა გვეშველებოდა ფოლკნერის თაყვანისმცემლებს? არც არაფერი, წასაკითხად შეუძლებელ თარგმანებს შემოგვაჩეჩებდა პალიტრა, როგორც აბესალომ, აბესალომზე გააკეთეს. კიდევ კარგი, არც პალიტრას მკითხველი ეტანება დიდად ფოლკნერს და არტანუჯმაც დიდი საქმე გააკეთა ამ მწერლის გადმოქართულება-გამოცემაში.
რაც შეეხება ნაწარმოებს: ეს არის ფოლკნერისეული ვერსია სამოქალაქო ომის. ალბათ ვერავინ მოახერხებდა ასეთი სიყვარულითა და აღფრთოვანებით დაეცინა და ფეხქვეშ გაეთელა ძველი სამხრეთი და ყველაფერი, რაც მასთან ერთად წაიღო ქარმა.
ნაწარმოებში ვხვდებით კარგად ნაცნობ სახელებს იოკნაპატოფადან - ქ_ნ კომფსონს, ებ სნოუფსს, სატპენსაც კი. თითქოს ფაზლი ივსება და ყველაფერი უფრო ცხადი ხდება ფოლკნერის სამყაროში.
ვინმეს თუ ვურჩევდი ფოლკნერის რომელიმე ნაწარმოებით დაწყებას, ალბათ ეს კარგი ვარიანტი იქნებოდა, ეს და მერე დროშები მტვერში (სარტორისი). მხოლოდ ამის შემდეგ გავასინჯებდი ხმაურსა და მძვინვარებას და ბოლოს აბესალომს. აი თუ შეუყვარდებოდა, მერე სნოუპსებსაც გავაცნობდი, იმის იმედით, რომ ოდესმე სახლის ქართული თარგმანი გვეღირსება.
ზაზა ჭილაძე რომ არ გვყავდეს რა გვეშველებოდა ფოლკნერის თაყვანისმცემლებს? არც არაფერი, წასაკითხად შეუძლებელ თარგმანებს შემოგვაჩეჩებდა პალიტრა, როგორც აბესალომ, აბესალომზე გააკეთეს. კიდევ კარგი, არც პალიტრას მკითხველი ეტანება დიდად ფოლკნერს და არტანუჯმაც დიდი საქმე გააკეთა ამ მწერლის გადმოქართულება-გამოცემაში.
რაც შეეხება ნაწარმოებს: ეს არის ფოლკნერისეული ვერსია სამოქალაქო ომის. ალბათ ვერავინ მოახერხებდა ასეთი სიყვარულითა და აღფრთოვანებით დაეცინა და ფეხქვეშ გაეთელა ძველი სამხრეთი და ყველაფერი, რაც მასთან ერთად წაიღო ქარმა.
ნაწარმოებში ვხვდებით კარგად ნაცნობ სახელებს იოკნაპატოფადან - ქ_ნ კომფსონს, ებ სნოუფსს, სატპენსაც კი. თითქოს ფაზლი ივსება და ყველაფერი უფრო ცხადი ხდება ფოლკნერის სამყაროში.
ვინმეს თუ ვურჩევდი ფოლკნერის რომელიმე ნაწარმოებით დაწყებას, ალბათ ეს კარგი ვარიანტი იქნებოდა, ეს და მერე დროშები მტვერში (სარტორისი). მხოლოდ ამის შემდეგ გავასინჯებდი ხმაურსა და მძვინვარებას და ბოლოს აბესალომს. აი თუ შეუყვარდებოდა, მერე სნოუპსებსაც გავაცნობდი, იმის იმედით, რომ ოდესმე სახლის ქართული თარგმანი გვეღირსება.
February 20, 2009
Just shoot me! I get it, I get it. William Faulkner is "one of the greats" a "lead in the canon of American History." However, I cannot bring myself to appreciate his work. The only reason I made it all the way through the book was because I was forced to read it for a literature course several years ago. I didn't see the "art" in it. I just felt tortured.
December 2, 2014
اللامقهورون
ينفذ إليك فوكنر رغم الترجمات الرديئة، ورغم تخليه عن أسلوبه المميز في السرد متعدد الأصوات، فهو هنا يشتت روايته لتبدو كقصص قصيرة – وقد نشرت كذلك في البداية – حول عائلة سارتوريس وخاصة طفلهم بايارد ورفيقه الزنجي رينجو، في أحداث تدور فترة الحرب الأهلية الأمريكية وما بعدها في الجنوب الأمريكي المهزوم، رواية فاتنة عن الشجاعة وعن الحيل التي يقوم بها الإنسان ليعيش، وعن الخيانة، وعن الانتقام، وعن العفو وكسر سلسلة الدم، يستعيد فوكنر في هذه الرواية ذكرى والده في شخصية الضابط جون سارتوريس والد بايارد.
في الفصل الأخير يسجل فوكنر مشهداً من أجمل مشاهد الرواية عندما يذهب بايارد الذي كبر وصار رجلاً ليواجه قاتل والده، الكل يحثه على الانتقام، على قتل القاتل والذي كان شريكاً لوالده، يا لها لحظة عظيمة ورمزية.
ينفذ إليك فوكنر رغم الترجمات الرديئة، ورغم تخليه عن أسلوبه المميز في السرد متعدد الأصوات، فهو هنا يشتت روايته لتبدو كقصص قصيرة – وقد نشرت كذلك في البداية – حول عائلة سارتوريس وخاصة طفلهم بايارد ورفيقه الزنجي رينجو، في أحداث تدور فترة الحرب الأهلية الأمريكية وما بعدها في الجنوب الأمريكي المهزوم، رواية فاتنة عن الشجاعة وعن الحيل التي يقوم بها الإنسان ليعيش، وعن الخيانة، وعن الانتقام، وعن العفو وكسر سلسلة الدم، يستعيد فوكنر في هذه الرواية ذكرى والده في شخصية الضابط جون سارتوريس والد بايارد.
في الفصل الأخير يسجل فوكنر مشهداً من أجمل مشاهد الرواية عندما يذهب بايارد الذي كبر وصار رجلاً ليواجه قاتل والده، الكل يحثه على الانتقام، على قتل القاتل والذي كان شريكاً لوالده، يا لها لحظة عظيمة ورمزية.
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