The most splendid failure: Faulkner's The sound and the fury

by André Bleikasten

304 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 1976

Reviews

[Nelson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fine one-volume reading of the novel. The opening chapters situate the novel against Faulkner's earlier writing career. Then follows a series of chapters devoted to the various chapters of the novel, including one to Caddy (who doesn't have a chapter in the novel) as well as one specifically regarding Quentin's sense of time. This structure serves the novel well, allowing Bleikasten to build an argument that opens up the relationship of the key characters to one another. The local readings of the first three chapters of the novel are stronger than the final chapter, which treats the so-called Dilsey section. Bleikasten's effort to argue that Faulkner charts out a place between incoherence and stable meaning with the final chapter is less persuasive than the other readings in this book. Still, an excellent close reading of the novel overall, in readable, occasionally moving, prose.