A Summer of Faulkner: As I Lay Dying, The Sound and the Fury, Light in August

by William Faulkner

A boxed, paperback collection of some of Faulkner's most well know & beloved novels.

Genres: Classics, Fiction, Literature, Southern Gothic, Classic Literature, Suspense, Religion

1105 pages, Paperback

First published June 3, 2005

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

[Dot Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had read these books years ago and decided to read them again. I've been told by some, who have read Faulkner, that his style would never get him published today. I don't know about that, I only know that one must get thoroughly absorbed in his books if you want to understand them and thereby enjoy them--no distractions like loud street noises, TV blaring in the background, etc.. Maybe the "The Sound and the Fury" of our modern world will keep new readers from absorbing Faulkner's genius. Hope not.

[Jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Don't buy this! Stop! The deal will give you 3 books for an expensive price of one book. You will only read or want to read "A Light In August." The other two books are really big flops compared to ALIA. The Sound and the Fury, I'm not sure how to interpret this book. I tried to reading As I Lay Dying. Could not get it! However, A Light in August is an American Masterpiece. The character Joe Christmas evolves before your eyes as an orphan under righteous-almighty pa and ma. He undergoes a transformation as he tries to reconcile his bi-racial identity. His mother was black and father white? We are not sure about his identity at all...The point the book is trying to make is, no matter what, you can't run from identity. Joe finds brief peace in a town, but he starts trouble when his friend botches a boot-legging business, etc. etc.

[Amar · Rating 1 out of 5]

The Sound and the Fury --
Terrible. Just terrible. Only made it to page 100 and had to stop. It is completely uninteresting, disjointed and, for the most part, incomprehensible. The book has four parts and it is said that the first two are the toughest to read. I read part 1 and 30 pages of part 2, so maybe there's something worth reading beyond that, but I'm not even curious. This was my first Faulkner book. Needless to say, he hasn't made a very good first impression.

[Susan]

read all of these in college and seriously need to reread now that I am old enough to appreciate them and not view them as a slog-through...(which I attribute to being a lit major and when they assign you that many books to read in such short periods with tests and papers looming, it entirely kills your love of reading for years...).

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wonderful set. When I read these books, I would log on to Oprah's site to hear lectures from Yale and Harvard professors about each chapter. It was unbelievable! I felt like I was back at school. I learned so much.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

As I Lay Dying and The Sound and the Fury were difficult to get through. I almost didn't read the Light in August. I'm glad I decided to try it. It is a really interesting story and a much easier writing style to read than the first two.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Faulkner is a very hard read as anyone knows from their first try. Without Oprah's Book Club I would have never been able to understand some of his interpretations.
Learning more about him also helps to see why he writes the way he does.

[Natalie Hoage · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read As I Lay Dying, and I just didn't like it. It was hard to follow the characters, and hard to figure out what they were all about. The premise of the story was interesting, but I just couldn't get into the writing.

[Johanna Lorenzo · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great insight into the American consciousness, though Faulkner focused only on one county in Mississippi in all of his literary works, they encompass the all of humanity, the good, bad and the ugly.

[Letty · Rating 4 out of 5]

All three books were really interesting but the standout for me was The Sound and The Fury. Even though that was the hardest to follow and understand but once you got used to the format it told such a great story.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Sound and the Fury - excellent book and in my top 3.
Light in August - OK book - enjoyed but not my favorite faulkner.
As I lay Dying - Not that great. Unimpressed

[Jaclynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

memorable, but all are hard to develop a picture in your mind, of the characters and places he is writing about.

[V.A. Herring-Trice · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is by far my favorite collection by William Faulkner contained in a cover. Faulkner is my favorite Mississippi writer (besides myself LOL). Would recommend this collection to anyone.

[Yara · Rating 3 out of 5]

[Life] is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”—Macbeth (Act V.5, 26-28)

Let’s start with the obvious. Faulkner’s most famous novel is already a little unorthodox, with four different narrators taking us through a story with no real plot. What makes the book even more challenging is that it opens from the perspective of Benjy, a character with severe mental difficulties who only vaguely understands what’s happening, leaping back and forth through his own memories without letting us know when exactly we switched gears. If even the characters inside the book don’t know what’s going on, what chance do the readers have?

[Nazire · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Faulkner. I love The Sound and the Fury. It is probably one of my all time favorite books to read. It takes a few reads to really to be able to appreciate this novel, but I feel like it is a must read for everyone!

[Pat · Rating 3 out of 5]

I only read The Sound and the Fury. I truly admire Faulkner's obvious talent; however this book is more work to read than it is worth. It's partial plot is told from four perspectives, one of which is a tangential, time-warped mess that is nearly unreadable. It's suppose to be Benjy's (the idiot's) recollections. Another section in written in that awful stream-of-consciousness ala Joyce and Woolfe. There's only one admirable character who tries to keep some order among the "sound and fury". This is a dark and depressing book that I wish I hadn't read

[Amy Grass Torres]

I probably should say I loved these American classics, but the truth is that I hated them. My apologies to Faulkner, but the first two in this trilogy (As I Lay Dying & The Sound and the Fury) were so out there and boring that I couldn't force myself to read the last one.

[Hollyhocks · Rating 2 out of 5]

I only read The Sound and the Fury and it made me feel absolutely stupid. I thought, this is a classic that I totally don't understand why it's so wonderful. It was awfully sad and was a slow read for me. Maybe someday I'll read the other books too.

[Sarana · Rating 3 out of 5]

I actually only read As I Lay Dying, but there was no book here for that one alone. A challenging read, and rather a downer, but a very fascinating look at individual psychology, culture, and the perception of reality.

[Kaia · Rating 1 out of 5]

I tried with The Sound and the Fury but I really don't like stream of consciousness novels. I just found myself wandering and not following as closely as you need to with Faulkner's work. Lots of symbolism and certainly shows the decay of a family. Get your Cliff's notes out!

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

great, classics

[Tara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Light in August is my favorite of the three but they are great.

[Brianne Wilson]

Oprah has great selling power.

[Julia Schuyler · Rating 2 out of 5]

painful, just not worth it

[Lori · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved As I Lay Dying but the other two stories were not as memorable to me, although I do remember that I enjoyed them.

[Molly]

i already read these, but what a great concept for a collection!

[Amy]

I still haven't finished Light in August....think I will in August perhaps.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really fine and completely approachable examination of Faulkner's life and major works.

[Dawn Langley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tough to read, both grammatically and subject matter, but he's an American classic for a reason.

[Cathy]

After reading "As I Lay Dying" and "Light in August" I decided that I do not care for Faulkner and did not read "The Sound and the Fury"