2. Childhood
William Faulkner (September 25, 1897 – July
6, 1962)
Born in New Albany, Mississippi in 1897.
His parents were Murray Charles Faulkner
and Maud (Butler) Faulkner. He was the
eldest son of four brothers.
He grew up in one of the poorest states,
with 25% of families below the poverty
line.
He aspired to be like his great-grandfather
who was also a writer.
3. As a Young Man
He was member of the football team;
however, he never graduated fro
school.
He dreamed of becoming a pilot in the
army, however was declined because
of his height. (165 cm)
He later became a member of the
Royal Canadian Air Force through
World War I but never saw flying time
in combat.
His lack of war experience was a major
difference between him and many
other writers from this period.
4. Adulthood
For a span of twenty years he worked in
Hollywood writing screen plays and
novels.
He worked in Hollywood with Howard
Hawks, a movie director who became a
friend.
Married Estelle Oldham, who developed a
drug addiction which affected their
marriage. They had three children
together.
His hard drinking during his life also
affected his body and mental
performance.
5. Faulkner Wrote About…
Stories that
corresponded with his
own life, like his
problem with drinking,
and his fantasies,
including a strange
obsession with rape,
incest, suicide and
greed.
6. The Best Books By William Faulkner
Sanctuary (1931) This novel revolves around a naïve teenage student, who falls into the hands
of some amoral southern bootleggers who use her and to whom she grows attached.
Sanctuary goes deep in its study of human sin and sexuality gone amiss.
The Sound and the Fury (1929) The book is both a notoriously arduous and disturbing read,
whose subject matter confronts painful themes, among which reside incest and suicide. A true
tale of endurance and human suffering which will stay with readers for a very long time indeed.
A Rose for Emily (1930) In a series of flashbacks, it chronicles the life of the now deceased
Emily Grierson and her reluctance to change, as she lives a life of decay and seclusion in her
mansion. The story climaxes at its shocking conclusion in the final lines, which surprises even
the most observant of readers!
The Reivers (1962)The Reivers is a much more light-hearted affair than his earlier works. This
story features an eleven-year-old protagonist reminiscent of Mark Twain‘s Huckleberry Finn,
and two older companions, who together steal a car in Mississippi and embark on a picaresque
road trip filled with misadventures which take them north, to Memphis.
7. Absalom, Absalom!
Absalom, Absalom! details the rise
and fall of Thomas Sutpen, a white
man born into poverty in West
Virginia who comes
to Mississippi with the
complementary aims of gaining
wealth and becoming a powerful
family patriarch. The story is told
entirely in flashbacks narrated
mostly by Quentin Compson to his
roommate at Harvard University,
Shreve, who frequently contributes
his own suggestions and surmises.
8. Context
Absalom, Absalom! is perhaps Faulkner's
most focused attempt to expose the moral
crises which lead to destruction. Faulker tells
a single story from a number of perspectives,
capturing the conflict, racism, violence, and
sacrifice in each character's life, and also
demonstrating how the human mind
reconstructs the past in the present
imagination.
9. Characters
Thomas Sutpen: Owner and founder of the plantation Sutpen's
Hundred, in Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi.
Charles Bon: Son of Thomas Sutpen and Eulalia Bon,.
Ellen Coldfield Sutpen: Thomas Sutpen's second wife, mother of
Henry and Judith Sutpen. A flighty and excitable woman.
Rosa Coldfield : Briefly engaged to Thomas Sutpen following
Ellen's death
Mr. Coldfield: A middle-class Methodist merchant and father of
Ellen and Rosa.
Henry Sutpen: Thomas Sutpen's son with Ellen.
Judith Sutpen: Thomas Sutpen's daughter with Ellen.
10. Characters
• Clytemnestra Sutpen: Daughter of Thomas Sutpen and a slave
woman.
• Wash Jones: A low-class squatter living in the abandoned fishing
camp at Sutpen's Hundred.
• Milly Jones: Wash Jones' young granddaughter, who at fifteen gave
birth to Thomas Sutpen's child.
• Quentin Compson: A young man from Jefferson, Mississippi, who is
preparing to attend Harvard
• General Compson: Quentin's grandfather and Thomas Sutpen's first
friend in Yoknapatawpha County.
• Mr. Compson: Quentin's father
• Shreve: Quentin's roommate at Harvard.
