The Life of William Faulkner

In this major reassessment, now available in paperback, Richard Gray uses and develops recent theories about the relationship between writing and historical experience, language and social change, to draw a brilliantly detailed portrait of the place and times Faulkner inhabited. Attending closely to each of the novels, Gray shows how they brim with an often undisclosed biography that is at once personal and cultural.

Illustrations. Preface. 1 Fictions of History: An Approach to Faulkner. I. On Privacy: Faulkner and the Human Subject. II. History as Autobiography: The World of Faulkner. III. Autobiography as History: The Life of Faulkner. 2 Faulkner the Apprentice. I. Trying Out Different Voices: The Early Prose and Poetry. II. Of Loss and Longing: Soldier's Pay and Mosquitoes. 3 Rewriting the Homeplace. I. Ancestor Worship, Patricide, and the Epic Past: Flags in the Dust and Sartoris. II. Voices, Absence, and Cultural Autobiography: The Sound of the Fury. III. A Southern Carnival: As I Lay Dying. IX. And Woman Was Invented: Sanctuary. 4 Of Past and Present Conflicts. I. Language, Power, and the Verbal Community: Light in August. II. The Virile Pilot and the Seductions of the Aitr: Pylon. III. History is What Hurts; Absalom, Absalom!. IV. The Plantation Romance and the Madwoman in the Attic: The Unvanquished. 5 Public Faces and Private Places. I. Now About These Women: The Wild Palms. II. Let's Make A Deal: The Hamlet. III. Things Fall Apart: Go Down, Moses. IV. Watching the Detectives: Intruder in the Dust. 6 The Way Home. I. Finished and Unfinished Business: Knight's Gambit and Requiem for a Nun. II. Of Crowds, Control, and Courage: A Fable. III. Distant Voice, Desperate Lives: The Towns. IV. Then the Letting Go: The Mansion. Postscript: Back To Earth. Poatscript: Back to Earth. I The Romance of the Family: The Reivers. II. 'I was Here' Faulkner Family Tree. Faulkner Family Tress. I The Faulkners. II. Faulkner's Wife. III. 'The Old Colonel's' Second Wife and Family. IV. Faulkner's Mother. Chronology. Notes. Bibliography. Index.