Is The Sound and the Fury an easy read?

William Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury is not a particularly easy book to read. This doesn’t mean that it’s bad, or that books that are easier to read are bad. It is just a fact—it demands extra attention from most readers, myself very much included.

What time period is The Sound and the Fury set in?

The Sound and the Fury is the story of the Compson family’s decline and fall; when Faulkner was asked by a student why the Compsons are such a disaster, he answered: “They live in the 1860s.” The novel ranges from 1900 to 1928, but the Compsons remain trapped in the obsolete attitudes and ideas of the South in the …

Why you should read The Sound and the Fury?

Rereading The Sound and the Fury magnified my appreciation of it tenfold. Now that I understood the basic plot, I could focus more on the characters, language, and structure of the novel. This experience encapsulates why I love to reread books, especially ones as complex and intense as those that Faulkner writes.

Is the sound and the fury difficult?

The Sound and the Fury is considered a rather difficult read. It’s written in four parts that overlap, interweave, and jump around in time. The story is told by different narrators who are not entirely reliable. Lastly, many people (I was once one of them) find stream of consciousness writing difficult to follow.

Which William Faulkner novel should I read first?

S&F is a good start because it introduces you to a lot of characters and backgrounds that would be recurrent in many of Faulkner’s other novels. If you’re just looking for the easiest of his novels, I’d recommend Sanctuary or Light in August or Go Down, Moses.

Is Faulkner hard reading?

There is no really difficult Faulkner. If you find any difficulty in deciphering it, try reading it aloud or listening in audiobook. The sentances are sometimes confusing when read silently, but they fall out pretty clearly when you actually listen to them.

Did Quentin sleep with caddy?

In his room, Quentin cleans a bloodstain off his vest and thinks about his mother. He remembers the time he told his father he had committed incest with Caddy, and that his father did not believe him. His father told Quentin that his feelings of despair about Caddy’s behavior would quickly pass.

Is William Faulkner good?

American novelist and short-story writer William Faulkner is widely regarded as one of the greatest writers of the 20th century. He is remembered for his pioneering use of the stream-of-consciousness technique as well as the range and depth of his characterization. In 1949 Faulkner won the Nobel Prize for Literature.

What is happening in the Sound and the Fury?

The Sound and the Fury is a dramatic presentation of the decline of the once-aristocratic Compson family of Yoknapatawpha County, in northern Mississippi. Divided into four sections, the history is narrated by three Compson brothers — Benjamin, Quentin, and Jason — followed by a section by an omniscient narrator.

What is considered Faulkner’s best book?

As I Lay Dying This, Faulkner’s fifth book, is widely considered his best. He himself called it “a tour-de-force”. As I Lay Dying flits back and forth in stream of consciousness narration with fifteen narrators and fifty nine chapters that take us through the burial of the Bundren family matriarch, Addie.