The Sound & the Fury (Norton Critical Editions)

About this book

The text of this Norton Critical Edition is that of the corrected edition scrupulously prepared by Noel Polk whose textual note precedes the text. David Minter s annotations are designed to assist the reader with obscure words and allusions. "Backgrounds" begins with the appendix Faulkner wrote in 1945 and sometimes referred to as another telling of The Sound and the Fury and includes a selection of Faulkner s letters excerpts from two Faulkner interviews a memoir by Faulkners friend Ben Wasson and both versions of Faulkners 1933 introduction to the novel. "Cultural and Historical Contexts" presents four different perspectives on the place of the American South in history. Taken together these works by C. Vann Woodward Richard H. King Carolyn Porter and Robert Penn Warren provide the reader with valuable contexts for understanding the novel. "Criticism" includes seventeen essays on The Sound and the Fury that collectively trace changes in the way we have viewed this novel over the last four decades. The critics are Jean-Paul Sartre Irving Howe Ralph Ellison Olga W. Vickery Cleanth Brooks Michael Millgate John T. Irwin Myra Jehlen Donald M. Kartiganer David Minter Warwick Wadlington John T. Matthews Thadious M. Davis Wesley Morris and Barbara Alverson Morris Minrose C. Gwin Andr Bleikasten and Philip M. Weinstein. A revised Selected Bibliography is also included.