Selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best novels of all time From the Modern Library's new set of beautifully repackaged hardcover classics by William Faulkner--also available are Snopes, The Sound and the Fury, Light in August, Absalom, Absalom!, and Selected Short Stories One of William Faulkner's finest novels, As I Lay Dying, originally published in 1930, remains a captivating and stylistically innovative work. The story revolves around a grim yet darkly humorous pilgrimage, as Addie Bundren's ...
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Selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best novels of all time From the Modern Library's new set of beautifully repackaged hardcover classics by William Faulkner--also available are Snopes, The Sound and the Fury, Light in August, Absalom, Absalom!, and Selected Short Stories One of William Faulkner's finest novels, As I Lay Dying, originally published in 1930, remains a captivating and stylistically innovative work. The story revolves around a grim yet darkly humorous pilgrimage, as Addie Bundren's family sets out to fulfill her last wish: to be buried in her native Jefferson, Mississippi, far from the miserable backwater surroundings of her married life. Told through multiple voices, As I Lay Dying vividly brings to life Faulkner's imaginary South, one of literature's great invented landscapes, and is replete with the poignant, impoverished, violent, and hypnotically fascinating characters that were his trademark. Along with a new Foreword by E. L. Doctorow, this edition reproduces the corrected text of As I Lay Dying as established in 1985 by Faulkner expert Noel Polk.
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Add this copy of As I Lay Dying to cart. $69.93, good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Dallas rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Dallas, TX, UNITED STATES, published 2005 by Books on Tape.
Add this copy of As I Lay Dying to cart. $120.41, good condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Newport Coast, CA, UNITED STATES, published 2005 by Books on Tape.
This book is really good if you're willing to read it. Faulkner, traditionally, is somewhat of a deterrent to many, but his writing in this novel is understandable and emotionally-charged. That said, the book is not for everyone; there are some strong themes of adultery, madness, and the cruelty of human indifference. If you decide to read this book:
1. Read it all at once. 2. Don't try too hard to understand it. It all comes together at the end.
rejoyce
Oct 2, 2007
Comic Allegory of Family
William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying is a kind of comic allegory of family, duty, honor, and pride. Scene upon scene are plainly grotesque: Addie, the Bundren ancestor, looks out of the window to see her son Cash building a coffin, her body placed in reverse to accommodate her bridal gown, the smell emanating from the box, the journey to her hometown Jefferson, the episode on the river, Cash laid on a palette atop the coffin after breaking his leg. This is an essentially comic treatment of death--and a harbinger of black comedy--but Faulkner complicates a relatively simple plot by maddening the reader with 15 different points of view. Perhaps it's as Cleanth Brooks wrote: the novel's multivocal nature highlights the human isolation within the Bundren family. Less important than The Sound and the Fury and Absalom, Absalom! in the Faulkner canon, but darkly funny if the reader can bear the relentlessly shifting perspectives.
Selina
Sep 22, 2007
A family drama
The story shifts point of view in this epic tale of a disfuctional family. The story is told out of order due to switching perspectives. A family comes to terms with thier mother's death. The fueding brothers Darl and Jewel take up most of this sad tale.