About this item
Selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best novels of all timeFrom the Modern Librarys new set of beautifully repackaged hardcover classics by William Faulkner - also available are Snopes, As I Lay Dying, The Sound and the Fury, Absalom, Absalom!, and Selected Short StoriesOne of William Faulkners most admired and accessible novels, Light in August reveals the great American author at the height of his powers. Lena Groves resolute search for the father of her unborn child begets a rich, poignant, and ultimately hopeful story of perseverance in the face of mortality. It also acquaints us with several of Faulkners most unforgettable characters, including the Reverend Gail Hightower, plagued by visions of Confederate horsemen, and Joe Christmas, a ragged, itinerant soul obsessed with his mixed-race ancestry. Powerfully entwining these characters stories, Light in August brings to life Faulkners imaginary South, one of literatures great invented landscapes, in all of its unerringly fascinating glory. Along with a new Foreword by C. E. Morgan, this edition reproduces the corrected text of Light in August as established in 1985 by Faulkner expert Noel Polk.
About the Author
Born in 1897 in New Albany, Mississippi, William Faulkner was the son of a family proud of their prominent role in the history of the south. He grew up in Oxford, Mississippi, and left high school at fifteen to work in his grandfather's bank.Rejected by the US military in 1915, he joined the Canadian flyers with the RAF, but was still in training when the war ended. Returning home, he studied at the University of Mississippi and visited Europe briefly in 1925.His first poem was published in The New Republic in 1919. His first book of verse and early novels followed, but his major work began with the publication of The Sound and the Fury in 1929. As I Lay Dying (1930) , Sanctuary (1931) , Light in August (1932) , Absalom, Absalom! (1936) and The Wild Palms (1939) are the key works of his great creative period leading up to Intruder in the Dust (1948) . During the 1930s, he worked in Hollywood on film scripts, notably The Blue Lamp, co-written with Raymond Chandler. William Faulkner was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1949 and the Pulitzer Prize for The Reivers just before his death in July 1962.Photo by Carl Van Vechten [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.
