Sartoris

In this Southern gothic classic by a Nobel Prize winner, the shadows of war drive a wedge between a wealthy Mississippi family and their dreams.

At the end of the Civil War, Confederate Colonel John Sartoris brought the railroad to Jefferson, Mississippi, where he planted roots, grew a family, and became a legend . . .

Decades later, the once prosperous Sartoris clan is experiencing a reversal of fortune. Two of Colonel John’s great-grandsons—twins John and Young Bayard—are fighter pilots in the First World War, but only Young Bayard returns home alive. Now the young man faces a new battle.

Hoping to move on, Young Bayard settles down with the lovely Narcissa Benbow. Yet guilt, grief, and his family’s ghosts refuse to let him go. Theirs is a reality from which there is no way out, only a living death or violent self-destruction . . .

Originally published in 1929, Sartoris was Faulkner’s third novel and marked a new stage in his development as an author. It was his first work to introduce his mythical Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi, as well as many characters he would revisit in further tales.

“[A] wonderfully readable novel, the work of a master storyteller. . . . If you have never read any of Faulkner’s books, start with Sartoris.” —The New York Times