3.0
The Saddest Words: William Faulkner's Civil War
ByPublisher Description
A “timely and essential” (New York Times Book Review) reconsideration of William Faulkner’s life and legacy that vitally asks, “How should we read Faulkner today?”
With this “rich, complex, and eloquent” (Drew Gilpin Faust, Atlantic) work, Pulitzer Prize finalist Michael Gorra charts the evolution of an author through his most cherished—and contested—novels. Given the undeniable echoes of “Lost Cause” romanticism in William Faulkner’s fiction, as well as his depiction of Black characters and Black speech, Gorra argues convincingly that Faulkner demands a sobering reevaluation. Upending previous critical traditions and interweaving biography, literary criticism, and rich travelogue, the widely acclaimed The Saddest Words recontextualizes Faulkner, revealing a civil war within him, while examining the most plangent cultural issues facing American literature today.Download the free Fable app
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communities4 Reviews
3.0
eric fable test
Created over 2 years agoShare
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Ryan Collins
Created over 3 years agoShare
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“A blend of historiography and literary criticism, Gorra’s book looks at Faulkner’s internal struggle with the legacy of the Civil War and how that struggle not only defined Faulkner’s work. but also how it is a huge part of contemporary Southern identity. Far from idolizing Faulkner, Gorra interrogates the ways Faulkner addressed the important issues/abominations of Southern ( and American) history while often failing to take a firm moral stance in his actual life.
Beautifully written as well!”
Jill
Created about 4 years agoShare
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““Was- a determining force, on which we can have no purchase, and for which there is no redress. The past stays with us, irrevocable and unrecoverable.”
This reads more like a semi-stream-of-conscious damming history of the Civil War and Reconstruction with cameos by Faulkner characters as though they were real, but I wasn’t mad about it. Not for the Faulkner unfamiliar as it assumes a high level of familiarity with his works and characters. It’s dense, but I found it very readable and educational. The Sound and the Fury analysis was buried in the end but worth it. Author clearly deeply admires Faulkner but it’s a bit of takedown at the end of his personal failures and enduring racism.”
Jack Long
Created over 4 years agoShare
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About Michael Gorra
Michael Gorra is the Mary Augusta Jordan Professor of English at Smith College, where he has taught since 1985. He is the recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Guggenheim Foundation and, for his work as a reviewer, of the Balakian Award from the National Book Critics Circle. His books include The Saddest Words: William Faulkner’s Civil War; Portrait of a Novel: Henry James and the Making of on American Masterpiece, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Biography; The Bells in Their Silence: Travels through Germany; After Empire: Scott, Naipaul, Rushdie; The English Novel at Mid-Century; and, as editor, The Portable Conrad and the Norton Critical Editions of The Sound and the Fury and The Portrait of a Lady.
Other books by Michael Gorra
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