William Faulkner's work has influenced many writers. His extravagant language and quirky stories are the epitome of fiction. Having read this amazing collection of short stories, I have no doubt in my mind that Faulkner was a very interesting person -- I would've loved to meet him.

My favorite story is "A Rose for Emily"; the quirkiness and symbolism in the story is both beautiful and strange. I also like "A Bear Hunt," "All the Dead Pilots," "Wash," and "Two Soldiers" -- all of the stories have a very unique language. If you like good literature, I strongly suggest that you read this amazing book.

The first Faulkner book I read was in my junior year of high school. When I consulted my teacher about whether I should choose Faulkner or another author to read, she told me something along the lines of, "Faulkner's regionalistic and enigmatic style is interpreted two different ways by two different types of people: One think that he is symbolic and profound, the other think that he is not and rather full of it." Well, I do feel sorry for the 'other' group, because to not reconize the depth behind his more-poetic-than-most-poets words is just plain out wacky. I will say that he is not your typical fiction writer, his books do not have action oriented plots (or even any action in some cases), but he still somehow manages to catch your interest. I have never fell asleep while reading a book or story by Faulkner, and not many authors have earned this distinction. He also leaves you with a sense of reflection, again something distinguishing him from many others. Personally, I prefer short stories to novels, I find that my focus to the point and plot of the story is less distracted by the end as with a novel and I typically find that I retain more. I do enjoy Faulkner's novels and have read quite a few, but this collection of short stories is just brilliant beyond brilliant. His words are potent and sharp in all of them, even if his point and meaning is more elusive. I completely and totally recommend that everyone read this collection of stories. Everyone. Really. That means you too.

William Faulkner is a fantastic, interesting writer. This collection of short stories is as engaging and well-written as his longer novels, with stories and characters as real as memories.

Faulkner is a brilliant storyteller. Begin with "A Bear Hunt" and "A Rose for Emily." You will be captivated by this wonderful collection.

If you love reading Faulkner, then I recommend the Modern Library edition of _Snopes_. Snopes, probably some of the most unjustly underrated Faulkner, is also a fine introduction to his fiction since it contains some of the stories published separately, such as "Spotted Horses." In Snopes Faulkner works the revolving point of view to great effect with primarily four narrators; V.K. Ratliff, the sanguine sewing machine salesman, Gavin Stevens, the sensitive, meddlesome county attorney, Charles mallison, the young boy who grows up with the 2nd and 3rd books, and finally the community of Jefferson itself as a kind of collective 3rd person. Snopes is an inviting, lyrical novel, one that accomodates the reader as a citizen of Jefferson and privileges that new citizen with as much gossip as any other. It's a rich and telling family chronicle as well as a novelistic treatise on time and change in rural Yoknapatawpha County and the town of Jefferson, with real relevance for our own time since as Cleanth Brooks says, Flem Snopes is himself a harbinger of Corporate expansion and agressiveness. Snopes is also a treatment on money, developing more at times a sense of the value of money from the point of view of those with precious little of it than just those with a good deal more of it. These books do get at the human condition, Faulkner wrests even from the innocuous daily affairs a tangible improvement in the catalog of human understading. He approaches his characters, especially the memorable Mink Snopes, with the passion and understanding that they are human and therefore complex and their reasons complex, even if they are simple and criminally minded. It is a pleasing volume that does not disappoint in the end, the satisfying resolution that the reader comes to believe may not happen but does.

It is incredible how many thing can be done in Jefferson Mississippi at the beginning of the century with one dollar...And it is incredible how many things can be done as well for one dollar. The ever-lasting duel between good and evil are pictured in three novels by Faulkner over a life-span. The first creates the background, the scenario were the characters will play their role, the second pictures the slow and almost unnoticed growing of a pest, while the third is the final break down. The continuos shifting from one character to the other allows you to see the same event under different sight-points, emotions and ways of feeling: slowly the reader becomes a citizen of Jefferson, and share with the others the same struggling for life, the same poverty, the same aspiration and, unhappily, the same fear for the Snopes-pest, everything-sacrifing for money and wealth.

What Faulkner has done in this trilogy in particular and in his Yoknapatawpha County tales in general, is to create his own world system. What Kant, Hegel, Marx and other great thinkers have done was create their own system and metaphysics on which rests the universe of their ideas. Snopes and co. are the people who live in Faulkner's world of the Deep South which is a prallel universe to the one we live in... it is as always full of intense characters, flowing lyricism, violence and shifting view points which unerringly and uncomfortably resonate in our own world.

Faulkner is, without a doubt, one of the South's best writers, and re-reading this collection of novels after many years affirms that belief for me. He was a master of words and I wish we had more Faulkner novels to feast on. Almost no one can measure up to him!

There is nothing quantitative in this volume that you can't get in other editions of Faulkner's work; however, the Library of America copy is to be strongly commended for the clarity of its typeface, its sturdy cloth-bound hardcover, and its designed ability to *lie flat* at each page. The only fault I could find with this volume is that it would be nice to have _The Sound and the Fury_ included in a Library of America edition as well (currently, the Modern Library edition is the best that can be done). I strongly recommend this edition to the serious reader who, familiar with Faulkner, is looking for a reference copy of these works that will not deteriorate over time (did I mention acid-free paper and a cloth bookmark?). Considering the price of each of these titles in paperback, this volume's value to the casual reader speaks for itself; you, too, are advised to invest in this worthy tome.

There are many great books, but I have read only two perfect ones, "As I Lay Dying" by Faulkner and Shakespeare's "King Lear." Lear's "howl" after Cordelia's death is (I think) the high point of English literature and Vardeman's internal dialoge (and chapter heading "My Mother is a Fish") is the purest form of writing expression and the high-water mark of American Literature. If you like to read, there are so many subtle threads that run through "As I Lay Dying." You'll recognize Chaucer, T.S.Eliot, and I think Shakespeare's "Lear." Like Gorky, Faulkner uses common people to expound upon universal themes like betrayal and unrequited love, but he does it better, and looks at it harder, than anyone has before or since.

Diane Roberts attempts to tackle the enormous topic of Faulkner's female characters. Roberts divides her study into six sections (Confederate Woman, Mammy, Tragic Mulatta, New Belle, Night Sister, and Mothers) focusing on a type of character. Roberts asserts that she "found it useful to recover some of these stereotype, or stock characters, to read Faulkner as a product, as well as producer, of the multifaceted place (and metaphor) called the South" (xi). Further, each of the six sections is further subdivided into a portion that demonstrates the context and representation of the archetype and into other portions that discuss the role of the archetype in Faulkner's fiction. Faulkner and Southern Womanhood's organization makes it a useful tool for scholars with a variety of pursuits. Students interested in a particular character type can look at individual chapters in Faulkner and Southern Womanhood, since Roberts's chapters read well as stand alone essays only rarely referring readers back to other chapters of the text.
The introduction of Faulkner and Southern Womanhood clearly delineates the structure which Roberts will follow throughout her book as well as mentioning the school-of-thought which influences her study. Roberts defines the six archetypes which she chooses to interpret in terms of Mikhail Bakhtin's use and explanation of classical and grotesque bodies. While Roberts does employ theorists, including Bakhtin, Derrida, and Cixous, to greater and lesser degrees, she maintains a prose style free of the opacity to which abstract literary theory lends itself. The combination of literary theory and language accessible to lay readers increases the range of students who might find Roberts's work useful and interesting.
Roberts uses the archetypes to "show how the models held up for women to measure themselves against come into play in Faulkner's fiction" (xiii). Faulkner and Southern Womanhood does not hunt for stereotypes so much as it finds echoes of stereotypes in Faulkner's corpus. Roberts demonstrates that though the stereotypes are shadows of Faulkner's characters, Faulkner is subverting the social order that constructs stereotypes to control women by deploying these dehumanizing stereotypes in his own fiction in a manner that demonstrates the paradoxical and false nature of the stereotypes.

This book is exquisitely written, fascinating--I highly recommend it not only for the Faulkner scholar, but for anyone (like me!) who is interested in his writings. Roberts' writing remains free from pretentious jargon, unlike so many scholarly works, and the ideas posited are original, thought provoking, and just plain INTERESTING!

I must say, that when I first picked this book up, I was a bit skeptical. It was wrapped in plastic giving me no idea of what was in it, and it was by some publishing company I never heard of. But, being an impulse buyer, I paid for it, and brought it to a coffee shop where I continued to read and read, on the way home, while watching television, and even when I went to bed, and did not put it down until I read the whole thing. As a writer and fellow fan of Faulkner, I highly recommend this book to any student or fan (what's the difference, though?) of Faulkner's writings, and especially to any writers out there, and most of all, any Faulkner teachers. Faulkner is asked any question you can think of in this book, from certain meanings in his, "The Bear", to the long time controversy about the order of sections in "The Sound and the Fury", to the Adlers in "As I Lay Dying", all the way to why he prefers the Old Testament to the New. He even puts down Henry James in this book, and talks about his greatest influences on his writing, his favorite books (such as Cervantes' Don Quixote) and even puts in some good advice to aspiring authors, and how they should take writing, and even advice on how to write in the traditional Southern Gothic style. Truly a magnificent book that deserves top priority to any fan or teacher of Faulkner, or any writer in general! A masterpiece!!!

(. . .) I highly recommend this book to any student or fan (what's the difference, though?) of Faulkner's writings, and especially to any writers out there, and most of all, any Faulkner teachers. Faulkner is asked any question you can think of in this book, from certain meanings in his, "The Bear", to the long time controversy about the order of sections in "The Sound and the Fury", to the Adlers in "As I Lay Dying", all the way to why he prefers the Old Testament to the New. He even puts down Henry James in this book, and talks about his greatest influences on his writing, his favorite books (such as Cervantes' Don Quixote) and even puts in some good advice to aspiring authors, and how they should take writing, and even advice on how to write in the traditional Southern Gothic style. Truly a magnificent book that deserves top priority to any fan or teacher of Faulkner, or any writer in general! A masterpiece!!!

John Faulkner succeeded capturing the South better than any author I have read. I grew up near his location and in a family with the same moral and cultural values of his. His family could have been mine. If you want to travel to the South that used to be, that our families helped build after the Civil War and before Korea this is the best way I know to do it. His frugal use of words and his short sentences only add to the authenticity of his descriptions. For those of us from there he brings to life,as none other, what used to be and is to never be again.

A wonderful stylist, John tells the intimate story of the Faulkner family that no biographer or academic could. You simply don't know Faulkner until you've read this book.

Nephew Jim Faulkner talks about his famous uncle. These stories will be appreciated by Faulkner fans-- no one else. The nine stories provide a look at an off-duty Faulkner. One of the more interesting tales explains why Oxford has two Confederate monuments.

I first read Go Down, Moses in grad school but am now returning to it after 3 years. Faulkner explores his usual themes--memory, history. black/white/Indian relations, the South, slavery, ownership, etc.--in a way that's just as compelling as in Absalom, Absalom or Sound and the Fury. It's a collection of short stories which I believe are meant to be read in order, unlike other collections. We get different viewpoints from different characters at different ages. When you're tempted to give up in the middle of a 5-page-long sentence, don't. Fascinating

I read Go Down Moses in 1996 before taking a trip to Mississippi. I had never read Faulkner before and had only one criterion for picking a book of his: it had to take place in the mythical Yoknapatawpha County. I picked this one off the library shelf.

For any non-southern American whose sole exposure to what happened there was from history books, this should forever shatter the pat preconceptions and simplistic black and white (no pun intended!) formulas they were taught.

The book plunges you into a vast panorama of ambiguities and contradictions. It was clear to me from the first paragraph that Faulkner was a genius. In the whole history of literature, he surely stands among a select few at the very pinnacle of greatness.

Go Down Moses is a tremendous struggle to get through. Some parts are straightforward and easy, but there are others that you can't hope to make literal sense of. You're bombarded by its twisted grammar. Its frantic confusion. Its endlessly unresolved sentences. But through these, Faulkner ultimately conveys the pain of history -- past and present. The emotion of that pain seems more real to him than the specific incidents it sprang from. Why else would a book begun in pre-Civil War Mississippi -- entirely skip it -- picking up again a generation later?

This book is about the South. Having read it, Faulkner walked beside me every step of the way I took through his state. But this book also has a sub-theme that should not be overlooked. Faulkner was a profound environmentalist, although sharply contrasted with how we usually think of that term. Hunters don't much fit the mold of environmentalism -- and Faulkner was an avid one of that lot. So, in that sense, along with all the sociological, he can shake you up pretty good! Go Down Moses contains some of the most wrenching descriptions you could hope to find on the loss of wilderness. There is nothing ambiguous in his portrayal of that loss. Faulkner may confound everything you thought you believed of Southern sociology, but in an environmental sense, he leaves no room for confusion. Leave those trees standing!

This book will grip you; I can't imagine it having a lesser effect. Like all truly great art, it should change you forever.

Please, please do not pass over the other fine stories in GO DOWN, MOSES and go straight to "The Bear." This gem means much more when illuminated by the other parts of the text, and only by reading the entire book can you fully understand the meaning of Ike's repudiation of the McCaslin land. I recently completed a Faulkner course, and of all of his "genius" novels--"As I Lay Dying," "Light in August," "Go Down, Moses," "The Sound and the Fury," and "Absalom! Absalom!"--I believe that this one has the strongest emotional core. Read the whole thing; your experience will be much richer.

I will not discuss the story because I assume anyone looking for this edition of the book knows something of the novel. I will say that I think this edition is the best I have ever read and I enjoyed it immensely. I read the commentary and reviews with as much interest as I did the novel itself. The editor did a good job assembling an all star cast to review the book and provide background information.
Anyone interested in this novel, first time readers or fans of the book, should own this copy. It was fabulous from beginning to end. Make sure to read all the articles and reviews, you will not be disappointed.

This book is confusing and difficult to read at first. You have to ride it like you would a "rapid river"-- just hang on, get what you can, and go back a second or third time. It might be helpful to read the background information AFTER you've read the story at least once.

Now, does this sound like too much work? Well, it isn't. Once you've done the reading, you'll realize that there is real genius at work in this text. The prose is strongly crafted, and the story that Faulkner relates is one that cannot be forgotten. You will want to read the rest of the Compton's stories-- Absalom! Absalom! is one, and you'll never think of those big gorgeous moss covered southern mansions the same way again.

I read The Sound and the Fury last year for my English research paper. I'm glad I forced myself to read it and not get discouraged by the incredibly difficult first chapter. I wouldn't recommend this if you have trouble reading complex literature but the time I put into the work was well worth it and the criticisms and supplimental material in the Norton edition were very helpful...