William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying: An Authoritative Text with Annotations and Critical Commentary

808guy: Re-reading the classics in retirement. Suitable font size for older eyes.

United States on Nov 04, 2023

Ashley Lee: 👍

United States on Oct 25, 2023

Lindsay Knowlton: Reading for a class on Faulkner

United States on Oct 11, 2023

phil jude: Faulkner is one of the finest writers of American novels.

United Kingdom on Jul 15, 2023

Kent Nelson: That is saying something, as Faulkner never deals with functional families. Anse Bundren is both put upon and the instrument of his own self imposed bad luck, due primarily to his condition of not being able to sweat lest it make him ill, which is unfortunate for a farmer in the deep south before air conditioning.

Addie apparently hates her family, except for Jewel, the progeny of an affair. The novel opens brilliantly showing Jewel's straightforward determined character in simply how he walks. His stubborn work ethic setting him apart from Anse. Dewey Dell has her own problem she's trying to solve and Darl is the only one who really catches on but he's also crazy. Cash is just Cash; a carpenter holding up the coffin in progress for his mother to see out the window.

Addie insists on being buried in Jefferson on the other side of the county and circumstances coalesce to make this the odyssey from hell. But Anse has his own plans and a kind of pride, as does Dewey Dell.

I've read this novel three times and will read again. The humor (hilarity) is there as is tragedy and bad breaks (one literally) and the Faulkner trick of planting images and tableaus in your...

United States on Mar 29, 2022

Bryan Desmond: Rating classics is tricky. Or, well, I guess not tricky. It's just that my mouse wants to hover over that five-star button. It's like it's pulled their magnetically. Classic literature known by all? One of the most widely influential and highly regarded authors of our age? Must give five stars! It's silly, but that feeling is there.

All that's to say, four stars seems appropriate for As I Lay Dying, my first William Faulkner novel. It wasn't my favorite, but I be durn if I didn't enjoy it. Be durn if I didn't.

Firstly, it's a novel about a dying woman. Or rather, a woman who dies. And in the main it's about her family, the Bundrens, and the aura of doom that surrounds the burying of their matriarch. And for the first time in a while I would say that the way this book is written is more interesting than what is being written about.

Faulkner utilized a stream-of-consciousness narration technique in writing it. I feel like it's a style I've read before, though no book springs immediately to mind, but damn if it isn't an interesting way to write a novel. What ends up happening is that the character voices become extremely distinct as you become intimately familiar...

United States on Jan 30, 2021

Brunel: COURS

France on Jul 02, 2019

Kilmaruu: Wow, the book is great

Canada on Oct 18, 2018

Acosta Fortino: William Faulkner give us a simple story rich in american images with authentic characters that show us the hardtime of the countryside one century ago!

Mexico on Oct 13, 2017

UnbiasedReviewer: Very slow book with lots of detail. Had to give up halfway through
May visit it when I have more free time. Not to be read for past-time
This book is the perfect example of the "stream of consciousness" which was used by Modernist writers

India on Dec 06, 2015