Light in August
First published in 1932, ‘Light in August’ is a novel that contrasts stark tragedy with optimistic perseverance in the face of mortality, written by William Faulkner, a Nobel Prize-winning American author. One of the most influential writers of the 20th century, Faulkner’s reputation is based on his novels, novellas, and short stories. He was also a published poet and an occasional screenwriter.
The novel is set in the American South during prohibition and features an ensemble cast of Faulkner’s most memorable characters: honest and brave Lena Grove, in search of the father of her unborn child; Reverend Gail Hightower, a lonely outcast haunted by visions of Confederate glory; and Joe Christmas, a desperate, enigmatic drifter consumed by his mixed ancestry. These characters tussle with alienation, racism, and heartbreak across a nonlinear narrative. Classified as a Southern gothic and modernist novel, it is considered a seminal work in 20th-century American literature.
BEST DEALS
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.