The Sound and the Fury
by William Faulkner
Published in 1929
366 pages
Literary fiction
Goodreads
Read for The 1929 Club
So far, I had only read As I Lay Dying, by Faulkner, which I really enjoyed, but never dared to go further. One reason was a person who used to be in our book club and would heavily criticize The Sound and the Fury. But I was curious and finally decided to read it for The 1929 Club .And I am sure glad I did!
Knowing that The Sound and the Fury can be challenging, I decided to use a tool to help me. So I not only checked out the novel at my library, but also the Cliffs Notes volume, written by James L. Roberts, from the University of Nebraska.
Now, each time I mention Cliffs Notes, I hear people sneering. Which is really wrong.
I understand that there are students who decide to skip reading a book, and instead read the Cliffs Notes related to the book. Obviously, they miss the whole point.
BUT if you want to read a challenging novel, and you are looking for a tool to help you along the way, I really don’t see the problem. I think this Cliffs Notes is actually excellent.
It was very helpful for me to understand especially the fist section, narrated by Benjy. If you have no idea how the book works, the novel starts with Benjy, who is a 33 year-old mentally challenged man.
He recounts events that happened in his family, but he has no linear concept of time, and the stream of consciousness narration technique used here by Faulkner is really to the max: one word Benjy hears will trigger a memory, then by another association of sound, idea, or emotion, it will lead to another one, and these events can have happened any time during his life.
Sometimes, Faulkner writes a paragraph in italics, then you know that the preceding and the following lines are not set during that same period, but sometimes he doesn’t even do that.
I really appreciated that Roberts gave the details for each paragraph, or sometimes even line, when this happened, and how Benjy’s mind worked to connect these things.
The next two parts are narrated by Benjy’s brothers, Quentin and Jason, and they also use the stream of consciousness. Once you get into the groove, it’s really neat. It gives a wonderful flow.
I liked how often the dialogs are integrated into the narration with a simple I say (or most often I says!), he says, all on the same line, with hardly any punctuation.
Only the last section is in the third person narrative, narrated by the author, and is more linear.
This is the portrait of a very dysfunctional family, the Compsons.
Even though the daughter Candace (Caddy) is not the narrator of any part here, she’s actually the focus of the book. Benjy is the closest to her, as she seems to be understanding him more than the others. But when she leaves, he is devastated and will never recover. He is also traumatized when he sensed she has changed, in her body. Benjy is hypersensitive, he is even described as able to smell when death is roaming around.
Quentin, the university student, is also upset by Caddy’s promiscuity. He is thinking of some radical solution to take on her shame, but instead makes another extreme move, to basically escape the constraints of time.
Jason is the fox here, or the wolf, trying to make business, stealing money, even from his own family, and feeling but contempt and hate for them all.
Their mother is also a piece of work, focusing on her illnesses, and absolutely not understanding neither her challenged son nor her daughter.
The only person who is really loving and tries to keep everyone together is the old black servant Dilsey. She is the only one who can really comfort Benjy.
I really like how the book can actually be understood as different views of time: are you totally mixed up with it, like Benjy? Are you afraid of the future and try to escape it with Quentin? Or are you so focused on your selfish interests that you are stuck in a narrow present, without considering how you may impact others and their future?
Besides the stream of consciousness, I liked the extremely oral style. In fact, it often helps to read aloud some passages to better understand their meaning, as Faulkner tried to convey the idea of the use of English by a Southern family (the book is set in Mississippi) and their black servants.
The Cliffs Notes has a genealogy, which helps keeps track between the 2 Maurys, and several Quentins – most are men, but there’s also a girl with that name!
I guess after The Sound and the Fury (by the way Roberts also helped me understand the title), I am ready to tackle Virginia Woolf, another master of the stream of consciousness.
I am also planning to read more by Faulkner.
VERDICT: Challenging novels are worth it! Stream of consciousness at its best?
Words And Peace 
I read this book in college and loved it. It probably helped that I had a wonderful professors who introduced me to many great authors. I’ve written about the experience of taking his class here: https://casdinteret.com/2020/08/robert-p-weeks-my-most-influential-college-professor/
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Thanks for sharing!
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I should add that I’m glad you appreciated the book Emma. I think Cliff Notes are great for exactly the reasons you state. I’ve used them from time to time but especially for books in French where I’m not always sure that I’m getting the full picture. Such was the case recently when I started listening to Balzac’s La Cousine Bette.
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Exactly. I have done the same for several history plays by Shakespeare
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I have never read anything by Faulkner, I need to add him to my Classics list. This one does sound quite heavy (to be expected, I know), but quite intriguing as well.
Lovely review Emma!
Elza Reads
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With some help, easy to find at your library or online these days, it’s an excellent book worth the effort
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It’s about time I took on another challenging novel. I’ve not come across Cliff Notes however – they’re exclusively American I think. I’ll have to see if I can muddle through on my own!
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I’m sure you can find other help online. I really think you need some clues to really better understand at least the first part
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I love that you used Cliff notes. Just think if you hadn’t, the reading experience wouldn’t have been as good😁
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Without any help available, from this or other help, I would probably have given up or not even tried
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I totally agree with you about Cliff’s notes. They can help you understand a difficult text better.
This one is on my TBR pile after I found it for the 1929 challenge.
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Great!
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Maybe I should use the notes. I read one book by Faulkner, Sanctuary. Started ‘Light in August’ but could not finish. I don’t like Faulkner’s style, I am sorry to say.
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It’s a very oral style, at least in the 2 books I have read by him. I find this interesting
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I would have been lost in the first chapter without referring to some commentary. I think Cliffs Notes or the like can definitely add to one’s understanding and enjoyment of a difficult read. I don’t think I’ll ever be a fan of Faulkner, but I’ll recommend Light in August. Of four of his novels I’ve read, I liked it best.
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Ah thanks, I’ll have a closer look at it. What did you like in it? Does he use stream of consciousness there as well?
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It was mostly third-person narrative. I’m certain that’s part of why I liked it more. It’s been quite a while since I read it, so I don’t remember precisely why I liked it. I liked Lena. https://100greatestnovelsofalltimequest.blogspot.com/2015/10/light-in-august-by-william-faulkner-60.html
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Good to know
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It’s been a while, I don’t remember precisely what I liked. It is written mostly in third-person narrative, which was one thing. And I liked the character Lena. https://100greatestnovelsofalltimequest.blogspot.com/2015/10/light-in-august-by-william-faulkner-60.html
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Thanks!
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It’s written mostly in third-person narrative, which is part of the reason I liked it better than my other Faulkner reads. It’s been a while, so I don’t remember precisely what I liked other than that. https://100greatestnovelsofalltimequest.blogspot.com/2015/10/light-in-august-by-william-faulkner-60.html
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Thanks! By the way, I’m not going to include your previous attempts on this comment. Know that the 3 times you tried to post this comment before this one, they all worked. Can I know what happens when you post a comment, what makes you think it didn’t work?
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Sorry about that, and thanks for deleting the redundant posts. I think the problem was at my end. Sometimes Chrome on mac is finicky. After drafting my response, and in order to submit, it would ask me to sign in to wordpress (even though I already was signed in), so I’d sign in again, and it would direct back to the response page, but blank.
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Oh wow, thanks for explaining, and thanks for your perseverance to post a comment!
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I don’t know whether it’s Mac because I always respond from my PC and there are a few WordPress accounts that I have problems with, two of them I can’t comment on at all. It asks me to sign in and when I do and comment, it tells me I’m not signed in. Sigh.
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Ah yes, I have heard of issues with Mac
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I have had the same problem, but have noticed the following. The trouble comes when using Safari. Maybe because I have a blogger blog it works best with Chrome. There I have no problems.
I also have a login for word since I started out with wordpress.
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Good to know. I exclusively use Chrome, so have not had issues with other blogs
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I use Firefox and only have the problem with a few other bloggers (3, I believe), and they are all WordPress, but 99% of the WordPress accounts work.
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Good!
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And I just managed to comment on two WordPress blogs where I haven’t been able to comment for ages. Via Chrome, so that is a factor. Thanks for the information.
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Great
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I’d have been lost in the first chapter of this without referring to commentary. I think it can definitely help in understanding and enjoyment with difficult reads. I’m not a fan of Faulkener, but I’ll recommend Light in August. Of the four of his novels I’ve read, I liked it best.
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Thanks!
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