r/faulkner

Having read every novel by William Faulkner (whom I believe to be the greatest writer ever, by a rather wide margin), I decided to rank them, not from best to worst (for that would be arrogant and pretentious to assume such powers of judgment) but rather from my least favorite to favorite (i.e. utterly subjectively).  I know that this list may well make some Faulkner aficionados (if, indeed, anyone fitting this description happens to read this post) react vehemently, perhaps violently, but such is the subjective nature of Faulkner’s oeuvre, so to them I say TS, and I don’t mean Eliot.

I have always been frustrated by the snooty, dry, collegiate attitude most “intellectuals” have about Mr.

I read it, then sat for a day, then read it again.

My god. It’s all in there. Such a piece of beauty.

I started reading Faulkner some time last fall, starting with The Sound and The Fury. For a book that is only 350ish pages, it took me about 500 pages of reading before I made it to the end. There was a lot of starting over and rereading involved to make it to the finish line. I left that book thoroughly impressed, and highly interested in reading more of his stuff.

The next book of his I picked up a month or so later was Absalom, Absalom! and it completely altered my understanding of what a novel can be. I have never read anything that so powerfully forces itself upon the reader, inducing some sort of dream/nightmare state where the story and characters swirl around you, actively haunting