• The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner

     Born September 25, 1897 in New Albany, Mississippi to a well-known Southern family
    Created a fictional Southern county (Yoknapatawpha) which served as the setting for many of his novels. 
    His novels present the deterioration of the South and its aristocratic families.
    Awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1949.
    Died July 6, 1962 in Byhalia, Mississippi
    Titles and other themes (time, death, narration, nothingness) taken from Macbeth:
     "She should have died hereafter;
    There would have been a time for such a word.
    Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
    Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
    To the last syllable of recorded time;
    And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
    The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
    Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
    That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
    And then is heard no more. It is a tale
    Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury
    Signifying nothing." — Macbeth (Act 5, Scene 5, lines 17-27)
     
    The Sound and the Fury (1929)
    Part One: April 1928 – Narrated by Benji, aged 33
    Part Two: June 1910 – narrated by Quentin, aged 19
    Part Three: April 1928 – narrated by Jason, aged 34
    Part Four: April 1928 – Faulkner’s narrative voice as third person narrator focused on Dilsey
    1898 – Damuddy (grandmother) dies (Benji 3, Jason 4, Caddy 6, Quentin 7)
    1900 – Benjy’s name changes from Maury to Benjamin (age 5)
    1909 – Caddy (17) becomes pregnant, Quentin (18) leaves for Harvard
    1910 – Caddy’s marriage and divorce
    1912 – Mr. Compson dies of alcoholism
     
    Characters:
    Jason & Caroline Compson
    Children: Quentin, Caddy, Jason, Benji
    Damuddy: their grandmother
    Uncle Maury, brother to Caroline, has an affair with Mrs. Patterson
    Mr. & Mrs. Patterson, neighbors
    Dilsey: cook
    Roskus: servant, Dilsey’s husband
    Children: 
    Versh, Dilsey’s son, cares for Benji the child
    T.P., Dilsey’s son, cares for Benji the teenager
    Luster, Dilsey’s grandson, cares for Benji the adult