A landmark in American fiction, Light in August explores Faulkner's central theme: the nature of evil. Joe Christmas - a man doomed, deracinated and alone - wanders the Deep South in search of an identity, and a place in society. After killing his perverted God-fearing lover, it becomes inevitable that he is pursued by a lynch-hungry mob. Yet after the sacrifice, there is new life, a determined ray of light in Faulkner's complex and tragic world.
Read More
A landmark in American fiction, Light in August explores Faulkner's central theme: the nature of evil. Joe Christmas - a man doomed, deracinated and alone - wanders the Deep South in search of an identity, and a place in society. After killing his perverted God-fearing lover, it becomes inevitable that he is pursued by a lynch-hungry mob. Yet after the sacrifice, there is new life, a determined ray of light in Faulkner's complex and tragic world.
Read Less
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
Very good. All orders are dispatched within 1 working day from our UK warehouse. Established in 2004, we are dedicated to recycling unwanted books on behalf of a number of UK charities who benefit from added revenue through the sale of their books plus huge savings in waste disposal. No quibble refund if not completely satisfied.
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
Good. Simply Brit – welcome to our online used book store, where affordability meets great quality. Dive into a world of captivating reads without breaking the bank. We take pride in offering a wide selection of used books, from classics to hidden gems, ensuring there's something for every literary palate. All orders are shipped within 24 hours and our lightning fast-delivery within 48 hours coupled with our prompt customer service ensures a smooth journey from ordering to delivery. Discover the joy of reading with us, your trusted source for affordable books that do not compromise on quality.
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
Used book in good and clean conditions. Pages and cover are intact. Limited notes marks and highlighting may be present. May show signs of normal shelf wear and bends on edges. Item may be missing CDs or access codes. May include library marks. Fast Shipping.
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
Fair. May contain writing notes highlighting bends or folds. Text is readable book is clean and pages and cover mostly intact. May show normal wear and tear. Item may be missing CD. May include library marks. Fast Shipping.
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
The item shows wear from consistent use, but it remains in good condition and works perfectly. All pages and cover are intact (including the dust cover, if applicable). Spine may show signs of wear. Pages may include limited notes and highlighting. May NOT include discs, access code or other supplemental materials.
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
Fair. A copy that has been read, but remains in clean condition. All pages are solid. the cover is intact, but may show scuffs or light creases, as well as a possible rolled corner. The spine may show signs of wear. Pages may include limited notes and highlighting, The former owner may have written their name inside the front or back cover. COVER WILL VARY.
This reader believes William Faulkner to be the greatest American novelist of the twentieth century. But Light in August, one of his canonical novels published in 1932, isn't one of my favorites. The early section is entirely dialogue-driven, the later exposition. Faulkner experiments with time structure and flashbacks, which in this case I found merely annoying. Cleanth Brooks claims it is one of his most briliant books, but the Southern author's use of punctuation and portmanteau (or compound) words here is often inconsistent.
The stories of Joe Christmas and Lena Grove are meant to parallel one another; both are outsiders, both are on a journey, and other major characters like Hightower, the defrocked priest, are marginalized figures in Jefferson as well. The novel clearly has a sort of thematic unity.
But what hasn't aged well since the Thirties is Faulkner's antique notions of race in the person of Joe Christmas, an obvious Christ-figure who is alternately driven by the impulses of his black or white blood (as though one can assign so easily behavioral motives and compulsions based on race and blood-lines), and I believe such racial essentialism is a serious limitation in this novel.
Brooks claims Joe Christmas isn't a racialized character--he shows hostility toward both communities after all--but clearly he is someone for whom racial identity or identities is problematic. The critic also asserts that the novel has a "happy ending" with Lena accompanied by Byron Bunch and her newborn on a journey of renewal (Christmas again?), but to me the closing feels appended and weakens or detracts from Christmas's story.
Indeed, the ending provide a kind of symmetry, since the novel opens with Lena on the road, and her story suggests the bonds of community versus their severances embodied by Christmas. And to Faulkner's credit, the awful castration scene was daring for its period; like Flannery O'Connor's stories, the novel's air of racial and religious hysteria does suggest the region's Bible Belt madness in symbolic terms. Faulkner must not have won any affection among his neighbors in Oxford, Mississippi with such representations.
Still, I was less taken by Faulkner's high rhetorical style in Light in August and prefer the novelist's excursions into history, memory, and blood-guilt when those themes are joined to familial lineage as they are in Absalom, Absalom! and The Sound and the Fury.