"Originally published in 1949, William Faulkner's Knight's Gambit is a collection of six stories written in the 1930s and 1940s that focus on the criminal investigations of Yoknapatawpha's long-time county attorney, Gavin Stevens-a man more interested in justice than the law. All previous and current editions of Knight's Gambit have been based on the first edition, which is fraught with a number of problems. Since tear sheets of the five previously published stories were used in setting the first edition, the original ...
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"Originally published in 1949, William Faulkner's Knight's Gambit is a collection of six stories written in the 1930s and 1940s that focus on the criminal investigations of Yoknapatawpha's long-time county attorney, Gavin Stevens-a man more interested in justice than the law. All previous and current editions of Knight's Gambit have been based on the first edition, which is fraught with a number of problems. Since tear sheets of the five previously published stories were used in setting the first edition, the original Knight's Gambit is a hodgepodge of various magazines' house styles with no consistency in punctuation and spelling conventions from story to story. Far greater issues arise, however, from the substantive (and sometimes substantial) changes magazine editors made to Faulkner's prose. These changes were made variously for concision, propriety, or magazine design. Sometimes northern editors removed the southernness of Faulkner's stories, either out of ignorance of the South or in order to appeal to a mass audience. Using four previously unknown Faulkner typescripts, along with other manuscript and typescript evidence, John N. Duvall presents an edition of Knight's Gambit that restores over four thousand words that editors cut from the stories. Also included is an introduction by Duvall discussing the role of detective fiction and popular magazines in creating a different kind of postwar readership for Faulkner that paves the way for the eventual republication of Faulkner's modernist masterpieces. The new edition enables readers to reevaluate the stories of Knight's Gambit and their place in Faulkner's career as a short story writer"--
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Seller's Description:
Fair. Dispatched, from the UK, within 48 hours of ordering. The book is perfectly readable and fit for use, although it shows signs of previous ownership. The spine is likely creased and the cover scuffed or slightly torn. Textbooks will typically have an amount of underlining and/or highlighting, as well as notes. If this book is over 5 years old, then please expect the pages to be yellowing or to have age spots. Aged book. Tanned pages and age spots, however, this will not interfere with reading.
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Good. The pages are sun faded and slightly yellowing. We flipped through this book and didn't notice any notes or underlines. Fast Shipping-Each order powers our free bookstore in Chicago and sending books to Africa!
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Good. The pages are sun faded and slightly yellowing. We flipped through this book and didn't notice any notes or underlines. Minor shelf wear. Fast Shipping-Each order powers our free bookstore in Chicago and sending books to Africa!
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This book is a collection of five short stories and one novella, all involving mysteries unraveled by Gavin Stevens, the county attorney of Yoknapatawpha County. The stories follow Gavin Stevens?s life and career, from his first criminal trial right out of law school in the story Tomorrow to his late-in-life marriage in Knight?s Gambit.
With one exception, the stories in this collection are lighter fare than most of Faulkner?s works. The exception is Tomorrow which is, by far, the best story in this book and ranks with the finest of Faulkner?s fiction. Unlike most of the stories, it is not a murder mystery. Rather, Gavin Stevens tries to understand the reasons behind the lone hold-out juror?s refusal to vote to acquit a defendant. Stevens?s investigation takes him forty miles and back where he interviews the juror?s neighbors and former employer. He pieces together twenty years of the juror?s heartbreaking life story which he sums up in the phrase ?the lowly and the invincible of the earth ? to endure and endure and then endure, tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow.?
Hand Upon the Waters is another fine story, not because of the mystery but because of the character of the murder victim. When the story opens, Lonnie Grinnup is already dead. The reader learns about him through the reactions of the community and the recollections of Gavin Stevens. Lonnie was the last of his family and was feeble-minded. He lived in a fortified canvas tent beside a river and showed up at neighbors? houses when nights got too cold. Like the biblical parable of the widow who gave her last coin to help people poorer than herself, Lonnie used all that God gave him. He took in a deaf and mentally-disabled orphan whom no one else wanted and raised him as his son or little brother. I desperately wanted the story to end in justice and retribution.
In the title novella, Gavin Stevens tries to stay one step ahead of someone who is planning a murder. The novella involves a chess motif of a knight double-checking a queen and a castle. Figuring out the chess parallel turned out to be more of a challenge than the mystery itself.
Faulkner was not a lawyer and his courtroom passages aren?t always convincing. Nonetheless, there is much human appeal to these stories. There is some evidence that Faulkner based the character of Gavin Stevens on himself, particularly in regard to Gavin?s understated romance in Knight?s Gambit. Those who are familiar with Faulkner?s biography may recognize Estelle Faulkner in Mrs. Harriss of Knight?s Gambit.
