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The Sound and the Fury

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The Sound and the Fury

By: William Faulkner, Casey Cep - introduction
Narrated by: Grover Gardner, Gabra Zackman
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About this listen

 NOBEL PRIZE WINNER • One of the greatest novels of the twentieth century is the story of a family of Southern aristocrats on the brink of personal and financial ruin. • The definitive corrected text, including Faulkner's Appendix

One of The Atlantic’s Great American Novels of the Past 100 Years

The Sound and the Fury is the tragedy of the Compson family, featuring some of the most memorable characters in literature: beautiful, rebellious Caddy; the manchild Benjy; haunted, neurotic Quentin; Jason, the brutal cynic; and Dilsey, their black servant. Their lives fragmented and harrowed by history and legacy, the character’s voices and actions mesh to create what is arguably Faulkner’s masterpiece and one of the greatest novels of the twentieth century.

“I give you the mausoleum of all hope and desire.... I give it to you not that you may remember time, but that you might forget it now and then for a moment and not spend all of your breath trying to conquer it. Because no battle is ever won he said. They are not even fought. The field only reveals to man his own folly and despair, and victory is an illusion of philosophers and fools.” —from The Sound and the Fury

Cover photograph: © Eggleston Artistic Trust. Courtesy Eggleston Artistic Trust and David Zwirner. Classics Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Heartfelt American Depression Fiction

Critic reviews

“I am in awe of Faulkner’s Benjy, James’s Maisie, Flaubert’s Emma, Melville’s Pip, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein—each of us can extend the list.... I am interested in what prompts and makes possible this process of entering what one is estranged from.” —Toni Morrison

“No man ever put more of his heart and soul into the written word than did William Faulkner. If you want to know all you can about that heart and soul, the fiction where he put it is still right there.” —Eudora Welty
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Willian Faulkner writes well, but this was a hard book to listen to. Brilliant reading!

It was to be published in coloured sections, to help the reader. So to take this book on! Excellent.

The story is quite difficult, might need some notes or internet to help you.

It's a very clever book, but it doesn't allow you to score that!

William Faulkner Writes Well!

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beautifully written and performed in the most convincing ways possible. It's a journey into the US south, all its complexity and contradictions. must read!

a great masterpiece performed beautifully.

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this book was a difficult/unusual format to read, so I thought audio performance would help. I'm not that impressed with the performance element, but listening to it read aloud did help. it's a complex and powerful story, very unique style, essential Faulkner.

complex but powerful

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Wonderful, just wonderful.
So relevant today.
And yet we never learn to be peaceful.
Too much he said she said.

Sound Fury (and Peace)

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I would be interested to read this book. It is a stream of consciousness and I did not enjoy it on audible, felt I would have gained more by seeing the book laid out. Too much, he said, she said.

Not one for audio

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