Concerned with the poetry, stories, and novels that both precede
and follow Faulkner's most successful works, Brooks thus completes
his critically meticulous treatise upon the Mississippian who,
perhaps more than any other American modern writer, "applies the
test of realism to the cult of romanticism." Without a strong
thematic cord to bind these works, Brooks' volume assumes a
miscellaneous air: exactly how much Faulkner was influenced by
Housman's A Shropshire Lad; in what way lesser Faulkner like
Soldier's Pay is better than the equally lesser Mosquitoes; why
Faulknerians who stress a Bergsonian time-schema are wrong -
Faulkner is interested in history instead. Brooks' conservatism
remains sturdy; Faulkner's best works, he asserts, are those
infused with a sense of "community," i.e., the Yoknapatawpha novels
as opposed to the more deracinated callow allegories of his early
career and the effulgent ones of a late date. Brooks' voice is
old-style New Critical, as befits one of its original rabbis:
ex-cathedra, concerned more with motivation than with language,
comprehensive, and very, very academic. He seems more often to be
addressing fellow Faulkner critics than the generally literate
reader, and though this lofty, sure book has the virtue of the
overview, there's something a little obligatory about it, finishing
up what was started, that fails to compel interest. (Kirkus
Reviews)
In this clear-sighted and enjoyable book, Cleanth Brooks,
acknowledged to be "the best critic of our best novelist,"
introduces the general reader to Faulkner's most important novels
and stories: The Sound and the Fury; As I lay Dying; The Hamlet; Go
Down, Moses; Light in August; and Absalom, Absalom! Brooks focuses
on theme, character, and plot as well as on Faulkner's world-the
fictional Yoknapatawpha County that provides a unique setting for
Faulkner's tragicomic vision.
General
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