Author | William Faulkner |
---|---|
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Series | Snopes trilogy |
Publisher | Random House |
Publication date | 1959 |
Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
Pages | 452 |
ISBN | 0-394-70282-4 |
OCLC | 2572834 |
Preceded by | The Town |
Followed by | The Reivers |
The Mansion is a novel by the American author William Faulkner, published in 1959. It is the last in a trilogy of books about the fictional Snopes family of Mississippi, following The Hamlet and The Town .
The Mansion completes Faulkner’s trilogy of novels about the fictional Snopes family in the fictional county of Yoknapatawpha, Mississippi. The trilogy also includes The Hamlet and The Town. Beginning with the murder of Jack Houston, and ending with the murder of Flem Snopes, it traces the downfall of this post-bellum family, who managed to seize control of the town of Jefferson within a generation.
The novel charts the downfall of Flem Snopes at the hands of his relative Mink Snopes, in part aided by Flem's deaf Spanish-Civil-War-veteran daughter, Linda Snopes. It falls into three parts: 'Mink', 'Linda', and 'Flem'. Three narrators tell the story: Gavin Stevens, V.K. Ratliff, and Charles (Chick) Mallison. [1]
Mink Snopes, on trial for murder, waits for his successful cousin Flem to show up and use his power and influence to save him from prison. Flem doesn’t appear, and Mink spends his entire prison sentence waiting until he is free and can murder Flem. Flem knows that Mink will kill him once he is free, so he arranges for Mink to attempt an escape and his sentence is increased. However, after thirty-eight years, Mink is finally released. With the money he has upon release, he buys a cheap gun, finds his way to Jefferson, and kills Flem.
Gavin Stevens, one of the narrators, and an intellectual and idealist, was in love with Flem's wife, Eula Varner, who committed suicide before the events of this novel. Partly because of his feelings for Eula, Stevens loves and idealizes Eula's (and presumably Flem's) daughter, Linda. After Flem is killed, Steven comes to realize that Linda intentionally helped Mink find and kill Flem, as revenge for what she perceives as Flem's role in her mother's suicide. This shakes Stevens's perception of Linda as pure and innocent.
After Flem dies, the townspeople of Jefferson come to realize that his death changed almost nothing, as more and more Snopes family members are appearing and establishing themselves in Jefferson.
The Mansion deals with the South's displaced economic landscape in the first half of the twentieth century, rural populism, and racial and social tensions.
Theodore Greene has discussed the key characters of the novel and related them to his interpretation of Faulkner's general philosophy of life. [2] Enrique García Díez has examined the change in stature of Mink in the course of the novel, and makes analogies with older literary forms and figures. [3] Gordon Bigelow has commented on the evolution of Faulkner's own attitude towards Flem during the course of the trilogy. [4] Paul Levine has discussed the recurring themes of love and money in the course of the trilogy. [5]
William Cuthbert Faulkner was an American writer known for his novels and short stories set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, based on Lafayette County, Mississippi, where Faulkner spent most of his life. A Nobel Prize laureate, Faulkner is one of the most celebrated writers of American literature and is widely considered the greatest writer of Southern literature.
Light in August is a 1932 novel by the Southern American author William Faulkner. It belongs to the Southern gothic and modernist literary genres.
Absalom, Absalom! is a novel by the American author William Faulkner, first published in 1936. Taking place before, during, and after the American Civil War, it is a story about three families of the American South, with a focus on the life of Thomas Sutpen.
Yoknapatawpha County is a fictional Mississippi county created by the American author William Faulkner, largely based upon and inspired by Lafayette County, Mississippi, and its county seat of Oxford. Faulkner often referred to Yoknapatawpha County as "my apocryphal county".
Louis Grenier is a fictional character in William Faulkner's novels and stories.
Sartoris is a novel, first published in 1929, by the American author William Faulkner. It portrays the decay of the Mississippi aristocracy following the social upheaval of the American Civil War. The 1929 edition is an abridged version of Faulkner's original work. The full text was published in 1973 as Flags in the Dust. Faulkner's great-grandfather William Clark Falkner, himself a colonel in the American Civil War, served as the model for Colonel John Sartoris. Faulkner also fashioned other characters in the book on local people from his hometown Oxford. His friend Ben Wasson was the model for Horace Benbow, while Faulkner's brother Murry served as the antetype for young Bayard Sartoris.
As I Lay Dying is a 1930 Southern Gothic novel by American author William Faulkner. Faulkner's fifth novel, it is consistently ranked among the best novels of 20th-century literature. The title derives from Book XI of Homer's Odyssey, wherein Agamemnon tells Odysseus, "As I lay dying, the woman with the dog's eyes would not close my eyes as I descended into Hades."
Sanctuary is a 1931 novel by American author William Faulkner about the rape and abduction of an upper-class Mississippi college girl, Temple Drake, during the Prohibition era. The novel was Faulkner's commercial and critical breakthrough and established his literary reputation, but was controversial given its themes. It is said Faulkner claimed it was a "potboiler", written purely for profit, but this has been debated by scholars and Faulkner's own friends.
Intruder in the Dust is a novel about an African American farmer accused of murdering a Caucasian man. Nobel Prize–winning American author William Faulkner published it in 1948.
"Barn Burning" is a short story by the American author William Faulkner which first appeared in Harper's in June 1939 and has since been widely anthologized. The story deals with class conflicts, the influence of fathers, and vengeance as viewed through the third-person perspective of a young, impressionable child. It precedes The Hamlet, The Town, and The Mansion, the three novels that make up Faulkner's Snopes trilogy.
The Hamlet is a novel by the American author William Faulkner, published in 1940, about the fictional Snopes family of Mississippi. Originally a standalone novel, it was later followed by The Town (1957), and The Mansion (1959), forming the "Snopes trilogy."
Requiem for a Nun is a work of fiction written by William Faulkner. It is a sequel to Faulkner's early novel Sanctuary, which introduced the characters of Temple Drake, her friend Gowan Stevens, and Gowan's uncle Gavin Stevens. The events in Requiem are set in Faulkner's fictional Yoknapatawpha County and Jackson, Mississippi, in November 1937 and March 1938, eight years after the events of Sanctuary. In Requiem, Temple, now married with a child, must learn to deal with her violent, turbulent past as related in Sanctuary.
The Unvanquished is a 1938 novel by the American author William Faulkner, set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County. It tells the story of the Sartoris family, who first appeared in the novel Sartoris. The Unvanquished takes place before that story, and is set during the American Civil War. Principal characters are Bayard Sartoris, John Sartoris, Granny, Ringo (Morengo), Ab Snopes, Cousin Drusilla, Aunt Jenny, Louvinia, and the lieutenant.
Flags in the Dust is a novel by the American author William Faulkner, completed in 1927. His publisher heavily edited the manuscript with Faulkner's reluctant consent, removing about 40,000 words in the process. That version was published as Sartoris in 1929. Faulkner's original manuscript of Flags in the Dust was published in 1973, and Sartoris was subsequently taken out of print.
The Town is a novel by the American author William Faulkner, published in 1957, about the fictional Snopes family of Mississippi. It is the second of the "Snopes" trilogy, following The Hamlet (1940) and completed by The Mansion (1959).
The Snopes trilogy is a series of three novels written by William Faulkner regarding the Snopes family in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi. It consists of The Hamlet, The Town, and The Mansion. It was begun in 1940 and completed in 1959.
"Spotted Horses" is a novella written by William Faulkner and originally published in Scribner's magazine in 1931. It includes the character Flem Snopes, who appears in much of Faulkner's work, and tells in ambiguous terms of his backhand profiteering with an honest Texan selling untamed ponies. Spotted Horses was later incorporated into The Hamlet under the title "The Peasants: Chapter One". It features V.K Ratliff who appears in other Faulkner short stories and is a prominent character in The Hamlet, The Town and The Mansion.
Sanctuary is a 1961 drama film directed by Tony Richardson. The film, based on the William Faulkner novels Sanctuary (1931) and Requiem for a Nun (1961), is about the black maid of a white woman who kills the latter's newborn in order to give her employer a way out of a predicament, and then faces the death penalty.
Knight’s Gambit is a 1949 short story collection by the American author William Faulkner, and contains a short story of the same name. The book collects six of Faulkner’s stories about attorney Gavin Stevens, who also takes a leading part in his novel Intruder in the Dust.
Gavin Stevens is a lawyer and the county attorney in Jefferson in Faulkner’s fictional Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi. He was educated at Harvard and Heidelberg universities.