The Sound And The Fury (Everyman's Library classics) [Hardcover]

I first read "The Sound and the Fury" when I was approximately 16 years old, in a very old copy of "The Portable Faulkner", which I still own, in excellent condition, and bearing a fine old-book smell which still brings my original experience of reading it to mind when it comes into contact with my olfactory glands. I was astounded by its complexity and linguistic and structural virtuosity; I had read nothing like it. Though I did not immediately understand all that was happening, I would not have described the book as "difficult", as many do.

"The Sound and the Fury" concerns the Compson family and is set in Mississippi. It is divided into 4 sections. The first section, headed APRIL 7, 1928, is from Benjy's point of view; Benjy is an idiot, in the old-fashioned sense of the word, and this section is told in a stream of consciousness style, a stream of an idiot's consciousness, an idiot who cannot distinguish between experiencing and remembering, so this section constantly flickers between different events in Benjy's life in a manner likely to disorientate the unsuspecting reader. Then there is the fact that Benjy is also called Maury; he was christened Maury but his name was later changed. Knowing this can help the reader place a given scene in time. Furthermore, there are two characters called Quentin- one male, one female. All this can cause considerable confusion in the early stages of the book.
The second section follows Benjy's brother Quentin, and goes back in time to JUNE 2, 1910, which happens to be a momentous day in Quentin's life. Quentin is a sensitive young man, with the soul of a poet, obsessed with his sister Candace (Caddy), as indeed is Benjy. This is also told in the first person, at times clear and observational, at others fragmented and confused. Quentin's thoughts are dominated by memories of Caddy. In the last few pages of the section the structure of the language breaks down completely as Quentin's mental disorientation grows.
The third section, APRIL 6, 1928, is seen through the eyes of another Compson brother, Jason. Jason is a far more matter-of-fact character than his brothers so this section follows a linear progression through the day in question, and casts considerable light on Benjy's section. Jason is a sour and hostile individual. Unlike his siblings he is an ostensibly functioning member of his small-town Mississippi society. However, he is no less damaged than they, and his rage and frustration are expressed in his treatment of his family.
The fourth section, APRIL 8, 1928, is the only one with a third person narrator. It mostly follows the family's servant Dilsey, an elderly black woman whose dignity and calm contrasts with the mania and self-torment of the Compsons. By this stage of the book the narrative has become completely clear and if after reading this section one was to go back to the initially confusing first section, one would realize that all the sound and fury of Benjy's narrative fits into place as part of a complex but structured and ultimately comprehensible whole. This is where "The Sound and the Fury" differs from many other "modernist" novels, where the apparent complexity can simply hide a lack of focus and coherence, or at least is never resolved. I believe Faulkner wrote this over quite a short period, too, but he must have had the novel in its entirety in his head before he wrote it down as the occurences of the later sections are anticipated by many details in Benjy's section.

Faulkner himself is invisible in the background of the text. Many major 20th-century writers have taken themselves as their great subjects. Faulkner, though extremely modern in technique, is the opposite to this trend in his absence from the texts. It is not possible to say where his sympathies lie. In this he never betrays himself. Jason Compson, though certainly the most unlikable character, has as much reality and humanity as Quentin. There is no authorial presence, no higher morality beyond these characters: just a set of tortured people, what we would now call a "dysfunctional" family, except with a tragic grandeur worthy of Shakespeare.
Their servant Dilsey, on the other hand, would appear to have far greater cause for complaint against the hand life has dealt her, but the difficulty of her circumstances has imbued in her a nobility of spirit and a simple philosophy of faith, kindness and stoicism.
Perhaps the most enlightening commentary on the novel can be found in the quote from which is took its name, from Shakespeare's "Macbeth", where we are told that life is "a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."