The Sound and the Fury

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 man-child Benjy; haunted, neurotic Quentin; Jason, the brutal cynic; and Dilsey, their Black servant. The novel reveals the story of the disintegration of the once proud family, now doomed inhabitants of Faulkner's mythical Yoknapatawpha County, through their interior monologues. Their lives fragmented and harrowed by history and loss, the character's voices and actions mesh to create what is arguably Faulkner's magnum opus and one of the greatest novels of the twentieth century.

Originally published in 1929, The Sound and the Fury was immediately praised for its innovative narrative styles, and meditations on family, race, and holding on to a fallen legacy.