William Faulkner, in full William Cuthbert Faulkner, original surname Falkner, was an American novelist and short-story writer who was awarded the 1949 Nobel Prize for Literature. Two of his works, A Fable and his last novel The Reivers, won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. In 1998, the Modern Library ranked his 1929 novel The Sound and the Fury sixth on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century; also on the list were As I Lay Dying and Light in August. Absalom, Absalom! appears on similar lists. Absalom, Absalom! was first published in 1936. Taking place before, during, and after the Civil War, it is a story about three families of the American South, with a focus on the life of Thomas Sutpen. Like other Faulkner novels, Absalom, Absalom! allegorizes Southern history; the title itself is an allusion to a wayward son fighting the empire his father built, much like the Biblical story of King David and Absalom. The history of Thomas Sutpen mirrors the rise and fall of Southern plantation culture. Sutpen's failures necessarily reflect the weaknesses of an idealistic South. Rigidly committed to his "design," Sutpen proves unwilling to honour his marriage to a part-black woman, setting in motion his own destruction. Discussing Absalom, Absalom!, Faulkner stated that the curse under which the South labour is slavery, and Thomas Sutpen's personal curse, or flaw, was his belief that he was too strong to need to be a part of the human family. You can listen online to free English audiobook “Absalom, Absalom!” by William Faulkner on our website.
