"I set out deliberately to write a tour-de-force. Before I ever put pen to paper and set down the first word I knew what the last word would be and almost where the last period would fall." —William Faulkner on As I Lay Dying
As I Lay Dying is Faulkner's harrowing account of the Bundren family's odyssey across the Mississippi countryside to bury Addie, their wife and mother. As they carry Addie in a homemade coffin, pulled along by a team of mules, the Bundrens are haunted by greed and fear—their journey both mocks and confirms our humanity. Their story is told in turn by each of the family members—including Addie herself—as well as those they encounter on their way. This fractured viewpoint epitomizes Faulkner's visceral modernist style, as the varied voices reveal secrets, expose desires, and bring back the dead. A benchmark achievement and one of the most influential novels in American fiction, As I Lay Dying not only endures but prevails.
This edition reproduces the corrected text of As I Lay Dying as established in 1985 by Noel Polk.
As I Lay Dying is Faulkner's harrowing account of the Bundren family's odyssey across the Mississippi countryside to bury Addie, their wife and mother. As they carry Addie in a homemade coffin, pulled along by a team of mules, the Bundrens are haunted by greed and fear—their journey both mocks and confirms our humanity. Their story is told in turn by each of the family members—including Addie herself—as well as those they encounter on their way. This fractured viewpoint epitomizes Faulkner's visceral modernist style, as the varied voices reveal secrets, expose desires, and bring back the dead. A benchmark achievement and one of the most influential novels in American fiction, As I Lay Dying not only endures but prevails.
This edition reproduces the corrected text of As I Lay Dying as established in 1985 by Noel Polk.