The Portable Faulkner

"The Portable Faulkner is composed mainly of extracts from Absalom, Absalom! , The Unvanquished, The Hamlet, The Sound and the Fury , The Wild Palms , Sanctuary , and Light in August – so, most of Faulkner’s major works prior to 1946 (the year the Portable was published) are represented here. There are also a handful of short stories, including “The Bear,” “A Rose for Emily,” and “Wash,” and, most significantly, the “Appendix Compson: 1699-1945” along with Malcolm Cowley’s extended introduction to Faulkner’s legend, in his terms. Cowley’s introduction essentially outlined what so many literary critics at the time had missed—that Faulkner was a major talent, a writer of genius whose Yoknapatawpha fiction was as major an intervention in modern literature as Joyce’s Dublin or Hardy’s Wessex. The “Appendix Compson” was, in theory, intended to explain The Sound and the Fury and settle the aforementioned concerns with the novel’s difficulty and impenetrability once and for all. While critics have debated whether Faulkner achieved what he set out to do with the “Appendix,” the fact remains that its inclusion in The Portable Faulkner afforded readers a first glimpse into Faulkner’s methods as an author."