Franklin Library: WILLIAM FAULKNER: ABSALOM, ABSALOM! MISSISSIPPI: SUTPENS

Description: Franklin Library leather edition of William Faulkner's "Absalom, Absalom!, " a Limited edition, Illustrated by Walter Rane, one of the 100 GREATEST MASTERPIECES OF AMERICAN LITERATURE series, published in 1979. Bound in brown leather, the book has brown French moire silk end leaves, acid-free paper, Symth-sewn binding, a satin book marker, hubbed spine, gold gilding on three edges---in Very Good/near FINE condition---except for 'moderate' imperfection to top gilt. William Cuthbert Faulkner, who lived from 1897 – 1962, was an American writer and the 1949 NOBEL PRIZE laureate from OXFORD, MISSISSIPPI. "Absalom, Absalom!, " first published in 1936, takes place before, during, and after the Civil War and focuses on three families of the American South, particularly THOMAS SUTPEN, a white man born into poverty in West Virginia who comes to MISSISSIPPI with the complementary aims of gaining wealth and becoming a powerful family patriarch. The story is told entirely in flashbacks narrated mostly by QUENTIN COMPSON to his roommate at HARVARD, Shreve, who frequently contributes his own suggestions and surmises. The narration of Rosa Coldfield, and Quentin's father and grandfather, are also included and re-interpreted by Shreve and Quentin often with differing details. In each retelling, the reader receives more details as the parties flesh out the story by adding layers. Thomas Sutpen arrives in Jefferson, Mississippi, with some slaves and a French architect who has been somehow forced into working for him. Sutpen obtains one hundred square miles of land from a local Native American tribe and immediately begins building a large plantation called Sutpen’s Hundred, including an ostentatious mansion. All he needs to complete his plan is a virgin wife to bear him a few children (particularly a son to be his heir), so he ingratiates himself with a local merchant and marries the man’s daughter, ELLEN COLDFIELD. Ellen bears Sutpen two children, a son named Henry and a daughter named Judith. Henry later enrolls at Ole Miss and meets fellow student Charles Bon, who is ten years his senior. Henry brings Charles home for Christmas, and Charles and Judith begin a quiet romance that leads to a presumed engagement. However, Thomas Sutpen realizes that Charles Bon is his son from an earlier marriage and moves to stop the proposed union. Later, Henry and Charles joined the Confederate Army. During the war, Henry wrestles with his conscience until he presumably resolves to allow the marriage of half-brother and sister; this resolution changes, however, when Sutpen reveals to Henry that Charles is part black. Thomas Sutpen returns from the war and begins to repair his dynasty and his home, whose hundred square miles have been reduced by carpetbaggers. He proposes to Rosa Coldfield, his dead wife's younger sister, and she accepts. However, Sutpen insults Rosa by demanding that she bear him a son before the wedding takes place, prompting her to leave Sutpen's Hundred---and hence Rosa sits in a dark house, wearing her "eternal black" clothes, living to hate Thomas Sutpen. Sutpen then begins an affair with Milly, the 15-year-old granddaughter of Wash Jones, a "poor white squatter" who lives on the Sutpen property. The affair continues until Milly becomes pregnant and gives birth to a daughter. Sutpen is terribly disappointed, because the last hope of repairing his Sutpen dynasty rested on Milly giving birth to a son. Sutpen casts Milly and the child aside, telling them that they are not worthy of sleeping in the stables with his horse, who had just sired a male. An enraged Wash Jones kills Sutpen . . . The only remaining Sutpen is Jim Bond, Charles Bon's black grandson, a young man with severe mental handicaps, who remains on Sutpen's Hundred. 369 pages, including a Chronology and Genealogy. I offer Combined shipping.

Price: 34.95 USD

Location: Walnut Ridge, Arkansas

End Time: 2024-12-03T20:56:38.000Z

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