Absalom, Absalom! Authoritative Text, Backgrounds and Contexts, Criticism

"This Norton Critical Edition of Absalom, Absalom! features the authoritative 1986 edition of William Faulkner's experimental Southern Gothic novel published by Random House, Inc. Originally published in 1936, Absalom, Absalom! examines Southern and Caribbean plantation history through the life course of Thomas Sutpen and his Black and white family members before, during, and after the American Civil War, as imagined by four narrators in 1909-1910. "Backgrounds and Contexts" highlights contemporary reception of the novel, Faulkner's early versions of the saga, and his own commentary upon it. The "Historical Contexts" section provides readers with essential information on race and class relations in the story's locales (Mississippi, Haiti, Virginia and New Orleans), Chickasaw dispossession, the Civil War home front, as well as on how the plantation past was memorialized. In the "Criticism" section, scholars share analyses which examine questions of narrative method and media, as well as themes of race, gender, sexuality, illness, geography and capitalism in the text. A selected biography and chronology are also included"--