… The Sound and the Fury, hold the fury | Melville House Books. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
In truth, Faulkner never intended it to be quite so difficult. For the book’s famously confusing first section, which is narrated by the mentally disabled Benjy Compson and which jumps back and forth in time mid-paragraph or even mid-sentence, Faulkner wanted his publisher to print each narrative thread in a different color of ink. On learning this would be impossible, he wrote, “I’ll just have to save the idea until publishing grows up to it.”
Needless to say, publishing has grown up a bit in the intervening eighty-four years, anda new edition due out this summer from theFolio Society aims to fulfill Faulkner’s wishes.
I love Faulkner, even the rough going of Absolom Absolom, and I didn't find the first section of Sound and Fury tough at all. But I never finished the book, though I've tried twice, because the second section is so utterly boring.
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