The Book: Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner

ISBN: 978-0-679-73218-1

Music: -

Company: Sleeping Wife

Pages: 56-111

The Lead In: Sometimes timing is everything when it comes to reading. I read a bit before work today, thinking I would wipe the rest of 55 during my lunch break. Sadly, when lunch came, I was wore out and ended up staring into space/napping during my thirty minutes. Luckily, no work tomorrow so I had time to stay up a bit later and finish my reading/writing.

The 411 on the 55: Thomas Sutpen has it made with his sweet plantation, flock of slaves, and wife of good reputation. Granted the town hates him and sees him as an outsider who doesn't deserve respect or honor, so there's that. He has two children, Henry and Judith. They grow up to be respectable (as they can be, victims of their father's hubris) young adults and Henry heads off to Oxford Mississippi to attend college.

At Oxford, Henry is a hillbilly compared with the other dandies in his classes. He chooses one of these dandies as his model, Bon. He writes about, dotes on, brags about, tags after Bon. Its almost a crush in its extent. Bon falls for Judith during one of his visits to Sutpen's Hundred and Judith feels the same. Thomas Sutpen has his doubts. He travels to Oxford and digs up dirt on Bon: a black wife and child. Obviously this will not do. Though he is slow to come around to the truth, Henry faces this fact and tells Bon he cannot marry his sister. Bon claims otherwise and Henry shoots him.

Line of the Day: "He has been too successful, you see; his was that solitude of contempt and distrust which success brings to him who gained it because he was strong instead of merely lucky." pg. 82

Fact on the Fiction: The title refers to the Biblical story of Absalom, a son of David who rebelled against his father and who was killed by David's general, Joab, in violation of David's order to deal gently with his son. Another parallel to the Biblical story is that Absalom had his half-brother executed for raping Tamar, his sister. Faulkner's novel substitutes a seduction for rape. Wikipedia