The Unvanquished: A Reader's Guide to the William Faulkner Novel

By Robert Crayola

William Faulkner has a reputation as a "difficult" author -- but he doesn't have to be! With this new guide, The Unvanquished can be easy to understand. Included are: a chapter-by-chapter summary and commentary on the story, a thorough description of all the characters, a biography of Faulkner, suggestions for essay topics, and much more. This guide is guaranteed to help you be an expert on The Unvanquished -- all in a concise and enjoyable format. Whether you are totally new to the book or just want to deepen your understanding, this guide will save you hours of struggle and frustration.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Robert Crayola
• Release date: May 9, 2015
• ISBN: 9781310703560

Robert Crayola

Robert Crayola is the author of numerous educational guides and videos, plus the following works: COMICS Prince Pander (2014) The Pubic War (2015) Batman LSD: The Living Nightmare (2016) Star Wars: Vader & Son (2016) ILLUSTRATED BOOKS & STORIES William Blake's Songs of Innocence and Experience (2011) The Little Girl and the Little Boy (2016) The Past is Still Happening (2016) There Is No Government (2016) SHORT FICTION Savage Tales (2013) DRAMA 18 Plays For Untalented Actors (2012) NONFICTION Cheat Codes For Life (2010) FICTION Dr. Jew (2010) Ueda Sensei Solves Crimes of Depravity and Perversity (2011) Ueda Sensei Vomits on the Garbage of Humanity (2012) Ueda Sensei Castrates the Insidious Underground (2013) SHORT TEXTS Prayer Magic: Conversations With Reality (2008) Vipassana Meditation: My Experiences at a 10-Day Retreat (2012) ALBUMS Alpha Cat (2011)

Book preview

The Unvanquished:

A Reader's Guide to the William Faulkner Novel

by Robert Crayola

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2015 Robert Crayola

https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/robertcrayola

****

CONTENTS

Introduction

The Elements of Literature

Characters

Story Summaries & Commentary

Ambuscade

Retreat

Raid

Riposte in Tertio

Vendée

Skirmish at Sartoris

An Odor of Verbena

Critical Questions & Essay Topics

Conclusion

INTRODUCTION

This guide to William Faulkner's The Unvanquished will add to your understanding of the book and get you thinking about its deeper dimensions. We will examine the text from a variety of angles and this will be beneficial whether you are totally new to the book or have already familiarized yourself with the text.

The Unvanquished began as a single short story in 1934. William Faulkner needed a break from his work on Absalom, Absalom! (another novel). This first story was followed by others with the same characters. Once he had a series of these tales, Faulkner finally revised them to become a novel in 1938.

The Unvanquished is one of Faulkner's more accessible works. With that in mind, it still has some typical Faulknerian challenges. It has confusing passages. This guide will help you understand the book as a whole and surmount its challenges.

Let's begin our study by looking at the author of The Unvanquished, William Faulkner.

AUTHOR: Most of William Faulkner's fiction was set in and around Mississippi, and probably the only other American author more associated with the South is Mark Twain. In his life, Faulkner would produce a large body of work, including novels, short stories, screenplays, and poetry, but he is best remembered for his novels and a few short stories. Faulkner was born on September 25, 1897, in New Albany, Mississippi. He was the first of four sons. His family moved around Mississippi a few times when Faulkner was a boy, but he primarily grew up near Oxford, Mississippi. This area would be transformed in his fiction into Yoknapatawpha County, and Oxford became the town of Jefferson. Faulkner's education was varied. His mother encouraged his love of stories, and he did well some years in school, poorly others, and finally dropped out of high school. He was raised by his mother and also black servants, who would give him a nuanced view of the South.

Faulkner's earliest writings were poetry. He attended the University of Mississippi because of his father's connections, but he did poorly. He held a variety of jobs, including postal worker and working at a power plant (when he wrote As I Lay Dying). He continued to write however, and spurred on by Sherwood Anderson and others, he wrote his first novel, Soldiers' Pay. It's an uneven work and shows that he still had a lot to learn, but he progressed fast, and with Anderson's help he was able to publish it and his next book, Mosquitoes. With his third novel he began to find his voice in the Southern locale (not yet called Yoknapatawpha), but it's with his fourth book, The Sound and the Fury, that Faulkner allowed himself to experiment, and in doing so he pushed himself far beyond anything he'd done before. He continued to write some of his best books, but he wasn't reaching the audience he wanted, and desperate for money, he accepted an offer from MGM to work in Hollywood as a screenwriter. He would continue to work for Hollywood off and on through the 1940s.

Faulkner married his high school sweetheart in 1929, after she had already married another man and divorced. Their marriage was difficult because they were both heavy drinkers. He would have several affairs through his life.

Faulkner died in 1962 from a heart attack.

FAULKNER'S