A Summer of Faulkner: As I Lay Dying/ The Sound and the Fury/ Light in August

　　八月之光 Light in August

　　故事背景設定於三○年代美國南方，仍奉行禁酒令和種族隔離的時代。敘述情節主要分兩主線，一條是關於白人女孩莉娜．葛洛夫，懷著身孕千里迢迢從阿拉巴馬州到約克納帕塔法郡的傑弗森小鎮尋找情人，堅信情人承諾的她，沿途雖有不少善意的幫助，卻遭無情背叛而得面對未來的不知所措。一條是關於喬．聖誕的坎坷境遇：自幼父母雙亡的他，被懷疑有黑人血統而受迫離開自幼棲身的孤兒院，後被農場主收養卻仍遭受迫害，命運多舛。敘述主軸雖按時空順序，但也常夾雜倒敘回憶、內心獨白、多方敘事觀點；大量文學手法的靈活運用，卻充滿新意、富實驗性的作品。

 

　　書中描寫不過十天的光景，過往記憶和內心情感穿插其中，人物的性格塑造、處處具隱喻、象徵的段落和對於時情世態的描寫，透過苦痛憂怨的書寫，體現那深埋人類心靈深處、亙古不變的真實情感，也反省了種族、階級、性別、宗教等議題。福克納也藉此書揭示了種族主義偏見對人心的影響和腐蝕已久。時至今日，種族偏見與性別歧視仍潛藏在每個人的內心。當年出版後甫獲《星期六論壇報》、《時代》雜誌、《紐約先驅論壇報》等各媒體和文化評論界等正面好評。除了承襲作者昔作的史觀，卻也展現更寬廣的視界，在種族議題的探討更於當時開創了新的深度。

The 2005 Summer Selection is available in an exclusive three volume boxed edition that includes a special reader's guide with an introduction by Oprah Winfrey.

Titles include:
As I Lay Dying
This novel is the harrowing account of the Bundren family's odyssey across the Mississippi countryside to bury Addie, their wife and mother. Told in turns by each of the family members-including Addie herself-the novel ranges in mood from dark comedy to the deepest pathos. Originally published in 1930.

The Sound and the Fury
First published in 1929, Faulkner created his "heart's darling," the beautiful and tragic Caddy Compson, whose story Faulkner told through separate monologues by her three brothers-the idiot Benjy, the neurotic suicidal Quentin and the monstrous Jason.

Light in August
Light in August, a novel about hopeful perseverance in the face of mortality, features some of Faulkner's most memorable characters: guileless, dauntless Lena Grove, in search of the father of her unborn child; Reverend Gail Hightower, who is plagued by visions of Confederate horsemen; and Joe Christmas, a desperate, mysterious drifter consumed by his mixed ancestry. Originally published in 1932.

Take a seat in Oprah's Classroom and sign up for Faulkner 101 on www.oprah.com/bookclub.

作者簡介

威廉‧福克納（William Faulkner, 1897-1962）

　　美國小說家與短篇小說家，生於密西西比州，作品大多以密西西比州為背景。曾獲得1949年的諾貝爾文學獎，並以《故事選》（Collected Stories）獲得1950年美國國家圖書獎，以《寓言》（A Fable）獲得1955年的美國國家圖書獎與普立茲獎。重要作品有《癡人狂喧》（The Sound and the Fury, 1929）、《我彌留之際》（As I Lay Dying , 1930）、《八月之光》（Light in August, 1932）、《押沙龍，押沙龍！》（Absalom, Absalom!, 1936）等。
 

　　William Cuthbert Faulkner was born in 1897 in New Albany, Mississippi, the first of four sons of Murry and Maud Butler Falkner (he later added the “u” to the family name himself). In 1904 the family moved to the university town of Oxford, Mississippi, where Faulkner was to spend most of his life. He was named for his great-grandfather “The Old Colonel,” a Civil War veteran who built a railroad, wrote a bestselling romantic novel called The White Rose of Memphis, became a Mississippi state legislator, and was eventually killed in what may or may not have been a duel with a disgruntled business partner. Faulkner identified with this robust and energetic ancestor and often said that he inherited the “ink stain” from him. 
 
　　Never fond of school, Faulkner left at the end of football season his senior year of high school, and began working at his grandfather’s bank. In 1918, after his plans to marry his sweetheart Estelle Oldham were squashed by their families, he tried to enlist as a pilot in the U.S. Army but was rejected because he did not meet the height and weight requirements. He went to Canada, where he pretended to be an Englishman and joined the RAF training program there. Although he did not complete his training until after the war ended and never saw combat, he returned to his hometown in uniform, boasting of war wounds. He briefly attended the University of Mississippi, where he began to publish his poetry. 
 
　　After spending a short time living in New York, he again returned to Oxford, where he worked at the university post office. His first book, a collection of poetry, The Marble Faun, was published at Faulkner’s own expense in 1924. The writer Sherwood Anderson, whom he met in New Orleans in 1925, encouraged him to try writing fiction, and his first novel, Soldier’s Pay, was published in 1926. It was followed by Mosquitoes. His next novel, which he titled Flags in the Dust, was rejected by his publisher and twelve others to whom he submitted it. It was eventually published in drastically edited form as Sartoris (the original version was not issued until after his death). Meanwhile, he was writing The Sound and the Fury, which, after being rejected by one publisher, came out in 1929 and received many ecstatic reviews, although it sold poorly. Yet again, a new novel, Sanctuary, was initially rejected by his publisher, this time as “too shocking.” While working on the night shift at a power plant, Faulkner wrote what he was determined would be his masterpiece, As I Lay Dying. He finished it in about seven weeks, and it was published in 1930, again to generally good reviews and mediocre sales.
 
　　In 1929 Faulkner had finally married his childhood sweetheart, Estelle, after her divorce from her first husband. They had a premature daughter, Alabama, who died ten days after birth in 1931; a second daughter, Jill, was born in 1933. 
 
　　With the eventual publication of his most sensational and violent (as well as, up till then, most successful) novel, Sanctuary (1931), Faulkner was invited to write scripts for MGM and Warner Brothers, where he was responsible for much of the dialogue in the film versions of Hemingway’s To Have and Have Not and Chandler’s The Big Sleep, and many other films. He continued to write novels and published many stories in the popular magazines. Light in August (1932) was his first attempt to address the racial issues of the South, an effort continued in Absalom, Absalom! (1936), and Go Down, Moses (1942). By 1946, most of Faulkner’s novels were out of print in the United States (although they remained well-regarded in Europe), and he was seen as a minor, regional writer. But then the influential editor and critic Malcolm Cowley, who had earlier championed Hemingway and Fitzgerald and others of their generation, put together the Portable Faulkner, and once again Faulkner’s genius was recognized, this time for good. He received the 1949 Nobel Prize for Literature as well as many other awards and accolades, including the National Book Award and the Gold Medal from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and France’s Legion of Honor.
 
　　In addition to several collections of short fiction, his other novels include Pylon (1935), The Unvanquished (1938), The Wild Palms (1939), The Hamlet (1940), Intruder in the Dust (1948), A Fable (1954), The Town (1957), The Mansion (1959), and The Reivers (1962).
 
　　William Faulkner died of a heart attack on July 6, 1962, in Oxford, Mississippi, where he is buried.