Knight's Gambit

by William Faulkner

Book Overview

Gavin Stevens, the wise and forbearing student of crime and of the folk ways of Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi, plays the major role in these six stories of violence. In each, Stevens'sharp... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0394727290
• ISBN13: 9780394727295
• Release Date: September 1978
• Publisher: Vintage Books
• Length: 246 Pages
• Weight: 0.32 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 4.2" x 6.9"

Customer Reviews

Knight's Gambit

These short stories were nice for reading when I didn't have time to sit down and read an entire book. All of them gave insight to the times and thoughts of the South in the late 1800's and early 1900's.

William Faulkner's Best Ever

I have long been a fan of William Faulkner and have read everything he wrote, but in my opinion, this collection of short stories is him at his very best. The story "Tomorrow" alone is worth the price of the book and more. You feel every emotion of the characters in it. However, this is true of most of Faulkner's works. If you saw the movie and liked it, you will love the story. The movie falls far short of the story. Ann Roberts

Southern Mystery and more

These are stories about Gavin Stevens, county attorney or Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi. Some are well written crime mysteries, while other's look at a more general human mystery. "Smoke" has Stevens employing a theatrical device as clever as Sherlock Holmes (in Scandal in Bohemia) to illicit an end to the mystery. Monk contains deductions about the "moron" Monk, and what he could or could not do. The characterizations of the minor characters are all well done. The stories "Tomorrow" and "Knights Gambit" go beyond conventional crime detection. Knights Gambit, the longest piece, unfolds around a chessboard, and is more complicated. With Faulkner's elaborate sentence structure, I had trouble following some of this story.. perhaps a little too mysterious.

An enjoyable minor work

Despite the fact that I have a degree in literature, I've never been a Faulkner worshiper. His technique, while admittedly masterful, is something I often find to be self-conscious and distracting. That said, Knight's Gambit is my favorite Faulkner book because it is not typical Faulkner; only the title story, which ends the book, has those recognizable long-winded sentences and that rambling style. No one will mistake this for one of his major works, and as mysteries these stories really don't work very well, but what these stories DO have is atmosphere and good characterization. Gavin Stevens, an almost unbelievable reservoir of wisdom and good ol' common sense, is in each of these stories our guide into a treacherous, hardscrabble and sometimes brutal world that, if you have ever spent any time in the rural South, you will recognize immediately. The mysteries themselves, as I said, are not very impressive, but the characters and situations are all well-observed and guaranteed to lodge in the brain after you've finished reading the book. Flawed but memorable, and highly recommended for those who are either weary of Faulkner or would like to read some of his lesser-known but worthwhile work.

Masterful Mystery Stories From Faulkner

On its surface, Knight's Gambit is a collection of mystery stories that all feature Gavin Stevens, the county attorney for Yoknapatawpha county, who is sometimes considered Faulkner's spokesperson. Even though Knight's Gambit is not a major work, it is Faulkner and therefore worthwhile by definition to many serious readers. The mystery at the heart of each story is not found in actions, though some of the plots are puzzling, as much as in the characters' hearts and souls. The tales in this collection range from the haunting "Tomorrow," which reminds us that no one ever knows where "love or lightning either will strike," to the title selection, in which Stevens (the Knight) captures his Queen after a twenty years' quest spent translating the Old Testament. Any of these stories would be worth a close, scholarly look, and it does help to be familiar with Faulkner's canon to appreciate them fully. However, this volume does not require a critical approach. If you like Faulkner, take a break from the constant challenge of his major works and enjoy these stories. In Knight's Gambit, Faulkner enlightens, ennobles, and entertains in almost equal measure.