All Formats & Editions

From the Nobel Prize winner--one of the most highly acclaimed writers of the twentieth century--a novel set in the American South during Prohibition about hopeful perseverance in the face of mortality.

Light in August features some of Faulkner's most... Read Full Overview

This Norton Critical Edition includes:

The authoritative text of Light in August, established by Noel Polk in 1985 and accompanied by Melanie Benson Taylor's preface and explanatory footnotes.

A rich selection of background and contextual materials, thoughtfully... Read Full Overview

Selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best novels of all time From the Modern Library's new set of beautifully repackaged hardcover classics by William Faulkner--also available are Snopes, As I Lay Dying, The Sound and the Fury, Absalom, Absalom , and Selected Short... Read Full Overview

A landmark in American fiction, Light in August explores Faulkner's central theme: the nature of evil. Joe Christmas - a man doomed, deracinated and alone - wanders the Deep South in search of an identity, and a place in society. After killing his perverted God-fearing... Read Full Overview

The novel is set in the American South in the 1930s, during the time of Prohibition and Jim Crow laws that legalized racial segregation in the South. It begins with the journey of Lena Grove, a young pregnant white woman from Doane's Mill, Alabama, who is trying to find Lucas... Read Full Overview

Joe Christmas does not know whether he is black or white. Faulkner makes of Joe's tragedy a powerful indictment of racism; at the same time Joe's life is a study of the divided self and becomes a symbol of 20th century man. From the Trade Paperback edition.