The Sound and the Fury

By: William Faulkner, Casey Cep

Narrated by: Grover Gardner, Gabra Zackman

NOBEL PRIZE WINNER • One of the greatest novels of the twentieth century is the story of a family of Southern aristocrats on the brink of personal and financial ruin. • The definitive corrected text, including Faulkner's Appendix

One of The Atlantic’s Great American Novels of the Past 100 Years

The Sound and the Fury is the tragedy of the Compson family, featuring some of the most memorable characters in literature: beautiful, rebellious Caddy; the manchild Benjy; haunted, neurotic Quentin; Jason, the brutal cynic; and Dilsey, their black servant. Their lives fragmented and harrowed by history and legacy, the character’s voices and actions mesh to create what is arguably Faulkner’s masterpiece and one of the greatest novels of the twentieth century.

“I give you the mausoleum of all hope and desire.... I give it to you not that you may remember time, but that you might forget it now and then for a moment and not spend all of your breath trying to conquer it. Because no battle is ever won he said. They are not even fought. The field only reveals to man his own folly and despair, and victory is an illusion of philosophers and fools.” —from The Sound and the Fury

Cover photograph: © Eggleston Artistic Trust. Courtesy Eggleston Artistic Trust and David Zwirner.

Check out more selections from Oprah's Book Club.(P)2005 Random House, Inc. Random House Audio, a division of Random House, Inc.

Critic reviews

One of The Atlantic’s Great American Novels of the Past 100 Years

A dense but thoughtful exploration of the mind.

Faulkner is brilliant, if slightly nuts. The book is narrated from four different perspectives, all utilizing different language and thought patterns, and rarely are the exact events very clear. He has no desire to hit anyone over the head with a "message" about Southern life or sexuality or life or death. But he weaves in themes of all of these, along with much more, in fascinating patterns. Even more, he explores the non-linear way in which human beings think and act, revealing motivations and thoughts that I am rarely aware of within myself. For that reason alone, I could highly recommend this book.

As good as it gets

This beautiful novel is an incredible challenge to read without the help of this talented performance. This is why I pay for audible!!

Confusing but Interesting

This book was a bit difficult to read, but worth every minute of your time.

The sound and the fury

Would you try another book from William Faulkner and/or Grover Gardner?

Yes

What do you think your next listen will be?

I don't know

Which scene was your favorite?

The scenes with Benjamin narrating

Was The Sound and the Fury worth the listening time?

No

Any additional comments?

I was disappointed because there is a whole addendum to the book that is not included in the audilbe version. The narration, however, is fantastic and I would definitely read another book narrated by Grover Gardner.

Not for everyone, but worth the work.

Truthfully, when I first started reading this book, I started and stopped multiple times because I could not understand what was happening. However, once the stream-of-consciousness style clicked in my mind, I was able to read this novel more smoothly. It has since become one of my favorite books, if not my absolute favorite. Faulkner weaves a remarkable story of familial destruction over the course of several years that the reader must piece together through three unreliable narrators while summing up these three accounts at the end with a fourth section that focuses around the true matriarch of the novel in the form of the black house servant, Dilsey. Faulkner's writing style is not for everyone, as he uses plenty of southern american vernacular and slang similar to Mark Twain, which can be even more difficult when it is infused into an experimental stream of consciousness style. However, Grover Gardner seems to have a firm grasp of this style and manner of speech, which makes this listening experience all the better.

Good Reader, sub par book

if your looking for a story that has no real beginning middle or end. this is for you.

Utterly Phenomenal

It’s amazing that Faulkner wrote several books, including this one, before anyone in the world of books understood what an exceptional writer he was. And then of course later came the Nobel Prize and so much other recognition.

It’s a very difficult, very complex book. And, unless one had the aid of a scene-by-scene account of the plot and character flow, it’s extremely hard to get to the bottom of what Faulkner has created.

If one can give it that much investment, one can appreciate it more deeply and more fully.

But, even if one can’t or won’t, there’s so much to appreciate. And if you’re willing to spend some significant time and care you can get much out of it.

The South experienced a deep and thorough fall from the beginning of the 19th century and on for 100 or more years, with serious repercussions for many years thereafter. Faulkner captures in this novel, and others, the many dimensions of that fall. But there’s life, too, and all it’s richness, in many diverse characters.

It’s powerful, complex, painful, rich, pitiful, deep, multi-dimensional. It has religious and spiritual elements. And so much more. I really think serious American students of our literature owe it to themselves to experience some Faulkner.

The narration was outstanding.

I strongly encourage your experience of it.

A classic

It’s a challenging story. Nuance missed as an audio presentation. Would recommend print over audio

Strange

I note that one reviewer has nine positive, no negative, votes as this is written. Yet only four readers have rated the book. Strange.

William Faulkner is more than "America's Southern Writer" as it's easy to place him with two other American writers (Hemingway and Fitzgerald) as one of the three great writers of American fiction of the 20th century. The narrator captures his style and speaks in the language of which the original was written. "The Sound and the Fury" remains a standard for undergraduate English literature students as well it should. Listen closely for the imagery for which Faulkner was unique. Only Thomas Wolfe approaches the ability to create an image of the South like Faulkner. The listener, as well as the reader, needs to be attentive at all times. Unlike Wolfe Faulkner wastes few words, and has a style as original as the other two writers mentioned. And that style goes well beyond the language of the South. Is Hemingway labelled as using the language of the upper midwest or Fitzgerald solely of the rich? All are unique and we are the better for it.

Stream of Consciousness in the Extreme

Would you try another book from William Faulkner and/or Grover Gardner?

In my sophomore year in high school we had to read Caesar's Gallic Wars in Latin. I found The Sound and the Fury to be only slightly more difficult. My wife and I completely enjoyed Light in August last year and were prepared to breeze through this one and argue the finer points. It was not to be. We continually had to check with each other as to timeframe and, at times, even speaker.
Faulkner was a brilliant talent with movie star good looks. The National Book Award, Pulitzer and Nobel were mere icing on the cake. And all of this from the loins of Mississippi.
My advice is to get a month-long subscription to BookRags as a reference. Still...my wife and I both look back on this and are quite glad we persevered. It was worth it.

If you’ve listened to books by William Faulkner before, how does this one compare?

The narrator was excellent but all of the Audible narrators are. The storyline was far more difficult than Light in August.

Which character – as performed by Grover Gardner – was your favorite?

It is a greatly flawed family with only the innocent and juvenile Benjy having completely redeeming qualities.

Did The Sound and the Fury inspire you to do anything?

Yes.......Take a Faulkner break before jumping into As I Lay Dying.

Any additional comments?

If there is a local college class, see if they will let you audit.