ABSTRACT

Faulkner's events are fixed in space but not in time. Time is fluid in the consciousness of his characters. For all this, Sanctuary is not a difficult book, as is The Soundandthe Fury. It tells how Temple Drake slipped out from High School for a joy-ride with an undergraduate. The undergraduate got drunk; they had an accident, and Temple fell into the hands of a gang of bootleggers, proceeding in swift stages of degradation to the witness-box in a sordid murder trial. Mr. Faulkner is sometimes wilful, and petulantly outrages probability in small details; but his observation, his skill in recording the impressions ofthe deranged mind, and above all the extraordinary authority with which he compels the reader to follow a pioneer course, fill me with admiration and envy. As a technical achievement Sanctuary would be astonishing enough; but it is much more than a technical achievement.