ABSTRACT
If a newcomer to fiction had submitted the manuscript of this novel for consideration by a publisher, it would most likely have been rejected as promptly and decisively as Sanctuary was before Faulkner achieved recognition. It has all the glaring faults that would disqualify a beginner: a pretentious vocabulary, a baroque style, a thesis which, though skillfully integrated within the context of the story, is ridden hard for all it is worth. Even so, the most memorable feature of this novel is not the story but the 'moral' which stands out sharply and challengingly; the entire plot is so constructed as to elaborate and emphasize the author's central convictions about the Negro problem in the South.
