ABSTRACT
It is a good thing in general to complement the several excellent studies of individual works of Faulkner's that have appeared recently with fresh overall treatment of his themes, to extend and deepen the principles of Faulkner criticism worked out by Robert Penn Warren in his indispensable essay.* Mr. Howe's book-length study is by no means exhaustive in that regard, nor without what seems to me a certain schematic insensitivity to Faulkner's intentions.j' I approach Faulkner with a theory which I hope will go a certain way toward answering the objections ofcritics like Mr. Howe who often appear to be judging him by the standards of the novelistshe suggests(or those, like James and George Eliot, against whom he stands in the most glaring contrast) rather than by his own standards. Briefly, I want to consider him as a poetic novelist.
