Faulkner And Mystery

Contributions by Hosam Aboul-Ela, Susan V. Donaldson, Richard Godden, Michael Gorra, Lisa Hinrichsen, Donald M. Kartiganer, Sarah Mahurin, Sean McCann, Noel Polk, Esther Sánchez-Pardo, Annette Trefzer, Rachel Watson, and Philip Weinstein Faulkner and Mystery presents a wide spectrum of compelling arguments about the role and function of mystery in William Faulkner's fiction. Twelve new essays approach the question of what can be known and what remains a secret in the narratives of the Nobel laureate. Scholars debate whether or not Faulkner's work attempts to solve mysteries or celebrate the enigmas of life and the elusiveness of truth. Scholars scrutinize Faulkner's use of the contemporary crime and detection genre as well as novels that deepen a plot rather than solve it. Several essays are dedicated to exploring the narrative strategies and ideological functions of Faulkner's take on the detective story, the classic “whodunit.” Among Faulkner's novels most interested in the format of detection is Intruder in the Dust, which assumes a central role in this essay collection. Other contributors explore the thickening mysteries of racial and sexual identity, particularly the enigmatic nature of his female and African American characters. Questions of insight, cognition, and judgment in Faulkner's work are also at the center of essays that explore his storytelling techniques, plot development, and the inscrutability of language itself.

Essays that illuminate crime stories, whodunits, and quandaries in the Nobel Laureate's fiction

Essays that illuminate crime stories, whodunits, and quandaries in the Nobel laureate's fiction

'Faulkner's Folly' is a mystery-drama novel written by Carolyn Wells. The story unfolds in Faulkner's Folly, which was described as the realized dream of the architect who had been its original owner. It was a perfect example of the type known in England as Georgian and in our own country as Colonial, a style inspired by the Italian disciples of Palladio, and as developed by Inigo Jones and Christopher Wren, it had seemed to James Faulkner to possess the joint qualities of comfort and dignity that made it ideal for a home. The house was enormous, the rooms perfectly proportioned, and the staircase had been the architect's joy and delight. It showed the wooden wainscoting, which was handed down from the Jacobeans; broad, deep steps with low risers, large, square landings, newels with mitred tops and rather plain balusters. But the carved wood necessary to carry out the plans, the great problems of lighting, the necessity for columned galleries and long, arched and recessed windows, together with the stupendous outlay for appropriate grounds and gardens, overtaxed the available funds and Faulkner's Folly, in little more than two years after its completion, was sold for less than its intrinsic value.

The countryside was in a tumult. A murder mystery at Faulkner's Folly, of all places in theworld! Rensselaer Park, the aristocratic Long Island settlement, of which the celebratedhouse was the star exhibit, could scarcely believe its ears as the news flew about. And thecriminal? Public opinion settled at once on an intruder, either burglarious or inimical. Ofcourse, a man of Eric Stannard's position and personality had enemies, as well as friends, from Paris, France, to Paris, Maine. Equally, of course, his enormous collection of valuableart works and even more valuable jewels would tempt robbers.But the vague rumors as to his wife or that darling little model girl being implicated, wereabsurd. To be sure, the installation of Miss Vernon as a house guest was a fling in the face ofconventions, but Eric Stannard was a law unto himself; and, too, Mrs. Stannard had alwaysintroduced the girl as her friend.The Stannards were comparatively new people at The Park, but Mrs. Faulkner, whosehusband had built the Folly, was even now visiting there, and her sanction was enough forthe community. It would, one must admit, be thrillingly exciting to suspect a woman in thecase, but it was too impossible. No, it was without doubt, a desperate marauder.Thus the neighbours.But the Police thought differently. The report of the Post Patrolman who first appearedupon the scene of the tragedy included a vivid description of the demeanour of the twoladies; and the whole force, from the Inspector down, determined to discover which wasguilty. To them the death of Eric Stannard was merely a case, but from the nature of thingsit was, or would become, a celebrated case, and as such, they were elated over theirconnection with it.In due course, the Coroner's Inquest took place, and was held in the big studio where EricStannard had met his death

A Pie to Vie For Olivia planned on a summer road trip across the country, but she ends up stuck in her childhood home in Grand Arbor Township when her camper van breaks down. Good thing there's a $1000 grand prize in this year's Grand Arbor Cherry Festival Pie Baking Contest... The problem is--somebody is determined to make sure nobody wins. Can Olivia find out who's sabotaging the contest or will this year be the last cherry festival in Grand Arbor? Maple Syrup and Murder All Olivia Faulkner wanted when she left Chicago and returned to her childhood home in Grand Arbor was a fresh start and a safer life for her daughter, Vi. But when a professor is murdered with a poisoned maple bacon pastry from her family café, Olivia Faulkner must dive deep into a murder investigation and solve the mystery. With the help of her daughter, an old flame, and the nosy old ladies who stitch and gossip at the café, can she catch the real killer before gossip spreads through tiny Grand Arbor and her business is ruined? Dead as a Donut Business at Olivia Faulkner’s family café is finally picking up, but when she stumbles on a dead businessman holding a box of her donuts, she is thrown headfirst into another murder investigation. Meanwhile, there is a new lifestyle mall in Grand Arbor that is driving family-owned shops like hers out of business. Armed with the help of three gossipy old ladies, her mischievous cat, and an old love, Olivia sets out to solve the mystery. On top of all this, Olivia has to juggle sleuthing, baking, and her daughter’s interview to get into a prestigious private school. Can she find the killer before her life in Grand Arbor crumbles to pieces? Raspberry Tart Revenge Olivia Faulkner's life is Grand Arbor is finally looking up. Cheesecakes are flying out of her online store faster than she can bake them and her daughter, Vi is one step closer to her dreams of going to Harvard. When an admissions officer at Vi's new school winds up dead, all of Olivia's plans begin to unravel. To complicate things further, while investigating the murder, Olivia makes a startling discovery about the disappearance of her sister. Can Olivia solve the murder and find the truth behind the decades old family mystery, or will she become the next victim?

This work is a fascinating blend literary interpretation in narrational form. Within the framework of a fiction a critical study takes shape that is based on solid up to date research (ninety-six entries appear in list of work cited) and will be of value to both serious Faulkner scholars and general academic readers alike, particularly those interested in mystery and detective fiction, southern literature, the works of Poe and, of course, the Yoknapatawpha novels.

Contributions by Ted Atkinson, Gloria J. Burgess, David A. Davis, Sarah E. Gardner, Richard Godden, Ryan Heryford, Robert Jackson, Gavin Jones, Mary A. Knighton, Peter Lurie, John T. Matthews, Myka Tucker-Abramson, Michael Wainwright, Jay Watson, and Michael Zeitlin The matter of money touches a writer's life at every point—in the need to make ends meet; in dealings with agents, editors, publishers, and bookstores; and in the choice of subject matter and the minutiae of imagined worlds. William Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha was no exception. The people and communities he wrote about stayed deeply entangled in personal, national, and even global networks of industry, commerce, and finance, as did the author himself. Faulkner's economic biography often followed, but occasionally bucked, the tumultuous economic trends of the twentieth century. The Faulkner met within these pages is among modern literature's most incisive and encyclopedic critics of what one contemporary theorist calls the madness of economic reason. Faulkner and Money brings together a distinguished group of scholars to explore the economic contexts of Faulkner's life and work, to follow the proverbial money toward new insights into the Nobel Laureate and new questions about his art. Essays in this collection address economies of debt and gift giving in Intruder in the Dust; the legacies of commodity fetishism in Sanctuary and of twentieth-century capitalism's financial turn in The Town; the pegging of self-esteem to financial acumen in the career of The Sound and the Fury's Jason Compson; the representational challenges posed by poverty and failure in Faulkner's Frenchman's Bend tales; the economics of regional readership and the Depression-era literary market; the aesthetic, monetary, and psychological rewards of writing for Hollywood; and the author's role as benefactor to an aspiring African American college student in the 1950s.