Flags in the Dust (Vintage International)

What became Sartoris, the truncated - some might say butchered - version of Flags in the Dust (restored at the behest of his granddaughter in 1973), Faulkner's third novel left him convinced he had enough stories to tell and enough people to tell them.Flags is a big novel. At times I wondered at Faulkner's choices, at why he was having me read about a fox hunt, or following young Bayard around on his drunken round. But this is an immersion into the town and environs and the time through the characters' eyes. At times it's cinematic, as in the scene at the train platform with Narcy and Horace Benbow (my favorite character in this) where Faulkner makes you see it, even feel it (the platform, people, train, the sun, the luggage) merely by moving the characters. It's brilliant stuff.There are Snopes in here, mostly mentioned in passing by Miss Jenny, particularly Flem Snopes and his populating of the county with other Snopes, which is related in the later novel The Hamlet. We do see Byron Snopes, who reminds me of Ernest T. Bass from the Andy Griffith Show, plays a part - rather creepy and smarmy - but that's the one flaw in the story, in my opinion. Though it resolves in a way, so much is just left out there. He's almost forgotten.Young Bayard is bent on destruction. At one point Faulkner has you convinced that he's turned a page, going to change his ways, that a woman can tame him. At the risk of spoiling, that doesn't really work. (Not much of a spoiler because anyone reading Faulkner should expect tragedy).Flags is a good sequel to the stories that make up Unvanquished, though the latter was written well after the original Sartoris.This is a solid four stars, perhaps a half or so star on top of that, relative to his other works.

This restored version is from the original manuscript and writings of Faulkner, and is the original version of the much truncated novel Sartoris that was published in 1929. That publisher drastically cut Faulkner's book, saying it was six stories and was too complicated. What an outrage. Every Faulkner I read simply blows me away with the lyrical quality of his prose. His insight into the workings of the Southern soul is as accurate as an arrow hitting it's bull's-eye, and as kind as a Mother's arms. The Sartoris family of Yoknapatawpha County is one of the oldest and best regarded families in the area. This is really the story of the dissolution of a family, and the effects of War in general on impressionable and vulnerable young men. World War I in this case. But the effects of the American Civil War are still felt strongly and affect the dealings and treatment of all involved. Although written in the late 1920's, we also see evidence of the beginning of dissatisfaction with the status quo among the younger black men. We have a family friend that reads History. But only contemporaneous tellings are good enough. He says that the later tellings of the events are usually colored by those politically correct wishful thinkers, and of course the winners. While not exactly "history", Faulkner's stories are contemporaneously told, and tell the story as it was then. Not as we wish it could have been, or even should have been, but accurately. Whether it is pretty or not, the story is told. With truth, with honor, and dishonor. It is all told. Highly Recommended.

“The music went on in the dusk; the dust was peopled with ghosts of glamorous and old disastrous things. And if they were just glamorous enough, there would be a Sartoris in them, and they were sure to be disastrous. Pawns. But the Player and the game He plays—who knows?” I thought this a fitting and illustrative quote, not only of the level of Faulkner’s command of amazing prose and his writing, but of the telling nature of the Sartoris clan, who are explored throughout his writings.I think one of the more powerful aspects of Flags in the Dust is simply Faulkner’s lyrical writing, and the way he examines Yoknapatawpha County and Jefferson, its structure and its principle families and residents. An underlying theme is the examination of the Sartoris family and its destructive nature, but Flags in the Dust also examines the theme of war’s effects on individuals who come home trying to adjust. We see this in the character of young Bayard, whose post-war experiences are defined by alienation and recklessness. In many ways, he is haunted and tormented by his twin brother John, who also fought in World War 1 with Bayard as a pilot, but died during a flight.Past and present become quite significant in Faulkner’s novel, as often the present is reflective of the past. Even the title, Flags in the Dust, seems to have a quality symbolic of fallen greatness and time passing.I think that Flags in the Dust is fairly straightforward in terms of narrative in comparison to some of Faulkner’s other works, so it might be a good starting place. I’m interested in reading some of the other novels and stories that involve this setting and place.

“Flags in the Dust” was Faulkner’s third novel, the last of his journeyman pieces. In a sense it forms a bridge. It harks back to the concerns of his first two novels, particularly relations between men and women, but, as well as focusing on a theme that was to shape much of his later output – the intertwining of legacy and destiny – it was also Faulkner’s first attempt to write about the patch of land – Jefferson and Yoknapatawpha county – that was to be the setting of most of his subsequent output. The novel also looks forward to other features of Faulkner’s writing: there are several plot lines, some overlapping, some just coming to a halt, though the narrative is easier to follow than that of some of his later works. Here we meet several families and individuals who were to crop up again in that later work, while one of the standout features of “Flags” is the characterization of these people, with several as strongly realized as any in Faulkner’s oeuvre. There is Old Bayard, cocooned in his deafness, and his indomitable aunt, Miss Jenny; Young Bayard, the nihilistic former WWI pilot; the craven Horace Benbow; the depraved and sinister Byron Snopes; the loquacious and cunning Simon, one of several supernumerary servants; and the eternally reminiscing Old Man Falls. The novel is also leavened with dry humour, and has some very funny episodes. When Faulkner submitted it to his publisher they rejected it, and when it finally came out in 1929 under the title “Sartoris”, about 20 per cent of the material had been cut (“Flags in the Dust” sees the cut material and original title restored). The rejection was to be to Faulkner’s benefit, and ours: having been spurned, he decided to write his next work for himself and not his publisher. The result was “The Sound and the Fury”, the book in which Faulkner truly found his voice for the first time, and the first of the works on which Faulkner’s reputation rests.

Faulkner's third novel and first in what is now considered to be the Sin and Salvation Series. Not stream of consciousness it is still challenging to read and the prose is an absolute joy. The story relates the fortunes of the Sartoris family just as they are coming to the end of their golden era. Set in the deep south of Mississippi Faulkner's characters are real and his descriptions of life at the time just after the Civil War deeply accurate.All in all this book is outstanding and I highly recommend it.

very good

作品は『サートリス』に作り直される前のテクストそのままのものである。よって『サートリス』で抜け落ちた箇所がオリジナル通りに書き込まれている。しかし、『サートリス』に作り直された際書かれた箇所が逆に脱落しているので、注をつけるか何かして『サートリス』にある箇所も書き込んであったらよかったのではないか。いずれにせよ、フォークナーに触れることができる喜びを供給してくれるテクストであることは間違いないが。