Light in August (Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: William Faulkner
- First Published: 1932
- Type of Work: Novel
- Genres: Long fiction, Psychological fiction
- Subjects: Racism, Race, Murder or homicide, South or Southerners, Interracial relationships, Mistaken or secret identity, Betrayal, Prejudices or antipathies, 1930’s, Pregnancy, Mississippi, Small-town life, Cruelty, Hate crimes, Outlaws
- Locales: Yoknapatawpha County (fictive)
Light in August, Faulkner's fifth Yoknapatawpha novel, brings together, in and near Jefferson, characters with varying backgrounds and personalities but with one common bond—they all have deep-seated problems. Lena Grove arrives in town from Alabama, pregnant but unmarried and in search of Lucas Burch, the father of her child. She finds instead Byron Bunch, a good man who is timid and withdrawn. Burch, using the name Brown, has just burned Miss Joanna Burden's house to cover her murder by Joe Christmas, who killed Joanna after being her lover for three years. Joe had lived at...
[The entire page is 964 words long]
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