The Sound and the Fury

By: William Faulkner

Narrated by: Grover Gardner

Length: 8 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's summary

NOBEL PRIZE WINNER • One of the greatest novels of the twentieth century is the story of a family of Southern aristocrats on the brink of personal and financial ruin. • The definitive corrected text, including Faulkner's Appendix

The Sound and the Fury is the tragedy of the Compson family, featuring some of the most memorable characters in literature: beautiful, rebellious Caddy; the manchild Benjy; haunted, neurotic Quentin; Jason, the brutal cynic; and Dilsey, their black servant. Their lives fragmented and harrowed by history and legacy, the character’s voices and actions mesh to create what is arguably Faulkner’s masterpiece and one of the greatest novels of the twentieth century.

“I give you the mausoleum of all hope and desire.... I give it to you not that you may remember time, but that you might forget it now and then for a moment and not spend all of your breath trying to conquer it. Because no battle is ever won he said. They are not even fought. The field only reveals to man his own folly and despair, and victory is an illusion of philosophers and fools.” —from The Sound and the Fury

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(P)2005 Random House, Inc. Random House Audio, a division of Random House, Inc.

Critic reviews

One of The Atlantic’s Great American Novels of the Past 100 Years

A classic indeed

The story is so accurate in its telling of a post slavery South. Grover Gardner’s voice is superb

Turns out Faulkner is fairly accessible.

great book. dialogue is fantastic. expert storyteller. I feel like the documents life in the south in that time period very well.

Sound and the Fury

This is the epitome of Faulkner’s work. It’s a very deep and amazing story. Faulkner is such an amazing writer he doesn’t need to state his point outright. He shows the world through each of his characters eyes. The actor did a good job too.

streams of consciousness

it was brilliant in it's day using the thoughts of 3 different characters to tell a story. The first chapter is difficult to follow. I cheated and used Spark Notes LOL. The story grew on me.

A dense but thoughtful exploration of the mind.

Faulkner is brilliant, if slightly nuts. The book is narrated from four different perspectives, all utilizing different language and thought patterns, and rarely are the exact events very clear. He has no desire to hit anyone over the head with a "message" about Southern life or sexuality or life or death. But he weaves in themes of all of these, along with much more, in fascinating patterns. Even more, he explores the non-linear way in which human beings think and act, revealing motivations and thoughts that I am rarely aware of within myself. For that reason alone, I could highly recommend this book.

As good as it gets

This beautiful novel is an incredible challenge to read without the help of this talented performance. This is why I pay for audible!!

Confusing but Interesting

This book was a bit difficult to read, but worth every minute of your time.

The sound and the fury

Would you try another book from William Faulkner and/or Grover Gardner?

Yes

What do you think your next listen will be?

I don't know

Which scene was your favorite?

The scenes with Benjamin narrating

Was The Sound and the Fury worth the listening time?

No

Any additional comments?

I was disappointed because there is a whole addendum to the book that is not included in the audilbe version. The narration, however, is fantastic and I would definitely read another book narrated by Grover Gardner.

Not for everyone, but worth the work.

Truthfully, when I first started reading this book, I started and stopped multiple times because I could not understand what was happening. However, once the stream-of-consciousness style clicked in my mind, I was able to read this novel more smoothly. It has since become one of my favorite books, if not my absolute favorite. Faulkner weaves a remarkable story of familial destruction over the course of several years that the reader must piece together through three unreliable narrators while summing up these three accounts at the end with a fourth section that focuses around the true matriarch of the novel in the form of the black house servant, Dilsey. Faulkner's writing style is not for everyone, as he uses plenty of southern american vernacular and slang similar to Mark Twain, which can be even more difficult when it is infused into an experimental stream of consciousness style. However, Grover Gardner seems to have a firm grasp of this style and manner of speech, which makes this listening experience all the better.

Good Reader, sub par book

if your looking for a story that has no real beginning middle or end. this is for you.