William Styron Summary

Biography EssayThe critics received Lie Down in Darkness (1951) as an auspicious first novel, perhaps the best to appear since World War II. If reminiscent of Faulkner, its style was distinctly the au... Read more

The critics received Lie Down in Darkness (1951) as an auspicious first novel, perhaps the best to appear since World War II. Its style, if reminiscent of Faulkner, was distinctly the author's own; it... Read more

William Styron is a major American novelist who has won wide critical acclaim and stirred controversy by addressing culturally and historically contentious issues. Though not a prolific writer, he has... Read more

Critical Essay by Welles T. Brandriff [During The Long March] Mannix has been physically disabled and is about to be socially ostracized (at least by a part of society). But there has been no comparab... Read more

Critical Essay by Richard Gray Since the time he started writing, it seems to have been [Styron's] conscious aim to perpetuate the great tradition in Southern literature, and to assume the thro... Read more

Critical Essay by Alvin H. Rosenfeld The American Muse dictates its own terms of refashioning reality, and almost always these will take a highly personal, even solipsistic turn. One prominent example... Read more

In the following excerpt, McNamara finds that the plot, structure, and metaphors of Styron's novella demonstrate the author's point that both acceptance of and obedience to authority are... Read more

In this excerpt, Coale examines Styron's polarized vision of rebellion and authority, particularly what he sees as Styron's confusion over whether to portray the rebellious individual as... Read more

In the following evaluation of A Tidewater Morning, Bausch praises the way in which the three stories compliment each other and together "make one ineffable glow, like facets of the same dark j... Read more

Below, Leader concludes that, in writing the stories contained within A Tidewater Morning, Styron sought to achieve personal integrity. The pivotal moment in each of the three linked stories in Willia... Read more

In this excerpt, West discusses the effect of Styron's revisions of these earlier published stories and notes that Styron's message is that art can redeem an otherwise intolerable existe... Read more

In this excerpt, Cologne-Brookes sees in The Long March signs of a change in Styron's emphases, from his earlier view that literature is a way to achieve harmony in a chaotic world to his later... Read more

In the following assessment of The Long March, Walcutt argues that the author had to sacrifice characterization and credibility to get his point across. In his novelette The Long March . . . William S... Read more

Below, Nigro argues that The Long March is about the degeneration of a classical hero type into an "anti-hero" due to the corruption of the military. The critic also suggests that the mi... Read more

Below, Ratner provides an overview of the techniques and symbolism that Styron uses in The Long March "enlarging the narrative into his general theme of rebellion." Styron's nove... Read more

In this excerpt from an interview that was originally published in 1977, Styron speaks of how his resentment of authority figures has been a significant feature of his writing. [West]: The themes that... Read more