The Sound and the Fury Essay & Criticism

The Sound and the Fury Critical Overview

Critical reaction to The Sound and the Fury was by no means universally favorable when it first appeared in print m 1929. While finding the novel powerful and sincere, Frances Lamont Robbins, writing in Outlook and Independent commented that "the theme, dramatic and potentially moving, loses much of its force and clarity by being presented, almost wholly, through subjective analysis. It takes a stronger hand than William Faulkner's to divert the stream of consciousness into channels of perfect usefulness and beauty." In the 1929 book On William Faulkner's "The Sound and the Fury," however, Evelyn Scott congratulated the publishers for "presenting a little known writer with the dignity of recognition which his talent deserves." The critic called Faulkner's book "an important contribution to the permanent literature of fiction." "Hardly Worth While" was the title Clifton Fadiman used in his 1930 review in the Nation. The main problem with Faulkner's book,...
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