Title: The Sound and the Fury
Genre: Novel
Year: 1929
Origin: a fantastic and astonishing birthday present
Nod Rating: 5 nods out of 5
So, why return to this novel, the Worm hears you ask. Principally
the return is due to a new reading experience. In the summer of 2012 the Worm
was presented with a particular edition of Faulkner’s novel; the key difference
being that it was printed in coloured ink, just as Faulkner had initially intended
(the idea was scotched due to the price of printing it in this manner). The
colour itself was used in order to differentiate between the vast and jutting
time shifts in the book’s first section, otherwise italicised in editions
between the 1930s to the present day. Faulkner himself rued his overturned choice:
‘I wish publishing was advanced enough to use coloured ink… I’ll just have to
save the idea until publishing grows up to it.’
It was interesting re-reading this novel with Faulkner’s idea
fully realised. The shifts in time flowed more easily (as is needed in Benjy’s
opening section; on first reading many years ago the Worm was almost dissuaded from
ploughing on after becoming annoyed in the first ten pages). Furthermore, it
was also a thrill knowing that the book was limited in number (only 1,480
copies printed); the book now takes pride of place in the Worm’s make-shift
library.
Of good value was an accompany commentary volume: another 230
pages offering notes and description on the novel. The Worm re-read this novel
slowly, centring on pages at a time, rather than whole chapters or tens of
pages at a time. In this way, he completed re-reading the book in the space of
eighteen months, using the commentary volume in order to add even greater depth
to his understanding. During this reading process – completely new to the Worm –
he was reminded of a documentary in which a book-reading group met up once a
month to read two or three pages of James Joyce’s Finnegan’s Wake. The Finnegan’s
Wake Society is worldwide, with one group in Brisbane , Australia
The Sound and the Fury is a book that has been enjoyed at
every reading; the Worm fancies creating up a society to rival that of Finnegan’s
Wake. But, of course, he is much too greedy a reader to move at the dictates of
others. However, the Worm is generous enough to suggest to everyone to pick up
a copy of this book whenever the opportunity presents itself: only a few reads
are so intense that the reader is unable to shift them from their mind.
Further information on this edition of the book here
