As I Lay Dying

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**As I Lay Dying**

Cover of As I Lay Dying
Author	William Faulkner
Genre(s)	Novel, Historical Fiction
Publisher
Released	1930
Media Type	Print (hardcover, paperback, & library binding) & audio cassette
Pages	288 pp (paperback edition)
ISBN	ISBN 0-679-73225-X

As I Lay Dying is an American novel, by William Faulkner, published in 1930, to which the author referred a "tour de force". It is Faulkner' s fifth novel and is read in schools, colleges, and universities throughout the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and other English-speaking countries. The title derives from Book XI of Homer's The Odyssey, wherein Agamemnon speaks to Odysseus "As I lay dying the woman with the dog's eyes would not close my eyes as I descended into Hades." Author William Faulkner often recited this quotation from memory.

[edit] Plot

The story is one of the death of Addie Bundren, the mother of the Bundren family. In the beginning of the story, Addie is sick and will soon die, and her son Cash builds a coffin for her. When she dies Addie Bundren's dying request is to be buried in Jefferson. The story mainly covers the travails and actions of her children in fulfilling her dying wish.

Addie's husband is Anse. She has a daughter, Dewey Dell, who is pregnant and, throughout the book, mainly concerned with the stresses of pregnancy and her desire to avoid motherhood. Addie has three sons: Cash, Jewel, and Darl.