Sartoris

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Title Sartoris

Author	William Faulkner
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre(s)	Novel
Publisher
Released	1929
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages	318
Preceded by	Mosquitoes
Followed by	The Sound and the Fury

Sartoris is a novel, first published in 1929, by William Faulkner. It portrays the decay of the Mississippi aristocracy following the social upheaval of the American Civil War. The 1929 edition is a cut version of the novel published in full as Flags in the Dust in 1973. Faulkner's great-grandfather William Clark Falkner, himself a colonel in the American Civil War, served as the model for Colonel John Sartoris.

[edit] Synopsis

The novel deals with the decay of an aristocratic southern family just after the end of World War I. The family lives under the shadow of the it’s dead patriarch Colonel John Sartoris, a former confederate calvary officer during The Civil War, a railroad builder and local folk hero. He is survived by his younger sister Virginia Du Pre (also referred to as “Aunt Jenny” and “Miss Jenny”), his son “Old” Bayard Sartoris and his great-grandson “Young” Bayard Sartoris.

The novel begins with the return of young Bayard Sartoris to Jefferson, Mississippi from the first world war where he was a fighter pilot along with his older brother John, who was killed in action. Young Bayard is haunted by the death of his brother and it, along with a disposition in the family for foolhardy behavior, fuels a cycle of self destructive behavior that centers around increasingly reckless driving in a recently purchased automobile.

Eventually young Bayard crashes the car off a bridge and undergoes a period of convalescence during which he establishes a relationship with Narcissa Benbow, who he marries. Despite promises to Narcissa to stop driving recklessly, he ends up getting into a near wreck while his grandfather old Bayard is in the car, causing him to have a heart attack which kills him. Young bayard leaves Jefferson and disappears leaving his now pregnant wife with Aunt Jenny. Young Bayard dies test flying an experimental aircraft the same day as his son’s birth.

[edit] Literary Importance

Sartoris is the first of Faulkner’s tales set in Yoknapatawpha County and introduces many of the characters that dominate his later fiction. It was also the immediate predecessor of some of his most famous and critically acclaimed novels The Sound and the Fury, As I Lay Dying, Sanctuary and Light in August.

The novel also introduces Flem Snopes in a minor role as a rival sutor to Narcissa Benbow. Flem Snopes is at the center Faulkner’s Snopes trilogy: The Hamlet, The Town and The Mansion

Preceded by none

Novels set in Yoknapatawpha County

Succeeded by The Sound and the Fury