Faulkner's Late Novels: A Reassessment of the Master's Twilight Works

The article argues for a reevaluation of William Faulkner's later novels, often dismissed as inferior to his early masterpieces. Seven major works from the 1940s to early 1960s are now collected in new French editions: 'Œuvres romanesques IV' (including 'Intruder in the Dust', 'Knight's Gambit', 'Requiem for a Nun', 'A Fable') in the Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, and 'Les Snopes' trilogy ('The Hamlet', 'The Town', 'The Mansion') in Gallimard's Quarto collection. A new biography by André Bleikasten, 'William Faulkner: A Life in Novels', is also published. The article contends that these late novels are not signs of decline but form a coherent system that completes Faulkner's epic vision of Yoknapatawpha. It highlights the trilogy's development of themes from 1927 onward and 'Requiem for a Nun' as a sequel to 'Sanctuary' conceived in 1933. The works encompass all of Western literature, from Joyce and Balzac to Shakespeare, Virgil, and Sophocles, using forms of fable, epic, and Greek tragedy. Female characters Temple Drake and Eula Varner are praised as among modern literature's greatest. Faulkner died on July 6, 1962.