What do you think?
Rate this book
The Snopes Trilogy #1
The Hamlet
The Hamlet, the first novel of Faulkner's Snopes trilogy, is both an ironic take on classical tragedy and a mordant commentary on the grand pretensions of the antebellum South and the depths of its decay in the aftermath of war and Reconstruction. It tells of the advent and the rise of the Snopes family in Frenchman's Bend, a small town built on the ruins of a once-stately plantation. Flem Snopes -- wily, energetic, a man of shady origins -- quickly comes to dominate the town and its people with his cunning and guile.
409 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1940
328 people are currently reading
9,254 people want to read
About the author
William Faulkner
1,060books10.2kfollowersWilliam Cuthbert Faulkner was an American writer. He is best known for his novels and short stories set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi, a stand-in for Lafayette County where he spent most of his life. A Nobel laureate, Faulkner is one of the most celebrated writers of American literature and often is considered the greatest writer of Southern literature.
Faulkner was born in New Albany, Mississippi, and raised in Oxford, Mississippi. During World War I, he joined the Royal Canadian Air Force, but did not serve in combat. Returning to Oxford, he attended the University of Mississippi for three semesters before dropping out. He moved to New Orleans, where he wrote his first novel Soldiers' Pay (1925). He went back to Oxford and wrote Sartoris (1927), his first work set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County. In 1929, he published The Sound and the Fury. The following year, he wrote As I Lay Dying. Later that decade, he wrote Light in August, Absalom, Absalom! and The Wild Palms. He also worked as a screenwriter, contributing to Howard Hawks's To Have and Have Not and The Big Sleep, adapted from Raymond Chandler's novel. The former film, adapted from Ernest Hemingway's novel, is the only film with contributions by two Nobel laureates.
Faulkner's reputation grew following publication of Malcolm Cowley's The Portable Faulkner, and he was awarded the 1949 Nobel Prize in Literature for "his powerful and unique contribution to the modern American novel." He is the only Mississippi-born Nobel laureate. Two of his works, A Fable (1954) and The Reivers (1962), won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Faulkner died from a heart attack on July 6, 1962, following a fall from his horse the month before. Ralph Ellison called him "the greatest artist the South has produced".
Faulkner was born in New Albany, Mississippi, and raised in Oxford, Mississippi. During World War I, he joined the Royal Canadian Air Force, but did not serve in combat. Returning to Oxford, he attended the University of Mississippi for three semesters before dropping out. He moved to New Orleans, where he wrote his first novel Soldiers' Pay (1925). He went back to Oxford and wrote Sartoris (1927), his first work set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County. In 1929, he published The Sound and the Fury. The following year, he wrote As I Lay Dying. Later that decade, he wrote Light in August, Absalom, Absalom! and The Wild Palms. He also worked as a screenwriter, contributing to Howard Hawks's To Have and Have Not and The Big Sleep, adapted from Raymond Chandler's novel. The former film, adapted from Ernest Hemingway's novel, is the only film with contributions by two Nobel laureates.
Faulkner's reputation grew following publication of Malcolm Cowley's The Portable Faulkner, and he was awarded the 1949 Nobel Prize in Literature for "his powerful and unique contribution to the modern American novel." He is the only Mississippi-born Nobel laureate. Two of his works, A Fable (1954) and The Reivers (1962), won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Faulkner died from a heart attack on July 6, 1962, following a fall from his horse the month before. Ralph Ellison called him "the greatest artist the South has produced".
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 393 reviews
February 11, 2019
It was now September. The cotton was open and spilling into the fields; the very air smelled of it. In field after field as he passed along the pickers, arrested in stooping attitudes, seemed fixed amid the constant surf of bursting bolls like piles in surf, the long, partly-filled sacks streaming away behind them like rigid frozen flags. The air was hot, vivid and breathless--a final fierce concentration of the doomed and dying summer.
First Edition of The Hamlet published in 1940
Will Varner owned pretty much everything worth owning in the hamlet of Frenchman's Bend creating a certain amount of order and consistency in the lives of all the inhabitants. There was no middle class to speak of. That concept really didn't get invented until after World War Two and it certainly didn't filter down to all of rural America until much later. Basically everyone is poor, but everyone seems to have what they need. I had read a couple of hundred pages before it really sunk in that... this is a comedy.
This is the first book of the trilogy about the Snopes family followed by and . Some of you may remember a Star Trek episode titled The Trouble with Tribbles well in Frenchman's Bend The Trouble is with Snopes.
Trouble with Tribbles
Once Will's son Jody Varner makes the decision to bring in Ab Snopes the tribbles start to accumulate. He hires Ab's son Flem to come work at the Varner store and before long Flem has taken over Jody's job. The problem with Snopes is they can give you the impression that you are smarter than they are, but as the novel progresses we find out that their diligence and shrewdness make even the "smartest" man in the county, V. K. Ratliff, just another rube for one of their schemes.
The Snopes are not talkers. They do their business with a minimum amount of interaction. The more someone else talks the more he reveals about his business. Now Flem is the smartest and craftest of the the bunch and even his own family are pawns to make himself more money or even in one case keep himself out of jail. He is very careful with his business and doesn't trust anyone. "The first man that Flem would tell his business to would be the man that was left after the last man died. Flem Snopes dont even tell himself what he is up to. Not if he was laying in bed with himself in a empty house in the dark of the moon."
Now there is lust in the novel, some might even call it love. Ike Snopes falls in love with his neighbor's milk cow and finds himself compromised on more than one occasion expressing his love. Eula Varner, the youngest daughter of Will, causes a sensation through the male population of Frenchman's Bend as her curves make men do crazy things. Even the school teacher finds himself enamored with Eula way beyond any sensible level. He stayed for the privilege of waiting until the final class was dismissed and the room was empty so that he could rise and walk with is calm damned face to the bench and lay his hand on the wooden plank still warm from the impact of her sitting or even knell and lay his face to the plank, wallowing his face against it, embracing the hard unsentient wood, until the heat was gone. He was mad. He knew it."
Mink Snopes is returning home. He has just performed a dastardly deed and he has a moment where he sees his life maybe a bit too clearly. It also provided Faulkner with an opportunity to make a point about the way these people live. "He emerged from the bottom and looked up the slope of his meagre and sorry corn and saw it--the paintless two-room cabin with an open hallway between and a leanto kitchen, which was not his, on which he paid rent but not taxes, paying almost as much in rent in one year as the house had cost to build; not old, yet the roof of which already leaked and the weather-stripping had already begun to rot away from the wall planks and which was just like the one he had been born in which had not belonged to his father either,and just like the one he would die in if he died indoors.
We are talking about generational poverty that will sholy take a miracle of some unprecedented level to ever break anyone out of.
Now V.I. Ratliff is the philosopher behind the scenes of everything that happens in Frenchman's Bend. He sells sewing machines for a living and is considered by many to be the only possible foil against the encroaching influence of the Tribbles/Snopes infestation. He is asked by his friend Bookwright if he returned some money to the Armstid wife that Flem liberated from her during the famous Spotted Horse Auction. "I could have, he said. But I didn't. I might have if I could just been sho he (her husband) would buy something this time that would sho enough kill him. Besides I wasn't protecting a Snopes from Snopeses; I wasn't even protecting a people from a Snopes. I was protecting something that wasn't even a people, that wasn't nothing but something that dont want nothing but to walk and feel the sun and wouldn't know how to hurt no man even if it would and wouldn't want to even if it could, just like I wouldn't stand by and see you steal a meat-bone from a dog. I never made them Snopeses and I never made the folks that cant wait to bare their backsides to them. I could do more, but I wont. I wont, I tell you!" It is hard to help people that are so willing to be victimized. Ratliff's frustration continues as he thinks he has finally found a way to get the best of Flem.
I won't tell you the circumstances of Ratliff's final defeat, but he finds himself digging for buried money.
When I was growing up my Father leased land from a guy named Urs Hauptli (Swiss). I used to help him pick watermelons and cantaloupes. He owned this sandy soil down by the river that was just perfect for growing sweet fruit and people would come from counties around to buy from him. I can tell you from experience you haven't tasted watermelon until you get a chance to cut it open right off the vine. He used to pay me with a jar full of antique coins, Indian head pennies, Buffalo nickels and Mercury dimes. I still have them, buried in a can, and I ain't going to tell you where. Anyway shortly before Urs died he showed my Father several places where he had buried money. He had run a wire up from the lid of the can to the surface so he would have a guide to find that money when he needed it. Unfortunately I was away at college when Urs passed away, so my Father and brother had all the fun finding those wires and digging up those cans of money. One jar was filled with powdered paper money. The bank sent that off to a lab and they were able to assess as best they could how much money had been in the can. Surprisingly, the government replaced that money. Reading about Ratliff digging for bags of money brought back memories of Urs and his distrust of the banks.
This book was just so fun to read. There were passages where Faulkner would go on for pages talking about one of the characters and not tell you which one until near the end. It was a mystery each time that I puzzled on trying to figure out who he was talking about before he told me. You must have patience with Faulkner because he is going to tell a story the way he wants to tell it. This was so different from that I read back in May. There was no doubt, of course, that it was the same author, but using a more humorous style. I want to thank On the Southern Literary Trail; yet again, for pointing me towards another great work of Southern literature. I certainly intend to read more of William Faulkner. He has, with these two books, matured me as a reader, expanded my mind, and really made me respect his courage and fortitude to write such powerful books in a style that is uniquely his own.
William Faulkner
If you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie reviews, visit
I also have a Facebook blogger page at:
First Edition of The Hamlet published in 1940
Will Varner owned pretty much everything worth owning in the hamlet of Frenchman's Bend creating a certain amount of order and consistency in the lives of all the inhabitants. There was no middle class to speak of. That concept really didn't get invented until after World War Two and it certainly didn't filter down to all of rural America until much later. Basically everyone is poor, but everyone seems to have what they need. I had read a couple of hundred pages before it really sunk in that... this is a comedy.
This is the first book of the trilogy about the Snopes family followed by and . Some of you may remember a Star Trek episode titled The Trouble with Tribbles well in Frenchman's Bend The Trouble is with Snopes.
Trouble with Tribbles
Once Will's son Jody Varner makes the decision to bring in Ab Snopes the tribbles start to accumulate. He hires Ab's son Flem to come work at the Varner store and before long Flem has taken over Jody's job. The problem with Snopes is they can give you the impression that you are smarter than they are, but as the novel progresses we find out that their diligence and shrewdness make even the "smartest" man in the county, V. K. Ratliff, just another rube for one of their schemes.
The Snopes are not talkers. They do their business with a minimum amount of interaction. The more someone else talks the more he reveals about his business. Now Flem is the smartest and craftest of the the bunch and even his own family are pawns to make himself more money or even in one case keep himself out of jail. He is very careful with his business and doesn't trust anyone. "The first man that Flem would tell his business to would be the man that was left after the last man died. Flem Snopes dont even tell himself what he is up to. Not if he was laying in bed with himself in a empty house in the dark of the moon."
Now there is lust in the novel, some might even call it love. Ike Snopes falls in love with his neighbor's milk cow and finds himself compromised on more than one occasion expressing his love. Eula Varner, the youngest daughter of Will, causes a sensation through the male population of Frenchman's Bend as her curves make men do crazy things. Even the school teacher finds himself enamored with Eula way beyond any sensible level. He stayed for the privilege of waiting until the final class was dismissed and the room was empty so that he could rise and walk with is calm damned face to the bench and lay his hand on the wooden plank still warm from the impact of her sitting or even knell and lay his face to the plank, wallowing his face against it, embracing the hard unsentient wood, until the heat was gone. He was mad. He knew it."
Mink Snopes is returning home. He has just performed a dastardly deed and he has a moment where he sees his life maybe a bit too clearly. It also provided Faulkner with an opportunity to make a point about the way these people live. "He emerged from the bottom and looked up the slope of his meagre and sorry corn and saw it--the paintless two-room cabin with an open hallway between and a leanto kitchen, which was not his, on which he paid rent but not taxes, paying almost as much in rent in one year as the house had cost to build; not old, yet the roof of which already leaked and the weather-stripping had already begun to rot away from the wall planks and which was just like the one he had been born in which had not belonged to his father either,and just like the one he would die in if he died indoors.
We are talking about generational poverty that will sholy take a miracle of some unprecedented level to ever break anyone out of.
Now V.I. Ratliff is the philosopher behind the scenes of everything that happens in Frenchman's Bend. He sells sewing machines for a living and is considered by many to be the only possible foil against the encroaching influence of the Tribbles/Snopes infestation. He is asked by his friend Bookwright if he returned some money to the Armstid wife that Flem liberated from her during the famous Spotted Horse Auction. "I could have, he said. But I didn't. I might have if I could just been sho he (her husband) would buy something this time that would sho enough kill him. Besides I wasn't protecting a Snopes from Snopeses; I wasn't even protecting a people from a Snopes. I was protecting something that wasn't even a people, that wasn't nothing but something that dont want nothing but to walk and feel the sun and wouldn't know how to hurt no man even if it would and wouldn't want to even if it could, just like I wouldn't stand by and see you steal a meat-bone from a dog. I never made them Snopeses and I never made the folks that cant wait to bare their backsides to them. I could do more, but I wont. I wont, I tell you!" It is hard to help people that are so willing to be victimized. Ratliff's frustration continues as he thinks he has finally found a way to get the best of Flem.
I won't tell you the circumstances of Ratliff's final defeat, but he finds himself digging for buried money.
When I was growing up my Father leased land from a guy named Urs Hauptli (Swiss). I used to help him pick watermelons and cantaloupes. He owned this sandy soil down by the river that was just perfect for growing sweet fruit and people would come from counties around to buy from him. I can tell you from experience you haven't tasted watermelon until you get a chance to cut it open right off the vine. He used to pay me with a jar full of antique coins, Indian head pennies, Buffalo nickels and Mercury dimes. I still have them, buried in a can, and I ain't going to tell you where. Anyway shortly before Urs died he showed my Father several places where he had buried money. He had run a wire up from the lid of the can to the surface so he would have a guide to find that money when he needed it. Unfortunately I was away at college when Urs passed away, so my Father and brother had all the fun finding those wires and digging up those cans of money. One jar was filled with powdered paper money. The bank sent that off to a lab and they were able to assess as best they could how much money had been in the can. Surprisingly, the government replaced that money. Reading about Ratliff digging for bags of money brought back memories of Urs and his distrust of the banks.
This book was just so fun to read. There were passages where Faulkner would go on for pages talking about one of the characters and not tell you which one until near the end. It was a mystery each time that I puzzled on trying to figure out who he was talking about before he told me. You must have patience with Faulkner because he is going to tell a story the way he wants to tell it. This was so different from that I read back in May. There was no doubt, of course, that it was the same author, but using a more humorous style. I want to thank On the Southern Literary Trail; yet again, for pointing me towards another great work of Southern literature. I certainly intend to read more of William Faulkner. He has, with these two books, matured me as a reader, expanded my mind, and really made me respect his courage and fortitude to write such powerful books in a style that is uniquely his own.
William Faulkner
If you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie reviews, visit
I also have a Facebook blogger page at:
November 11, 2024
Published in 1940, The Hamlet is the first book of the novel trilogy on Snopes; at a press conference, Faulkner said he wrote it in the late 1920s.
Like most of Faulkner's books, the action takes place in the famous county of Yoknapatawpha, but unlike in other novels, the focus here is not on telling the story and, even more precisely, the decline of great families in the South.
At the center of the stories are the Snopes, destitute little white people, and, first and foremost, Flem, a devious character determined to get there by all means. The book takes place in a rural community, half by ruse and half by the fear it inspires. Finally, Flem settles down and brings in a certain number of family members; there, he finds the first rung of the social ladder, allowing him his remarkable ascent, which will be seen in the following volumes of the trilogy.
It has four parts. You could almost read them separately like short stories, except that read together, they take on an entirely different meaning, illuminating and complementing each other, like a melody with several voices. First, we discover Flem's arrival and installation, followed by other family members. We also follow the destiny of Eula, daughter of the local notable, Wille Varner, who will become Flem's wife.
It is a stunning novel of great richness, both in construction and in the themes addressed, and the human characters describe them in a very endearing way.
Like most of Faulkner's books, the action takes place in the famous county of Yoknapatawpha, but unlike in other novels, the focus here is not on telling the story and, even more precisely, the decline of great families in the South.
At the center of the stories are the Snopes, destitute little white people, and, first and foremost, Flem, a devious character determined to get there by all means. The book takes place in a rural community, half by ruse and half by the fear it inspires. Finally, Flem settles down and brings in a certain number of family members; there, he finds the first rung of the social ladder, allowing him his remarkable ascent, which will be seen in the following volumes of the trilogy.
It has four parts. You could almost read them separately like short stories, except that read together, they take on an entirely different meaning, illuminating and complementing each other, like a melody with several voices. First, we discover Flem's arrival and installation, followed by other family members. We also follow the destiny of Eula, daughter of the local notable, Wille Varner, who will become Flem's wife.
It is a stunning novel of great richness, both in construction and in the themes addressed, and the human characters describe them in a very endearing way.
August 28, 2020
Snopes is the quintessential embodiment of the ruthless clan spirit that built America.
You will find him in soap operas starring in the roles of JR Ewing et alii. You will find him in priests of the Elmer Gantry calibre, you will find him in people who build their lives and their fortunes on cheating and tricking and controlling the courts. You will find him wherever there is a spirit of wild west cowboy machismo that he can use to his advantage. Wherever there is a man crazy for gold and success, there will be a Snopes to lead him on and ruin him. For every Armstid going clinically mad, there is a Snopes clan laughing and enriching themselves while the community watches in silent, powerless rage.
It takes a Faulkner to show it in such a way that the reader empathises despite the rage building like a fire in an overdry forest. It takes a Faulkner to put the Spaghetti Western types on display in all their idiocy and to offer a brutally honest reflection on them at the same time. When Mrs Littlejohn speaks up after the incident with the wild horses, she addresses the entire lot of goodfornothings, not only the miserable Armstid who ruined his family and himself in a moment of hubris:
"Go outside. See if you cant find something else to play with that will kill some more of you."
When Mrs Tull and Mrs Armstid fail to find justice in court, they walk out in dignity while the cowboys keep their quiet and thus their complicity, even though they watch one Snopes lying to court with his fingers on the bible to protect the financial interests of another Snopes. Shamelessness wins the battle for power, but the women win the fight for the dignity and integrity of humanity.
Summing up the experience of the American Dream turning into a nightmare for most people, Faulkner finds the infected wound in the organism:
"I am stronger than him. Not righter. Not any better, maybe. But just stronger."
And thus, he will do what he can do. And he does. Until someone stronger still comes along and plays the same game. Needless to say, there won't be any shoes for the many children any time soon, for the five dollars a mother earns in years of extra evening work can be gambled away in a fit of machismo and greed, over and over.
Faulkner is realistic tragedy. Until the women win in court, nothing will change.
You will find him in soap operas starring in the roles of JR Ewing et alii. You will find him in priests of the Elmer Gantry calibre, you will find him in people who build their lives and their fortunes on cheating and tricking and controlling the courts. You will find him wherever there is a spirit of wild west cowboy machismo that he can use to his advantage. Wherever there is a man crazy for gold and success, there will be a Snopes to lead him on and ruin him. For every Armstid going clinically mad, there is a Snopes clan laughing and enriching themselves while the community watches in silent, powerless rage.
It takes a Faulkner to show it in such a way that the reader empathises despite the rage building like a fire in an overdry forest. It takes a Faulkner to put the Spaghetti Western types on display in all their idiocy and to offer a brutally honest reflection on them at the same time. When Mrs Littlejohn speaks up after the incident with the wild horses, she addresses the entire lot of goodfornothings, not only the miserable Armstid who ruined his family and himself in a moment of hubris:
"Go outside. See if you cant find something else to play with that will kill some more of you."
When Mrs Tull and Mrs Armstid fail to find justice in court, they walk out in dignity while the cowboys keep their quiet and thus their complicity, even though they watch one Snopes lying to court with his fingers on the bible to protect the financial interests of another Snopes. Shamelessness wins the battle for power, but the women win the fight for the dignity and integrity of humanity.
Summing up the experience of the American Dream turning into a nightmare for most people, Faulkner finds the infected wound in the organism:
"I am stronger than him. Not righter. Not any better, maybe. But just stronger."
And thus, he will do what he can do. And he does. Until someone stronger still comes along and plays the same game. Needless to say, there won't be any shoes for the many children any time soon, for the five dollars a mother earns in years of extra evening work can be gambled away in a fit of machismo and greed, over and over.
Faulkner is realistic tragedy. Until the women win in court, nothing will change.
April 2, 2025
The Hamlet is typical Faulkner - brilliant and maddening at the same time. Frequently on the same page. Like most of his work it examines the complexities of the South in the wake of the Civil War and Reconstruction. The story tells us of Flem Snopes' rise to power in Frenchman’s Bend, a sleepy corner of Yoknapatawpha county. It focuses on morality, greed and the shift in power from the old money to a new rapacious class. As always the decline of the old aristocracy in the South is never far from the surface. Faulkner doesn’t hold back describing Flem:
“His eyes were the color of stagnant water......His face was as blank as a pan of uncooked dough�
As usual Faulkner's use of language is clever and challenging:
“I don't know how he slept; I never listened to see�
“looking now and then toward the dark front of Varner's store as people will gather to look quietly at the cold embers of a lynching�
The various stories are held together by the thinnest strand of cotton, and are told by various characters that allow the novel to unfold from different perspectives. It gives a wonderful portrayal of life in rural Mississippi.
This isn’t the best novel that Faulkner wrote, but it’s very good and a great start to the Snopes Trilogy. Big thanks to my friend Debi Cates for being such a brilliant reading partner for this one. I can't wait for the next one.
“His eyes were the color of stagnant water......His face was as blank as a pan of uncooked dough�
As usual Faulkner's use of language is clever and challenging:
“I don't know how he slept; I never listened to see�
“looking now and then toward the dark front of Varner's store as people will gather to look quietly at the cold embers of a lynching�
The various stories are held together by the thinnest strand of cotton, and are told by various characters that allow the novel to unfold from different perspectives. It gives a wonderful portrayal of life in rural Mississippi.
This isn’t the best novel that Faulkner wrote, but it’s very good and a great start to the Snopes Trilogy. Big thanks to my friend Debi Cates for being such a brilliant reading partner for this one. I can't wait for the next one.
February 17, 2022
Like his earlier The Unvanquished, which introduced Ab, the first Snopes in Yoknapatawpha County, The Hamlet is constructed from about a half dozen short stories. It is the first in a trilogy relating the rise and fall of Ab's son, Flem, but you won't learn much about his thoughts or feelings here.
I've not finished the trilogy yet and I don't know if I'm going to be persuaded by Faulkner that the hardscrabble citizens of Frenchman's Bend were better off being maltreated by the feudal Varner family than the rising, capitalist Snopes clan he abhors, but I found dark humor, pathos, and horror galore in this Southern Gothic masterpiece.
The first man Flem would tell his business to would be the man that was left after the last man died. Flem don't even tell himself what he is up to. Not if he was laying in bed with himself in a empty house in the dark of the moon.Nor will you peer into the interior life of Eula, his wife, whose exterior, however, is abundantly and sensuously described.
...her entire appearance suggested some symbology out of the old Dionysic times-honey in sunlight and bursting grapes, the writhen bleeding of the crushed fecundated vine beneath the hard rapacious trampling goat-hoof.But the carnival of characters who surround and spark off these two, the men scheming against Flem for money and lusting over Eula's anatomy, the women trying to clean up the ensuing wreckage, provide an embarrassment of entertainment that reminded me of Dickens and Twain.
I've not finished the trilogy yet and I don't know if I'm going to be persuaded by Faulkner that the hardscrabble citizens of Frenchman's Bend were better off being maltreated by the feudal Varner family than the rising, capitalist Snopes clan he abhors, but I found dark humor, pathos, and horror galore in this Southern Gothic masterpiece.
I thought that when you killed a man, that finished it, he told himself. But it don't. It just starts then.
August 12, 2012
The Hamlet: Faulkner's Novel of the Snopes Trilogy
Reviewed by V.K. Ratliff
Things were right quiet down at Frenchman's Bend. No, not up at the old Sutpen place. This down south an' east of town.
Ever man knew how things worked. It wasn't the best place to live. Old Will Varner owned about ever thing worth anythin'. Most of the men farmed their cotton on shares on land owned by Varner. But a man could make a livin' on shares and have a roof over his head which he most likely paid Varner for. An when they made their crop Varner ginned it. An they got their shares. Their credit was good at Varner's store, too. An' that come out of their shares, too.
Now, I remember the day Ab Snopes come to the Bend. I had knowed him since I was eight years old. He had been around Yoknapatawpha all the way back to the War Between the States, him and Granny Millard dealing in mules, mostly the same mules over an over. The whole mess soured that man.
Ab come into town an' that darn fool Jody, Old Will's son went an' rented to Ab. Rentin' to a barn burner isn't good business. Never has been. You can ask Colonel de Spain in town. Course, nobody ever proved Ab done that. Jody's eyes got big as saucers when I told him what he'd gone an' done.
But Ab weren't the worst of it. It was that son of his, Flem. An Flem got hired on as clerk down at the store. Kinda a type of fire insurance if you get my meanin'.
Then those Snopeses come crawlin' into the hamlet like cockroaches out of the woodwork. Except it was more like those locusts Moses called down on Egypt.
That Flem. He had a head for money. Better than Jody an' as good as Will Varner. But he was like that catarrh that fills up your chest when you have the ague. You hawk an cough an it's stuck there until you can finally hawk it up. Then even when you spit it out you still taste it. That was Flem.
Nobody could beat Flem. An' he even done away with credit at the store.
Will Varner had a daughter named Eula. Pretty thing. Don't think she knew the effect she had on men, not for a while until all the boys come around. An then it was the older ones showed up. She had more movin' parts on her than a woman should be allowed. And when she comes up in the family way, it's Flem that marries her. An it's off to Texas.
There's a lot more you'll find out about those Snopeses. An I'm ashamed to say me an Henry Armstid an Bookwright without knowin' it made it possible for Flem an that crowd of cousins of his to head to Jefferson. Good ole V.K. that everbody likes, noddin', smilin', sellin' sewin' machines on notes, tellin' tall tales. An everbody would just laugh an laugh. But there's nuthin' to laugh about no more.
All that greed, all that's dishonest an untruthful's headin' into Town. Gawdamighty what have I gone an done? That Flem, thinkin' a little tie an a white shirt an money can make a man respectable. I'm goin to have to watch him an all them. It's what I turned loose. Sholy.
Reviewed by V.K. Ratliff
Things were right quiet down at Frenchman's Bend. No, not up at the old Sutpen place. This down south an' east of town.
Ever man knew how things worked. It wasn't the best place to live. Old Will Varner owned about ever thing worth anythin'. Most of the men farmed their cotton on shares on land owned by Varner. But a man could make a livin' on shares and have a roof over his head which he most likely paid Varner for. An when they made their crop Varner ginned it. An they got their shares. Their credit was good at Varner's store, too. An' that come out of their shares, too.
Now, I remember the day Ab Snopes come to the Bend. I had knowed him since I was eight years old. He had been around Yoknapatawpha all the way back to the War Between the States, him and Granny Millard dealing in mules, mostly the same mules over an over. The whole mess soured that man.
Ab come into town an' that darn fool Jody, Old Will's son went an' rented to Ab. Rentin' to a barn burner isn't good business. Never has been. You can ask Colonel de Spain in town. Course, nobody ever proved Ab done that. Jody's eyes got big as saucers when I told him what he'd gone an' done.
But Ab weren't the worst of it. It was that son of his, Flem. An Flem got hired on as clerk down at the store. Kinda a type of fire insurance if you get my meanin'.
Then those Snopeses come crawlin' into the hamlet like cockroaches out of the woodwork. Except it was more like those locusts Moses called down on Egypt.
That Flem. He had a head for money. Better than Jody an' as good as Will Varner. But he was like that catarrh that fills up your chest when you have the ague. You hawk an cough an it's stuck there until you can finally hawk it up. Then even when you spit it out you still taste it. That was Flem.
Nobody could beat Flem. An' he even done away with credit at the store.
Will Varner had a daughter named Eula. Pretty thing. Don't think she knew the effect she had on men, not for a while until all the boys come around. An then it was the older ones showed up. She had more movin' parts on her than a woman should be allowed. And when she comes up in the family way, it's Flem that marries her. An it's off to Texas.
There's a lot more you'll find out about those Snopeses. An I'm ashamed to say me an Henry Armstid an Bookwright without knowin' it made it possible for Flem an that crowd of cousins of his to head to Jefferson. Good ole V.K. that everbody likes, noddin', smilin', sellin' sewin' machines on notes, tellin' tall tales. An everbody would just laugh an laugh. But there's nuthin' to laugh about no more.
All that greed, all that's dishonest an untruthful's headin' into Town. Gawdamighty what have I gone an done? That Flem, thinkin' a little tie an a white shirt an money can make a man respectable. I'm goin to have to watch him an all them. It's what I turned loose. Sholy.
July 30, 2017
The Long, Hot Summer
This is the first in the Snopes trilogy focusing on the decline of Southern aristocracy in Faulkner's fictional Yoknapatawpha County with the concurrent rise of capitalism via the squirrely, cold-blooded and crooked Snopes family. The Hamlet explores the Snopes clan's early years as they rise to power while the mainstay families--the Compsons and the Sartorises--decline in wealth and influence.
Abner "Ab" Snopes, the family patriarch, moves his wife and two kids to Frenchman's Bend from parts unknown, and Ab begins life as a tenant farmer on Varner property. Someone learns that Ab might have once been a horse thief and the citizenry learns the hard way that he is also a barn burner. Ab's son Flem, who I guess one could call the anti-hero of the trilogy, begins his ascent in Volume I as a store clerk, up to landowner and entrepreneur trader.
A Faulkner oddity: Ike Snopes, a cousin, is a dim-witted ne'er-do-well who develops carnal attractions--unrequited, thank goodness--for a cow.
This has my interest enough to continue with the trilogy, but with no true sense of anticipation. As all but Light in August, one must be diligent and persevere to gain reward in its reading.
An interesting tidbit: I am fairly certain this is the only Faulkner novel made into a relatively big budget film or to see moderate success, as "The Long, Hot Summer" (1958), starring Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward and Orson Welles, the last of whom has the absolute worst Southern accent that's ever made it to the silver screen.
This is the first in the Snopes trilogy focusing on the decline of Southern aristocracy in Faulkner's fictional Yoknapatawpha County with the concurrent rise of capitalism via the squirrely, cold-blooded and crooked Snopes family. The Hamlet explores the Snopes clan's early years as they rise to power while the mainstay families--the Compsons and the Sartorises--decline in wealth and influence.
Abner "Ab" Snopes, the family patriarch, moves his wife and two kids to Frenchman's Bend from parts unknown, and Ab begins life as a tenant farmer on Varner property. Someone learns that Ab might have once been a horse thief and the citizenry learns the hard way that he is also a barn burner. Ab's son Flem, who I guess one could call the anti-hero of the trilogy, begins his ascent in Volume I as a store clerk, up to landowner and entrepreneur trader.
A Faulkner oddity: Ike Snopes, a cousin, is a dim-witted ne'er-do-well who develops carnal attractions--unrequited, thank goodness--for a cow.
This has my interest enough to continue with the trilogy, but with no true sense of anticipation. As all but Light in August, one must be diligent and persevere to gain reward in its reading.
An interesting tidbit: I am fairly certain this is the only Faulkner novel made into a relatively big budget film or to see moderate success, as "The Long, Hot Summer" (1958), starring Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward and Orson Welles, the last of whom has the absolute worst Southern accent that's ever made it to the silver screen.
March 8, 2024
Faulkner's first Snopes novel is a bridge from modernism to postmodernism. The narrator is not unreliable, but he is a rather sneaky character. The story is told much by hearsay. The narrator knows more than everyone else, but not much more than the town gossips who stand on the gallery of the store and chew tobacco, smoke pipes, eat crackers with cheese.
The Snopes represent a shift in the culture, in the way of life in this little village in turn of the (20th) century Mississippi. Barn burning and horse trading are still big concerns, but it is all about to change; in this first book of Snopes, the reader can only sense what's coming; it is not quite explicit.
Not all the Snopes are shrewd, diligent, and resilient, but the main family member, Flem, is all three; he's pretty clever and downright mean, too.
Most of the townsfolk are rather wry and terse, at least a little harsh when we hear their dialogue. Will Varner and the sewing machine salesman, Ratliff, are characters with at least some cheer.
This is the type of fiction that rings with so much truth that the reader feels as if a real history is being told.
We are introduced to myriad other Snopes, from a supposedly pious school teacher to a burgeoning blacksmith to a mentally disabled cousin with predilections that include slobbering, moaning, and bestiality.
Flem seems to conjure a cousin every time he moves to a higher position in the community's primitive hierarchy; the newcomer takes Flem's old place, but we are led to believe it is all to the benefit of Flem, the top Snopes.
Faulkner discusses sex frankly without meandering into vulgarity, even by 1940 Southern Baptist standards. There is murder. There is domestic violence. There is, of course, racism and misogyny. Faulkner skewers it all in a slick way, subtle, never preaching.
The game of American Football is new around the time this novel takes place, and it is discussed and described a little. We are told that a thirst-quenched horse will blow into water instead of drinking. We are let in on secrets of horse trading and how those traders begat the used-car salesmen of later decades. Asides like these keep the narrative unexpectedly interesting.
The Hamlet is about how some persons get over on others, how pitiful those who are being had can be, and how miserable those doing the taking can be. And that is what has been going on in the world of humans since before there was writing, before there was even speaking.
Some of those who get walked on deserve little pity. They're so weak it's sickening. Men stand around watching a woman get smacked by her idiot husband. They gather round to see the intellectually disabled Snopes' bovine copulation. Faulkner calls out his kin, his fellow Mississippians, Americans, and human beings in general.
Varner and Ratliff are wise, but wisdom is no match for Flem Snopes' shrewdness, his cold perseverance. The book is a statement about a new era in America, where knowledge and decency are overtaken by calculation, organization, and coldhearted conniving. It is a book that shows how a narrative narrow in scope can touch on just about everything under the sun.
The Snopes represent a shift in the culture, in the way of life in this little village in turn of the (20th) century Mississippi. Barn burning and horse trading are still big concerns, but it is all about to change; in this first book of Snopes, the reader can only sense what's coming; it is not quite explicit.
Not all the Snopes are shrewd, diligent, and resilient, but the main family member, Flem, is all three; he's pretty clever and downright mean, too.
Most of the townsfolk are rather wry and terse, at least a little harsh when we hear their dialogue. Will Varner and the sewing machine salesman, Ratliff, are characters with at least some cheer.
This is the type of fiction that rings with so much truth that the reader feels as if a real history is being told.
We are introduced to myriad other Snopes, from a supposedly pious school teacher to a burgeoning blacksmith to a mentally disabled cousin with predilections that include slobbering, moaning, and bestiality.
Flem seems to conjure a cousin every time he moves to a higher position in the community's primitive hierarchy; the newcomer takes Flem's old place, but we are led to believe it is all to the benefit of Flem, the top Snopes.
Faulkner discusses sex frankly without meandering into vulgarity, even by 1940 Southern Baptist standards. There is murder. There is domestic violence. There is, of course, racism and misogyny. Faulkner skewers it all in a slick way, subtle, never preaching.
The game of American Football is new around the time this novel takes place, and it is discussed and described a little. We are told that a thirst-quenched horse will blow into water instead of drinking. We are let in on secrets of horse trading and how those traders begat the used-car salesmen of later decades. Asides like these keep the narrative unexpectedly interesting.
The Hamlet is about how some persons get over on others, how pitiful those who are being had can be, and how miserable those doing the taking can be. And that is what has been going on in the world of humans since before there was writing, before there was even speaking.
Some of those who get walked on deserve little pity. They're so weak it's sickening. Men stand around watching a woman get smacked by her idiot husband. They gather round to see the intellectually disabled Snopes' bovine copulation. Faulkner calls out his kin, his fellow Mississippians, Americans, and human beings in general.
Varner and Ratliff are wise, but wisdom is no match for Flem Snopes' shrewdness, his cold perseverance. The book is a statement about a new era in America, where knowledge and decency are overtaken by calculation, organization, and coldhearted conniving. It is a book that shows how a narrative narrow in scope can touch on just about everything under the sun.
July 6, 2018
If you are planning to read Faulkner, you must be prepared to take your meat raw. It has been decades since I initially read The Hamlet, and I had forgotten how coarse and unrestrained the writing could be at times. It was as if Faulkner wanted you to never mistake this world for one in which there was any refinement or justice or sanity, as if he meant to reveal how unendurable a life could really be.
The story, or stories if you will, since there are several told here, with only the barest thread to hold them together, is violent and intense, with a broodiness that sometimes makes it difficult to turn the page and continue, but which makes it equally impossible to stop reading.
I’m not sure there is a single character within these pages that is likeable enough to even elicit a sustained feeling of sympathy, let alone affinity. It is a dirty, hot, sticky world, in which the sweat-stained shirts cling to dirty backs, the children run bare-footed, the women are beaten or bartered by their husbands or fathers, and tobacco juice drips from nasty, uncombed beards. There is a cow and an imbecile, and I am not even going there. Life is cheap and entertainment comes in the form of misery and murder.
I hate the south of Faulkner’s novels, and yet I love it as well. It is gritty and blank and a law unto itself. Even the people at the top of this crumbling society seem trapped. They are more survivors than rulers and they must be wary every moment so as not to be usurped or displaced. No villainy is intolerable and, in such a climate, no villainy is unpracticed. Your only chance is to be a Snopes and a have clan at your back, but then be careful, because the man at your back, Snopes are not, might be carrying a knife.
No one would accuse Faulkner of being easy or fun to read, but after you have parsed a sentence and gleaned the meaning, there is so much to admire.
The story, or stories if you will, since there are several told here, with only the barest thread to hold them together, is violent and intense, with a broodiness that sometimes makes it difficult to turn the page and continue, but which makes it equally impossible to stop reading.
I’m not sure there is a single character within these pages that is likeable enough to even elicit a sustained feeling of sympathy, let alone affinity. It is a dirty, hot, sticky world, in which the sweat-stained shirts cling to dirty backs, the children run bare-footed, the women are beaten or bartered by their husbands or fathers, and tobacco juice drips from nasty, uncombed beards. There is a cow and an imbecile, and I am not even going there. Life is cheap and entertainment comes in the form of misery and murder.
I hate the south of Faulkner’s novels, and yet I love it as well. It is gritty and blank and a law unto itself. Even the people at the top of this crumbling society seem trapped. They are more survivors than rulers and they must be wary every moment so as not to be usurped or displaced. No villainy is intolerable and, in such a climate, no villainy is unpracticed. Your only chance is to be a Snopes and a have clan at your back, but then be careful, because the man at your back, Snopes are not, might be carrying a knife.
No one would accuse Faulkner of being easy or fun to read, but after you have parsed a sentence and gleaned the meaning, there is so much to admire.
January 2, 2023
The Hamlet is the first book in William Faulkner's The Snopes Trilogy. This postbellum Southern novel takes place in Faulkner's famous Yoknapatawpha County in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century rural world of Frenchmen's Bend, a section of rich river-bottom country lying twenty miles southeast of Jefferson. It had been here that held the original grant and site of a tremendous pre-Civil War plantation. Although now, even the mansion was in ruin, it was still known as the Frenchman's place. Little was known of him, not even Will Varner who now owned a good portion of the Frenchman's original grant, including the site of his ruined mansion.
As the narrative begins, Abner Snopes has rented a farm in Frenchman's Bend but there are rumors that fires have seemed to follow him prompting Will and his son, Jody Varner, to hire Ab's son Flem Snopes to work in their general store thinking it would be a deterrent to any barn-burning. We are introduced to the Varner's daugher, Eula and the school teacher/administrator Mr. Labove and his challenges with Eula in the classroom. As the story advances, we meet a lot of characters, many of whom are Snopes. Although there were times that I struggled with the book, once I began to figure out all of the Snopes characters and settled into the narrative, it was quite good with a lot of humor interspersed. Certainly Mr. Faulkner would often go on for many pages in the vein of James Joyce in describing one of the Snopes' characters before one would have any idea who he was talking about. And there was yet another Snopes that had come into the narrative. Much of the novel consists of stories about Flem Snopes' rise and his ultimate downfall as he ploted many swindles in Frenchman's Bend. However, the key to the characters in The Hamlet was the presence of V.K. Ratliff, an itinerant salesman of sewing machines and the true custodian and preserver of the county's history and news. It is through Ratliff's omniscient narration that the story advances. It is proposed that The Snopes Trilogy is all about story-telling in a kind of collective voice and many points of view. I am looking forward to the next book in the trilogy, The Town.
"Even his name was forgotten, his pride but a legend about the land he had wrested from the jungle and tamed as a monument to that appelation which those who came after him in battered wagons and on muleback and even on foot, with flintock rifles and dogs and children and home-made whiskey stills and Protestant psalm-books, could not even read, let alone pronounce, and which now had nothing to do with any once-living man at all--his dream and his pride now dust with the lost dust of his anonymous bones, his legend but the stubborm tale of the money he buried somewhere about the place where Grant overran the country on his way to Vicksbug."
As the narrative begins, Abner Snopes has rented a farm in Frenchman's Bend but there are rumors that fires have seemed to follow him prompting Will and his son, Jody Varner, to hire Ab's son Flem Snopes to work in their general store thinking it would be a deterrent to any barn-burning. We are introduced to the Varner's daugher, Eula and the school teacher/administrator Mr. Labove and his challenges with Eula in the classroom. As the story advances, we meet a lot of characters, many of whom are Snopes. Although there were times that I struggled with the book, once I began to figure out all of the Snopes characters and settled into the narrative, it was quite good with a lot of humor interspersed. Certainly Mr. Faulkner would often go on for many pages in the vein of James Joyce in describing one of the Snopes' characters before one would have any idea who he was talking about. And there was yet another Snopes that had come into the narrative. Much of the novel consists of stories about Flem Snopes' rise and his ultimate downfall as he ploted many swindles in Frenchman's Bend. However, the key to the characters in The Hamlet was the presence of V.K. Ratliff, an itinerant salesman of sewing machines and the true custodian and preserver of the county's history and news. It is through Ratliff's omniscient narration that the story advances. It is proposed that The Snopes Trilogy is all about story-telling in a kind of collective voice and many points of view. I am looking forward to the next book in the trilogy, The Town.
September 5, 2021
[3.4] This novel, a collection of episodic tales about the townsfolk living in a Mississippi hamlet, disappointed me. Especially since the other novels I've read by Faulkner have been amazing. Faulkner introduces some rich and funny characters but skipped around and skimmed the surface too much for me to become involved.
June 30, 2015
This book gives the impression that the author had a number of stories to tell so he sorted them out in a sequential order along a generalized timeline, located the action in his favorite fictional setting, Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi, and like magic this book appeared. Faulkner is a world class story teller, and his writing skills shine in this book.
Much of the dialog in this book is filled with southern witticisms and colorful metaphor which give the story a humorous tone. But there is underlying tragedy and depression because the characters described in this book are desperately poor. The story takes place approximately around the turn of the 19th to the 20th century, and the mistreatment of Negros and women is evident and portrayed as the normal state of affairs. The book portrays the descendants of the antebellum aristocracy to be in decline and a new aggressively greedy class of people are cornering the wealth at the cost to others. Actually all the characters in the book can be called greedy, but some are more successful at it than others.
I experienced the story of Mr. and Mrs. Armstids near the end of the book was particularly sad. Mr. Armstids has very poor judgment and ends up spending their last five dollars which Mrs. Armstids has worked all winter to earn in order to purchase shoes for their child. The case ends up in court and the law is unable to provide justice even though it is obvious to all present that she deserves to have the money back. The Armstids are fictional characters so I need not cry for them. But my heart goes out to all the hardworking wives/mothers throughout history that were in similar situations and who did their best when their husbands were more of a liability than helpful.
The story of the auction of several wild ponies imported from Texas near the end of this book is particularly humorous. But it's like a lot of humorous stories in that it's funny to hear the story, but it would be hell to live through. It's my understanding that this story was published separately as a short story titled prior to the publishing of this book.
This book is easier to read than some of Faulkner's other books which have a structure that I describe as smoke and mirrors (e.g. The Sound and the Fury). The one exception is a short section near the end of Book Two: "Eula" where Faulkner inserts an allegory that portrays the devil as being unable to take possession of a soul he had previously traded for because the wheeler dealer character of this book was too clever. This particular story is a bit other-worldly in contrast with the rest of the book.
Much of the dialog in this book is filled with southern witticisms and colorful metaphor which give the story a humorous tone. But there is underlying tragedy and depression because the characters described in this book are desperately poor. The story takes place approximately around the turn of the 19th to the 20th century, and the mistreatment of Negros and women is evident and portrayed as the normal state of affairs. The book portrays the descendants of the antebellum aristocracy to be in decline and a new aggressively greedy class of people are cornering the wealth at the cost to others. Actually all the characters in the book can be called greedy, but some are more successful at it than others.
I experienced the story of Mr. and Mrs. Armstids near the end of the book was particularly sad. Mr. Armstids has very poor judgment and ends up spending their last five dollars which Mrs. Armstids has worked all winter to earn in order to purchase shoes for their child. The case ends up in court and the law is unable to provide justice even though it is obvious to all present that she deserves to have the money back. The Armstids are fictional characters so I need not cry for them. But my heart goes out to all the hardworking wives/mothers throughout history that were in similar situations and who did their best when their husbands were more of a liability than helpful.
The story of the auction of several wild ponies imported from Texas near the end of this book is particularly humorous. But it's like a lot of humorous stories in that it's funny to hear the story, but it would be hell to live through. It's my understanding that this story was published separately as a short story titled prior to the publishing of this book.
This book is easier to read than some of Faulkner's other books which have a structure that I describe as smoke and mirrors (e.g. The Sound and the Fury). The one exception is a short section near the end of Book Two: "Eula" where Faulkner inserts an allegory that portrays the devil as being unable to take possession of a soul he had previously traded for because the wheeler dealer character of this book was too clever. This particular story is a bit other-worldly in contrast with the rest of the book.
July 8, 2018
"Το Χωριουδάκι", εκδόσεις Δελφίνι.
Μάλλον το πιο αδύναμο από τα βιβλία του αγαπημένου μου Φώκνερ, παραμένει ένα ενδιαφέρον και σημαντικό λογοτεχνικό έργο-εισαγωγή στην τριλογία των Σνόουπς.
Μάλλον το πιο αδύναμο από τα βιβλία του αγαπημένου μου Φώκνερ, παραμένει ένα ενδιαφέρον και σημαντικό λογοτεχνικό έργο-εισαγωγή στην τριλογία των Σνόουπς.
April 2, 2025
Faulkner is Faulkner.
And that means he is going to knock your socks off with his writing. And he's also going to make you hate mankind a little (or a little more if you already hate mankind).
In The Hamlet, he's going to send you on a panoramic roller coaster ride of emotions, even fun belly laughs believe it or not. And also some reactions to human remains putrefaction, bestiality, murder, double-dealing, regular abuse of womankind, and, you know, all that Faulkner stuff.
Five stars because he deserves it. I probably won't ever read it again, though.
Sholy, though, that feller could write!
Buddy read this with Dave. Real life happened to both of us during our read, taking a little of the shine off, but we persevered and deserve extra Karma points for our making it to the end. We both are now looking forward to some lighter reading, like maybe Darwin's Theory of Evolution or something.
And that means he is going to knock your socks off with his writing. And he's also going to make you hate mankind a little (or a little more if you already hate mankind).
In The Hamlet, he's going to send you on a panoramic roller coaster ride of emotions, even fun belly laughs believe it or not. And also some reactions to human remains putrefaction, bestiality, murder, double-dealing, regular abuse of womankind, and, you know, all that Faulkner stuff.
Five stars because he deserves it. I probably won't ever read it again, though.
Sholy, though, that feller could write!
Buddy read this with Dave. Real life happened to both of us during our read, taking a little of the shine off, but we persevered and deserve extra Karma points for our making it to the end. We both are now looking forward to some lighter reading, like maybe Darwin's Theory of Evolution or something.
November 2, 2015
The plotting is not flawless (as is, e.g., Absalom), but the writing is often so brilliant and the characterizations so rich and even profound, that one can forgive Faulkner his somewhat gothic conceits and sometimes excessive Naturalism.
March 12, 2011
I remember reading a Joyce Carol Oates essay that referred offhandedly to Faulkner’s “misogyny.� I was an undergrad at the time, and I remember being surprised because having just read The Hamlet, I thought of Faulkner as more of a misanthrope. So when I recently reread The Hamlet and the other two novels in The Snopes Trilogy, I tried to pay attention to Faulkner’s tone regarding women and found that not only does Faulkner sympathize with the senseless brutality women suffer at the hands of patriarchy, but that the arc of the trilogy’s epic plot suggests a justice far more liberal than what courts found for women throughout the first half of the 20th century when these novels are set (To say much more would spoil the climax of The Mansion).
In The Hamlet “Book One—Flem,� Faulkner introduces us to the people of Frenchman’s Bend in Yoknapatawpha County. Faulkner seems fascinated by the violence as a means of survival (3-4). Racism, as usual, is socialized into Frenchman’s Bend society, which distinguishes between the local “negroes� who are welcome and “strange negroes� who do not venture near the village after dark. In large part, it will be Flem Snopes� willingness to lend money to African-Americans (on deceptively impossible terms) that will allow him to begin his ascent from poverty (5, 70). Another source of wealth will be collecting interest on the small inheritance of Issac Snopes, Flem’s mentally retarded cousin.
Without saying too much about how Flem arcs as a character during the trilogy, his transformation from Ab Snopes� loyal son in Faulkner’s classic short story “Barn Burning� to the clerk of the store in Frenchman’s Bend is in itself a rewarding reason to read the first novel. Embedded in Flem’s ascent is the backstory of Ab’s ruin at the hands of horse trader Pat Stamper. Here Faulkner verges on the tall tale but also establishes the range of tone needed for The Hamlet’s wickedly hilarious “Book Four—The Peasants,� the classic “Wild Ponies� story.
Perhaps what Oates was referring to was the longsuffering of the women. Certainly, Ab’s wife Vynie is one of these. At least she has a name unlike the wives of Mink Snopes or Henry Armstid, abused women known only as the “missus� of their respective abusers. But is having a first name really a favor? Eula Varner, on whom Book Two focuses, is nearly a cipher. She barely speaks, but when she does, her dialog is worth listening to.
Eula’s father, Will Varner, runs Frenchman’s Bend. When Flem begins to make a move on the Varner monopoly by moving in his relatives—a technique referred to as “Snopesism”—we should ask, “How is Varnerism any better?�
The term Snopesism is coined by V.K. Ratliff, a traveling sewing machine salesman who knows the people of Yoknapatawpha County but is not one of them. Ratliff’s outsider tone contributes to some of tension in passages featuring him. Again, without saying too much, the arc of Ratliff through the trilogy is one of its subtle pleasures. If horse trading draws from the tall tale, Ratliff’s allegorical vision of Will Varner as the Prince of Darkness might make for the second harshest judgment in the trilogy.
Perhaps Oates gets Faulkner’s misogyny from the word “enemy� in Ratliff’s description of Eula: “from behind [her face] there looked out only another enemy of the masculine race� (149). Excuse the pun, but this statement cannot be taken at face value. First, it is important to attribute it not to Falukner but to his character Ratliff, and then second, to note that Ratliff mis-perceives things as he tangles with Flem and later reverses his characterization of Eula (265, 306).
In “Book Three—The Long Summer,� Faulkner introduces the other Snopes of Snopesism: Lump, Issac, Mink, Eck, I.O. and others. These Snopes will often be at odds with the established residents of Frenchman’s Bend. It’s here that Ratliff seems to articulate a theme that remains consistent throughout the trilogy (if not most of Faulkner’s writing): misanthropy: “I aint cussing you folks,� Ratliff said. “I’m cussing all of us� (196).
So what are we to make of all this “misogyny� or “misanthropy�? Near the end of The Hamlet, Ratliff seems to want to go beyond people, something Faulkner also expressed in comments at various public readings. Ratliff says, “I was protecting something that wasn’t even a people, that wasn’t nothing but something that don’t want nothing but to walk and feel the sun and wouldn’t know how to hurt no man even if it would and wouldn’t even if it could, just like I wouldn’t stand by and see you steal a meat-bone from a dog. I never made them Snopeses and I never made the folks that can’t wait to bare their backsides to them� (321). So what would Ratliff protect? Perhaps he’s referring--as Faulkner did--to an individual who is happy walking and feeling the sun; an individual, not a people.
Page citations come from The Hamlet. New York: Random House, 1964 (Third Edition).
In The Hamlet “Book One—Flem,� Faulkner introduces us to the people of Frenchman’s Bend in Yoknapatawpha County. Faulkner seems fascinated by the violence as a means of survival (3-4). Racism, as usual, is socialized into Frenchman’s Bend society, which distinguishes between the local “negroes� who are welcome and “strange negroes� who do not venture near the village after dark. In large part, it will be Flem Snopes� willingness to lend money to African-Americans (on deceptively impossible terms) that will allow him to begin his ascent from poverty (5, 70). Another source of wealth will be collecting interest on the small inheritance of Issac Snopes, Flem’s mentally retarded cousin.
Without saying too much about how Flem arcs as a character during the trilogy, his transformation from Ab Snopes� loyal son in Faulkner’s classic short story “Barn Burning� to the clerk of the store in Frenchman’s Bend is in itself a rewarding reason to read the first novel. Embedded in Flem’s ascent is the backstory of Ab’s ruin at the hands of horse trader Pat Stamper. Here Faulkner verges on the tall tale but also establishes the range of tone needed for The Hamlet’s wickedly hilarious “Book Four—The Peasants,� the classic “Wild Ponies� story.
Perhaps what Oates was referring to was the longsuffering of the women. Certainly, Ab’s wife Vynie is one of these. At least she has a name unlike the wives of Mink Snopes or Henry Armstid, abused women known only as the “missus� of their respective abusers. But is having a first name really a favor? Eula Varner, on whom Book Two focuses, is nearly a cipher. She barely speaks, but when she does, her dialog is worth listening to.
Eula’s father, Will Varner, runs Frenchman’s Bend. When Flem begins to make a move on the Varner monopoly by moving in his relatives—a technique referred to as “Snopesism”—we should ask, “How is Varnerism any better?�
The term Snopesism is coined by V.K. Ratliff, a traveling sewing machine salesman who knows the people of Yoknapatawpha County but is not one of them. Ratliff’s outsider tone contributes to some of tension in passages featuring him. Again, without saying too much, the arc of Ratliff through the trilogy is one of its subtle pleasures. If horse trading draws from the tall tale, Ratliff’s allegorical vision of Will Varner as the Prince of Darkness might make for the second harshest judgment in the trilogy.
Perhaps Oates gets Faulkner’s misogyny from the word “enemy� in Ratliff’s description of Eula: “from behind [her face] there looked out only another enemy of the masculine race� (149). Excuse the pun, but this statement cannot be taken at face value. First, it is important to attribute it not to Falukner but to his character Ratliff, and then second, to note that Ratliff mis-perceives things as he tangles with Flem and later reverses his characterization of Eula (265, 306).
In “Book Three—The Long Summer,� Faulkner introduces the other Snopes of Snopesism: Lump, Issac, Mink, Eck, I.O. and others. These Snopes will often be at odds with the established residents of Frenchman’s Bend. It’s here that Ratliff seems to articulate a theme that remains consistent throughout the trilogy (if not most of Faulkner’s writing): misanthropy: “I aint cussing you folks,� Ratliff said. “I’m cussing all of us� (196).
So what are we to make of all this “misogyny� or “misanthropy�? Near the end of The Hamlet, Ratliff seems to want to go beyond people, something Faulkner also expressed in comments at various public readings. Ratliff says, “I was protecting something that wasn’t even a people, that wasn’t nothing but something that don’t want nothing but to walk and feel the sun and wouldn’t know how to hurt no man even if it would and wouldn’t even if it could, just like I wouldn’t stand by and see you steal a meat-bone from a dog. I never made them Snopeses and I never made the folks that can’t wait to bare their backsides to them� (321). So what would Ratliff protect? Perhaps he’s referring--as Faulkner did--to an individual who is happy walking and feeling the sun; an individual, not a people.
Page citations come from The Hamlet. New York: Random House, 1964 (Third Edition).
March 12, 2021
I read this in an undergraduate seminar on Faulkner in the mid-60s. A couple years later I would complete the trilogy, with The Town and the Mansion-this latter, probably my favorite of Faulkner's, though As I Lay Dying was my favorite to teach college Freshmen and Sophomores. (See my review.)
There's almost a willful neglect of Faulkner's Snopes trilogy, in favor of his experimental modernism. Though the trilogy is perspectival, hence modernist in that sense (especially The Mansion), the prose is not experimental, after a few pages in the Hamlet. Taken together they are probably his most amusing works, Ratliff the sewing-machine salesman no slouch with repartee.
The Hamlet runs absolutely counter to the Danish, uplifting, intellectual one. This, about the degraded Snopeses, whose moral being makes a hissing sound like their names. I have taught the Mansion twice, though not The Hamlet, with its ties to earlier Faulkner, the interior subconscious rhetoric of Sound and Fury, like “blind faith capable of hope and grief�(191).
Faulkner’s Calvinist Cosmic Joker, from his earliest novel Sartoris, enters here when Jack Houston can’t find his cow, “it seemed to him that once more he had been victim of a useless and elaborate practical joke at the hands of the primal maniacal Risibility, the sole purpose of which had been to leave him with a mile walk in darkness.�
I loved reading Faulkner decades ago because of his references to the life I knew in rural Maine, wood fires, hand-pump well-water, and even the marsh and mountain words like “swale”—on Crockett Ridge an upland lowland. Many words I did not learn in Maine, like "byre," for shed or stall. Amidst the Faulknerian shotgun blasts of interior subconscious, much allusion to smells, "barn-reek milk-reek, the flowing immemorial female"(168). See also his occasional, meticulous use of words, like “Toward noon jagged scraps and flecks of sun came through the broken roof..�(364).
Folk culture enters prominently, with the Old Man who lives in a mud hut in a marsh, five miles down a dirt path, with only one faded daguerreotype in it, a Confederate soldier most think was his son. The Old Man sells plant nostrums (as the great naturalist John Muir was considered to have done by Confederate soldiers, saving his life). Old Uncle Dick is a dowser, uses a forked peach branch with a string and a tobacco pouch with one gold tooth in it. “It arched into a rigid down-pointing curve, the string taut as a wire�(351) three times, once for each sack of buried silver dollars they found at night. They thought this suggested much more buried treasure.
V.K. Ratliff starts in this novel, comes into his own in the sequel, The Town, where this sewing-machine salesman upgrades from his buckboard to a Model T with home-made wooden wagon behind, holding a doghouse with locked doors for the machines� also for the objects VK accepts in barter. Ratliff is a bright, analytic resident of Yoknapatawpha county, but towards the end he says, “I used to think I was too smart to be caught by anybody around here. But I don’t know.�(356)
What do Ratliff and the Trumpster prez share? Too smart to get caught…even by Anthony Kennedy.
At the very end, neighbor observes, “That Flem Snopes…Couldn’t nobody but Flem Snopes have fooled Ratliff.
There's almost a willful neglect of Faulkner's Snopes trilogy, in favor of his experimental modernism. Though the trilogy is perspectival, hence modernist in that sense (especially The Mansion), the prose is not experimental, after a few pages in the Hamlet. Taken together they are probably his most amusing works, Ratliff the sewing-machine salesman no slouch with repartee.
The Hamlet runs absolutely counter to the Danish, uplifting, intellectual one. This, about the degraded Snopeses, whose moral being makes a hissing sound like their names. I have taught the Mansion twice, though not The Hamlet, with its ties to earlier Faulkner, the interior subconscious rhetoric of Sound and Fury, like “blind faith capable of hope and grief�(191).
Faulkner’s Calvinist Cosmic Joker, from his earliest novel Sartoris, enters here when Jack Houston can’t find his cow, “it seemed to him that once more he had been victim of a useless and elaborate practical joke at the hands of the primal maniacal Risibility, the sole purpose of which had been to leave him with a mile walk in darkness.�
I loved reading Faulkner decades ago because of his references to the life I knew in rural Maine, wood fires, hand-pump well-water, and even the marsh and mountain words like “swale”—on Crockett Ridge an upland lowland. Many words I did not learn in Maine, like "byre," for shed or stall. Amidst the Faulknerian shotgun blasts of interior subconscious, much allusion to smells, "barn-reek milk-reek, the flowing immemorial female"(168). See also his occasional, meticulous use of words, like “Toward noon jagged scraps and flecks of sun came through the broken roof..�(364).
Folk culture enters prominently, with the Old Man who lives in a mud hut in a marsh, five miles down a dirt path, with only one faded daguerreotype in it, a Confederate soldier most think was his son. The Old Man sells plant nostrums (as the great naturalist John Muir was considered to have done by Confederate soldiers, saving his life). Old Uncle Dick is a dowser, uses a forked peach branch with a string and a tobacco pouch with one gold tooth in it. “It arched into a rigid down-pointing curve, the string taut as a wire�(351) three times, once for each sack of buried silver dollars they found at night. They thought this suggested much more buried treasure.
V.K. Ratliff starts in this novel, comes into his own in the sequel, The Town, where this sewing-machine salesman upgrades from his buckboard to a Model T with home-made wooden wagon behind, holding a doghouse with locked doors for the machines� also for the objects VK accepts in barter. Ratliff is a bright, analytic resident of Yoknapatawpha county, but towards the end he says, “I used to think I was too smart to be caught by anybody around here. But I don’t know.�(356)
What do Ratliff and the Trumpster prez share? Too smart to get caught…even by Anthony Kennedy.
At the very end, neighbor observes, “That Flem Snopes…Couldn’t nobody but Flem Snopes have fooled Ratliff.
October 24, 2021
Fue lo primero que leí de Faulkner y ha sido lo que más me ha gustado hasta la fecha. El ruido y la furia, es otra genialidad pero precisa de manual de instrucciones previo, creo que está a otro nivel y busca un lector más elevado y vanguardista que el lector de a pie, amante del misterio de una buena novela, sin más. En la trilogía del amigo Flem Snopes (La ciudad y La mansión) con El villorrio logra desconcertar al lector, despistarlo por momentos, atraparlo con esa maestría que no se encuentra en ningún otro escritor, te hace cómplice suyo y del protagonista. El argumento es brutal. En el top de los clásicos.
October 16, 2021
"Un momento antes el camino estaba desierto, y al momento siguiente aquel individuo se hallaba a un lado, en la linde del bosquecillo; eran la misma gorra de tela y la misma mandíbula que mascaba rítmicamente, materializados al parecer de la nada y casi delante del caballo, con un aire de ser algo completa y puramente accidental..
- ¿Qué tal?-dijo-. Tu eres Flem, ¿no es cierto? Yo soy Varner.
-Ah, si? -respondió el otro, escupiendo acto seguido.Tenía un rostro ancho y plano, con ojos del color del agua estancada.
El Villorrio es la primera de las tres novelas de William Faulkner dedicada a la familia Snopes donde se narra su llegada a una pequeña aldea, Frenchman´s Bend, que se construyó sobre los cimientos de una antigua plantación, con todo lo que esto conlleva de significados en cuanto al antiguo mundo aristocrático sureño ya acabado frente a los nuevos tiempos. Realmente lo que se cuenta es el surgimiento desde lo más bajo de la escala social, de Flem Snopes, un hombre misterioso, de orígenes ambiguos que poco a poco llega a dominar y controlar todo lo que le rodea a través de una astucia soterrada y métodos nada claros. Cuando Flem Snopes llega a Frenchman’s Bend en vez de dedicarse a la agricultura (como todos) consigue que Will Varner le emplee en la tienda, y a partir de ahí, conspirando y con artimañas siempre soterradas, va ascendiendo y adquiriendo cada vez más poder.
La novela está narrada por V.K Ratcliff, que es el personaje testigo de todos los acontecimientos, un vendedor ambulante de máquinas de coser, que debido a que se recorre el condado, recopila noticias e historias y es de alguna manera el nexo de unión entre todos los personajes. Desde el primer momento, Ratcliff adivina los movimientos de Flem y durante toda la novela hay una especie de enfrentamiento silencioso entre ambos personajes y sus respectivos códigos (a)morales. Ratcliff percibe desde el primer instante que Flem no se arrellanará ante ningún obstáculo a la hora de conseguir sus fines.
Faulkner divide la novela en cuatro partes perfectamente diferenciadas en estilo, tono e intenciones:
- El primer libro (Flem Snopes) es puro gótico sureño, donde a través de Ratcliff somos testigos de cómo la llegada de los Snopes va a desbancar al oligarca local, Will Varner
"...puesto que la presencia de un dependiente de raza blanca a sueldo en el almacén de un hombre todavía capaz de andar y aún con la cabeza lo bastante clara para, por lo menos, equivocarse en las cuentas a su favor, era algo tan inconcebible como la presencia de una mujer blanca a sueldo en una de sus cocinas."
- En el segundo libro (Eula), el estilo se vuelve medio socarrón e irónico describiendo las pasiones que va despertando a su paso la belleza local, Eula Warner, primero con la obsesión que despierta en Labove, y luego adquiriendo tintes cómicos a la hora de narrarnos el revoloteo continúo de los pretendientes en torno a ella.
"No parecia ser una entidad viva de una escena contemporánea, sino existir más bien en un prolífico vacío en el que sus días se sucedían como tras un cristal a prueba de ruidos, y desde donde Eula parecía presenciar en indolente perplejidad, con una hastiada sabiduria heredada de incontables generaciones de madurez mamal, el crecimiento de sus propios órganos.
(...)
"Era más bien como si, incluso desde niña, hubiese sabido ya que no había ningún sitio donde quisiera ir, que no existía nada nuevo u original al término de cualquier movimiento, que todos los sitios eran iguales en todas partes."
- En el tercer libro (El largo verano) Faulkner combina historias de otros Snopes y de alguna forma aunque en esta sección apenas veamos a Flem, su sombra alargada, está siempre presente, influyendo y ejerciendo el control sobre los demás. Es fascinante como Faulkner en esta sección establece una especie de simil entre Eula, (a quién en algún momento describe como de mirada y físico bovino), con el episodio del enamoramiento de uno de los Snopes, Ike, con una vaca. La adoración por la naturaleza de Faulkner está brillantemente descrita cuando Ike decide fugarse con la vaca al bosque.
- Y ya en el cuarto libro (Los Campesinos), hay una cierta atmósfera a western con dos historias relacionadas que llegado un punto adquieren tintes de comedía tirando a grotesca y que terminan ya de desenmascarar a Flem Snopes.
"Houston tenía catorce años cuando se incorporó a la escuela. No es que fuese cerril, pero estaba todavía sin domar, más que el exceso de energías, le dominaba una violenta pasión, pero no por la vida, ni siquiera por el movimiento, sino por esa inmovilidad sin cadenas llamada libertad. No tenía nada en contra del saber, tan solo contra estar encerrado, contra la reglamentación que la escuela llevaba consigo."
Estas cuatro secciones están interconectadas por Flem Snopes y por Ratfliff, el primero, la mayor parte del tiempo en off pero presente al mismo tiempo por las reflexiones de Ratflff y sus conversaciones, que es una forma de marcar todavía más por parte del autor la influencia que Flem Snopes está ya ejerciendo en el entorno. Faulkner es un espléndido narrador de la condición humana, de cómo las pasiones humanas, sus vicios, su necesidades entran en conflicto con lo que la buena sociedad exigía: la herencia de apariencias que había intentado legar el viejo mundo, ya casi no tenía importancia. Al igual que con la lectura de Luz De Agosto, he visto en muchas escenas, en muchos de estos personajes, una alegoría de lo que es la condición humana narrada por Faulkner con mucho sentido del humor, con ironia y con una enorme empatía por sus personajes.
El Villorrio funciona como una colección de relatos, algunos muy satíricos, otros totalmente póeticos que me han fascinado. Leer a Faulkner y conocer a sus personajes es uno de esos placeres que he descubierto este año y que me tienen entusiasmada.
"Sus ojos, todavía abiertos al sol perdido, quedaron repentinamente cubiertos de una humedad vidriosa que tenía un algo extraño, como si se tratara de lágrimas verdaderas, y que descendió hasta sus mejillas, ya y vacías de recuerdos, sécandose enseguida."
- ¿Qué tal?-dijo-. Tu eres Flem, ¿no es cierto? Yo soy Varner.
-Ah, si? -respondió el otro, escupiendo acto seguido.Tenía un rostro ancho y plano, con ojos del color del agua estancada.
El Villorrio es la primera de las tres novelas de William Faulkner dedicada a la familia Snopes donde se narra su llegada a una pequeña aldea, Frenchman´s Bend, que se construyó sobre los cimientos de una antigua plantación, con todo lo que esto conlleva de significados en cuanto al antiguo mundo aristocrático sureño ya acabado frente a los nuevos tiempos. Realmente lo que se cuenta es el surgimiento desde lo más bajo de la escala social, de Flem Snopes, un hombre misterioso, de orígenes ambiguos que poco a poco llega a dominar y controlar todo lo que le rodea a través de una astucia soterrada y métodos nada claros. Cuando Flem Snopes llega a Frenchman’s Bend en vez de dedicarse a la agricultura (como todos) consigue que Will Varner le emplee en la tienda, y a partir de ahí, conspirando y con artimañas siempre soterradas, va ascendiendo y adquiriendo cada vez más poder.
La novela está narrada por V.K Ratcliff, que es el personaje testigo de todos los acontecimientos, un vendedor ambulante de máquinas de coser, que debido a que se recorre el condado, recopila noticias e historias y es de alguna manera el nexo de unión entre todos los personajes. Desde el primer momento, Ratcliff adivina los movimientos de Flem y durante toda la novela hay una especie de enfrentamiento silencioso entre ambos personajes y sus respectivos códigos (a)morales. Ratcliff percibe desde el primer instante que Flem no se arrellanará ante ningún obstáculo a la hora de conseguir sus fines.
Faulkner divide la novela en cuatro partes perfectamente diferenciadas en estilo, tono e intenciones:
- El primer libro (Flem Snopes) es puro gótico sureño, donde a través de Ratcliff somos testigos de cómo la llegada de los Snopes va a desbancar al oligarca local, Will Varner
"...puesto que la presencia de un dependiente de raza blanca a sueldo en el almacén de un hombre todavía capaz de andar y aún con la cabeza lo bastante clara para, por lo menos, equivocarse en las cuentas a su favor, era algo tan inconcebible como la presencia de una mujer blanca a sueldo en una de sus cocinas."
- En el segundo libro (Eula), el estilo se vuelve medio socarrón e irónico describiendo las pasiones que va despertando a su paso la belleza local, Eula Warner, primero con la obsesión que despierta en Labove, y luego adquiriendo tintes cómicos a la hora de narrarnos el revoloteo continúo de los pretendientes en torno a ella.
"No parecia ser una entidad viva de una escena contemporánea, sino existir más bien en un prolífico vacío en el que sus días se sucedían como tras un cristal a prueba de ruidos, y desde donde Eula parecía presenciar en indolente perplejidad, con una hastiada sabiduria heredada de incontables generaciones de madurez mamal, el crecimiento de sus propios órganos.
(...)
"Era más bien como si, incluso desde niña, hubiese sabido ya que no había ningún sitio donde quisiera ir, que no existía nada nuevo u original al término de cualquier movimiento, que todos los sitios eran iguales en todas partes."
- En el tercer libro (El largo verano) Faulkner combina historias de otros Snopes y de alguna forma aunque en esta sección apenas veamos a Flem, su sombra alargada, está siempre presente, influyendo y ejerciendo el control sobre los demás. Es fascinante como Faulkner en esta sección establece una especie de simil entre Eula, (a quién en algún momento describe como de mirada y físico bovino), con el episodio del enamoramiento de uno de los Snopes, Ike, con una vaca. La adoración por la naturaleza de Faulkner está brillantemente descrita cuando Ike decide fugarse con la vaca al bosque.
- Y ya en el cuarto libro (Los Campesinos), hay una cierta atmósfera a western con dos historias relacionadas que llegado un punto adquieren tintes de comedía tirando a grotesca y que terminan ya de desenmascarar a Flem Snopes.
"Houston tenía catorce años cuando se incorporó a la escuela. No es que fuese cerril, pero estaba todavía sin domar, más que el exceso de energías, le dominaba una violenta pasión, pero no por la vida, ni siquiera por el movimiento, sino por esa inmovilidad sin cadenas llamada libertad. No tenía nada en contra del saber, tan solo contra estar encerrado, contra la reglamentación que la escuela llevaba consigo."
Estas cuatro secciones están interconectadas por Flem Snopes y por Ratfliff, el primero, la mayor parte del tiempo en off pero presente al mismo tiempo por las reflexiones de Ratflff y sus conversaciones, que es una forma de marcar todavía más por parte del autor la influencia que Flem Snopes está ya ejerciendo en el entorno. Faulkner es un espléndido narrador de la condición humana, de cómo las pasiones humanas, sus vicios, su necesidades entran en conflicto con lo que la buena sociedad exigía: la herencia de apariencias que había intentado legar el viejo mundo, ya casi no tenía importancia. Al igual que con la lectura de Luz De Agosto, he visto en muchas escenas, en muchos de estos personajes, una alegoría de lo que es la condición humana narrada por Faulkner con mucho sentido del humor, con ironia y con una enorme empatía por sus personajes.
El Villorrio funciona como una colección de relatos, algunos muy satíricos, otros totalmente póeticos que me han fascinado. Leer a Faulkner y conocer a sus personajes es uno de esos placeres que he descubierto este año y que me tienen entusiasmada.
"Sus ojos, todavía abiertos al sol perdido, quedaron repentinamente cubiertos de una humedad vidriosa que tenía un algo extraño, como si se tratara de lágrimas verdaderas, y que descendió hasta sus mejillas, ya y vacías de recuerdos, sécandose enseguida."
June 2, 2023
Faulkner mi ha catturata nel suo flusso narrativo potente e magnetico: magistrale nel restituire il volto autentico del Sud negli anni successivi alla Depressione, peculiare la scelta di approfondire la struttura ed il pensiero dei personaggi secondari per arrivare a dare un'idea del vero protagonista, Flem Snopes, solo attraverso i pensieri e le azioni di chi gli ruota intorno. Un vero peccato che gli altri libri della trilogia non siano disponibili in italiano in un'edizione aggiornata.
September 8, 2015
Hot Diggity! Certainly not Faulkner terminology, but is what I think of this. I had encountered Snopes in a previous Faulkner - I think it was - and expected Snopes to be one person. It is true there is one Snopes who is believed superior and more or less controls the rest of them, but Snopes is a family. There are cousins in abundance who obey and fear Flem Snopes.
Faulkner had already been to Hollywood and written some screenplays when he wrote this. I knew this without looking it up (though I did) because he relied heavily on lighting effects to set his scenes, moods, and even applied them allegorically in a couple of instances. His use of light was frequent enough that I took note of it without tiring of it.
The prose is rich and complex. He employed no stream of consciousness in this one. I am reading this trilogy via , which includes an introduction by George Garrett, in which he writes:
Faulkner had already been to Hollywood and written some screenplays when he wrote this. I knew this without looking it up (though I did) because he relied heavily on lighting effects to set his scenes, moods, and even applied them allegorically in a couple of instances. His use of light was frequent enough that I took note of it without tiring of it.
The prose is rich and complex. He employed no stream of consciousness in this one. I am reading this trilogy via , which includes an introduction by George Garrett, in which he writes:
As an ever-exploring craftsman Faulkner was relentlessly, extravagantly innovative. Among all of his novels no two are constructed in exactly the same manner or told in precisely the same way or from the same points of view. Each is a new artistic adventure, making new and sometimes surprising demands on the reader.There were passages when I thought Faulkner must surely have been enjoying himself. If he wasn't, he surely had this reader enjoying herself.
... and so found himself submitting to be taught his abc's four and five and six years after his coevals and hence already too big physcially for where he was; bulging in Lilliput, inevitably sophisticated, logically contemptuous, invincibly incorrigible, not deliberately intending to learn nothing but merely convinced that he would not, did not want and did not believe he need to.I had expected to read just this first of the trilogy this fall, but I'm going to do my darnedest to fiet the other two before December arrives.
September 23, 2017
A masterpiece. I wish I could say the same for the succeeding volumes of The Snopes Trilogy.
October 8, 2007
It's a long life; I like trilogies. Nestling down into a world I know will sustain me for hours. This is the first of Faulkner's famous Snopes trilogy, about a family, the Snopes, who takes over a small Mississippi town called Frenchman's Bend. Faulkner is a master of characterization. Flem Snopes, the wily, ambitious son (whose father burns barns to intimidate his landlords), his wife Eula Snopes, the lazy, beautiful daughter of the rich, landed Will Varner, and Ratliff, the traveling sewing-machine salesman: all unforgettable human beings. Faulkner's style is nonpareil: his patience, his circumnavigation, his scope and precision. While this is not his best � he wrote it in parts over many years, and it lacks the narrative drive of his masterpieces � it is a fine read.
One reads Faulkner to get lost in his famously labyrinthine sentences. Look how much he accomplishes below, in a scene where two brothers play checkers. One mad brother has just murdered a man; the other, Flem, wants to know where the body is so that he may pilfer the cash on it. The first brother stalls, challenges Flem to a game of checkers.
"'Move,' the other said. They began to play � the one with a cold and deadly deliberation and economy of moves. The other with a sort of clumsy speed and dash. It was that amateurish, that almost childlike, lack of premeditation and plan or even foresight of one who, depending on manipulation and not intellect in games of chance, finds himself involved in one where dexterity cannot avail, yet nevertheless attempting to cheat even at bald and simple draughts with an incredible optimism, an incorrigible dishonesty, long since become pure reflex and probably now beyond his control, making his dashing and clumsy moves then withdrawing his closed fist to sit watching with his little intent unwinking eyes the still, wasted, down-looking face opposite, talking steadily about almost everything except money and death, the fist resting on the table-edge still closed about the pawn or king's crown which it had palmed. The trouble with checkers is, he thought, it ain't nothing but checkers."
Our modern attention spans don't have time for Faulkner's graceful rambles. Though that long sentence in there is brilliant, a contemporary creative writing class would make Faulkner choose between "the pawn" or "the king's crown". Stylistically, of the masters, we still prefer Hemingway's brutality and Fitzgerald's elegance. But I like a writer who boldly unleashes the floodgates and makes his readers swim.
Lastly, the modern reader who skips The Hamlet misses a thirty page long, unroarious satire of a romance: Ike Snopes and his bovine love affair: a masterpiece of bestiality.
One reads Faulkner to get lost in his famously labyrinthine sentences. Look how much he accomplishes below, in a scene where two brothers play checkers. One mad brother has just murdered a man; the other, Flem, wants to know where the body is so that he may pilfer the cash on it. The first brother stalls, challenges Flem to a game of checkers.
"'Move,' the other said. They began to play � the one with a cold and deadly deliberation and economy of moves. The other with a sort of clumsy speed and dash. It was that amateurish, that almost childlike, lack of premeditation and plan or even foresight of one who, depending on manipulation and not intellect in games of chance, finds himself involved in one where dexterity cannot avail, yet nevertheless attempting to cheat even at bald and simple draughts with an incredible optimism, an incorrigible dishonesty, long since become pure reflex and probably now beyond his control, making his dashing and clumsy moves then withdrawing his closed fist to sit watching with his little intent unwinking eyes the still, wasted, down-looking face opposite, talking steadily about almost everything except money and death, the fist resting on the table-edge still closed about the pawn or king's crown which it had palmed. The trouble with checkers is, he thought, it ain't nothing but checkers."
Our modern attention spans don't have time for Faulkner's graceful rambles. Though that long sentence in there is brilliant, a contemporary creative writing class would make Faulkner choose between "the pawn" or "the king's crown". Stylistically, of the masters, we still prefer Hemingway's brutality and Fitzgerald's elegance. But I like a writer who boldly unleashes the floodgates and makes his readers swim.
Lastly, the modern reader who skips The Hamlet misses a thirty page long, unroarious satire of a romance: Ike Snopes and his bovine love affair: a masterpiece of bestiality.
August 21, 2022
Ways Faulkner describes eyes in this novel:
little hard bright innocently blue eyes
a pair of eyes of a cold opaque gray between shaggy graying irascible brows
eyes like cloudy hothouse grapes
the slightly protuberant opaque eyes and the little hard blue ones
cold impenetrable agate eyes
his eyes were the color of stagnant water
the reddish eyebrows beetling a little above the hard little eyes
eyes the color of a new axe blade
eyes rolling white as darning eggs
eyes looking nigh as wild
them eyes the color of a new plow point and just about as warm
the cold glints beneath the shaggy ill-tempered brows
the eyes again, fierce and intractable and cold
and eyes the color of stagnant water
and pale myopic eyes
the little bright eyes darting
a good deal more in his eyes than had been in them last fall
and his bright darting eyes
pale hard eyes
now if you want to know what color his eyes are you can see for yourself
the pale eyes which seemed to have no vision in them
the eyes fixed and sightless
his opaque still eyes
and quiet pale hard eyes
the insufferable humorless eyes
veiled eyes against the sun
eyes pale popping and enraged
the bright alert amoral eyes of a squirrel or chipmunk
the little hard eyes
his bright quick amoral eyes
eyes as blue and innocent as periwinkles
the empty eyes striving
eyes, urgent and alarmed
the eyes were not laughing
the mild enormous moist and pupilless globes
the phosphorescent glints of eyes
his eyes, still open to the lost sun
the eyes which were much shrewder than they appeared
the inescapable last, eyeless
little hard bright innocently blue eyes
a pair of eyes of a cold opaque gray between shaggy graying irascible brows
eyes like cloudy hothouse grapes
the slightly protuberant opaque eyes and the little hard blue ones
cold impenetrable agate eyes
his eyes were the color of stagnant water
the reddish eyebrows beetling a little above the hard little eyes
eyes the color of a new axe blade
eyes rolling white as darning eggs
eyes looking nigh as wild
them eyes the color of a new plow point and just about as warm
the cold glints beneath the shaggy ill-tempered brows
the eyes again, fierce and intractable and cold
and eyes the color of stagnant water
and pale myopic eyes
the little bright eyes darting
a good deal more in his eyes than had been in them last fall
and his bright darting eyes
pale hard eyes
now if you want to know what color his eyes are you can see for yourself
the pale eyes which seemed to have no vision in them
the eyes fixed and sightless
his opaque still eyes
and quiet pale hard eyes
the insufferable humorless eyes
veiled eyes against the sun
eyes pale popping and enraged
the bright alert amoral eyes of a squirrel or chipmunk
the little hard eyes
his bright quick amoral eyes
eyes as blue and innocent as periwinkles
the empty eyes striving
eyes, urgent and alarmed
the eyes were not laughing
the mild enormous moist and pupilless globes
the phosphorescent glints of eyes
his eyes, still open to the lost sun
the eyes which were much shrewder than they appeared
the inescapable last, eyeless
July 28, 2010
Finally finished -- I wasn't sure if I would, as I put it down to read other things, and at times wondered if I should bother picking it up again. I like Faulkner, but I didn't like this book. Faulkner can be difficult (which doesn't bother me); this book wasn't difficult -- it just wasn't that good. I liked some of the writing, and it got better near the end but not enough to make up for the middle.
Much of it was ridiculous (in more than one sense of that word) -- some of it on purpose, some of it unintentional is my guess. A woman-child is described in terms both Olympian and bovine and one of the Snopes wants her for her daddy's land; the idiot (in the Faulknerian sense of the word) Snopes is in love with a real cow. This went on for pages and pages (yes, Mr. Faulkner, I get the parallel!) and was much too much.
My advice is to read this first novel of the Snopes trilogy only if you've already read all the other Faulkners besides this trilogy (which I haven't yet) and you want to be complete.
Much of it was ridiculous (in more than one sense of that word) -- some of it on purpose, some of it unintentional is my guess. A woman-child is described in terms both Olympian and bovine and one of the Snopes wants her for her daddy's land; the idiot (in the Faulknerian sense of the word) Snopes is in love with a real cow. This went on for pages and pages (yes, Mr. Faulkner, I get the parallel!) and was much too much.
My advice is to read this first novel of the Snopes trilogy only if you've already read all the other Faulkners besides this trilogy (which I haven't yet) and you want to be complete.
October 18, 2017
I've made my way through a lot of Faulkner's novels by this point and enjoyed them all a lot, but 'The Hamlet' might stand out, along with 'The Reivers' as one of the funniest. 'The Hamlet' is a series of interlinked short stories about the coming of the Snopes clan to Frenchman's Bend and their effects on the townspeople through their weird, vague wiles. Various Snopeses fingale their way to hickster triumphs over the unsuspecting, well, and suspecting, townsfolks. Horse trades gone wrong, the Snopes kinsman who falls in love with and has sex with a cow in public (yes, you read that right), and the final tricksy con regarding the mythical treasure of the eponymous Frenchman--it reminds one of a more perverted Don Knotts movie from the 60s. American mythology at its best.
June 4, 2017
I don't know if The Hamlet is a great novel, but it's certainly a great piece of writing. Cortazar, Borges, Coover, Barthelme--none of these guys had anything on Faulkner. He writes forward, backward, upside-down and inside-out. He devotes 40 pages to a story written from the POV of a man who has fallen in love with a cow. He gives you a portrait of a community so intimate it makes you feel like you've stumbled on your mother making out with the mailman.
April 3, 2025
Podría hacer una mención a "Amanece que no es poco", calificar la novela como"el paradigma del gótico sureño", exclamar arrebatado: "obra maestra extraordinaria", podría aupar a Flem Snopes como el antagonistas definitivo, subrayar la capacidad de Faulkner para evocar el amor por una vaca y terminar rendido en mi propia pasión ciega por Eula ( y la forma de presentarla en el capítulo que lleva su nombre) y aún así serían... únicamente palabras. Para alguien como yo que está enamorado de ellas, de su capacidad para expresar y de aquellos como Faulkner que saben ergarzarlas de esta manera es una derrota escribir que son únicamente palabras y que se me quedan cortas. Literatura de la que te hace amar la literatura.
June 28, 2014
I've been wrestling with Faulkner all my life. I always wanted to like him but I found him difficult to crack. Then more than 30 years ago I was working in the high Canadian Arctic, living in a tent with one other guy, when I found I had a copy of Go Down Moses in my bag. I had tried to read it a few years before. But then as I started to read the book came alive. I just could not believe how wonderful it was. So the lesson it taught me that some authors need time but you have to find the right time to read them. I tried The Sound and The Fury recently. Put aside but then read it was one of his more difficult works. I then read a collections of short stories called Knight's Gambit, which contains the great story Tomorrow. No problem Then breezed through Light in August only to learn it's one of Faulkner's most accessible books. Now to The Hamlet, the first instalment of a trilogy on the Snopes family in Mississippi. (The other two are The Town and The Mansion). It helped to read a bit about it before and even during. It is not a linear story and there are parts which turn out to have been conceived as short stories. It helps to know this because at points you might say, What the hell is he doing now!? I finally found my footing but then hit what I'll call "the peep show." It spans about 10 pages and as many times as I read it I still had not a clue what was going on. So I wrote to a kind gentleman who has a blog on Faulkner. And asked him what was happening and noted it was driving me nuts. He explained that the peep show... How can I explain this...Not traditional but it involved one human and domesticated animal known to give milk. Even after the explanation I reread those pages and still could not figure it out. However in the next chapter all is made clear. All this to say I loved the book but I approached differently than other similar difficult reads. It didn't bother me that I had to look for help and actually found Wiki helpful in keep characters straight. I'm fortunate, in a way, that I had to retire at 63 for health reasons, in that I have lots of time to read and I don't need instant gratification. But I'm also going to take a break with something lighter before I read the The Town.
February 9, 2024
These people are insane. You can hardly bear to watch yet cannot look away. Sometimes Faulkner's descriptive prose is too elaborate and over the top. I found myself skipping ahead. This is a problem as you then have to go back to follow the plot, which is not always explicit.
It slowly dawned on me why the descendants of these people are avid supporters of Trump, Flem is Trump! I won't spoil it by going into the details, just hold that thought.
Will the rest of the trilogy be this whack?
It slowly dawned on me why the descendants of these people are avid supporters of Trump, Flem is Trump! I won't spoil it by going into the details, just hold that thought.
Will the rest of the trilogy be this whack?
Displaying 1 - 30 of 393 reviews
Can't find what you're looking for?
Get help and learn more about the design.