Faulkner's Families

the long version

This is the first book to show in detail how the families William Faulkner created in his novels reflect his own family experiences. Gwendolyn Chabrier shows how Faulkner's earliest work presents a gloomy view of family relations, characterized by misalliance, adultery, and incestuous relationships. But then, drawing on his own experience, Faulkner gradually came to a new view of the family, both his own and those he created, and worked through to his later novel where both his life and that of his fictional families became more peaceful and rewarding.