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59th out of 85 books
—
914 voters
The Reivers
One of Faulkner's comic masterpieces, The Reivers is a picaresque that tells of three unlikely car thieves from rural Mississippi. Eleven-year-old Lucius Priest is persuaded by Boon Hogganbeck, one of his family's retainers, to steal his grandfather's car and make a trip to Memphis. The Priests' black coachman, Ned McCaslin, stows away, and the three of them are off on a h...more
Paperback, 320 pages
Published
September 1st 1992
by Vintage
(first published 1962)
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Jan 23, 2013
Jeffrey Keeten
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommended to Jeffrey by:
On the Southern Literary Trail
“It was too late. Maybe yesterday, while I was still a child, but not now. I knew too much, had seen too much, I was a child no longer now; innocence and childhood were forever lost, forever gone from me.”
Lucius Priest is almost proud of his innocence, an innocence that is easy to maintain as long as he stays in Yoknapatawpha County Mississippi, but when two family retainers by the name of Boon Hogganbeck and Ned McCaslin decide to go on an adventure and convince him to be a part of their ludic...more
Lucius Priest is almost proud of his innocence, an innocence that is easy to maintain as long as he stays in Yoknapatawpha County Mississippi, but when two family retainers by the name of Boon Hogganbeck and Ned McCaslin decide to go on an adventure and convince him to be a part of their ludic...more
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Some initial thoughts---the often matter-of-fact relations between black and white in trying situations, when they (in this case men) sit together and actually talk some things out. Not equal but as co-conspirators on this earth.
Women--sacred or profane, little seen or altogether too much present. I want to read so much more and see more Faulkner women.
The young---of body (Lucius) or mind (Boon) certainly led us on a wonderful chase but without the wiles of Ned (the fool?) there would have been...more
Women--sacred or profane, little seen or altogether too much present. I want to read so much more and see more Faulkner women.
The young---of body (Lucius) or mind (Boon) certainly led us on a wonderful chase but without the wiles of Ned (the fool?) there would have been...more
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At my high school, they introduced us to Faulkner with SANCTUARY. I never returned to him until this summer, when somewhere or other I picked up a copy of this, Faulkner's last novel, published a month before he died in 1962. The following year, it won a Pulitzer, yet it is one of his least-known works.
I am convinced this is the novel with which to introduce readers to Faulkner. It is set in the fictitious Yoknapatawpha County that is the setting of several of his novels, a landscape with a ric...more
I am convinced this is the novel with which to introduce readers to Faulkner. It is set in the fictitious Yoknapatawpha County that is the setting of several of his novels, a landscape with a ric...more
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I have thoroughly enjoyed reading the Yoknapatawpha novels but this one, my last and certainly Faulkner's least, made me thankful it was over. I was glad to see younger versions of Miss Reba and Minnie and get a glimpse of Mr. Binford when he was alive. But that’s about it. I feel that there was so much emphasis in “Go Down Moses” on lineage (and names in particular) that the late inclusions of the Priest family and black McCaslins to the McCaslin/Edmonds/Beauchamp family tree redact one of the...more
"Sometimes you have to say goodbye to the things you know and hello to the things you don't!"
I confess I knew what to expect before starting the book and was really looking forward to reading the text the 1969 movie was based on. The quote above is from this Steve McQueen movie, one of my all-time favorites despite McQueen's apparent dissapointment in his role.
The book surpassed my expectations. I have read Faulkner before, but never was I moved to laugh out loud like here. A granfather recounts...more
I confess I knew what to expect before starting the book and was really looking forward to reading the text the 1969 movie was based on. The quote above is from this Steve McQueen movie, one of my all-time favorites despite McQueen's apparent dissapointment in his role.
The book surpassed my expectations. I have read Faulkner before, but never was I moved to laugh out loud like here. A granfather recounts...more
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I bought this book because it was on my list of pulitzer reads and would often pick up the thin book thinking, "I can knock this sucker out in a couple of days." only to feel my eyelids growing heavy before the end of the first, nearly page long sentence. Finally, a couple of weeks with repeated hour long bus trips and waits in doctors offices gave me enough time with nothing else to do but read this book got me over the hump and into the meat of the story.
The language is heavily affected and e...more
The language is heavily affected and e...more
I really enjoyed The Reivers. I wasn't expecting to because I'd read in several places that it was a "comic masterpiece" and I didn't really like Faulkner's attempts at humor (e.g., the attempted comic scenes as Soldier's Pay degenerates into farce). But his dark humor - that's another thing altogether, and Faulkner has a deft touch.
He's also a master at the child's-eye-view of proceedings in the adult world. You can see this in many places in Faulkner (e.g., in Barn Burning, in Intruder In The...more
He's also a master at the child's-eye-view of proceedings in the adult world. You can see this in many places in Faulkner (e.g., in Barn Burning, in Intruder In The...more
An imagined meeting between William Faulkner and Random House marketing executive James Inge:
James Inge: Bertie! Great to see you my man. Congratulations on finishing up your big trilogy. Boy, those Snopeses, am I right? Pull up a seat.
William Faulkner: Hello James, thanks. I want to talk with you about my next book. There's something that's been bothering me.
JI: Is it the pressure of history, the force of a host of ancestors or past decisions like vengeful furies breaking into the present and...more
James Inge: Bertie! Great to see you my man. Congratulations on finishing up your big trilogy. Boy, those Snopeses, am I right? Pull up a seat.
William Faulkner: Hello James, thanks. I want to talk with you about my next book. There's something that's been bothering me.
JI: Is it the pressure of history, the force of a host of ancestors or past decisions like vengeful furies breaking into the present and...more
This was my fourth and final Faulkner novel for the month of March. I have to admit that I have a bit of Faulkner fatigue which in all transparency could have impacted my rating. This is Faulkner's most accessible novel - a Huck Finn style coming of age story that is fun, exciting, and subtle in its commentary on race and manhood. It has almost no resemblance to anything else he has written. It's really quite a tribute to Faulkner's ability that he can write across such diverse genre's while sti...more
William Faulkner’s The Reivers (1962), his last published novel, is often misleadingly considered “Faulkner Lite” due its often-comical, picaresque plot. But this is a shaggy dog story with extra shag: A poignant, entertaining story lies at the core of a novel which is still layered in the author’s eccentric, densely atmospheric and oblique prose.
Lucius Priest recounts the story of a boyhood trip from Mississippi to Memphis in a stolen automobile after the turn of the century, accompanied by fa...more
Lucius Priest recounts the story of a boyhood trip from Mississippi to Memphis in a stolen automobile after the turn of the century, accompanied by fa...more
This one for me was a classic example of how great Faulkner is more than the sum of its Faulknerian parts. Every ingredient of great Faulkner - Southern-style storytelling, palpable characters, dialogue that is as gritty and real as coarse sand, the willingness and humor to explore the dark and odd sides of humanity. But this novel felt more like it went through the motions rather than sang to the heavens. Hell, I'll always give a fine writer his due to have a crap work every now and then, but t...more
The Reivers - Pulitzer 1963. I'm reading these Pulitzers one book every decade and it was interesting to jump from the Old Man and the Sea - a minimalistic writer to the Reivers by Faulkner - who put everything into his sentences. The book takes place in 1904 and centers on 3 people who take their grandfathers car and one of them trades it for a dubious racehorse. They then must try to get the car back. I enjoyed the book although I felt that Faulkner could have split his sentences up some - run...more
The Reivers, written at the end of William Faulkner's life, is a picaresque tale of a young boy's coming of age. There is a certain resemblance to aspects of Huckleberry Finn in the adventures and friendships of young Lucius Priest. Lucius, an eleven year old boy is sensitive and intelligent, but innocent of the rougher side of life and ready for adventure when Boon Hogganbeck, a simple man, and Ned William McCaslin Jefferson Missippi (a Negro referred to as Ned) steal Lucius' grandfather's car...more
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The novel is a fun read, full of wit and humor. The plot is a coming of age tale for a young southern gentlemen. The story is full of great characters, Boon and Ned are a continuation of Faulkner's fantastic lower class characters. The novel is told in the first person, but the author plays with the perspective of the story constantly, inserting "I-we" when relaying the accomplises to the scene is a nice touch of humor. Early in the novel the author takes the reader on a trip down memory lane, t...more
Much, much better than I remembered. Faulkner called this his "Huck Finn book," and while it probably doesn't quite live up to that billing, it's very good second-tier Faulkner (and second-tier Faulkner is about 1,000 times better than any contemporary novel). Wistful, a bit madcap, but also fairly serious and substantial at times.
The character of Uncle Ned (named after a real-life, lifelong Faulkner family servant) is one of Faulkner's most well-drawn African-American characters. The narration...more
The character of Uncle Ned (named after a real-life, lifelong Faulkner family servant) is one of Faulkner's most well-drawn African-American characters. The narration...more
This story is about the coming of age for Lucius Priest, an 11 y.o. Southerner who follows his heart and elopes to Memphis ... w/ two servants (Boon and Ned), in his grandfather's automobile. This book is also the coming of age - as a writer - for W. Faulkner. Having read "The sound and the fury" before, I truly sense the difference: The Reivers, his last novel finished just before his death, is the polished, the more skillfully written of the two. This one caters to the common reader, while mai...more
May 05, 2013
Anne Nikoline
rated it
3 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
most people
Recommended to Anne Nikoline by:
my interest in William Faulkner's authorship
Eleven-year-old Lucius Priest, in cooperation with the older Boon Hogganbeck take on an illegal drive with something as sensational as an automobile, in a very complicated way, a racehorse enters the story, and the boys find out what happens at a brothel. This is a tale of youth and manhood, and the transition in order to get there. This is almost a more mature version of "Tom Sawyer" and "Huckleberry Finn" by Mark Twain set in a different time.
Lucius Priest is an innocent creator that in the w...more
Lucius Priest is an innocent creator that in the w...more
This book was a little hard to get into. It tells the story of a young boy of eleven who’s family leaves town for a funeral. During this time, the boy and two of his father’s employees steal the family car and drive to Memphis. The boy does a lot of growing up on this trip, as their adventures expose him to gambling, horse racing, domestic violence, and, most importantly, prostitution. The relationship between Lucius and Everbe is particularly tender, and he cannot conceive how someone like her...more
This was--if you can believe it--my first Faulkner. From what I understand, it's classic Faulkner plus (as one reviewer noted) "hijinks." Ever a fan of the dramatic, uncomfortable, and modern but less of the humorous (I'm dreadfully morbid, I know) I suspect I will enjoy other Faulkner novels more than this one. Not to say this one wasn't enjoyable: it has a strong 3 (perhaps 3.5) stars. Very respectable.
Some of my favorite quotes:
"Even in 1905 there was still vestigial wilderness, though most...more
Some of my favorite quotes:
"Even in 1905 there was still vestigial wilderness, though most...more
Jun 28, 2010
Alison
rated it
3 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
people who describe "O Brother Where Art Thou?" as Faulknerian
The favorite Faulkner novel among several people I know who otherwise don't like Faulkner, "The Reivers" is the literary equivalent of a reunion special, in which almost every character that ever showed up in any of the Yoknapatawpha County books is at least referenced by the narrator, Lucius Priest, who is himself a cousin of the McCaslin family (of "Go Down Moses" fame) masquerading as a coming-of-age picaresque. Because Faulkner is doing the writing, this is better than it sounds. It's funny,...more
I find it interesting so many people found this book incomprehensible. This easily the *most* comprehensible of any of Faulkner's writings. It's also the most likable, the most charming, and the only one of his books I can say I honestly enjoyed all the way through. It's not as self-conscious, artsy, or convoluted as most of his other works, and because of that very thing, I'd say it offers more depth than even his "deep" books. Here, we actually find a cast of primarily likable characters whose...more
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Jul 29, 2011
Esteban Gordon
added it
This reminded me of a few Balzac novels - it begins with an incomprehensible swirl of characters and motives that makes one want to toss it in the waste bin but quickly moves into a great tale. Don't give up on this novel, once the cast hits the road for Memphis it is superb - a great American coming of age story.
"There are no seasons at all any more, with interiors artificially contrived at sixty degrees in the summer and ninety degrees in winter, so that mossbacked recidivists like me must go...more
"There are no seasons at all any more, with interiors artificially contrived at sixty degrees in the summer and ninety degrees in winter, so that mossbacked recidivists like me must go...more
The first 50+ pages was like listening to someone tell a story with so many tangents and sentences so long that I forget where it was even headed to being with. I understand the style was part of the story, but I don't like hearing a story told in that manner in real life, so it lost its novelty quickly. I laughed out loud once, but the rest of the humor never even got a smile. The only reason I can see this won a Pulitzer is because of the year it was published and the racial commentary (not a...more
This, Faulkner's final and Pulitzer-winning novel, is full of humor and far more accessible than his greater critical successes. It is a book that looks back at Twain and anticipates "new South" writers like Wendell Berry, but is also infused with Faulkner's particular earthiness. And there is very little sign in The Reivers of the mannered and self-indulgent writing that creeps into some of his books. If a Faulkner novel exists that is more simply, purely enjoyable, I'd like to know about it!
Al...more
Al...more
A Pulitzer Prize went to this one!
I honestly do not understand what people see in these stories that include “good-natured, slow-talking Southern darkies.” Have we not evolved? Of course we have; but these novels hang around to remind us of who we once were. All such books need to be gathered up and buried deep underground in one of those vaults that house hazardous waste. And Faulkner is called a modernist writer! Isn’t this part of the South that is supposed to be gone with the wind. (I can’t...more
I believe this may be the first Faulkner book I've ever read.
It was hard to get into the story telling; the narrator speaks as the elderly person telling a story from his childhood (which it is) but he rambles a LOT... I had difficulty with the writing style until I realized that >I< probably tell the story pretty much like he did ;) It was a little easier then. Of course, this story takes place a long time ago, when cars were few and roads were uncomfortable for cars, being rutted from ho...more
It was hard to get into the story telling; the narrator speaks as the elderly person telling a story from his childhood (which it is) but he rambles a LOT... I had difficulty with the writing style until I realized that >I< probably tell the story pretty much like he did ;) It was a little easier then. Of course, this story takes place a long time ago, when cars were few and roads were uncomfortable for cars, being rutted from ho...more
I barely remember reading this sometime in my high school days from 70-72. What I do remember is the cover of the paper back book, which shows Steve McQueen (Boon), Mitch Vogel (Lucius) and Rupert Crosse (Ned) in the automobile thick with mud as portrayed in the movie. When the Southern Lit Book Club decided to make this their monthly read, the image immediately came to mind. The book tucked away with several other boxes of paperbacks, I knew was somewhere in my garage, untouched for years. I be...more
For those who find reading Faulkner beyond their grasp, I recommend The Reivers. Published barely a month before Faulkner's death in 1962, it is one of his most accessible novels and certainly the most comical.
I last read The Reivers at age fourteen. Reading it now, and knowing it was published months before the integration of Ole Miss (something Faulkner never saw happen), I was taken by Faulkner's portrayal of Ned McCaslin, the main African American character in the book. Of McCaslin, Faulkne...more
I last read The Reivers at age fourteen. Reading it now, and knowing it was published months before the integration of Ole Miss (something Faulkner never saw happen), I was taken by Faulkner's portrayal of Ned McCaslin, the main African American character in the book. Of McCaslin, Faulkne...more
The description says 'comic masterpiece' but I failed to see the comedy. As with most Faulkner books, I am too close to the setting to understand how Faulkner's world appears to others. On the other hand, reading Faulkner takes me back to a time when characters like his were a daily part of my life - a depression-era American South that no longer exists. That's mainly what I took away from this book - a fine tale of how things used to be. The conflicts are timeless: just as fresh as if they were...more
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William Cuthbert Faulkner was a Nobel Prize-winning American novelist and short story writer. One of the most influential writers of the twentieth century, his reputation is based mostly on his novels, novellas, and short stories. He was also a published poet and an occasional screenwriter.
The majority of his works are based in his native state of Mississippi. Though his work was published as earl...more
More about William Faulkner...
The majority of his works are based in his native state of Mississippi. Though his work was published as earl...more
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“I will never lie again.”
—
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“It was too late. Maybe yesterday, while I was still a child, but not now. I knew too much, had seen too much, I was a child no longer now; innocence and childhood were forever lost, forever gone from me.”
—
3 people liked it
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