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The William Faulkner Audio Collection
William Faulkner never stood taller than five feet, six inches, but in the realm of American literature, he is a giant. More than simply a renowned Mississippi writer, the Nobel-Prize winning novelist and short story writer is acclaimed throughout the world as one of the twentieth century's greatest writers, one who transformed his "postage stamp" of native soil into an apocryphal setting in which he explored, articulated, and challenged the "old verities and truths of the heart."
In this collection, we are proud to present a historic recording of Mr. Faulkner reading his 1949 Nobel acceptance speech and excerpts from As I Lay Dying and The Old Man.
In this collection, we are proud to present a historic recording of Mr. Faulkner reading his 1949 Nobel acceptance speech and excerpts from As I Lay Dying and The Old Man.
5 pages, Audio Cassette
First published July 1, 2003
2 people are currently reading
57 people want to read
About the author
William Faulkner
1,379 books10.7k followersWilliam 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".
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
March 15, 2012
William Faulkner consistently delivered the sound and the fury of a prose so powerful, yet subtle, frugal on the one hand and almost extravagant on the other. Like Hitchcock's alluding, don't-show-all style, he gives you snippets of dialogue, flashes of images, and dosed emotion. Much of his most artistic and critically acclaimed work is that in which the narration is seen through the eyes of a child, churning through a story with the simplicity of childhood and all its wild snippets of understanding, where single images of scenes are etched upon the impressionable mind and little is fully comprehended. Yet even so, Faulkner excels at the creation of terrible men, overbearing and stubborn. Driven by an ill-fated history without future, perceived wrongs done to them and theirs, or an often almost impregnable moral code, these domineering father-figures stalk perpetually forward like a demon herding its flock of sin toward an awful and inevitable end.
Classics like "A Rose For Emily" and "Barn Burning" can be found elsewhere, but the main reason you want to check out this title is that it includes clips of Faulkner himself reading from his own work, as well as that of actors David Carradine and Deborah Winger.
Classics like "A Rose For Emily" and "Barn Burning" can be found elsewhere, but the main reason you want to check out this title is that it includes clips of Faulkner himself reading from his own work, as well as that of actors David Carradine and Deborah Winger.
September 18, 2019
Up until now, I believe the only Faulkner I’ve read is his short story “A Rose for Emily”, but I’ve read it half a dozen times. It’s frequently anthologies, and in this collection it’s his most accessible story as it has a clear plot and a nice gruesome twist at the end. It’s worth reading again.
I was talking recently with a fellow book lover about The Sound and the Fury and she said Faulkner said that if you read it and don’t understand it, read it again. If you still don’t understand it, read it again. I feel like the same is true of these stories. I find it harder to absorb a book listening on audio. Although I thought all the narrators did a good job, the material is complex, and I found I had to go back and listen again to sections.
“Spotted Horses” didn’t really engage me. It seemed to just ramble on and on, and while well written, with intriguing characters, there didn’t seem to be much of a plot. Even the ending seemed to suggest the Faulkner didn’t have an end in sight,he just stopped writing.
“Barn Brning” and “Wash” I found more accessible. Again, not much plot but strong characters, and each also had a theme involving class divide and rightvand wrong. I think they p’d be worth listening to again.
The collection also includes recordings of William Faulkner himself—his 1949 Nobel Prize acceptance speech, and excerpts of As I Lay Dying, A Fable, and The Old Man. While interesting to hear his voice, in the excerpts he speaks quickly and he’s not a gifted narrator. To my ear, he sort of fell into a rhythm and his delivery doesn’t enhance the story. Perhaps it was also that I haven’t read these novels, so hearing a excerpt from the Middle felt more about hearing Faulkner’s voice than being able to appreciate, let alone enjoy, the content. I ended up not listening to the last few tracks becauevI simply could t follow what it was about.
I do think this is a good quick introduction to Faulkner’s work. His prose and ability to portray characters make it clear why he’s in the literary cannon, but the racist portrayal of African Americans is offensive and off-putting. I don’t advocate erasing history, even the parts we regret, and his work is worth reading, but if I were and English teacher I’d either replace it or pair it with the works of someone like Toni Morrison. Faulkner has empathy for poor whites, as portrayed in “Wash” and it would be an interesting discussion to look at how Faulkner looks at race in that story to the point of view of an African American author’s portrayal of race to examine how personal experience impacts an author’s work.
I was talking recently with a fellow book lover about The Sound and the Fury and she said Faulkner said that if you read it and don’t understand it, read it again. If you still don’t understand it, read it again. I feel like the same is true of these stories. I find it harder to absorb a book listening on audio. Although I thought all the narrators did a good job, the material is complex, and I found I had to go back and listen again to sections.
“Spotted Horses” didn’t really engage me. It seemed to just ramble on and on, and while well written, with intriguing characters, there didn’t seem to be much of a plot. Even the ending seemed to suggest the Faulkner didn’t have an end in sight,he just stopped writing.
“Barn Brning” and “Wash” I found more accessible. Again, not much plot but strong characters, and each also had a theme involving class divide and rightvand wrong. I think they p’d be worth listening to again.
The collection also includes recordings of William Faulkner himself—his 1949 Nobel Prize acceptance speech, and excerpts of As I Lay Dying, A Fable, and The Old Man. While interesting to hear his voice, in the excerpts he speaks quickly and he’s not a gifted narrator. To my ear, he sort of fell into a rhythm and his delivery doesn’t enhance the story. Perhaps it was also that I haven’t read these novels, so hearing a excerpt from the Middle felt more about hearing Faulkner’s voice than being able to appreciate, let alone enjoy, the content. I ended up not listening to the last few tracks becauevI simply could t follow what it was about.
I do think this is a good quick introduction to Faulkner’s work. His prose and ability to portray characters make it clear why he’s in the literary cannon, but the racist portrayal of African Americans is offensive and off-putting. I don’t advocate erasing history, even the parts we regret, and his work is worth reading, but if I were and English teacher I’d either replace it or pair it with the works of someone like Toni Morrison. Faulkner has empathy for poor whites, as portrayed in “Wash” and it would be an interesting discussion to look at how Faulkner looks at race in that story to the point of view of an African American author’s portrayal of race to examine how personal experience impacts an author’s work.
May 25, 2018
I know that I had read some of William Faulkner’s works in literature classes both in High School and in collage, but I honestly didn’t specifically remember any of them until I picked up this work. After listening to him read some of his own works, I strongly suspect that W.F. was the model for the writer character in Stranger In A Strange Land and has influenced several popular movies I have seen in recent history.
I honestly don’t know what I think of his work. There certainly is an ambiance of sincerity and depth to his writings which bring the reader into an emotional state of seeming to live and breath the environment about which he writes, but the content doesn’t contain much in my best opinion. Perhaps I simply know first hand the environment he writes about and so for me it’s more like reliving a small subset of my own memories more than some unique literary experience.
Nevertheless, I have very much enjoyed hearing the writer read his own works in his own voice. There is little doubt that Faulkner intimately understood his own material and wrote about the things closest to his heart.
This work receives 3 1/2 stars, with a bit of admonition to the compilers of these works for failing to re-master them. The audio in a few of the readings is very difficult to make out.
I honestly don’t know what I think of his work. There certainly is an ambiance of sincerity and depth to his writings which bring the reader into an emotional state of seeming to live and breath the environment about which he writes, but the content doesn’t contain much in my best opinion. Perhaps I simply know first hand the environment he writes about and so for me it’s more like reliving a small subset of my own memories more than some unique literary experience.
Nevertheless, I have very much enjoyed hearing the writer read his own works in his own voice. There is little doubt that Faulkner intimately understood his own material and wrote about the things closest to his heart.
This work receives 3 1/2 stars, with a bit of admonition to the compilers of these works for failing to re-master them. The audio in a few of the readings is very difficult to make out.
August 13, 2020
This a really wonderful set. I especially loved Debra Winger's reading of A Rose For Emily and hearing Faulkner's Nobel Prize acceptance speech. One mall problem: Nowhere on the box or on the CDs does it say what each of the CDs contain. There is a list on the back of the reading but not where they appear on the CDs. Nor are CDs marked.
September 26, 2018
First read in high school and did not enjoy it. Tried again, and had the same response. Just not the author for me.
July 31, 2023
why isn’t this book like..normal on goodreads
April 23, 2013
Excellent readings of great stories. Just wanted to fill in some of the gaps in my Faulkner reading. Spotted Horses was the longest story here, and it was not disappointing. As it usually does, "A Rose for Emily" gave me the creeps. What a fantastic, creepy, weird story.
Faulkner is one of my favorite writers; that's not to say that I always like his content or his word choice, but that's neither here nor there, in my opinion. The man could write, stringing sentences together out of that not long ago time when things were not as pretty as they are now, making those sentences sing with repetition and other strategically placed rhetorical devices, causing those words to sing together in a wonderful dark beautiful sad Southern symphony.
Or something. If you like Faulkner, I recommend this audio collection, narrated by Debra Winger (remember her?), Keith Carradine, and Arliss Howard.
Faulkner is one of my favorite writers; that's not to say that I always like his content or his word choice, but that's neither here nor there, in my opinion. The man could write, stringing sentences together out of that not long ago time when things were not as pretty as they are now, making those sentences sing with repetition and other strategically placed rhetorical devices, causing those words to sing together in a wonderful dark beautiful sad Southern symphony.
Or something. If you like Faulkner, I recommend this audio collection, narrated by Debra Winger (remember her?), Keith Carradine, and Arliss Howard.
June 12, 2012
This audio collection starts out with Faulkner reading his Nobel acceptance speech and it set the tone for the stories so beautifully. "The poet’s voice need not merely be the record of man, it can be one of the props, the pillars to help him endure and prevail." I liked Debra Winger's readings and I loved Arliss Howard's performances, but I had trouble following Keith Carradine's and I'm not sure if it was his reading style or the story. Faulkner reads excerpts from stories too, and while his voice is pleasurable to listen to, a strong Southern accent can be as difficult as a foreign language for me to understand.
October 22, 2015
Enjoying the ride, and the language, but its a mixed bag overall in the performances. Carradine's delivery of the novella "Spotted Horses" is breathlessly terrific! Debra Winger just doesn't do it for me, and the Faulkner himself is kinda indecipherable. The readings from "That Evening Sun" ruin the story for its honestly racist interpretation. Still, I listened for love of the story. But, even if Faulkner was a matter-of-fact racist, of-his-age and sublime in his interpretations of the struggles of the legacies of slavery and an impoverished white south, that man reading didn't have no right to make Nancy sound like that.
December 27, 2015
Disappointing. This was a collection of short stories, including A Rose for Emily,
That Evening Sun,
Spotted Horses,
Barn Burning and Wash.
It seemed clear he was a racist & I do not care for his writing style or content.
And excerpts from As I Lay Dying, A Fable and Old Man, read by Faulker. He should've have allowed these to be read by others, as he did them NO justice. It was unclear to me, where 1 finished & another 1 ended. Overall lousy.
I would be interested in trying 1 more w/ a prior recommendation from a trusted reader.
That Evening Sun,
Spotted Horses,
Barn Burning and Wash.
It seemed clear he was a racist & I do not care for his writing style or content.
And excerpts from As I Lay Dying, A Fable and Old Man, read by Faulker. He should've have allowed these to be read by others, as he did them NO justice. It was unclear to me, where 1 finished & another 1 ended. Overall lousy.
I would be interested in trying 1 more w/ a prior recommendation from a trusted reader.
May 30, 2016
William Faulkner won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction twice and the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1949. The short stories in this collection are a fine representation of the heart of his work, the portrait of a specific time and place.
In this audio collection Debra Winger, Keith Carradine and Arliss Howard passionately read stories of aching loss and the ongoing reconstruction of lives after men came home from the Civil War.
The collection also has Faulkner's 1949 Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech.
In this audio collection Debra Winger, Keith Carradine and Arliss Howard passionately read stories of aching loss and the ongoing reconstruction of lives after men came home from the Civil War.
The collection also has Faulkner's 1949 Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech.
June 1, 2008
Hearing William Faulkner's voice was moving. Debra Winger, Arliss Howard & Keith Carradine read some of Faulkner's more famous short stories in an engaging way that I found touching. I think Faulkner was otherworldly; maybe he was really from another planet. I find everything I've ever read of his to be unforgettable.
Read
July 18, 2012Wonderful writing and great stories. Listened to the audio version and although it's great to hear Faulkner's soft southern accent on a few of the shorter pieces, he was not really a very good reader and I got a lot more from the pros who read the bulk of the discs.
Well worth listening to, even if you have already read the stories in print.
Well worth listening to, even if you have already read the stories in print.
February 3, 2017
I listened to the audio collection. Debra Winger and Keith Carradine were merely readlng the stories. William Faulkner is a gifted writer and it is interesting to hear his voice as he reads. The real star of this audio collection is Arliss Howard. He has a wonderful voice and his performance is magnificent.
February 12, 2009
The best part: Faulkner reading his Nobel Prize acceptance speech nonchalantly.
A close second: Debra Winger reading "A Rose for Emily"
A close second: Debra Winger reading "A Rose for Emily"
October 6, 2012
Loved it! Makes me want to read more Faulkner. The excerpts read by him were a bit hard -- he is not a great reader -- but nevertheless interesting to hear them in his voice.
Read
May 28, 2019Abandoned.
First disk had skipping issues (rented from library)
Second disk - Long story about horses. Almost put me to sleep (not a good thing while driving). I ejected it about halfway through.
Third disk - continuation of horse story. Decided no longer interested in listening to this.
First disk had skipping issues (rented from library)
Second disk - Long story about horses. Almost put me to sleep (not a good thing while driving). I ejected it about halfway through.
Third disk - continuation of horse story. Decided no longer interested in listening to this.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews