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Content snapshot
Flag an inaccuracy →What's in this book, at a glance — five things readers want to know before they start.
Violence
Some
Suicide depicted; some violence and threat
Language
Some
Strong period language including racial slurs consistent with the 1920s setting
Sexual Content
Barely any
Brief sexual references and allusions to promiscuity
Substance Use
Barely any
Drinking in several scenes
Emotional Intensity
A lot
Deeply psychological — Quentin's suicidal ideation and Benjy's disoriented grief are central
What this book is about
Faulkner's modernist masterpiece tells the story of the Compson family's decline through four different first-person narrators — including Benjy, who has an intellectual disability, and the nihilistic Quentin, whose Harvard narration is saturated with suicidal ideation. A difficult but profound novel about memory, decay, and the dying of the American South.
Notes for sensitive readers
Reader-flagged moments and themes that may affect your experience.
Suicide and suicidal ideation as major theme
Racial slurs in period-accurate dialogue
Depictions of mental disability
Reader Verification
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