Sanctuary

Among Faulkner's works, Sanctuary is a bit unusual and has a certain notoriety. Faulkner himself called it a "potboiler" that he wrote mainly for the income. At first rejected by the publisher for its violent and sexual content, Faulkner later did a revision that led to its publication. Faulkner's comments have been questioned by some critics because the novel is complex and addresses serious moral themes. I found it to be a substantial work. The plot of Sanctuary is fairly complicated and I will indicate only a brief summary here. The main characters are: Horace Benbow, an idealistic lawyer who is unhappy with his family life; Temple Drake, a young female student at Ole Miss who is a bit wild and likes to party; Popeye, a gangster in the bootleg whiskey business who is also a murderer and rapist; and Lee Goodwin, another bootlegger associated with Popeye. The story unfolds as Temple and her intoxicated date wreck their car and find themselves stranded among a gang of bootleggers at an old dilapidated house. She immediately becomes an object of sexual interest to the men, and is eventually raped by Popeye. One man trying to protect Temple is murdered by Popeye, who then takes Temple away and deposits her at a brothel in Memphis. Meanwhile, Lee Goodwin is accused of the murder but refuses to implicate Popeye out of fear. A trial is set to take place for Goodwin and Horace Benbow is his defense lawyer. Horace is convinced of Goodwin's innocence, and later learns of Temple's presence at the scene and of her rape. There follows a series of behind-the-scene manipulations by Popeye and by Horace's sister Narcissa to influence the prosecuting attorney and fix the blame on Goodwin. A critical incident is when Temple suddenly appears at the trial and perjures herself by testifying that Goodwin was the murderer. Her motivation for doing this is not explained and may involve her developing feelings for Popeye or pressure from her father who is a judge to protect Temple's reputation. The trial concludes with a rapid conviction of Goodwin for rape and murder. Shortly afterwards, the aroused citizens lynch Goodwin and set his body on fire. Horace is shattered by this miscarriage of justice and returns to his family a broken man. Temple is returned to her father who takes her away to Europe with her reputation severely compromised. Popeye is eventually arrested in another state and hung for a crime he didn't commit. So what is the moral of this tragic story? One critic (Cleanth Brooks) has argued that Sanctuary is all about the discovery of evil by the innocent. Neither Horace or Temple are very acquainted with the evil side of life exhibited by murderous men like Popeye and manipulating women like Narcissa. Horace's ideals and his belief in justice and the rule of law are shattered. Due to her brutal rape and treatment at the brothel, Temple has lost any innocence she may initially have had and in fact has developed a taste for the steamier side of life. All in all, Sanctuary is a complex novel that investigates how the influence of evil people can corrupt even the most moral of individuals. I highly recommend the book.

For some reason Amazon is including reviews for, I think, a Nora Roberts book under Faulkner's title, so to be clear I named my review for the novel I am actually reviewing. Faulkner described his writing this wanting to write a "potboiler" but I suspect he either had something else in mind or he, like some other artists I am familiar with, can't help but be creative. There's so much more here than just that. Temple Drake moves from a life of college and parties, under the protection of her father (a judge, whose existence she seems to think protects her even out of his presence) and four brothers, to slumming it with Gowan Stevens (he learned to drink like a gentleman in college) and found herself in another world where she didn't belong. Ruby, mostly referred to as 'the woman' because she willingly lost her identity for a man who seems to own her without loving her, sees this clearly right away. Temple finds herself in beyond over her head and isolated from the rest of the world, her old world, and even when she has chances to escape (just leaving, or later in a car stop) it's convincing why this doesn't happen. Ultimately, though, Temple is a survivor. Horace Benbow, from Flags in the Dust, figures prominently (which is what lead me to read Sanctuary after The Unvanquished and Flags) as does his sister (who we see more of the controlling negative side). Horace's interest in Temple is fueled by his concern for the similarity of Little Belle, who is also in college. In the end everyone gets what they have coming to them, which was a little more satisfying than some of Faulkner's other novels. In what tends to be typical Faulkner doesn't always make it clear who is who (it took me an embarrassingly long time to figure out the "Lee" and "Goodwin" were the same person) and things happen so suddenly that it takes a while to get it clear, but this has come to be part of the enjoyment of reading this author. On my journey in reading the (so-called non-major) novels I've missed I'm moving on to the sequel Requiem for a Nun. Solid novel, much underrated in my opinion.

Sanctuary is a good starter for introducing people to Faulkner. My all time favorite from Faulkner is Absolom,Absolom but this seems very difficult for people to follow. I grew up in the South, the story in Sanctuary could have truly happened 40 years ago in any community in the South. The title is misleading, none of the characters ever find sanctuary, there is no place within the book that could be called a sanctuary.

An excellent book

Classico da conoscere

Like many people i had "The Sound and the Fury" assigned in my freshman English literature survey course over 50 years ago. Again as with many other people, a major result of that course was a conviction that the works of William Faulkner were beyond me. I was then curious when going over the listings for TCM movies one night to see that the movie 'The Story of Temple Drake" was inspired by a Faulkner novel.I watched the movie and thoroughly enjoyed it. Out of curiosity, I researched it and discovered the novel on which it was based was 'Sanctuary" and that the movie was based on only part of it. I put the book in my Amazon shopping cart but was undecided about it given my freshman experience. I bought it almost by accident when I used Amazon to buy some novels for my wife. I was surprised to see "Sanctuary" in the order but decided to maintain the order out of curiosity. I am very glad that I maintained that order since I discovered a Faulkner that I did not know existed. I read "Sanctuary" and then in quick succession, I've read "As I Lay Dying", Light in August" and "Pylon". I now have an ambition of reading all of Faulkner's novels within a year and to end that year by attempting to read "The Sound and The Fury".

Je n'aime pas les romans de cet écrivain mais Faulkner reste quand même très talentueux. Je vous conseille néanmoins ce livre pour votre culture générale.

Ich habe mich sehr gefreut ein so günstiges Exemplar dieses Buches zu finden. Da ich es für meine Diplomarbeit brauche, war es mir natürlich auch wichtig, dass es flott da ist. Alles perfekt. Kam wie beschrieben innerhalb der nächsten Tage an (weiß die genauer Dauer nicht mehr, aber sehr flott). Natürlich erkennt man bei einem gebrauchten Produkt ein paar Gebrauchsspuren, aber ganz ehrlich, das ist nicht der Rede wert. War wirklich fast wie neu. Es wurde nichts markiert und die leicht vergilbten Seiten sind hervorragend lesbar. Kann man gar nichts daran aussetzen. Freu mich sehr über das Buch. Zum Inhalt des Buches: Herrje... Also wer Faulkner mag, der wird meine Rezension nicht schätzen. Ich finde den Stil einfach scheußlich. Ich werde mit dem Herrn einfach nicht warm. Permanent habe ich das Problem, dass ich nicht weiß, wer gerade spricht. Die vielen "he" and "she" sind mir oft einfach unklar. Ohne Frage ist "Sancuatry" ein Beispiel für das Gothic Novel. Massig werden Leute abgeschlachtet, eine Frau wird mit einem Maiskolben vergewaltigt, und die ganze Atmosphäre ist einfach unheimlich aufgeladen. Sein total hektischer Stil trägt natürlich zum Spannungsaufbau bei und lässt den Leser spüren, wie verzweifelt die arme Frau ist. Aber dennoch verstehe ich nicht, wieso man permanent alles wiederholen muss, was bereits gesagt wurde (und man sich trotzdem teilweise nicht auskennt) ist mir auch unverständlich. Ein kleiner Ausschnitt als Kostprobe: "Yes", she said, "all right. Don't you let him in here." "You mean fer me not to let none of them in hyer?" "All right. I'll fix hit so cain't nbody git to you. I'll be right hyer." "All right. Shut the door. Don't let him in here." "All right." He shut the door. She leaned in it, looking towards the house. He pushed her back so he could close the door. "Hit ain't goin to hurt you none. Less says. All you got to do is lay down." "All right. I will. Don't you let him in here." p. 80 Mein stilistischer Horro... aber hey, wer das mag. Ich musste nach der Lektüre eine Internet-Zusammenfassung konsultieren, um mir sicher zu sein, was ich da gelesen habe. Ich war z.B. der festen Meinung, dass Temple zur Prostitution gezwugen wurde. Da lag ich falsch. Also das Buch bekommt 5 Sterne, was der Autor da fabriziert hat für mich nur 1.