“I’m a failed poet. Maybe every novelist wants to write poetry first, finds he can’t and then tries the short story which is the most demanding form after poetry. And failing that, only then does he take up novel writing.” —William Faulkner
 
Winner of the National Book Award

Forty-two stories make up this magisterial collection by the writer who stands at the pinnacle of modern American fiction. Compressing an epic expanse of vision into hard and wounding narratives, Faulkner’s stories evoke the intimate textures of place, the deep strata of history and legend, and all the fear, brutality, and tenderness of the human condition. These tales are set not only in Yoknapatawpha County, but in Beverly Hills and in France during World War I. They are populated by such characters as the Faulknerian archetypes Flem Snopes and Quentin Compson, as well as by ordinary men and women who emerge so sharply and indelibly in these pages that they dwarf the protagonists of most novels.

I. THE COUNTRY
Barn Burning
Shingles for the Lord
The Tall Men
A Bear Hunt
Two Soldiers
Shall Not Perish

II. THE VILLAGE
A Rose for Emily
Hair
Centaur in Brass
Dry September
Death Drag
Elly
Uncle Willy
Mule in the Yard
That Will Be Fine
That Evening Sun

III. THE WILDERNESS  
Red Leaves
A Justice
A Courtship
Lo!
 
IV. THE WASTELAND
Ad Astra
Victory
Crevasse
Turnabout
All the Dead Pilots
 
V. THE MIDDLE GROUND
Wash
Honor
Dr. Martino
Fox Hunt  
Pennsylvania Station
Artist at Home
The Brooch
My Grandmother Millard
Golden Land
There Was a Queen
Mountain Victory
 
VI. BEYOND
Beyond
Black Music
The Leg
Mistral
Divorce in Naples
Carcassonne
  • WINNER | 1951
    National Book Awards
William Faulkner, one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century, was born in New Albany, Mississippi, on September 25, 1897. He published his first book, The Marble Faun, in 1924, but it is as a literary chronicler of life in the Deep South—particularly in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, the setting for several of his novels—that he is most highly regarded. In such novels as The Sound and the FuryAs I Lay DyingLight in August, and Absalom, Absalom! he explored the full range of post–Civil War Southern life, focusing both on the personal histories of his characters and on the moral uncertainties of an increasingly dissolute society. In combining the use of symbolism with a stream-of-consciousness technique, he created a new approach to fiction writing. In 1949 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. William Faulkner died in Byhalia, Mississippi, on July 6, 1962. View titles by William Faulkner
Educator Guide for Collected Stories of William Faulkner

Classroom-based guides appropriate for schools and colleges provide pre-reading and classroom activities, discussion questions connected to the curriculum, further reading, and resources.

(Please note: the guide displayed here is the most recently uploaded version; while unlikely, any page citation discrepancies between the guide and book is likely due to pagination differences between a book’s different formats.)

About

“I’m a failed poet. Maybe every novelist wants to write poetry first, finds he can’t and then tries the short story which is the most demanding form after poetry. And failing that, only then does he take up novel writing.” —William Faulkner
 
Winner of the National Book Award

Forty-two stories make up this magisterial collection by the writer who stands at the pinnacle of modern American fiction. Compressing an epic expanse of vision into hard and wounding narratives, Faulkner’s stories evoke the intimate textures of place, the deep strata of history and legend, and all the fear, brutality, and tenderness of the human condition. These tales are set not only in Yoknapatawpha County, but in Beverly Hills and in France during World War I. They are populated by such characters as the Faulknerian archetypes Flem Snopes and Quentin Compson, as well as by ordinary men and women who emerge so sharply and indelibly in these pages that they dwarf the protagonists of most novels.

Table of Contents

I. THE COUNTRY
Barn Burning
Shingles for the Lord
The Tall Men
A Bear Hunt
Two Soldiers
Shall Not Perish

II. THE VILLAGE
A Rose for Emily
Hair
Centaur in Brass
Dry September
Death Drag
Elly
Uncle Willy
Mule in the Yard
That Will Be Fine
That Evening Sun

III. THE WILDERNESS  
Red Leaves
A Justice
A Courtship
Lo!
 
IV. THE WASTELAND
Ad Astra
Victory
Crevasse
Turnabout
All the Dead Pilots
 
V. THE MIDDLE GROUND
Wash
Honor
Dr. Martino
Fox Hunt  
Pennsylvania Station
Artist at Home
The Brooch
My Grandmother Millard
Golden Land
There Was a Queen
Mountain Victory
 
VI. BEYOND
Beyond
Black Music
The Leg
Mistral
Divorce in Naples
Carcassonne

Awards

  • WINNER | 1951
    National Book Awards

Author

William Faulkner, one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century, was born in New Albany, Mississippi, on September 25, 1897. He published his first book, The Marble Faun, in 1924, but it is as a literary chronicler of life in the Deep South—particularly in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, the setting for several of his novels—that he is most highly regarded. In such novels as The Sound and the FuryAs I Lay DyingLight in August, and Absalom, Absalom! he explored the full range of post–Civil War Southern life, focusing both on the personal histories of his characters and on the moral uncertainties of an increasingly dissolute society. In combining the use of symbolism with a stream-of-consciousness technique, he created a new approach to fiction writing. In 1949 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. William Faulkner died in Byhalia, Mississippi, on July 6, 1962. View titles by William Faulkner

Guides

Educator Guide for Collected Stories of William Faulkner

Classroom-based guides appropriate for schools and colleges provide pre-reading and classroom activities, discussion questions connected to the curriculum, further reading, and resources.

(Please note: the guide displayed here is the most recently uploaded version; while unlikely, any page citation discrepancies between the guide and book is likely due to pagination differences between a book’s different formats.)