First published in 1931, Light in August is the follow-up novel to Faulkner's most commercially successful novel, Sanctuary, and his sixth novel overall. Some of his most notable novels, The Sound and the Fury and As I Lay Dying, were written several years before Light in August and overshadowed Light in August for many years both in criticism and in the public consciousness. Thematically, the novel is most similar to Absalom, Absalom! and Go Down, Moses, as all three deal extensively with the legacy of slavery in the South, particularly when it comes to how slavery and its crimes against Black Americans have marked and haunt the white citizens of the South.
Light in August follows four...