The Reivers: A Reminiscence , published in 1962, is the last novel by the American author William Faulkner . It was published a month before his death. The bestselling novel was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1963. Faulkner previously won this award for his book A Fable , making him one of only four authors to be awarded it more than once. Unlike many of his earlier works, it is a straightforward narration and eschews the complicated literary techniques of his more well-known works. It is a picaresque novel, and as such may seem uncharacteristically lighthearted given its subject matter. For these reasons, The Reivers is often ignored by Faulkner scholars or dismissed as a lesser work. He previously had referred to writing a "Golden Book of Yoknapatawpha County" with which he would finish his literary career. It is likely that The Reivers was meant to be this "Golden Book". The Reivers was adapted into a film of the same name directed by Mark Rydell and starring Steve McQueen as Boon Hogganbeck.
76-631: In the early 20th century, an 11-year-old boy named Lucius Priest (a distant cousin of the McCaslin/Edmonds family Faulkner wrote about in Go Down, Moses ) somewhat unwittingly gets embroiled in a plot to go to Memphis with dimwitted family friend and manservant Boon Hogganbeck. Boon steals (reives, thereby becoming a reiver) Lucius' grandfather's car, one of the first cars in Yoknapatawpha County . They discover that Ned McCaslin,
152-470: A black man who works with Boon at Lucius' grandfather's stables, has stowed away with them (Ned is also a blood cousin of the Priests). When they reach Memphis, Boon and Lucius stay in a boarding-house (brothel). Miss Reba, the madam, and Miss Corrie, Boon's favorite girl, are appalled to see that Boon has brought a child. In fact, Corrie's nephew Otis, an ill-mannered and off-putting boy about Lucius' age,
228-622: A complex publication history. Its earliest version, first published in The Saturday Evening Post (May 9, 1942), differs substantially from the Go Down, Moses version. A third version was published in Faulkner's collection of hunting stories, Big Woods (1955). This story serves as a sort of sequel or coda to "The Bear". Ike McCaslin and Roth Edmonds are in a car with some friends, headed for what Ike suspects will be
304-402: A dark-eyed young woman with a baby wrapped in a blanket. Ike, ashamed of acting as a go-between in such a sordid matter, informs her that Roth has left and tries to thrust the money on her. She refuses to take it immediately, and remarks that Roth has abandoned her. Ike contemptuously asks how she could have expected anything different from him. As the conversation goes on, it becomes clear that
380-429: A husband and has Uncle Buck in mind. Hubert and Buck search through the woods for Turl and make a 500-dollar bet over whether he will be caught outside Tennie's cabin that night. That night he is indeed at the cabin, but he runs past them and eludes capture. Buck and young McCaslin are forced to spend the night at the plantation house. Buck and the boy accidentally go into the wrong bedroom and discover Sophonsiba lying in
456-410: A key figure in Faulkner's later fiction. Stevens is like several other white characters in Go Down, Moses in that his impression of blacks in general is quite paternalistic and tradition-bound. He is, however, capable of change; at the story's end he experiences an epiphany when he learns that Mollie wants the funeral to be covered in the local newspaper "just like anyone else's". His realization ends
532-403: A logging company, and the trains come closer and louder than before. The wilderness is gradually being whittled away by farmers and loggers. Isaac visits the graves of Lion and Sam Fathers, then goes to find Boon Hogganbeck. Boon is in a clearing full of squirrels, trying to fix his gun. As Isaac enters, Boon shouts at him not to touch any of the squirrels: "They're mine!" he cries. "The Bear" has
608-456: A man a generation younger than Lucas and seemingly less deserving of the Carothers plantation than Lucas is, to report George Wilkins in order for the tip off to be taken seriously by authorities. Rider, an incredibly strong and large black man who lives on Carothers "Roth" Edmonds' plantation, is bereaved by the death of his wife. He digs his wife's grave at great speed, and the visitors at
684-439: A massive buck. The group disperses to try to hunt the big deer before they leave. Sam leads Isaac to a clearing; they hear Walter Ewell's horn, and Isaac assumes the buck has been killed. But then a giant buck comes down the slope toward them and looks at them with gravity and dignity. Sam calls it "grandfather." They do not shoot at it. That night, McCaslin and Isaac stay at Major de Spain's house near Jefferson, 17 miles away from
760-455: A particularly risky opportunity and decide to go ahead, though Granny says she is uneasy. Her hesitation is justified: the Union army has issued a memo to be on the lookout for scams, and shortly after they leave camp the soldiers ride back to confront them. Granny has already given the mules to Ab for safekeeping, and when Ringo creates a diversion in the woods, Bayard and Granny simply vanish into
836-446: A pistol from a friend of his father's, George Wyatt. He enters Redmond's office; Redmond fires two shots at him, then takes his hat, walks across the square and boards a train out of Jefferson forever. The townspeople think Bayard has been killed; in fact, he has chosen to confront Redmond unarmed, breaking the cycle of violence without sacrificing his honor. When he returns home that evening, Drusilla has left for good. The only sign of her
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#1732801144533912-459: A presence for old Isaac McCaslin and indicates a distant future in which this story is simply a memory of something overheard, a "was" instead of an "is." Isaac McCaslin will prove to be the central character in Go Down, Moses, and Faulkner helps build his stature in the reader's mind by introducing him in advance in the first two stories of the book. Many years later (around 1941) Lucas Beauchamp,
988-422: A scholarly negro farmer, who seems to neglect both his farm and wife. She refuses the money, but Isaac arranges for a nearby bank to pay it out in small monthly portions. Isaac continues to hunt and spend all the time he can in the woods. One November, a few years later, he and a few of the old hunting group return to the wilderness camp where they had stalked Old Ben for so many years. Major de Spain has sold it to
1064-489: A sexual relationship. "Was", which appears at first to be simply an innocuous and amusing story (if one historically appalling in its treatment of blacks and women as things to be gambled over) about the marital maneuverings between a spinster and an affirmed bachelor, is actually the story of the origin of the black branch of the McCaslin family tree. Tomey's Turl is Carothers McCaslin's son, Buck and Buddy's half-brother, by
1140-405: A woman who urges him to take back the plantation, but he still refuses when she attempts to convince him sexually. It is suggested there are no further conjugal relations between them after this as they have no children. Isaac tries to distribute fairly the money left to the children of Tomey's Turl and Tennie. He travels to Arkansas to give a thousand dollars to Lucas' sister, Fonsiba, now married to
1216-596: Is Gavin Stevens, a local attorney and amateur Biblical scholar and detective. Mollie Beauchamp (Lucas' wife) has had a premonition of harm involving her long-lost grandson, Samuel. She begs Stevens to discover his whereabouts and condition. Stevens pities the old woman and accepts the job for a token fee. Stevens soon discovers that Samuel Beauchamp is due to be executed in Illinois within hours. Without quite understanding why, he donates and collects enough money to bring
1292-758: Is a 1938 novel by the American author William Faulkner , set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County . It tells the story of the Sartoris family, who first appeared in the novel Sartoris (or Flags in the Dust ). The Unvanquished takes place before that story, and is set during the American Civil War . Principal characters are Bayard Sartoris, John Sartoris (Marse John, Father), Granny, Ringo (Morengo), Ab Snopes, Cousin Drusilla, Aunt Jenny, Louvinia, and
1368-401: Is a 1942 collection of seven related pieces of short fiction by American author William Faulkner , sometimes considered a novel. The most prominent character and unifying voice is that of Isaac McCaslin, "Uncle Ike", who will live to be an old man; "uncle to half a county and father to no one". Though originally published as a short story collection, Faulkner considered the book to be a novel in
1444-418: Is already staying there. In the evening, Otis reveals that Corrie (whose real name is Everbe Corinthia) used to prostitute herself in their old town, and he would charge men to watch her through a peephole. Outraged at his conduct, Lucius fights Otis, who cuts his hand with a pocketknife. Boon breaks up the fight but Corrie is so moved by Lucius' chivalry that she decides to stop whoring. Later, Ned returns to
1520-490: Is exploited by Hubert who tries to pressure Buck into marrying Sophonsiba. Buck does not agree to Hubert's exploitive interpretation of events. Buck, Buddy and Hubert settle both their situation and that of Tomey's Turl by tying them to the outcome of a poker match. If Buck loses, he is to marry Sophonsiba and must agree to buy the slave girl Tennie so Turl will stop running away to see her. Buck loses, but coaxes Hubert into allowing another game, Hubert against Buddy, to determine
1596-440: Is first introduced, he seems to be referred to more as an animal, such as a horse, than a person. When Hubert and Buck are taking bets on where Tomey's Turl will show up, the reader further sees how far removed from human the slaves are in the eyes of the owners. (Faulkner later reveals that Tomey's Turl is Buck and Buddy's half-brother, the son of their father, Lucius Quintus Carothers McCaslin, and his slave Tomey.) Additionally, it
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#17328011445331672-527: Is furious that the wedding has not taken place. Drusilla, the colonel and the townspeople ride to the Sartoris plantation to resume the election; not surprisingly, the Republican candidate, an ex-slave, loses. Eight years later, Bayard is a law student at the University of Mississippi; once in the intervening years he has kissed Drusilla, who seems almost to be in love with him. One night Ringo rides to
1748-453: Is futile, because all the hounds fear him. Sam Fathers, who teaches Isaac Old Ben's ways, says that it will take an extraordinary dog to bring Old Ben down. Isaac sees Old Ben several times. Once, they send a tiny fyce-dog with no sense of danger after him, and Isaac has a shot at the huge bear. But instead of taking the shot, Isaac runs after the fyce and dives to save him from the bear. Isaac looks up at Old Ben looming over him and remembers
1824-404: Is hardly qualified to advise anyone about love and leaves with the money in her slicker's pocket and General Compson's horn. Ike is still pondering this disturbing incident when one of his hunting companions runs in, frantically looking for a knife. The old hunter deduces that Roth has killed a doe and is trying to hide the evidence: another family sin that must be covered up. "Delta Autumn"
1900-497: Is not the first time this has happened and Uncle Buck and Buddy know where he always goes, to Hubert Beauchamp's neighboring plantation to see his love, a slave girl named Tennie. Beauchamp himself has an unmarried sister, Sophonsiba, nicknamed "Sibbey", who seems romantically interested in Buck. Forced to stay the night to look for Tomey's Turl, Buck and Cass accidentally enter Sophonsiba's room, thinking it to be their room. This situation
1976-459: Is possible Faulkner intends for the entrapping of Buck into marriage with Sophonsiba to be analogous to slavery, although Buck seems to accept it silently. Old Isaac McCaslin heard this story, relating events that took place before he was born, from his older cousin, McCaslin Edmonds, who was 16 years his senior and like a father to him: A young child, McCaslin Edmonds, rides with his Uncle Buck to
2052-432: Is shot and killed by Grumby. After the funeral, Bayard sets off to seek revenge, accompanied by Ringo and a friend of his father's, Uncle Buck. Realizing that Ab Snopes has joined Grumby's party, they track them for two months throughout the area. They know they are getting closer when a well-dressed stranger who turns out to be one of Grumby's men shoots at them, wounding Uncle Buck; the next day they find Ab Snopes tied up in
2128-430: Is to present stories whose full significance in the overall history of his characters is not apparent until later in the book. The book explores the history and development of the McCaslin family, descended from Lucius Quintus Carothers McCaslin ("Carothers McCaslin") and occupies the plantation he founded. Faulkner incorporates into the McCaslin family many of the characteristics he viewed as essential to an understanding of
2204-414: The McCaslin plantation. In bed, Isaac tells McCaslin about the buck, and McCaslin speculates that it represented some form of indomitable, primal energy that grows up out of the earth from all the blood that seeps into it and all the lives it absorbs. Isaac thinks that McCaslin does not believe him, that he is accusing him of claiming to have seen a ghost; but McCaslin tells him solemnly that he, too, has seen
2280-545: The South as a whole, including the painful racial divide between whites and blacks that defined Southern history in the decades before and after the Civil War. He does this by splitting the McCaslin family tree into two branches, one white and the other black. The white branch, obviously, descends from Carothers McCaslin and his wife; the black branch descends from Carothers McCaslin and the slave-girl Tomey, with whom McCaslin had
2356-476: The Union army. They pass an army of freed slaves that is also seeking out the Yankees. On the way, they stop at Hawkhurst, where Bayard's Aunt Louisa lives. Ringo had been looking forward to seeing the railroad that runs nearby. But the railroad has been destroyed and the house burned. At Hawkhurst, Bayard's cousin Drusilla begs him to ask his father to let her join the regiment as a soldier. She accompanies them to
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2432-400: The bear and draws blood, but Old Ben escapes into the forest. Isaac and Boon go into Memphis to buy whisky for the men, and the next day, they go after the bear again. General Compson declares that he wants Isaac to ride Kate, the only mule who is not afraid of wild animals and, therefore, the best chance any of the men have to get close enough to the bear to kill him. In the deep woods, near
2508-417: The bed. She wakes up and screams, and Beauchamp takes advantage of the situation to try to pressure Buck to marry Sophonsiba. Buck rejects the idea angrily, and the two men play cards to settle things: a single hand of poker will decide whether Buck will have to marry Sophonsiba and also who has to buy the other's slave, since the situation with Tennie and Tomey's Turl is clearly unmanageable as it is. Buck loses
2584-444: The boarding-house and reveals he traded the car for a supposedly lame racehorse. Corrie, Reba, Ned, Boon and Lucius hatch a scheme to smuggle the horse by rail to a nearby town, Parsham, to race a horse it has lost to twice already. Ned figures that everyone in town will bet against the horse and he can win enough money to buy back the car; he claims to have a secret ability to make the horse run. Corrie uses another client who works for
2660-626: The book on a somewhat hopeful note; perhaps the old cycle of exploitation and willful ignorance will not last forever after all. Gavin Stevens also interacts with the Beauchamp family in the novel Intruder in the Dust (1948), in which he helps to save Lucas Beauchamp from a murder charge and a lynching. Some subtle clues seem to place that story a few years before "Go Down, Moses." "Go Down, Moses" first appeared in Collier's (January 25, 1941). The Unvanquished The Unvanquished
2736-426: The boys learn they only hit the horse, not the rider. The next year, following Colonel Sartoris's instructions, Granny carries a heavy trunk of silver to Memphis for safekeeping. After digging the buried chest out of the ground, she insists that the slaves carry it up to her bedroom so she can watch it during the night. The journey to Memphis carries them through Union-occupied areas. One afternoon, men with guns waylay
2812-470: The buck: Sam took him into that same clearing the day he killed his first deer. As Isaac grows older, he becomes an expert hunter and woodsman, and continues going with the hunting parties every year. The group becomes increasingly preoccupied with hunting down Old Ben, a monstrous, almost immortal bear that wreaks havoc throughout the forest. Old Ben's foot was maimed in a trap, and he seems impervious to bullets. Isaac learns to track Old Ben, but hunting him
2888-752: The cotton compress where Granny was killed, then cut off his hand and attach it to Granny's grave marker. That spring, Drusilla has returned home from the war and is living in Jefferson with the Sartorises, dressing and acting mannish as she did while serving in the troops. Aunt Louisa is scandalized that Drusilla has been living with Colonel Sartoris and determines that they should marry. Aunt Louisa asks several respectable local women to take Drusilla in. The women cruelly offer sympathy for Drusilla's "condition," reducing Drusilla to tears. Before long Louisa arrives and, ignoring her daughter's protests, makes plans for
2964-402: The day of the race, Lucius rides the horse (named Coppermine but called Lightning by Ned) and loses the first of three heats as planned. Just as the second heat begins, Butch returns to break up the horserace and arrest Boon for stealing the horse. Lucius and one of Ned's kinsman are able to get the horse to safety; Corrie is supposedly able to clear the whole ordeal up by having sex with Butch and
3040-420: The destruction of the South. McCaslin tries to convince him to accept the land, with a convoluted metaphysical argument about the fated responsibilities the white race has taken on. But Isaac remembers reading the old ledger books of Uncle Buck and Uncle Buddy, piecing together the sordid story of the plantation's slaves, and he refuses the inheritance. (One of Isaac's inferences is particularly appalling: Tomey,
3116-488: The dirt on the Sartoris plantation. A slave named Loosh smugly interrupts their game, hinting that Union armies have entered northeastern Mississippi, near their town of Jefferson. The boys do not fully understand, but when Bayard's father, Colonel John Sartoris, returns home from the front that day, they overhear him telling Granny Millard that Vicksburg has fallen. Loosh obviously knows about the defeat, and Bayard decides he and Ringo will keep watch over Loosh. Several days into
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3192-479: The funeral wonder why he is digging his wife into the ground so quickly. That night, Rider believes he sees his wife's ghost. He returns to work at a sawmill the next day, but after chucking an incredibly large log down a hill, walks off the job and buys a jug of whiskey, drinking copiously. Rider goes to the tool room at the mill and confronts a man named Birdsong, who has been cheating black men in dice for years. Rider cuts Birdsong's throat. The narrative shifts, and
3268-448: The hand and sends McCaslin home to fetch Buck's twin brother, Buddy, a legendary poker player. Buddy arrives and coaxes Beauchamp into another poker game. They spend a great deal of time hammering out the stakes, but in the end, Beauchamp folds, and Buddy wins the game. Uncle Buck, Uncle Buddy, McCaslin, Tennie, and Tomey's Turl return to the McCaslin plantation—Tennie and Tomey's Turl will be married. Faulkner's technique in Go Down, Moses
3344-454: The image from his dreams about the bear. At last they find a dog capable of bringing Old Ben to bay: Lion, a huge, wild Airedale Terrier mix with extraordinary courage and savagery. Sam makes Lion semi-tame by starving him until he will allow himself to be touched; soon, Boon Hogganbeck has devoted himself to Lion and even shares a bed with him. Using Lion, they nearly catch Old Ben, but Boon misses five point-blank shots. General Compson hits
3420-535: The last of his annual hunting expeditions. The wilderness has receded in recent years, and it is now a long trip by automobile. Along the way they discuss the worsening situation in Europe, with Roth taking the cynic's view against Ike's idealism. At one point Roth slams on the brakes, as if he saw someone or something standing along the road. He seems preoccupied and out of sorts. The men eventually arrive at their campsite and set it up under Ike's direction. During
3496-479: The lieutenant (a Yankee soldier). Although The Unvanquished was first published as a whole in 1938, it consists of seven short stories which were originally published separately in The Saturday Evening Post , except where noted: The Unvanquished is told in seven episodes—sometimes immediately following one another, other times separated by months or years—spanning the years 1862 to 1873. The book begins with Bayard Sartoris and his slave friend Ringo playing in
3572-455: The liquor is being made on Roth's land. Roth calls the authorities, but they arrive just as Wilkins has put large jugs of whiskey on Lucas' porch and as his daughter hides the still in his own backyard. While Lucas' daughter cannot testify against Lucas due to kinship, George Wilkins can. Consequently, Lucas is forced into allowing the marriage between Wilkins and his daughter to prevent Wilkins from having to testify against him. Lucas returns to
3648-481: The marriage and property issues. The stakes are changed many times, but in the end Buddy wins and the McCaslins take Tennie for free. Uncle Buck and Sophonsiba Beauchamp eventually marry and become the parents of Isaac McCaslin, the central character who serves to unify most of the stories in the novel. "Was" serves to introduce the reader into the practices and mentality of the antebellum South. Where Tomey's Turl
3724-465: The neighboring plantation of Hubert Beauchamp, in pursuit of an escaped slave. The slave, Tomey's Turl, runs away frequently to visit Tennie, a slave of the Beauchamps with whom he is in love. Tomey's Turl eludes McCaslin and Uncle Buck, who are forced to rely on the leisurely Hubert Beauchamp for help. They are forced to eat dinner with Beauchamp and his sister Sophonsiba, "Sibbey", who is looking for
3800-401: The night, the old man thinks about his bygone life and about how he and the wilderness are dying together. The next morning the rest of the party set out to hunt while Ike chooses to sleep in. Roth gives him an envelope full of cash and mentions that a messenger might show up during the day. Ike is to hand over the money and “tell her I said ‘No.’” Later that morning a boat arrives. It carries
3876-432: The old McCaslin plantation. Time passes; eventually he is 21, time for him to assume control of the plantation, which is his by inheritance. But he renounces it in favor of his older cousin (once-removed), McCaslin Edmonds. Isaac has a long argument with McCaslin in which Isaac declares his belief that the land cannot be owned, that the curse of God's Earth is man's attempt to own the land, and that curse has led to slavery and
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#17328011445333952-413: The plantation and cons a salesman out of a metal detector to search for the treasure he adamantly believes exists. The search becomes an obsession, and Lucas' wife asks Roth for a divorce. Lucas initially agrees to the divorce but recants at the last moment, deciding he's too old. The treasure isn't meant for him to find. Touched upon is the impotence of the black man's actions. Lucas must persuade Roth,
4028-454: The race takes place as scheduled the next day. Lucius and Lightning win much to everyone's surprise, but are greeted at the track by Boss Priest, Lucius' grandfather. That night, Ned reveals his scheme: his cousin Bobo accrued a huge gambling debt to a white man and agreed to steal a horse to make up for it. Ned recognizes some kind of spirit in the horse that he once saw before in a lame mule he
4104-495: The race, knowing the horse is worthless. Boss pays the penalty and they get the car back. Back home, Boss Priest saves Lucius from receiving a beating from his father, knowing that the ordeal he went through at his age was punishment enough. Boon and Corrie eventually marry and name their son Lucius Priest Hogganbeck. Boon is also a major character in Go Down, Moses , where he appears as a McCaslin/Priest family retainer of limited education and interests. In The Reivers he shows
4180-437: The railroad, Sam, to get them and the horse on a night train. In town, Ned takes Lucius to stay with a black family while they practice for the horse race. Unfortunately, the local lawman named Butch finds them out and attempts to extort sexual favors from Corrie to look the other way. Reba is able to send him away by claiming she will reveal to the town that he intentionally ordered two prostitutes, angering his constituency. On
4256-425: The river crossing where the Yankees are encamped, and they are engulfed in a sea of restless slaves. The Northern troops dynamite the bridge over the river, and in the confusion the wagon falls into the water. The Yankees retrieve them, however, and are so overburdened with slaves that Colonel Dick issues Granny an order for more than 100 slaves and mules, as well as for several chests of silver. Granny dismisses most of
4332-424: The river, Lion leaps at Old Ben and takes hold of his throat. Old Ben seizes Lion and begins shredding his stomach with its claws. Boon draws his knife and throws himself on top of the bear, stabbing it in its back. Old Ben dies, and a few days later, Lion dies. Sam Fathers collapses after the fight and dies not long after Lion. Lion and Sam are buried in the same clearing. Isaac returns to the farm near Jefferson, to
4408-399: The road as a kind of sacrifice. The cowardly Ab begs for mercy, and they decide not to kill him; instead, Uncle Buck carries him back to town. Bayard and Ringo continue their pursuit, and before long, Grumby's associates decide to hand him over to the boys to placate them. Grumby and Bayard wrestle. Bayard is almost trapped, but he prevails and kills Grumby. The boys nail his body to the door of
4484-430: The same way The Unvanquished is considered a novel. Because of this, most editions no longer print "and other stories" in the title. The year is about 1859. "Cass" lives with his grand-uncles Theophilus and Amodeus McCaslin, called "Uncle Buck" and "Uncle Buddy" respectively by most of the characters in the book. The story opens with the news that Tomey's Turl, a slave on the McCaslin plantation, has run away. But this
4560-406: The slave girl Tomey. Turl and his own wife, Tennie, will continue the black McCaslin branch into the future. On its own terms, "Was" is a brilliant set-piece, a probing look at the past and a handy opportunity for Faulkner to establish some of the important McCaslins—Buck and Buddy, the old bachelor twins, and the young McCaslin Edmonds. With the brief introduction to the story, Faulkner also creates
4636-416: The slave whom Carothers McCaslin took as a lover and begat Turl, may also have been Carothers McCaslin's daughter by another slave, Eunice, who committed suicide shortly before Turl's birth. From this and other factors, Isaac deduces that she must also have been Carothers McCaslin's lover.) After refusing the inheritance, Isaac moves into town and becomes a carpenter, eschewing material possessions. He marries
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#17328011445334712-400: The slaves, but she and Ringo use the order to get twelve extra horses from a Union encampment. The scam is quickly repeated, and after a year, Granny and Ringo have built a thriving trade in smuggled mules with the help of Ab Snopes, a poor local white. Ringo forges new orders and Granny uses them to requisition mules. Then, Ab sells the mules back to the clueless Yankees. They deliberate about
4788-420: The son of Ikkemotubbe, the chief who sold the land to the white people and also sold his son and wife into slavery, Sam left the Jefferson area for the big forest after the death of Jobaker, his Choctaw friend. Sam now tends the hunting camp of Major de Spain and McCaslin Edmonds. After Isaac kills his buck, the group is making ready to leave, when Boon Hogganbeck rides in on a mule declaring that he has just seen
4864-548: The son of Tomey's Turl and Tennie, lives and works on the McCaslin plantation, now owned by Carothers "Roth" Edmonds, the grandson of Carothers McCaslin "Cass" Edmonds (Isaac and Lucas' elder cousin). Lucas discovers a gold coin on the land and becomes convinced of a large hidden treasure. Also, Lucas' daughter is being pursued for marriage, despite her father's wishes, by a poor black man, George Wilkins. Lucas and George both distill liquor illegally, and Lucas decides to prevent Wilkins' marriage to his daughter by telling Roth, since
4940-670: The story is now in the home of the local sheriff's deputy. Rider is quickly tried and taken to the sheriff's cell. He breaks the cell up a good deal. A party of white men arrive, take Rider, and lynch him. In the forest, Sam Fathers, the son of a Chickasaw chief and a black slave-girl, teaches Isaac McCaslin how to hunt. When Isaac is deemed old enough to go on the yearly hunting expeditions with Major de Spain, General Compson, and Isaac's older cousin McCaslin Edmonds, he kills his first buck, and Sam Fathers ritualistically anoints him with its blood. Isaac remembers Sam Fathers’ history;
5016-442: The thieves, a group of Northern soldiers, and capture their supplies, though the colonel allows the men to escape. Granny arrives home safely, but the next day a Union brigade rides to the house looking for Colonel Sartoris. He escapes, but the Yankees burn the house and take the chest of silver. Granny decides to personally petition the Yankees to return her silver, slaves and mules. With Bayard and Ringo, she sets off for Alabama and
5092-402: The travelers, stealing their mules despite Granny's attempts to fend them off. Bayard and Ringo take a horse from a nearby barn and try to pursue the attackers, leaving Granny to fend for herself. They are discovered asleep the next day by Colonel Sartoris's troop. Furious and anxious for Granny's well-being, the colonel sees them back to Jefferson personally; on the way, they accidentally overcome
5168-453: The trees. Later that week, it becomes clear that Granny has not kept the profits for herself but has distributed them to keep other members of the community afloat. At Christmas 1864, Ab tells Granny about a group of bandits led by an ex- Confederate named Grumby who are terrorizing the countryside. Ab convinces Granny to try out her scam one last time on Grumby and his men. Though Bayard tearfully tries to dissuade her, she insists on going, and
5244-470: The unexpected qualities of a car lover and a romantic hero ; his marriage ties up a major "loose end" in the Faulkner canon. Ned's character resembles that of his distant relative Lucas Beauchamp in many ways. Like Lucas, he at least pretends to work for his white cousins while constantly outwitting them in various ways. The Priests invariably find it in their hearts to forgive him. Go Down, Moses (short story collection) Go Down, Moses
5320-694: The university to tell him Colonel Sartoris has been killed by an ex-business partner and rival, Ben Redmond. Bayard will be expected to avenge his father and shoot Redmond. He rushes back to Jefferson, where Drusilla, in her yellow ball gown with a sprig of verbena in her hair, seems almost a priestess of revenge. She hands him a pair of dueling pistols, then breaks down in a hysterical fit of laughter. After Louvinia has led Drusilla to bed, Bayard's Aunt Jenny warns Bayard not to indulge in violence for its own sake. The next morning, Bayard rides into town with Ringo. A crowd gathers as he prepares to enter Redmond's office, but Bayard refuses offers of assistance from Ringo and of
5396-461: The watch, the boys spot a Yankee soldier on horseback riding up the road. The boys grab a musket off the wall and shoot at the soldier, then run into the house as a fist pounds on the front door. Granny hides them under her billowing skirts and insists to the angry Union sergeant that there are no children present. Colonel Dick, a Yankee officer, calls off the search but makes it clear that he does so out of pity, not because he believes Granny. Afterward,
5472-408: The wedding. However, she has planned the wedding for the same day as a hotly contested election in Jefferson, in which Colonel Sartoris is attempting to stop a carpetbagger victory in the town. The day of the wedding, Drusilla rides into town to get married but ends up helping Colonel Sartoris face off against the two carpetbaggers, whom he shoots and kills. When she learns what has happened, Aunt Louisa
5548-441: The young man's body home for a proper funeral. That evening, Stevens drops by the memorial service but quickly leaves, because he feels out of place. The funeral is held two days later. This is the shortest and most straightforward story in the book. The action is minimal. Its real importance lies in the fresh perspective it provides through Gavin Stevens, an educated and worldly man of the 20th century who would eventually become
5624-399: The young woman knows a great deal about Ike’s family and his own life, more than Roth would probably have told her; she is part of the family herself, a distant Beauchamp cousin. Ike is dismayed at the miscegenation , even though he imagines the human race might one day be ready for interracial alliances. He tells the woman to marry a man “of her own race” and go far away. She replies that he
5700-425: Was able to make race. Ned decides to try to bet the horse against the car, but Boss Priest's arrival ruins his scheme. Now himself embroiled in the horse theft and confusion, Boss Priest is forced to enter another race: if they win, he pays $ 500 to legally take the horse but reveal Ned's secret (he enticed the horse with sardines); if they lose he pays $ 500 but does not have to take the horse. Ned intentionally throws
5776-528: Was published in Story (May/June 1942). The book's final story begins with a census interview, which places the action in 1940. A well-dressed and well-spoken young black man identifies himself as Samuel Beauchamp, a native of Yoknapatawpha County . After completing the census form, he is led back to his cell on Death Row. The action shifts to Jefferson, the Yoknapatawpha county seat. The protagonist
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