This R
eader's Guide
is a companion to Edmond L. Volpe's
Reader's Guide to William Faulkner: The Novels,
the most complete guide to the novels of Faulkner and hailed by critics as "a book to be read, studied, and returned to often: ' The new Guide--the first comprehensive book of its kind--offers analyses of all Faulkner's short stories, published and unpublished, that were not incorporated into novels or turned into chapters of a novel. Each of the seventy-one stories receives separate and detailed appraisal. This exacting approach helps establish the relationship of the stories to the novels and underscores Faulkner's formidable skill as a writer of short fiction. Although Faulkner often spoke disparagingly of the short story form and claimed that he wrote stories for money--which he did--Edmond L. Volpe's study reveals that Faulkner could not resist the application of his incomparable creative imagination or his mastery of narrative structure and technique to this genre.