William Faulkner is considered one of the world's greatest novelists. In 1949, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature, which is the highest prize that can be awarded to a writer. In his acceptance speech, he said that the writer must be concerned with the human heart in conflict with itself. Certainly, the struggles of Joe Christmas to understand himself could be classified as the human heart in conflict.
Faulkner came from a rather distinguished Mississippi family. His grandfather, Colonel William Culbert Falkner (the "u" was added to Faulkner's name by mistake when his first novel was published, and Faulkner retained this spelling), came to Mississippi from South Carolina during the first part of the nineteenth century. The colonel appears in many of Faulkner's novels under the name of Colonel John Sartoris. And we learn in Light in August that Joanna Burden's grandfather and half brother were killed by Colonel Sartoris.
While Light in August is not Faulkner's most difficult novel to read, it is generally considered to be his most difficult one to understand. Various interpretations of the novels have been made, and, therefore, this guide offers only one of many ways of viewing this complex masterpiece.
William Faulkner was born in New Albany, Mississippi, but his family soon moved to Oxford, Mississippi. Almost all of his novels take place in and around Oxford, which he renames Jefferson, Mississippi. In his next novel, Absalom, Absalom!, Faulkner will include a map of this county and will show where many events in Light in August occurred.
