As I Lay Dying

This Norton Critical Edition is based on the 1985 corrected text and is accompanied by newly updated and expanded explanatory annotations and an introduction by Michael Gorra. Backgrounds and Contexts is divided into three sections, each of which includes a concise introduction by Michael Gorra that carefully frames the issues presented, with particular attention to As I Lay Dyings place in Faulkners literary life. Contemporary Reception includes a selection of seven reviews, including those by Julia K. W. Baker, Henry Nash Smith, and Valery Larbaud. The Writer and His Work examines Faulkners own claims regarding the composition of the novel and his changing opinions over time, sample pages from the manuscript, his Nobel Prize address, and additional writings by Faulkner on Yoknapatawpha County. Cultural Context reprints seven essays and advertisementsthree selections new to the Second Editionalong with other materials that address questions of Southern motherhood, Agrarianism, and the Southern grotesque. Criticism begins with the editors introduction to As I Lay Dyings critical history and scholarly reception. Eleven critical essays are includedfive new to the Second Editionby Olga W. Vickery, Cleanth Brooks, Eric Sundquist, Doreen Fowler, Dorothy J. Hale, Patrick ODonnell, John T. Matthews, John Limon, Richard Godden, Susan Scott Parrish, and Erin E. Edwards. A chronology and a selected bibliography are also included.