The Mansion (Vintage International)

I read the first two books of the Snopes trilogy, The Hamlet and The Town, many years ago, so it is lucky for me that this concluding novel more or less retells the main events of the previous two novels - albeit from different points of view - from the start. So, let me get one thing that irritated and disappointed me, by turns, throughout the novel out of the way: Faulkner is rather sloppy here concerning his interior monologues and, indeed, exterior dialogues. Having a Harvard educated lawyer (viz., Gavin Stevens) saying "ain't" is just as grating as hearing an illiterate tenant farmer (viz., Mink Snopes) thinking in fifty dollar words. One only has to contrast the effect here to the masterfully controlled interior monologue of "the idiot" (q.v. Macbeth-"...a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing") Benji in The Sound and the Fury to see how striking is the difference.Nevertheless, I think this a very worthwhile book because - as another reviewer has stated - it deals with the human condition, more particularly with the fallen state of man. Also, I had well-nigh forgotten how addictive Faulkner's prose style becomes after one adjusts to it. He seems to have never met an adverbial phrase he didn't like, nor a restating of matters with a slightly different nuance which he couldn't resist putting to paper. But the more one reads, the more acutely one becomes aware of how accurately this mimics life itself, in which we constantly relive the past in our minds and in which we dwell in a constantly changing state of uncertainty regarding the motives of those closest to us and even of ourselves.I think it more than a bit of an over-simplification to say that this trilogy and that this novel are merely about the rise and fall of the vile, money-grubbing Snopes clan - though, on one level, it's certainly the plot line. But, as ever with Faulkner, the book is about far more than mere plot. There are so many themes here that I can't do justice to them all. I certainly can't do justice to the knight-errant psychology of Gavin Stevens. So, let me just advert to one question he poses: "If mankind matched his dreams too, where would his dreams be?" This question is the most concise explanation of his fear of consummation and all his other actions. He values his dream life. But the main character of the book, as far as overarching import is concerned, in the beginning of the book and the end, is the aforementioned unlettered tenant farmer and twice murderer Mink Snopes, who serves as an avenging angel of Fate, or of our fallen nature, or call it what you will here, to whose death Faulkner devotes the final words of the book:"...himself among them, equal to any, good as any, brave as any, being inextricable from, anonymous with all of them: the beautiful, the splendid, the proud and the brave, right up to the very top itself among the shining phantoms and dreams which are the milestones of the long human recording - Helen and the bishops, the kings and the unhomed angels, the scornful and graceless seraphim."I could go on, but this is an Amazon review, not a dissertation. Suffice it to say that in Faulkner's mansion are many themes, all of them deep and well-worth exploring.

After over 50 years, I'm rereading Faulkner, can't get enough. The Mansion did not disappoint. Faulkner is a masterful writer and story teller

If you've ever read Faulkner you know his writing can be difficult to understand because of the age it was written in. But I did stick it out thru the whole book and on the whole I once I got to know the characters it went easier.

received as described. No complaints, happy with my purchase.

the third and last volume of william faulkners triology, of the snopes familey of missisippi. it can be read by itself or in order with the other two.it is very thrilling and of an interesting style of the southern united states.

Good value..good condition.

Of the trilogy, all of which have very memorable stories and images, I think this is my favorite. This has eveything you might expect.

In my opinion,this is Faulkner's worst novel. There is humor but the story is tedious and he seems to have forgotten what the same characters were like in preceding novels.