UNITED STATES AUTHOR · FICTION · SHORT
William Faulkner
Also known as: W. Faulkner, William Cuthbert Faulkner
William Faulkner was a Nobel Prize-winning American author. One of the most influential writers of the 20th century, his reputation is based on his novels, novellas and short stories. He was also a published poet and an occasional screenwriter.
It was about eleven o'clock in the morning, mid October, with the sun not shining and a look of hard wet rain in the clearness of the foothills.
— from The Big Sleep
Most acclaimed
The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction -- Shorter Seventh Edition
Stories I want to know why / Sherwood Anderson Death by Landscape Related: Atwood, Why do you write? / Margaret Atwood Sonny's blues / James Baldwin Gorilla, my love Related: Bambara, What is it I think I'm doing anyhow? / Toni Cade Bambara Snow / Ann Beattie [Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge]( / Ambrose Bierce Pierre Menard, author of the Quixote / Jorge Luis Borges Miriam /Truman Capote Cathedral Related: Carver, From on writing / Raymond Carver Paul's case Related: Andrea Barrett on Paul's case / Willa Cather Enormous radio / John Cheever Lady with the dog Related: Chekhov, Letter to DV Grigorovich Letter to A S Suvorin / Anton Chekhov [Story of an hour]( / Kate Chopin Heart of darkness Related: Conrad, Preface to the nigger of the Narcissus'' Letter to Barrett H Clark Barry Hannah on heart of darkness C P Sarvan, Racism and the heart of darkness / Joseph Conrad Continuity of parks / Julio Cortazar Open boat Related: Crane, Letter to John Northern Hiliard Allan Gurganus on the open boat Charles C Walcutt, [Stephen Crane: Naturalist] / Stephen Crane Wall of fire rising / Edwidge Danticat Intruder / Andre Dubus King of the bingo game Related: Ellison, an interview / Ralph Ellison Matchimanito / Louise Erdrich [Barn burning]( [Rose for Emily]( Related: Faulkner, an interview / William Faulkner Babylon revisited / F Scott Fitzgerald Great falls Related: Ford on Bharati Mukherjee's Management of grief / Richard Ford Handsomest drowned man in the world / Gabriel Garcia Marquez Yellow wallpaper / Charlotte Perkins Gilman Soldier's embrace / Nadine Gordimer [Young Goodman Brown]( Related: Edgar Allan Poe, Review of Hawthorne's twice told tales / Nathaniel Hawthorne Hills like white elephants Related: Frederick Busch on hills like white elephants Hemingway, an interview / Ernest Hemingway Conscience of the court / Zora Neale Hurston [Araby]( [Dead]( Related: C C Loomis, Jr., structure and sympathy in Joyce's The dead'' / James Joyce Metamorphosis Hunger artist Related: Stanley Corngold, Kafka's the metamorphosis: metamorphosis of the metaphor Kafka, Letter to Max Brod / Franz Kafka White horse / Yasunari Kawabata Girl / Jamaica Kincaid Horse dealer's daughter Rocking horse winner Related: Lawrence, Why the novel matters / DH Lawrence Ones who walk away from Omelas / Ursula K Le Guin Angel Levine / Bernard Malamud Disorder and early sorrow Related: Mann, letter to Paul Amann / Thomas Mann Bliss / Katherine Mansfield Shiloh / Bobbie Ann Mason Adventure in Paris Related: Maupassant, the novel / Guy De Maupassant Why I like country music / James Alan Mcpherson [Bartleby, the Scrivener]( Related: Leo Marx, Melville's parable of the walls / Herman Melville Management of grief Related: Richard Ford on the Management of grief Mukherjee, a four-hundred-year-old woman / Bharati Mukherjee Royal beatings Related: Munro, What is real? / Alice Munro Signs and symbols / Vladimir Nabokov How I contemplated the world from the Detroit house of correction and began my life over again Related: Oates, the Art and craft of revision / Joyce Carol Oates Things they carried / Tim O'Brien Good man is hard to find Everything that rises must converge Related: O'Connor, the Nature and aim of fiction Lee Smith on a good man is hard to find / Flannery O'Connor Guests of the nation Related: Edward P Jones on Guests of the nation / Frank O'Connor O yes / Tillie Olsen [Fall of the House of Usher]( Related: Poe, the Philosophy of composition Poe, Review of Hawthorne's twice told tales Richard Wilbur, the House of Poe / Edgar Allan Poe Jilting of Granny Weatherall Related: Porter, an interview / Katherine Anne Porter Conversion of the Jews / Philip Roth Gimpel the fool / Isaac Bashevis Singer Chrysanthemums / John Steinbeck Rules of the game / Amy Tan Secret life of Walter Mitty Related: Thurber, an interview / James Thurber Death of Ivan Ilych Related: Gary Saul Morson, the Reader as Voyeur: Tolstoi and the poetics of didactic fiction Tolstoy, What is art? / Leo Tolstoy A & P Related: Updike, Accepting the Howells medal / John Updike Moths / Helena Maria Viramontes Everyday use / Alice Walker Blackberry winter / Robert Penn Warren Worn path Related: Susan Dodd on a Worn path Welty, an interview / Eudora Welty Use of force / William Carlos Williams In the garden of the North American martyrs / Tobias Wolff Kew gardens / Virginia Woolf Man who was almost a man / Richard Wright Writers On Writing Why do you write? / Margaret Atwood What is it I think I'm doing anyhow? / Toni Cade Bambara Letter to a young writer / Richard Bausch from On writing / Raymond Carver Letter to DV Grigorovich, March 28, 1886 Letter to AS Suvorin, October 27, 1888 / Anton Chekhov Preface to the Nigger of the Narcissus'' Letter to Barrett H Clark, May 14, 1918 / Joseph Conrad Letter to John Northern Hiliard, February 1895 / Stephen Crane Interview / Ralph Ellison Interview / William Faulkner Interview / Ernest Hemingway Letter to Max Brod, July 5, 1922 / Franz Kafka Why the novel matters / D H Lawrence Letter to Paul Amann, September 10, 1915 / Thomas Mann Novel / Guy De Maupassant Four-hundred-year-old woman / Bharati Mukherjee What is real /Alice Munro Art and craft of revision / Joyce Carol Oates Nature and aim of fiction / Flannery O'Connor Philosophy of composition / Edgar Allan Poe Interview / Katherine Anne Porter Interview / James Thurber What is art? / Leo Tolstoy Accepting the Howells medal / John Updike Interview / Eudora Welty Writing Fiction Reviews And Commentaries Willa Cather's Paul's case'' / Andrea Barrett Ernest Hemingway's Hills like white, elephants'' / Frederick Busch Kafka's the Metamorphosis: metamorphosis of the metaphor / Stanley Corngold Eudora Welty's A worn path'' / Susan Dodd Bharati Mukherjee's The management of grief'' / Richard Ford Stephen Crane's The open boat / Allan Gurganus Joseph Conrad's Heart of darkness / Barry Hannah Frank O'Connor's Guests of the nation'' / Edward P Jones Structure and Sympathy in Joyce's The dead'' / C C Loomis, Jr Melville's Parable of the walls / Leo Marx Reader as voyeur: Tolstoi and the poetics of didactic fiction / Gary Saul Morson Review of Hawthorne's twice told tales / Edgar Allan Poe Racism and the heart of darkness / C P Sarvan Flannery O'Connor's "A good man is hard to find'' / Lee Smith [Stephen Crane: Naturalist] / Charles C Walcutt From the house of Poe / Richard Wilbur Glossary of critical terms Permissions acknowledgments Index of titles
The Story and Its Writer -- Compact Eighth Edition
Collection contains: Stories: Civil peace / Chinua Achebe -- Lone Ranger and Tonto fistfight in heaven / Sherman Alexie -- Act of vengeance / Isabel Allende -- Hands / Sherwood Anderson -- Happy endings / Margaret Atwood -- Sonny's blues / James Baldwin -- Lesson / Toni Cade Bambara -- Black man and white woman in dark green boat / Russell Banks -- Snow / Ann Beattie -- From Fun Home: Old father, old artificer / Alison Bechdel -- The rememberer / Aimee Bender -- [Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge]( / Ambrose Bierce -- Circular ruins / Jorge Luis Borges -- August 2026: There will come soft rains / Ray Bradbury -- Cathedral; A small, good thing ; What we talk about when we talk about love / Raymond Carver -- Paul's case / Willa Carter -- Water names / Lan Samantha Chang -- Swimmer / John Cheever -- Darling / Anton Chekhov -- [Désiré́e's baby]( [Story of an hour]( / Kate Chopin -- Barbie-Q / Sandra Cisneros -- Heart of darkness / Joseph Conrad -- Open boat / Stephen Crane -- How to date a browngirl, blackgirl, whitegirl, or halfie / Junot Diaz -- Battle royal / Ralph Ellison -- The red convertible / Louise Erdrich -- [Rose for Emily]( [That evening sun]( / William Faulkner -- Very old man with enormous wings / Gabriel Garcia Marquez -- Yellow wallpaper / Charlotte Perkins Gilman -- Homage / Nadine Gordimer -- [Young Goodman Brown]( / Nathaniel Hawthorne -- Hills like white elephants / Ernest Hemingway -- Church cancels cow / Amy Hempel -- Things you should know / A. M. Homes -- Sweat / Zora Neale Hurston -- Lottery / Shirley Jackson -- Who's Irish? / Gish Jen -- White heron / Sarah Orne Jewett -- Bad neighbors / Edward P. Jones -- [Araby]( [Dead]( / James Joyce -- Hunger Artist; Metamorphosis / Franz Kafka -- Girl / Jamaica Kincaid -- Interpreter of maladies / Jhumpa Lahiri -- Rocking-horse winner / D.H. Lawrence -- Miss Brill / Katherine Mansfield -- Shiloh / Bobbie Ann Mason -- Necklace / Guy de Maupassant -- [Bartleby, the scrivener]( / Herman Melville -- Nawabdin electrician / Daniyal Mueenuddin -- Management of grief / Bharati Mukherjee -- Dance of the happy shades / Alice Munro -- Where are you going, where you have been? / Joyce Carol Oates -- Things they carried / Tim O'Brien -- Everything that rises must converge; Good country people; Good man is hard to find / Flannery O'Connor -- I stand here ironing / Tillie Olsen -- The shawl / Cynthia Ozick -- Brownies / ZZ Packer -- Conversation with my father / Grace Paley -- [Cask of Amontillado]( [Tell-tale Heart]( Edgar Allan Poe -- The jilting of Granny Weatherall / Katherine Anne Porter -- Job history / Annie Proulx -- From Palestine: Refugeeland / Joe Sacco -- From Persepolis : The veil / Marjane Satrapi -- Yellow woman / Leslie Marmon Silko -- Homework / Helen Simpson -- Prisoner on the hell planet: a case history / Art Spiegelman -- Two kinds / Amy Tan -- Death of Ivan Ilych / Leo Tolstoy -- A&P / John Updike -- The moths / Helena Maria Viramontes -- Harrison Bergeron / Kurt Vonnegut Jr. -- Everyday use / Alice Walker -- Good people / David Foster Wallace -- Worn path / Eudora Welty -- Say yes / Tobias Wolf -- Man who was almost a man / Richard Wright -- Commentaries: Image of Africa: Conrad's ''Heart of darkness'' / Chinua Achebe -- Superman and me / Sherman Alexie -- Form, not plot, in the short story / Sherwood Anderson -- Reading blind / Margaret Atwood -- Autobiographical notes / James Baldwin -- Writing "Poes" / Russell Banks -- Borges and I / Jorge Luis Borges -- Translating Kafka / Ann Charters -- Why I write short stories / John Cheever -- Technique in writing the short story / Anton Chekhov -- How I stumbled upon Maupassant / Kate Chopin -- Sinking of the commodore / Stephen Crane -- A huger artist / R. Crumb; David Zane Mairowitz -- Influence of folklore on ''Battle royal'' / Ralph Ellison -- Meaning of ''Rose for Emily'' / William Faulkner -- Feminist reading of Gilman's ''Yellow wallpaper'' / Sandra M. Gilbert; Susan Gubar -- Why I wrote ''Yellow wallpaper''; Undergoing the cure for nervous prostration / Charlotte Perkins Gilman -- How it feels to be colored me / Zora Neale Hurston -- Morning of June 28,1948 and ''Lottery'' / Shirley Jackson -- On ''Girl'' / Jamaica Kincaid -- Finding your voice / Anne Lamott -- On Tim O'Brien's ''Things they carried'' / Bobbie Ann Mason -- Writer's goal / Guy de Maupassant -- Blackness in Hawthorne's ''Young Goodman Brown'' / Herman Melville -- How I write short stories / Alice Munro -- Stories that define me: Making of a writer; Smooth talk: Short story into film / Joyce Carol Oates -- Alpha company / Tim O'Brien -- Conversation with Ann Charters / Grace Paley -- Importance of the single effect in a prose tale / Edgar Allan Poe -- Language and literature from a Pueblo Indian perspective / Leslie Marmon Silko -- In the canon, for all the wrong reasons / Amy Tan -- Chekhov's intent in ''Darling'' / Leo Tolstoy -- Zora Neale Hurston: Cautionary tale and a partisan view / Alice Walker -- Some remarks on Kafka's funnieness from which probably not enough has been removed / David Foster Wallace -- Is Phoenix Jackson's grandson really dead? / Eudora Welty -- Reading fiction / Richard Wright -- Casebooks: Casebook one: Raymond Carver: One writing; Creative writing 101; The bath / Raymond Carver -- Origin of ''Cathedral'' / Tom Jenks -- Reading of ''What we talk about when we talk about love'' / Arthur M. Saltzman -- Looking for Raymond Carver / A.O. Scott -- Casebook two: Jhumpa Lahiri's "Interpreter of Maladies": My two lives / Jhumpa Lahiri -- Jhumpa Lahiri / Sean Flynn -- Lahiri's "Interpreter of Maladies" / Simon Lewis -- Casebook three: Flannery O'Connor: From ''Letters 1954-55''; Writing short stories; Reasonable use of the unreasonable / Flannery O'Connor -- Rhetorical reading of O'Connor's ''Everything that rises must converge'' / Wayne C. Booth -- On ''Good country people'' / Dorothy Tuck McFarland -- Casebook four: Graphic storytelling: What the little old ladies feel / Alison Bechdel -- From "Alternative comics: toward the habit of questioning" / Charles Hatfield -- Are comics serious literature / Michael Kupperman -- From understanding comics: Invisible art / Scott McCloud -- Reading "The Veil" by Marjane Satrapi / Sydney Plum -- Some reflections on Palestine / Joe Sacco / Homage to Joe Sacco / Edward W. Said. Appendices: Reading short stories (Includes Grace Paley, ''Samuel'') -- Elements of fiction -- Brief history of the short story -- Writing about short stories -- Literary theory and critical perspectives -- Glossary of literary terms -- Chronological listing of authors' stories -- Chronological listing of authors and stories -- Index of authors and titles
The Big Sleep
General Sternwood is a sickly old man who has hired private detective Philip Marlowe to sort out gambling debts accrued by his wayward daughter, Carmen. The debts are owed to a bookseller, Arthur Geiger. Marlowe agrees to take on the case and also learns, from Sternwood's elder daughter, Vivian Rutledge, that a good friend of Sternwood's, Sean Regan, mysteriously disappeared a month earlier.