William Faulkner, Sanctuary

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Sanctuary (New York: Cape & Smith, 1931), published 9 February 1931, is the sixth in order of publication of William Faulkner’s nineteen novels, and his fourth about Jefferson, Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi, the apocryphal town and county he created in his fiction. Written between January and May 1929 soon after he completed the The Sound and the Fury, Sanctuary was, however, his fifth novel in order of composition. Arguably his most pessimistic novel, and perhaps his most cynical as well, its sensational subject matter― bootlegging, rape, murder, sex, prostitution, two murder trials, a lynching, and an execution―made it Faulkner’s first best seller, and, in literary circles at least, made him famous, if …

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Citation: Meats, Stephen E.. "Sanctuary". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 01 August 2014 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=2304, accessed 28 March 2024.]

2304 Sanctuary 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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