
A Fable
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $29.95
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Kevin Pariseau
-
By:
-
William Faulkner
About this listen
An allegorical story of World War I set in the trenches in France and dealing ostensibly with a mutiny in a French regiment.
As an added bonus, when you purchase our Audible Modern Vanguard production of William Faulkner's book, you'll also receive an exclusive Jim Atlas interview. This interview – where James Atlas interviews James Lee Burke about the life and work of William Faulkner – begins as soon as the audiobook ends.
This production is part of our Audible Modern Vanguard line, a collection of important works from groundbreaking authors.©1954 William Faulkner (P)2010 Audible, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
-
The Reivers
- By: William Faulkner
- Narrated by: John H. Mayer
- Length: 11 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One of Faulkner's comic masterpieces, The Reivers is a picaresque story that tells of three unlikely car thieves from rural Mississippi. Eleven-year-old Lucas Priest is persuaded by Boon Hogganbeck, one of his family's retainers, to steal his grandfather's car and make a trip to Memphis. The priests' black coachman, Ned McCaslin, stows away, and the three of them are off on a heroic odyssey.
-
-
4 days in the life of an eleven year old
- By ruth a anderson on 11-17-09
By: William Faulkner
-
The Mansion
- By: William Faulkner
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 15 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Mansion tells of Mink Snopes, whose archaic sense of honor brings about the downfall of his cousin, Flem. "For all his concern with the South, Faulkner was actually seeking out the nature of man," noted Ralph Ellison. "Thus we must turn to him for that continuity of moral purpose which made for the greatness of our classics." This volume includes a new introduction to the trilogy by acclaimed novelist George Garrett, author of Death of the Fox and The Succession.
-
-
Mink Cometh
- By daniel fam on 11-01-12
By: William Faulkner
-
Mosquitoes
- By: William Faulkner
- Narrated by: Nick Sullivan
- Length: 11 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Faulkner’s second novel follows a bohemian cast of artists, socialites, and dilettantes as they set sail on a four-day excursion aboard the Nausikaa. Faulkner’s quick wit and endless appetite for satire make this audiobook a fascinating exploration of character, as well as a rare glimpse into the author himself. The novel explores questions of sex and sexuality, as well as the societal role of the artist. Inspired by his own participation in the arts community in New Orleans, Mosquitoes is an engaging and delightful novel from one of America’s greatest writers.
-
-
Early example of Faulkner's writing. Made you realize how bad his writing could be.
- By Alan M on 01-29-24
By: William Faulkner
-
The Hamlet
- By: William Faulkner
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 14 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Hamlet, the first novel of Faulkner's Snopes trilogy, is both an ironic take on classical tragedy and a mordant commentary on the grand pretensions of the antebellum South and the depths of its decay in the aftermath of war and Reconstruction. It tells of the advent and the rise of the Snopes family in Frenchman's Bend, a small town built on the ruins of a once-stately plantation.
-
-
The Long, Hot Summer
- By W Perry Hall on 07-30-17
By: William Faulkner
-
The Town
- A Novel of the Snopes Family
- By: William Faulkner
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 13 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The story of Flem Snopes' ruthless struggle to take over the town of Jefferson, Mississippi, this is the second volume of Faulkner's trilogy about the Snopes family, his symbol for the grasping, destructive element in the post-bellum South.
-
-
Accessible Faulkner
- By Doug on 03-28-11
By: William Faulkner
-
Light in August
- By: William Faulkner
- Narrated by: Will Patton
- Length: 15 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An Oprah's Book Club Selection regarded as one of Faulkner's greatest and most accessible novels, Light in August is a timeless and riveting story of determination, tragedy, and hope. In Faulkner's iconic Yoknapatawpha County, race, sex, and religion collide around three memorable characters searching desperately for human connection and their own identities.
-
-
so large, so powerful, so conflicted
- By Darwin8u on 09-17-17
By: William Faulkner
-
The Reivers
- By: William Faulkner
- Narrated by: John H. Mayer
- Length: 11 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One of Faulkner's comic masterpieces, The Reivers is a picaresque story that tells of three unlikely car thieves from rural Mississippi. Eleven-year-old Lucas Priest is persuaded by Boon Hogganbeck, one of his family's retainers, to steal his grandfather's car and make a trip to Memphis. The priests' black coachman, Ned McCaslin, stows away, and the three of them are off on a heroic odyssey.
-
-
4 days in the life of an eleven year old
- By ruth a anderson on 11-17-09
By: William Faulkner
-
The Mansion
- By: William Faulkner
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 15 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Mansion tells of Mink Snopes, whose archaic sense of honor brings about the downfall of his cousin, Flem. "For all his concern with the South, Faulkner was actually seeking out the nature of man," noted Ralph Ellison. "Thus we must turn to him for that continuity of moral purpose which made for the greatness of our classics." This volume includes a new introduction to the trilogy by acclaimed novelist George Garrett, author of Death of the Fox and The Succession.
-
-
Mink Cometh
- By daniel fam on 11-01-12
By: William Faulkner
-
Mosquitoes
- By: William Faulkner
- Narrated by: Nick Sullivan
- Length: 11 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Faulkner’s second novel follows a bohemian cast of artists, socialites, and dilettantes as they set sail on a four-day excursion aboard the Nausikaa. Faulkner’s quick wit and endless appetite for satire make this audiobook a fascinating exploration of character, as well as a rare glimpse into the author himself. The novel explores questions of sex and sexuality, as well as the societal role of the artist. Inspired by his own participation in the arts community in New Orleans, Mosquitoes is an engaging and delightful novel from one of America’s greatest writers.
-
-
Early example of Faulkner's writing. Made you realize how bad his writing could be.
- By Alan M on 01-29-24
By: William Faulkner
-
The Hamlet
- By: William Faulkner
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 14 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Hamlet, the first novel of Faulkner's Snopes trilogy, is both an ironic take on classical tragedy and a mordant commentary on the grand pretensions of the antebellum South and the depths of its decay in the aftermath of war and Reconstruction. It tells of the advent and the rise of the Snopes family in Frenchman's Bend, a small town built on the ruins of a once-stately plantation.
-
-
The Long, Hot Summer
- By W Perry Hall on 07-30-17
By: William Faulkner
-
The Town
- A Novel of the Snopes Family
- By: William Faulkner
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 13 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The story of Flem Snopes' ruthless struggle to take over the town of Jefferson, Mississippi, this is the second volume of Faulkner's trilogy about the Snopes family, his symbol for the grasping, destructive element in the post-bellum South.
-
-
Accessible Faulkner
- By Doug on 03-28-11
By: William Faulkner
-
Light in August
- By: William Faulkner
- Narrated by: Will Patton
- Length: 15 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An Oprah's Book Club Selection regarded as one of Faulkner's greatest and most accessible novels, Light in August is a timeless and riveting story of determination, tragedy, and hope. In Faulkner's iconic Yoknapatawpha County, race, sex, and religion collide around three memorable characters searching desperately for human connection and their own identities.
-
-
so large, so powerful, so conflicted
- By Darwin8u on 09-17-17
By: William Faulkner
-
The Sound and the Fury
- By: William Faulkner, Casey Cep
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner, Gabra Zackman
- Length: 9 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Sound and the Fury is the tragedy of the Compson family, featuring some of the most memorable characters in literature: beautiful, rebellious Caddy; the manchild Benjy; haunted, neurotic Quentin; Jason, the brutal cynic; and Dilsey, their black servant. Their lives fragmented and harrowed by history and legacy, the character’s voices and actions mesh to create what is arguably Faulkner’s masterpiece and one of the greatest novels of the twentieth century.
-
-
Hang in
- By W.Denis on 07-11-05
By: William Faulkner, and others
-
The Wild Palms
- By: William Faulkner
- Narrated by: Marc Vietor
- Length: 10 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In New Orleans in 1937, a man and woman embark on a headlong flight into the wilderness of illicit passion. In Mississippi ten years earlier, a convict risks his one chance at freedom to rescue a pregnant woman. From these separate stories Faulkner composes a symphony of deliverance and damnation.
-
-
Deserves attention
- By Kate on 05-27-12
By: William Faulkner
-
Intruder in the Dust
- By: William Faulkner
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 8 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Intruder in the Dust is at once an engrossing murder mystery and an unflinching portrait of racial injustice. Set in Faulkner's fictional Yoknapatawpha County, it is the story of Lucas Beauchamp, a black man wrongly arrested for the murder of Vinson Gowrie, a white man. Confronted by the threat of lynching, Lucas sets out to prove his innocence, aided by a white lawyer, Gavin Stephens, and his young nephew, Chick Mallison.
-
-
Excellent characterization, fine suspense
- By Doug on 05-14-09
By: William Faulkner
-
As I Lay Dying
- By: William Faulkner, Jesmyn Ward - introduction
- Narrated by: Marc Cashman, Robertson Dean, Lina Patel, and others
- Length: 7 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One of William Faulkner’s finest novels, As I Lay Dying, originally published in 1930, remains a captivating and stylistically innovative work. The story revolves around a grim yet darkly humorous pilgrimage, as Addie Bundren’s family sets out to fulfill her last wish: to be buried in her native Jefferson, Mississippi, far from the miserable backwater surroundings of her married life.
-
-
Faulkner's As I Lay Dying review
- By Kristina on 11-12-08
By: William Faulkner, and others
-
Collected Stories of William Faulkner
- By: William Faulkner
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer, Susan Denaker, Scott Brick, and others
- Length: 31 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This magisterial collection of short works by Nobel Prize-winning author William Faulkner reminds listeners of his ability to compress his epic vision into narratives as hard and wounding as bullets. Among the 42 selections in this audiobook are such classics as "A Bear Hunt", "A Rose for Emily", "Two Soldiers", and "The Brooch".
-
-
Audiobook Table of Contents (by Chapter)
- By John McKinney on 09-27-20
By: William Faulkner
-
The Sound and the Fury
- By: William Faulkner
- Narrated by: Deaver Brown
- Length: 9 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A deep American South novel about a black & white intertwined in a relationship living in one house with various goings-on Southern style.
-
-
story is great and obviously a classic
- By petesmith23 on 02-11-24
By: William Faulkner
-
The Unvanquished
- By: William Faulkner
- Narrated by: Kevin T. Collins
- Length: 8 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Set in Mississippi during the Civil War and Reconstruction, The Unvanquished focuses on the Sartoris family, who, with their code of personal responsibility and courage, stand for the best of the Old South's traditions.
-
-
Humorous and poignant
- By Doug on 02-17-11
By: William Faulkner
-
Sanctuary
- By: William Faulkner
- Narrated by: Stephen Hoye
- Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A powerful novel examining the nature of evil, informed by the works of T. S. Eliot and Freud, mythology, local lore, and hard-boiled detective fiction, Sanctuary is the dark, at times brutal, story of the kidnapping of Mississippi debutante Temple Drake. She introduces her own form of venality into the Memphis underworld where she is being held.
-
-
disappointment
- By Dana on 10-20-10
By: William Faulkner
-
Andersonville
- By: MacKinlay Kantor
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 37 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Acclaimed as the greatest novel ever written about the War Between the States, this searing Pulitzer Prize-winning book captures all the glory and shame of America's most tragic conflict in the vivid, crowded world of Andersonville, and the people who lived outside its barricades. Based on the author's extensive research and nearly 25 years in the making, MacKinlay Kantor's best-selling masterwork tells the heartbreaking story of the notorious Georgia prison where 50,000 Northern soldiers suffered.
-
-
Worthy of the Pulitzer
- By Gillian on 03-22-15
By: MacKinlay Kantor
-
The Caine Mutiny
- By: Herman Wouk
- Narrated by: Kevin Pariseau
- Length: 26 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Having inspired a classic film and Broadway play, The Caine Mutiny is Herman Wouk's boldly dramatic, brilliantly entertaining novel of life—and mutiny—on a Navy warship in the Pacific theater. It was immediately embraced upon its original publication as one of the first serious works of American fiction to grapple with the moral complexities and the human consequences of the Second World War. In the intervening half century, this gripping story has become a perennial favorite, selling millions throughout the world, and claiming the Pulitzer Prize for fiction.
-
-
Even Better than the Movie
- By James on 06-20-12
By: Herman Wouk
-
Middlesex
- By: Jeffrey Eugenides
- Narrated by: Kristoffer Tabori
- Length: 21 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the spring of 1974, Calliope Stephanides, a student at a girls' school in Grosse Pointe, finds herself drawn to a chain-smoking, strawberry-blonde classmate with a gift for acting. The passion that furtively develops between them - along with Callie's failure to develop physically - leads Callie to suspect that she is not like other girls. In fact, she is not really a girl at all.
-
-
Anything but middle.
- By Michael on 05-04-03
-
To the Lighthouse
- By: Virginia Woolf
- Narrated by: Nicole Kidman
- Length: 6 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
To the Lighthouse is Virginia Woolf’s arresting analysis of domestic family life, centering on the Ramseys and their visits to the Isle of Skye in Scotland in the early 1900s. Nicole Kidman (Moulin Rouge, Eyes Wide Shut), who won an Oscar for her portrayal of Woolf in the film adaptation of Michael Cunningham’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel
The Hours, brings the impressionistic prose of this classic to vibrant life.
-
-
A book that will challenge you to think.
- By Kelly on 04-23-17
By: Virginia Woolf
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
The Reivers
- By: William Faulkner
- Narrated by: John H. Mayer
- Length: 11 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One of Faulkner's comic masterpieces, The Reivers is a picaresque story that tells of three unlikely car thieves from rural Mississippi. Eleven-year-old Lucas Priest is persuaded by Boon Hogganbeck, one of his family's retainers, to steal his grandfather's car and make a trip to Memphis. The priests' black coachman, Ned McCaslin, stows away, and the three of them are off on a heroic odyssey.
-
-
4 days in the life of an eleven year old
- By ruth a anderson on 11-17-09
By: William Faulkner
-
Intruder in the Dust
- By: William Faulkner
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 8 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Intruder in the Dust is at once an engrossing murder mystery and an unflinching portrait of racial injustice. Set in Faulkner's fictional Yoknapatawpha County, it is the story of Lucas Beauchamp, a black man wrongly arrested for the murder of Vinson Gowrie, a white man. Confronted by the threat of lynching, Lucas sets out to prove his innocence, aided by a white lawyer, Gavin Stephens, and his young nephew, Chick Mallison.
-
-
Excellent characterization, fine suspense
- By Doug on 05-14-09
By: William Faulkner
-
The Hamlet
- By: William Faulkner
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 14 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Hamlet, the first novel of Faulkner's Snopes trilogy, is both an ironic take on classical tragedy and a mordant commentary on the grand pretensions of the antebellum South and the depths of its decay in the aftermath of war and Reconstruction. It tells of the advent and the rise of the Snopes family in Frenchman's Bend, a small town built on the ruins of a once-stately plantation.
-
-
The Long, Hot Summer
- By W Perry Hall on 07-30-17
By: William Faulkner
-
The Adventures of Augie March
- By: Saul Bellow
- Narrated by: Tom Parker
- Length: 22 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Augie is a poor but exuberant boy growing up in Chicago during the Depression. While his friends all settle into chosen professions, Augie demands a special destiny. He tests out a wild succession of occupations, proudly rejecting each as too limiting - until he tangles with the glamorous perfectionist Thea.
-
-
THAT part of the Universe visible from Chicago!
- By Darwin8u on 05-09-12
By: Saul Bellow
-
Sanctuary
- By: William Faulkner
- Narrated by: Stephen Hoye
- Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A powerful novel examining the nature of evil, informed by the works of T. S. Eliot and Freud, mythology, local lore, and hard-boiled detective fiction, Sanctuary is the dark, at times brutal, story of the kidnapping of Mississippi debutante Temple Drake. She introduces her own form of venality into the Memphis underworld where she is being held.
-
-
disappointment
- By Dana on 10-20-10
By: William Faulkner
-
The Shipping News
- By: Annie Proulx
- Narrated by: Paul Hecht
- Length: 12 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At 36, Quoyle, a third-rate newspaperman, is wrenched violently out of his workaday life when his two-timing wife gets her just desserts. He retreats with his two daughters to his ancestral home on the starkly beautiful Newfoundland coast, where a rich cast of local characters all play a part in Quoyle's struggle to reclaim his life. As three generations of his family cobble up new lives, Quoyle confronts his private demons - and the unpredictable forces of nature and society - and begins to see the possibility of love without pain or misery.
-
-
Can't Explain Why I Love This Book
- By Polly on 03-06-12
By: Annie Proulx
-
The Reivers
- By: William Faulkner
- Narrated by: John H. Mayer
- Length: 11 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One of Faulkner's comic masterpieces, The Reivers is a picaresque story that tells of three unlikely car thieves from rural Mississippi. Eleven-year-old Lucas Priest is persuaded by Boon Hogganbeck, one of his family's retainers, to steal his grandfather's car and make a trip to Memphis. The priests' black coachman, Ned McCaslin, stows away, and the three of them are off on a heroic odyssey.
-
-
4 days in the life of an eleven year old
- By ruth a anderson on 11-17-09
By: William Faulkner
-
Intruder in the Dust
- By: William Faulkner
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 8 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Intruder in the Dust is at once an engrossing murder mystery and an unflinching portrait of racial injustice. Set in Faulkner's fictional Yoknapatawpha County, it is the story of Lucas Beauchamp, a black man wrongly arrested for the murder of Vinson Gowrie, a white man. Confronted by the threat of lynching, Lucas sets out to prove his innocence, aided by a white lawyer, Gavin Stephens, and his young nephew, Chick Mallison.
-
-
Excellent characterization, fine suspense
- By Doug on 05-14-09
By: William Faulkner
-
The Hamlet
- By: William Faulkner
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 14 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Hamlet, the first novel of Faulkner's Snopes trilogy, is both an ironic take on classical tragedy and a mordant commentary on the grand pretensions of the antebellum South and the depths of its decay in the aftermath of war and Reconstruction. It tells of the advent and the rise of the Snopes family in Frenchman's Bend, a small town built on the ruins of a once-stately plantation.
-
-
The Long, Hot Summer
- By W Perry Hall on 07-30-17
By: William Faulkner
-
The Adventures of Augie March
- By: Saul Bellow
- Narrated by: Tom Parker
- Length: 22 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Augie is a poor but exuberant boy growing up in Chicago during the Depression. While his friends all settle into chosen professions, Augie demands a special destiny. He tests out a wild succession of occupations, proudly rejecting each as too limiting - until he tangles with the glamorous perfectionist Thea.
-
-
THAT part of the Universe visible from Chicago!
- By Darwin8u on 05-09-12
By: Saul Bellow
-
Sanctuary
- By: William Faulkner
- Narrated by: Stephen Hoye
- Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A powerful novel examining the nature of evil, informed by the works of T. S. Eliot and Freud, mythology, local lore, and hard-boiled detective fiction, Sanctuary is the dark, at times brutal, story of the kidnapping of Mississippi debutante Temple Drake. She introduces her own form of venality into the Memphis underworld where she is being held.
-
-
disappointment
- By Dana on 10-20-10
By: William Faulkner
-
The Shipping News
- By: Annie Proulx
- Narrated by: Paul Hecht
- Length: 12 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At 36, Quoyle, a third-rate newspaperman, is wrenched violently out of his workaday life when his two-timing wife gets her just desserts. He retreats with his two daughters to his ancestral home on the starkly beautiful Newfoundland coast, where a rich cast of local characters all play a part in Quoyle's struggle to reclaim his life. As three generations of his family cobble up new lives, Quoyle confronts his private demons - and the unpredictable forces of nature and society - and begins to see the possibility of love without pain or misery.
-
-
Can't Explain Why I Love This Book
- By Polly on 03-06-12
By: Annie Proulx
What listeners say about A Fable
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- kmilesmcleod
- 02-23-24
Boring, wordy
Faulkner did a great job stringing together words in such an uninteresting manner that an antiwar fable had me dosing off.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- David Giard
- 05-20-23
satirical anti-war novel
What would happen if soldiers on the front line of a war refused to continue fighting?
William Faulkner's 1954 novel "A Fable" explores this possibility. In the middle of World War I, a French Corporal persuades his comrades to ignore their orders and stop fighting the Germans. The Germans notice and also cease hostilities. The truce spreads to the armies of other countries in the conflict, and the war is brought temporarily to a halt. The peace enrages commanders on both sides, who interpret the soldiers' actions as Mutiny. The opposing generals meet in secret to determine how to deal with this threat to their authority.
Like most Faulkner novels, this one is difficult to read. Long, involved sentences with parenthetical asides, most of which provide important background information and some of which reflect seemingly random musings of the author, challenge the reader's attention. Often followed by sentence fragments. The author declines to provide names for most of his characters forcing the reader to keep track of them by their titles - and sometimes not even that.
Unlike most Faulkner novels, he sets this one outside the fictional Mississippi county of Yoknapatawpha. The battlefields of eastern France provide a different flavor from most of his writing.
The Corporal exhibits numerous similarities to Jesus Christ. He begins by converting the twelve men in his squad, who spread the message to the rest of the army. He is betrayed by one of his followers. He is arrested, tried, and executed before the women in his life come to claim his body. The story takes place over a few days and parallels the Passion of the Christ.
Although this novel won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award, it has been largely forgotten. Critics hold many of Faulkner's earlier works in much higher regard.
The book's strength is its satire. It underscores the absurdity of war and the lengths those invested in combat will go to perpetuate it. I wonder if Joseph Heller drew some inspiration when he penned his classic anti-war farce "Catch-22." Heller's execution was superior, but Faulkner came first.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Jason Baumbach
- 02-17-23
I'm still not a Faulkner fan.
I continue to find Faulkner overly obscure. I've tried some of his other novels, but the results have been the same.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Placeholder
- 01-05-16
Difficult Novel Not Helped by Reader
Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?
A Fable, which might be for many an important novel --about soldier resistance to WWI fighting--- is to my mind one of Faulkner's most difficult novels. He spent ten years writing it and got the Pulitzer for it, but he sure doesn't give the reader much help. The pronoun "he" is used so often and so far from the anchoring name that we completely lose track of which "he" is being talked about. The reader doesn't help. Though pronouncing very clearly with a pleasant voice he has a strange arrhythmia: minor words are emphasized with inappropriate pauses, or stresses; a single speech stream is broken into two; vocal emphasis is given to non-emphasized syntax or meaning, Trying to process why this emphasis or that lack of it interferes with the ability to comprehend, much less appreciate. Too bad I can only recommend with warnings, as I'd like to give it much more.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
5 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- William M Storm
- 04-16-12
Potentiality
Admittedly, I am a huge Faulkner fan; though, Southern Literature is not my area of study, I have read most of Faulkner's novels. This was one of the gaps in his canon for me. What you have here is Faulkner at his best and his worst. You have moments when the plot and style come together to form a cohesive narrative. But you have plotting that takes turns where none are needed, becoming a book that is mainly potential. To bring the Great War into novel form was the life-long pursuit of Faulkner, which could be noted in his false claims to participation in the war. But the addition of a Chirst-like character onto the narrative leaves the novel moving in different and competing directions.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Andy Curry
- 05-08-17
Bad Production and Direction
What did you love best about A Fable?
This is generally considered one of Faulkner's lesser works, although he took ten years writing it and said more than once it was his best. Overall, I thought the story was good. There is a very long digression that adds very little and feels like separate story embedded in this novel.
Any additional comments?
The director of this work chose to have the actor read everything in the same voice, no accents for British or French characters, no dialect or inflection for regional differences. Also, there are dozens of words mispronounced. Finally, there are some places early on where the editor//producer failed to properly edit out second takes and we hear the same line repeated.These added together nearly drove me to abandon this book early on. I persisted only because I wanted to follow the plot. If there is another version of this book in Audible I would recommend trying that first.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
6 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- brokenspiners
- 04-24-17
Definitely Not Impressed w/ the Audiobook
Would you try another book from William Faulkner and/or Kevin Pariseau?
I would read another book of William Faulkner, but I probably won't listen to another book read by Kevin Pariseau
Would you be willing to try another book from William Faulkner? Why or why not?
Yes. I have read a couple of books by Faulkner and am open to reading more books by him.
How did the narrator detract from the book?
Although the narrator spoke clearly, I found his reading excruciating slow and boring and not helpful to the understanding of the novel. There were long pauses in places where pauses should not be. It was quite distracting. So much so that I stopped the recording and read the book.
Do you think A Fable needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?
No. Even though I'm not a fan of Faulkner, I think he completed the story even if it was verbose
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- eliza
- 12-10-23
The Horror of War
I liked the mixture of stream of consciousness and hyper realistic observation of World War I. The Horror of trench warfare is unforgettably depicted. Faulkner tells a fable of a Christ like Corporal who is executed for his insubordination and whose Division leader is murdered. I find Faulkner’s use of Christian Allegory one of the most daring leaps by any modern writer. He draws on other great writer’s such as Fyodor Dostoevsky and produces something entirely original.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Marc Silverman
- 02-24-20
Boring and confusing
I found the plot confusing, annoying, and so indubitably boring. I was really disappointed with this book.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!