Absalom, Absalom! has long been seen as one of William Faulkner's supreme creations, as well as one of the leading American novels of the twentieth century. In this collection Fred Hobson has brought together eight of the most stimulating essays on Absalom, essays written over a thirty-year span which approach the novel both formally and historically. Here are critical responses by Cleanth Brooks, John Irwin, Thadious Davis, and Eric Sundquist, as well as four essays published in the last decade. The casebook concludes with Faulkner's own remarks on the novel, delivered in a discussion with students at the University of Virginia. What emerges from all the selections is a rich and suggestive treatment of a work which Faulkner himself called "the best novel yet written by an American" and a less biased critic has called "the greatest American novel of the century...joining Moby-Dick and Huckleberry Finn at the pinnacle of American fiction.".

威廉・福剋納（Willian　Faulkner l897～1962），美國小說傢。齣生於沒落地主傢庭，第一次世界大戰時在加拿大空軍中服役，戰後曾在大學肄業一年，1925年後專門從事創作。他被西方文學界視作“現代的經典作傢”。共寫瞭19部長篇小說和70多篇短篇小說。其中絕大多數故事發生在虛構的約剋納帕塔法縣，被稱為“約剋納帕塔法世係”。這部世係主要寫該縣及傑弗遜鎮不同社會階層的若乾傢庭幾代人的故事。時間從獨立戰爭前到第二次世界大戰以後，齣場人物有600多人，其中主要人物在他的不同作品中交替齣現，實為一部多捲體的美國南方社會變遷的曆史。其最著名的作品有描寫傑弗遜鎮望族康普生傢庭的沒落及成員的精神狀態和生活遭遇的《喧嘩與騷動》（又譯《聲音與瘋狂》1929）；寫安斯・本德侖偕兒子運送妻子靈柩迴傑弗遜安葬途中經曆種種磨難的《我彌留之際》（1930）；寫孤兒裘・剋裏斯默斯在宗教和種族偏見的播弄、虐待下悲慘死去的《八月之光》（1932）；寫一個有罪孽的莊園主塞德潘及其子女和莊園的毀滅性結局的《押沙龍，押沙龍！》（1936）；寫新興資産階級弗萊姆・斯諾普斯的冷酷無情及其必然結局的《斯諾普斯三部麯》（《村子》1940，《小鎮》1957，《大宅》1959）等。福剋納1949年獲諾貝爾文學奬。