The Sound and the Fury - William Faulkner [124]
11. Didn’t] “Didn’t
12. on. ] on.”
13. Didn’t he didn’t he] Didn’t he
14. said] said, Quentin,
15. folded] wrapped
16. students. They’ll think you go to Harvard.] students.
17. “Maybe you want a tailor’s goose,” the clerk said. “They] The clerk said, “These
18. still. My bowels moved for thee.] still.
19. Jason] Jason a position in the bank.
20. and Versh] Versh said
21. [No ¶ indentations in the new text; each ¶ begins flush left.]
22. home.] home in Mississippi.
23. healing] heading
24. unitarial] Unitarian
25. [No ¶ indentation here; each ¶ begins flush left.]
26. to the house [The new edition restores this line to the text; omitted in the first edition.]
27. Harvard] Harvard like Quentin
28. ground] ground like Father
29. dope.] coca cola.
30. Father’s] Father’s funeral
31. your name. You’d be better off if you were down there] you
32. shot] coca cola
33. both of them] Caddy and Quentin
34. kin do dat] gwine preach today
35. shaling] shading
TABLE B
Differences between the present text and the carbon typescript:
36. What] Versh, what
37. for, Versh.”] for.”
38. Jason] Mr Jason
39. him.” She set the cake on the table.] him.”
40. He leaned down and puffed his face. The candles went away.] He blew out the candles
41. window.] window, thinking that if she had just been a boy she’d have invented windows you could raise easily instead of fine names for the cars.
42. and through my coat touched the letters I had written.] and touched the letters through my coat.
43. his black hand, in the sun.] the sun, in his dark hand.
44. boy.”] boy. Whatever it is, Marcus Lafayette I had forgotten about that. He told me once that his name used to be Marcus something else, but when they moved away and he went to school and became an American, he says, his name got changed to Marcus Lafayette, in honor of France and America, he said Listenbee will value it for the giver’s sake and sight unseen, I thanks you.”
45. and Versh] Versh
Faulkner began writing The Sound and the Fury early in 1928, using at first the title Twilight. In the fall he completed a typescript, dated “New York, N.Y. / October 1928,” and apparently kept the carbon copy while sending the ribbon copy to Harrison Smith, the editor at Harcourt, Brace who had recommended publication of Flags in the Dust to Alfred Harcourt. Harcourt rejected the novel, but permitted Smith to take it with him when he left the company to join Jonathan Cape in a new publishing venture, and in February 1929 Faulkner signed a contract for its publication with Cape and Smith. In the summer of 1929 Faulkner received galley proofs of the first section of The Sound and the Fury and discovered that Ben Wasson, who was then an editor at Cape and Smith, had instructed the printer to ignore Faulkner’s extensive use of italics and instead to indicate shifts in time by inserting line breaks between sections. Faulkner wrote to Wasson, instructing him to restore the italics and letting him know that he had marked additional passages in the galleys for italicization. Because none of the proofs for The Sound and the Fury are known to have survived, it cannot be determined how closely Wasson followed Faulkner’s instructions. The Sound and the Fury was published by Jonathan Cape and Harrison Smith on October 7, 1929. In 1984 Random House published a “New, Corrected Edition” of The Sound and Fury, prepared by Noel Polk. The corrected edition reproduces the text of the carbon typsescript dated October 1928 except in cases where there is a compelling reason to accept a reading from the 1929 first edition. The Library of America’s edition of The Sound and the Fury, published as part of Novels 1926–1929 and the basis of the present volume, incorporated a dozen additional minor corrections. American English continues to fluctuate; for example, a word may be spelled more than one way, even in the same work. Commas are sometimes used expressively to suggest the movements of the voice, and capitals are sometimes meant to give significance to a word beyond those it might have in its uncapitalized