LEADER
Lillian Dabney is a librarian at the Seattle Athenaeum, a membership library in Seattle, Washington, where she has led multiple author studies that explore the catalogue of a single writer chronologically. The latest was a discussion seminar of nine of William Faulkner’s novels over as many months beginning with The Sound and the Fury and ending with his last novel The Reivers.
BOOK
The Sound and The Fury: The Complete, Definitive Edition by William Faulkner
(Vintage, 1990)
ISBN-13: 9780679732242
SEMINAR OVERVIEW
“No man ever put more of his heart and soul into the written word than did William Faulkner. If you want to know all you can about the heart and soul, the fiction where he put it is still right there.”
— Eudora Welty
To understand the South is to understand America. Faulkner deeply understood the legacy and damage of American racism and sought to paint an accurate portrait of the South. In this novel, and others, he explores how people process the past, what they stubbornly hold onto, unwittingly forget, and willingly distort.
Faulkner is also one of America’s most remarkable and perplexing writers. He uses confusion intentionally to encourage us to investigate the mysterious parts of the human mind and listen to the hidden meanings of life. Through his writing, he contemplates the unreliable nature of history and memory. His works are challenging, which makes them deeply rewarding.
William Faulkner is revered all over the world. The Faulkner Yoknapatawpha Conference takes place every year in July at the University of Mississippi in which people attend from as far as Japan and Poland!
Using the discussion technique of Shared Inquiry we will immerse ourselves in a slow, deliberate, and careful reading of the novel with an emphasis on the members of the Compson family of Southern aristocrats. We will get to know each member and their relationship to the legacy of the American South.
Toronto Pursuits afternoon seminar
You can add this afternoon seminar about The Sound and the Fury to your main Toronto Pursuits registration, or register for it as a standalone program.
The standalone registration price includes 6 seminar hours, and all inclusions of the Toronto Pursuits program.
The afternoon seminar takes place Monday through Thursday from 2:30 to 4 p.m.
Included in the standalone registration are 6 seminar hours, plus a hot buffet lunch on seminar meeting days, pre-seminar afternoon talks, attendance at our welcome cocktail party, and a Toronto Summer Music Festival concert ticket (the ticket is included for orders placed by January 3, 2026).
Toronto Pursuits 2026
See the Toronto Pursuits 2026 page for full details on the program schedule, health and safety, booking your accommodations, terms and conditions, and more.
