Literary Fiction · DarkA corporal in World War I France orders his troops to stop fighting
A Fable
A World War I corporal's refusal halts the fighting on the Western Front
In France in 1918, over the course of one week, Corporal Stefan orders three thousand troops to disobey an order to attack in the trenches. The Germans stop attacking in response, and the fighting halts. The Generalissimo, a leader who uses war to gain power, later arrests Stefan and has him executed, and the war resumes.
More about this book
Who
Corporal Stefan, who is presented as a reincarnation of Jesus; the Generalissimo; and a British message runner.
World
France during World War I, in one week of 1918.
What makes it different
Faulkner spent more than a decade on it. It is a long allegorical novel set outside his Mississippi country. It won the 1955 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the 1955 National Book Award.
Feel
Dense and serious, written in long, demanding sentences.
Page count and cover shown for: Selected edition
Further reading
- A FableWikipedia