Classics · DarkThe Bundren family carries their mother's body by wagon to Jefferson, where she wanted to be buried
As I Lay Dying
A family crosses Mississippi by wagon to bury their mother in Jefferson
The Bundrens, Anse and his children Cash, Darl, Jewel, Dewey Dell and Vardaman, carry the body of their mother, Addie, by wagon to Jefferson, where she wants to be buried. The story is set in Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi, over a journey of about nine days that opens in July heat. The novel has 59 chapters, each titled with the name of its narrator, and 15 narrators in total. Jonathan Cape & Harrison Smith published it on October 6, 1930.
More about this book
Who
Anse, Addie, Cash, Darl, Jewel, Dewey Dell and Vardaman Bundren, with neighbors Vernon and Cora Tull and Dr. Peabody.
World
Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi.
What makes it different
It has 15 narrators and uses stream of consciousness. Darl narrates the most chapters, 19 of the 59.
Feel
Fragmentary and intense. Faulkner said he wrote it in about six weeks.
Page count and cover shown for: Selected edition
Further reading
- As I Lay DyingWikipedia