I read The Sound and the Fury when I was at university but I saw this new audio version was out and wanted to see what it was like listening to the story. The Sound and the Fury plays with form so I wasn't sure it would work but the production of this audio version does a really good job, in fact when it comes to Quentin and Quentin, narration may make that distinction more clear. Eduardo Ballerini can do no wrong where I'm concerned so that was a huge plus for me.

The story of The Sound and the Fury is the story of the antebellum south. A family whose way of life has gone away. Told in multiple POVs, from each family member's perspective.

Definitely not the most approachable of Faulkner's stories, it is worth sticking with it. My advice to readers of this one is just to push through. It's like a puzzle that doesn't make it's image clear until the last piece is in place.

I have to admit—before this, I had never read William Faulkner. Not once. He was never assigned in school, and I never felt the urge to pick up his work on my own. But then I saw that "The Sound and the Fury" had a new audiobook edition narrated by Edoardo Ballerini, and that was all the convincing I needed. If Ballerini is reading it, I’m listening.

Now that I’ve made it through, all I can say is… maybe Faulkner just isn’t for me. I fully appreciate his technical genius—each section is narrated by a different character, and Faulkner adapts his writing to fit their personalities, which is undeniably impressive. Benjy’s section is a jumbled mess because Benjy’s mind is a jumbled mess. Jason’s section is more linear and, well, bitter because Jason is a straight-up rage machine. I get why people call this book brilliant; I do. But my issue isn’t with the complex storytelling—it’s that this book is so bleak. I mean, I like a good dark and twisty story, but this? This is a deep, existential pit of despair. Yes, there was a glimmer of hope in the end, but I spent most of my time just counting down to when I’d be done.

That said, the real MVP here is Edoardo Ballerini. I don’t think I would have made it through without his voice guiding me. He nailed every perspective shift, bringing just the right tone to each section. Even when I was exhausted by Faulkner’s unrelenting tragedy, Ballerini kept me engaged. Would I have finished "The Sound and the Fury" in print? Probably not. But thanks to Ballerini, I saw it through.

So, if you love Faulkner (or want to finally give him a try), this audiobook is the way to go. But if you’re like me and need at least some joy in your reading life, maybe pick up something a little less, you know… soul-crushing.

Thank you to NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing for the advanced reader's copy. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

This review might contain spoilers.

In a nutshell, the book - set in the early part of the 20th century - is about the Compson family of Jefferson, Mississippi.

The Compsons were a prominent and important family of the Old South, but by the early 1900s had lost most of their wealth and status. The majority of the Compson acreage has been sold off for expenses, and the mansion is decaying, and not the magnificent domicile of old, when a Compson was governor. The current family is made up of a needy, neurotic mother - Caroline Bascomb Compson; a distant, hard-drinking father - Jason Compson III; three brothers - Quentin, Jason IV, and Benjy; and a sister - Caddy.

The heart of the story is Caddy, a caring but promiscuous young woman who shames the Compson family by getting pregnant. Caddy enters into a hasty marriage but her husband quickly divorces her when he discovers the child is not his. The Compson family takes in Caddy's daughter "Miss Quentin" and cuts off Caddy completely. This drives the story since brother Benjy adores and misses Caddy; brother Quentin is devastated by her behavior; and brother Jason is angry at Caddy for embarrassing the family and depriving him of the bank job offered by her ex-husband. Jason also resents Miss Quentin and steals the money Caddy sends for her.

I'll frame my review as brief overviews of the main protagonists.

◙ Caroline Bascomb Compson:
Caroline Bascomb married Jason for the prestige of the Compson family name, and is ultimately disappointed with her catch. Still, Caroline thinks Jason looks down on the Bascombs, and the feeling is exacerbated by Caroline's brother Maury - a lazy, good-for-nothing who resides with the Compsons on and off. Maury is constantly sponging money for a 'big opportunity' that's come his way.

Caroline cares about her children, but is too self-centered to be a natural mother. Caroline's favorite child is Jason, but he must be pulling the wool over Caroline's eyes, because Jason is a nasty tattletale as a child and a narcissistic thief as an adult.

Caroline's dearest wish is for her oldest son Quentin to attend Harvard University, and she's thrilled when this comes to pass. As it happens, Caddy's husband is also a Harvard man, which is another feather in Caroline's cap. Then, when Caddy is thrown out by her furious husband, Caroline is devastated, and forbids the household to mention Caddy's name.

Life and all its disappointments are too much for Caroline, and she becomes a hypochondriac that usually stays in bed calling for hot water bottles.

◙ Jason Compson III:

Jason, the family patriarch, spends his days drinking whiskey and reading great literature. Jason is a cynical man, has little regard for the rules of society, and tends to make philosophical pronouncements like: 'No battle is ever won. They are not even fought. The field only reveals to man his own folly and despair, and victory is an illusion of philosophers and fools'.

Unlike his wife, Jason dismisses the value of virginity, and is more or less indifferent to Caddy's promiscuity. This is out of keeping with values in the early 20th century.

To fulfill Caroline's wishes for their son Quentin, Jason sells off forty acres of the Compson property - called Benjy's pasture - to finance Quentin's education at Harvard. The sold acreage is turned into a golf course, which is a pivotal element of the story.

*****
Most of the story is narrated by the three brothers, each of whom gets his own section.

◙ Benjy:

We first meet Benjy as a mentally challenged 33-year-old, who's better described as 'a man who's been three-years-old for thirty years.' Due to the novel's time jumps, we observe Benjy at various stages of his life, starting with childhood. Benjy was named Maury at birth (after Caroline's brother), but when his mental disability became obvious, Caroline changed little Maury's name to Benjamin.

Most of the Compsons don't concern themselves much with Benjy because the black servants dress Benjy, feed him, watch over him, put him to bed, etc. By contrast, Caddy truly loves Benjy, and Benjy returns Caddy's affection and is very attached to her. Family members sometimes mention sending Benjy to Jackson (an asylum), which worries Caddy terribly.

Though Benjy is unable to speak his mind, he has an almost supernatural instinct for family misfortune, like an imminent death, which makes Benjy moan and howl.

When the Compsons disown Caddy, Benjy doesn't understand, and often strays to the gate to look for her. As a result, Benjy badly frightens some passing schoolgirls, which results in his castration.

◙ Quentin:

Much of Quentin's section takes place during his time at Harvard, which isn't working out too well. Quentin can't get over Caddy's sleeping around with riffraff, and his mind frequently wanders to Caddy's behavior, and his compulsion to save her. In his desperation, Quentin suggests he, Caddy, and Benjy run away together; Quentin holds a knife to Caddy's neck in a kind of suicide pact; Quentin threatens one of Caddy's boyfriends; and more.

Quentin disdains Caddy's fiancé, Sydney Herbert Head, who has a reputation for cheating at cards and cheating on Harvard exams. Some time after Caddy admits she doesn't love Sydney, but has to marry SOMEONE because she's pregnant, Quentin reaches his breaking point. He makes careful preparations and commits suicide.

◙ Jason IV:

Jason is an unpleasant child who grows up to be a spiteful adult. Jason resents not being sent to Harvard; is furious with Caddy for robbing him of the chance to be a banker; and can't deal with teenage Miss Quentin, who skips school and runs around with a carnival employee.

Jason is a blatant racist who liberally uses the n-word, and spouts nasty diatribes about black people and Jews. Jason would love to be a big man in Jefferson County, but he has a job in a hardware store; lives in a run-down house with a rotting facade; and keeps a mistress in Memphis, which flies in the face of Jason's moral code for other people.

Jason is obsessed with money, and - after his father dies - embezzles his mother's funds and steals the checks Caddy sends for Miss Quentin, 'so she can have nice things like the other girls."

Jason keeps the stolen cash in a lockbox in his closet, which is his downfall. It turns out Miss Quentin is more clever than her uncle, and she breaks into Jason's room, steals the cash, and runs away. Jason goes ballistic, and this leads to the end of the novel.

Additional important characters in the book include long-time black housekeeper Dilsey and her husband and children, all of whom are servants on the Compson estate. Dilsey and her kin are almost totally responsible for looking after Benjy, and take him to church on Easter Sunday - an important day in the story.

Dilsey can best be described as a grandmotherly figure who loves all the Compsons, whatever their foibles, and clearly sees their destiny.

The book has a palette of important secondary characters, such as the men Caddy dallies with; Quentin's friends and acquaintances at Harvard; Jason IV's boss and co-workers at the hardware store; and others.

The overall theme of the book is the decline of a dynasty that's come to the end of it's reign. Of course this happens in real life as well, as shown by families like the American Vanderbilts and American Astors - as well as aristocratic families elsewhere - that soared and then sank. It seems inevitable.

The book is chock full of imagery and symbolism, as demonstrated by the many doctoral dissertations, masters' theses, critical essays, opinion papers, movies, etc., related to the novel. Even if you're not an English major or scholar , the story is compelling. I'd suggest tackling a written copy before listening to the audiobook, for better comprehension.

The audiobook narrators do an excellent job and add nuances to the story.

Thanks to Netgalley and Blackstone Publishing Audiobooks for a copy of the audiobook.

I had never read this novel before. The only other novel I have read by this author is As I Lay Dying. Ordinarily, I do not enjoy “stream of consciousness” narratives. This book reminded me of Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway. The Sound and The Fury was also a bit difficult to follow. The different voice actors definitely helped me understand the novel better. The last section is definitely the easiest to follow. The first section was the hardest for me to understand. Perhaps, it would have been easier for me if I read a physical copy of the novel. The author wrote the novel like he was creating a puzzle.
I believe I would have enjoyed the novel more if there weren’t so much use of racial slurs and derogatory language towards women and minorities. It was very distracting and disturbing even if the use of such language was historically accurate. I also hated the mistreatment of Benjy, a character with a serious intellectual disability. Most characters in the novel blame Caddy for the downfall of the family. However, Caddy never directly harms any characters in the novel. Also, I do not think that Caddy’s promiscuity led in any way to the demise of the family. I feel like Caddy’s character is just a scapegoat. Caddy is one of the few characters I actually liked. I loved Dilesy’s character. In the end, she’s the only hope for the family.

The Sound and The Fury was an interesting choice for audio narration. Knowing the name William Faulkner, and making an effort to read classic novels, I was excited to snag a copy of this! The book is told in four parts, with the first being extremely difficult for me to get through. After making attempts at following all the different characters mentioned I had to do some internet deep-diving to recognize that the first section is written as a stream of consciousness from a character with a severe intellectual disability. The narration of this section from Edoardo Ballerini was really great, but my experience of going in blind to the book challenged me to enjoy it.

The second part of the book is narrated by Quentin, which was easier to follow. Shaun Taylor-Corbett does a good job bringing life into this character. The third part is from the perspective of Jason, and just his tone of voice felt undesirable. I had a hard time wanting to listen to this character and his harshness. Bronson Pinchot does a fantastic job with bringing Jason to life. The fourth part of the book was told from a third person viewpoint, which I enjoyed the most. This felt more like a “normal” book experience and I was more easily able to envision what was going on and follow the dialogue. I enjoyed the narration from Robin Miles. Not only was it nice to have a woman’s voice to tie the book together, but also to give a different feeling perspective for the harshness felt throughout the book.

Overall, I did not enjoy this. I think this may be a high-brow classic that few read, an elite bunch rave about, and the masses just don’t enjoy or understand. I fall into the latter category. I had a hard time wanting to learn more about these characters and life experiences and was honestly relieved when it was over. I imagine someone wanting to revisit this text would really enjoy the audiobook. For those just dipping into Faulkner, this was a miss for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing – Audiobooks for an ALC of The Sound and the Fury in exchange for an honest review!

Net Galley

Thank you to NetGalley and Blackstone Audio for the audiobook in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

I hit this arc because a new edition of this book was released Jan 7th with new art. I was provided the audio book however so I can’t assess the art AND this is a classic many people have already read so I’m mostly assessing the audiobook quality which was great. The narrators were awesome and despite the fact that most of the sections are definitely not intended to be audio due to the stream of consciousness style of some of the sections, I think the narrators did a good of job as possible.

As for Sound and the Fury itself: I like get it. But I didn’t really enjoy it.

Thank you to #NetGalley and #BlackstonePublishing for the opportunity to experience William Faulkner's #TheSoundandtheFury on audiobook. I've read a number of Faulkner novels, but had not read this one. Without the text on hand, the first section (via the POV of Benjy) was a challenge to decipher.. This character has a severe intellectual disability and the section is written as stream of consciousness/snippets moving through time. After I researched some of the characters, their names and relationships to one another, and the style of the initial section, the remainder of the book fell together via the multi-POV presentation. It also in retrospect, gave many of Benjy's recollections and observations clarity.

The Sound and the Fury, published in 1929, depicts the downfall of the formerly affluent Compson family via four different POVs (characters). Listening to this in 2025, its antiquated and offensive racist language, especially in these divisive times, was acutely painful. Jason Compson (in particular) is a completely abhorrent character and his POV, specifically, was one long gut punch.

But that's the nature of the book and not everything in life and literature is lovely. Nor is it just, kind, etc. The audiobook, itself, could NOT be narrated ANY better than the finished product. These four amazing voice actors brought every moment to life and though the novel is tragic --leveling from start to finish -- it is gorgeous in its execution. Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini, Shaun Taylor-Corbett, Robin Miles, and Bronson Pinchot. Brilliant!

Painfully unforgettable. On shelves January 7, 2025

"I know how often people make promises just to satisfy their consciences"

Do you know what it feels like to read Faulkner— in this case listening? Faulkner’s writing is feverish, he dares you: Pull it out if you dare. Pull the knife out, so I can find a better place to stick it to you.

His characters writhe in their own self-inflicted torment, they don’t just suffer; caught in a relentless current, where pain, memory, and time collapse into each other.

Scream if you dare. And I always lose this game. I'm not known for my courage.

But still, I let him stick the knife in again.

"I'm bad and I'm going to hell, and I dont care. I'd rather be in hell than anywhere where you are."

I just wanted to share my feelings about this, as I imagine many people know what it’s about and there have been many beautiful reviews.

I read The Sound and the Fury years ago, not in English but in my native language. For a while now, I’ve been planning to reread the books I love in their original English versions, but since I'm not a very good rereader...

I saw The Sound and the Fury on NetGalley (thank you, Blackstone Publishing) and thought the new audio edition would be a great opportunity. It features four narrators, one for each section, which I found fantastic. God, Jason's performance was exactly what it should have been; it really scared me of his reality!

After reading it a second time, I think it truly deserves nothing less than five stars.

Whilst undoubtedly a masterpiece and at the forefront of the ‘stream of consciousness’ movement, this is not an easy book to navigate, with its mixture of time frames and voices in each chapter. The use of different narrators in each chapter of the audiobook certainly helped with this but, as each section is quite long, I found some passages rather flat and monotonous - less of a criticism of the narrators, more a reflection on the southern drawl expounded here.
So, a conundrum - to listen or to read? That might depend on each individual. It’s possibly too much to expect both, but this novel merits it for a full understanding of its complexities. If you are an avid reader who re-reads books, maybe try both. It will be worth your while.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing fro the free audiobook in exchange for my honest review. Edoardo Ballerini, Shaun Taylor-Corbett, Bronson Pinchot, and Robin Miles doe a fantastic job making this classic come to life!

Where to begin??? This is a classic and one of my absolute, most favorite books that I had to listen to! Words cannot describe my elation at seeing this one offered as an audiobook on NetGalley! Thanks!!

I went into The Sound and the Fury completely blind, and I truly had no idea what was happening at first. I had to pause and read a synopsis just to get my bearings. I didn’t realize the first two sections were stream of consciousness, but once I did, it made more sense. The writing style feels like an extension of each character’s identity, making the novel more about how it’s written than what actually happens. It’s like an impressionist painting: disjointed up close but forming something powerful when you step back.

Because of this, the audiobook was sometimes hard to follow. Stream of consciousness is already disorienting in print, but in audio format, it’s even harder to tell when time shifts or thoughts blend into action. This is probably why it took me a while to grasp Faulkner’s narration style. That said, the voice acting was fantastic, with Jason’s narrator making his section especially unsettling. Honestly, I don’t think I could have read this book in print. The narrators made all the difference.

I have mixed feelings about how new productions handle language in older works. I’m not sure why Blackstone chose to include the N-word, and it made me wonder about the decision-making behind that.

In the end, The Sound and the Fury is unrelentingly sad, with no relief—just pure emotional weight. But Faulkner’s writing style is what gives the novel its power. The structure, rhythm, and chaos of the words matter more than the actual story. It’s a novel that isn’t just about telling a tale; it’s about showcasing the art of novel writing itself.

This is a three course meal with four masters of narration as our cooks. I could listen to them read the menu at Cheesecake Factory and be enthralled. I must say, Edoardo Ballerini is top tier. A wonderful wonderful rendition of Faulkner’s work.

𝑻𝑯𝑬 𝑺𝑶𝑼𝑵𝑫 𝑨𝑵𝑫 𝑻𝑯𝑬 𝑭𝑼𝑹𝒀 𝒃𝒚 𝑾𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒊𝒂𝒎 𝑭𝒂𝒖𝒍𝒌𝒏𝒆𝒓 brought to a fresh audio experience by @blackstonepublishing that is available now. Thank you for the access via @netgalley!

This is a story of the decline of a southern family who believed themselves to be victims of a culture shift after their heights of glory in the era of slavery. Sound a bit familiar?

Told in 4 parts, this family tale begins with Benjy, a intellectually disabled man of 33 whose narrative skips a bit in time and stream of consciousness. I found his part to be fascinating in the level of compassion Faulkner wrote him. I didn't expect there to be clear understanding within some of Benjy's internal monologs.
The 2nd part was Quentin whose bizarre preoccupation with the virginal reputation of his philandering sister, Caddy, had me reflecting on the purity culture of my youth and the similar damage it caused.
The 3rd section is from Jason's perspective and I can't say how deeply I loathed him. This is the younger son whose role changed as various family members left and he did not relish these responsibilities, despite the favor bestowed upon him by his hypochondriac mother. Jason seems to most ferociously embody the patriarchal, racist, anti-Semitic views held so tightly by many southern white men in the early 1900's.
The 4th section is a 3rd person narrative that tells the final piece, often focusing on the observations of Dilsey, the Black woman who aids this family. She is the only one who seems to not be drug into the abyss and I am not a little bit glad.

The decline of the family is sad, only in the sense that they refuse to look outside their own quests for individual power and prestige, mirroring the famous soliloquy in Macbeth from which the title is drawn (beginning with Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow...). There is a reason this is a classic, as the themes are unfortunately timeless.

The audio was really fantastic. There were 4 different narrators to take each part and that made it so easy to follow. I have read it is a difficult one due to narrative styles and punctuation choices.

Thanks to NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing for the digital copy of this audiobook. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I read a lot, and my schooling didn't include many classics besides Romeo and Juliet and a Sherlock Holmes story in 9th grade. As an adult, I took college classes on Hemingway and Fitzgerald. I passed on Faulkner at the time. This was my opportunity to remedy that.

I feel like because I just couldn't get into this story that I'm not a literary intellectual, because I just don't understand WHY this is a classic. It's erratic, it's overwritten, it sounds like Faulkner is trying to hard to be great. Maybe it was groundbreaking at the time, I don't know. I mean, he won the Pulitzer, so maybe it's just me.