Importance
As I Lay Dying is consistently ranked among the best novels of 20th century literature. The novel has been reprinted by the Modern Library, the Library of America, and numerous other publishers, including Chatto and Windus in 1970, Random House in 1990, Tandem Library in 1991, and Vintage Books in 1996. Faulkner was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1949 for his novels prior to that date, among them this book.
The novel has also directly influenced a number of other critically acclaimed books, including British author Graham Swift's 1996 Booker Prize-winning novel Last Orders and Suzan-Lori Parks's Getting Mother's Body: A Novel, which is a reimagining of Faulkner's novel from an African American point of view.
In 1998, the Modern Library ranked As I Lay Dying 35th on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century.
The Grammy-nominated metalcore band As I Lay Dying derived its name from this novel.
The character Darl Bundren also appeared in Faulkner's 1935 short story "Uncle Willy".
Read more about this topic: As I Lay Dying (novel)
Famous quotes containing the word importance:
“In the United States all business not transacted over the telephone is accomplished in conjunction with alcohol or food, often under conditions of advanced intoxication. This is a fact of the utmost importance for the visitor of limited funds ... for it means that the most expensive restaurants are, with rare exceptions, the worst.”
—John Kenneth Galbraith (b. 1908)
“For even satire is a form of sympathy. It is the way our sympathy flows and recoils that really determines our lives. And here lies the vast importance of the novel, properly handled. It can inform and lead into new places our sympathy away in recoil from things gone dead. Therefore the novel, properly handled, can reveal the most secret places of life: for it is the passional secret places of life, above all, that the tide of sensitive awareness needs to ebb and flow, cleansing and freshening.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)
“Any novel of importance has a purpose. If only the “purpose” be large enough, and not at outs with the passional inspiration.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)