As I Lay Dying (novel)

As I Lay Dying (novel)

As I Lay Dying is a novel by the American author William Faulkner. Faulkner said that he wrote the novel in six weeks and that he did not change a word of it. Faulkner wrote it while working at a power plant, published it in 1930, and described it as a "tour-de-force." It is Faulkner's seventh novel and consistently ranked among the best novels of 20th century literature. The title derives from Book XI of Homer's The Odyssey, wherein Agamemnon speaks to Odysseus: "As I lay dying, the woman with the dog's eyes would not close my eyes as I descended into Hades."

The novel is known for its stream of consciousness writing technique, multiple narrators, and varying chapter lengths.