Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Collection
Publication
Vintage (1966), Paperback, 316 pages
Description
"You cannot swim for new horizons until you have courage to lose sight of the shore." --William Faulkner These short works offer three different approaches to Faulkner, each representative of his work as a whole. Spotted Horses is a hilarious account of a horse auction, and pits the "cold practicality" of women against the boyish folly of men. Old Man is something of an adventure story. When a flood ravages the countryside of the lower Mississippi, a convict finds himself adrift with a pregnant woman. And The Bear, perhaps his best known shorter work, is the story of a boy's coming to terms wit the adult world. By learning how to hunt, the boy is taught the real meaning of pride, humility, and courage.
User reviews
LibraryThing member danconsiglio
Reading Faulkner is kind of like taking heroin. You get hooked too quickly, you can't think about anything else when you aren't reading it, you work your ass off to finish what you are reading so you never have to read it again, and then you pick up another one of his books and there you are again
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wallowing in your own sweat and feces and forgoing food just to keep reading. I hate this man. Show Less
LibraryThing member weird_O
[The Bear] is quintessential Faulkner, I think. Dense prose. Fragmented timeline. Astonishingly long sentences that rush you along with surprising power, crashing headlong like wild rapids, leaving you breathless and not entirely sure you got it all. Guys doing guy stuff. Family heritage, family
A coming of age story, it has Isaac (Ike) McCaslin at its center, although man's relationship with the land and with his fellow men is the thematic core of the story. Initially, The Bear focuses on annual two-week-long November hunts at a vast wilderness tract. The narrator reports:
It was of the men, not white nor black nor red but men, hunters, with the will and hardihood to endure and the humility and skill to survive, and the dogs and the bear and deer juxtaposed and reliefed against it, ordered and compelled by and within the wilderness in the ancient and unremitting contest according to the ancient and immitigable rules which voided all regrets and brooked no quarter…
Isaac is ten when he first goes on the hunt; he is chaperoned--rather...taught, coached, mentored in woods and hunting lore--by Sam Fathers, son of a Negro slave and a Chickasaw chief. Isaac learns to navigate the wilderness using a compass, then without the compass. By the third year, he's rising before the others and striking out on his own. He's motivated by tales of Old Ben, a massive, wiley old bear, a legend--hind paw damaged by a trap, carrying in his hide dozens of slugs that didn't kill him, feared by all the hunting dogs, many of which he's killed over the years.
…[O]ne morning, it was in the second week, he heard the dogs...They didn't sound like any running dogs he had ever heard before even. Then he found that Sam...had himself moved up beside him. "There," he said. "Listen." The boy listened...He could hear Sam breathing at his shoulder. He saw the arched curve of the old man's inhaling nostrils.
"It's Old Ben!" he cried, whispering.
Sam didn't move save for the slow gradual turning of his head as the voices faded on and the faint steady rapid arch and collapse of his nostrils. "Hah," he said. "Not even running. Walking."
"But up here!" the boy cried. "Way up here!"
"He do it every year," Sam said. "Once. Ash and Boon say he comes up here to run the other little bears away. Tell them to get to hell out of here and stay out until the hunters are gone. Maybe...He dont care no more for bears than he does for dogs or men neither. He come to see who's here, who's new in camp this year, whether he can shoot or not, can stay or not. Whether we got the dog yet that can bay and hold him until a man gets there with a gun. Because he's the head bear. He's the man."
Isaac and Sam eventually do see Ben, up close too, but neither takes a shot at him. All too soon, the hunters focus on actually bagging this bear, instead of simply trading Old Ben tales. They've got to find a dog big enough and fearless enough to track and attack the bear.
And when the deed is done, the entire annual hunt ritual collapses. Another life lesson for Isaac.
But Faulkner kept this story going, with a section that works best, I think, in the context of Go Down, Moses. The Bear has appeared in several forms, first as a story/novella, then integrated into [Go Down, Moses], a collection of interrelated stories that Faulkner viewed as a novel, both versions being published in 1942. In 1955, a third version was published in Faulkner's collection of hunting stories, [Big Woods]. In 1958, it was published yet again in [Three Famous Short Novels] (the other short novels being Spotted Horses and Old Man). This is the version I re-read. (And since I now feel compelled to re-read Go Down, Moses I'll be revisiting The Bear again soon.)
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destiny. Culturally suppressed racial tension.A coming of age story, it has Isaac (Ike) McCaslin at its center, although man's relationship with the land and with his fellow men is the thematic core of the story. Initially, The Bear focuses on annual two-week-long November hunts at a vast wilderness tract. The narrator reports:
It was of the men, not white nor black nor red but men, hunters, with the will and hardihood to endure and the humility and skill to survive, and the dogs and the bear and deer juxtaposed and reliefed against it, ordered and compelled by and within the wilderness in the ancient and unremitting contest according to the ancient and immitigable rules which voided all regrets and brooked no quarter…
Isaac is ten when he first goes on the hunt; he is chaperoned--rather...taught, coached, mentored in woods and hunting lore--by Sam Fathers, son of a Negro slave and a Chickasaw chief. Isaac learns to navigate the wilderness using a compass, then without the compass. By the third year, he's rising before the others and striking out on his own. He's motivated by tales of Old Ben, a massive, wiley old bear, a legend--hind paw damaged by a trap, carrying in his hide dozens of slugs that didn't kill him, feared by all the hunting dogs, many of which he's killed over the years.
…[O]ne morning, it was in the second week, he heard the dogs...They didn't sound like any running dogs he had ever heard before even. Then he found that Sam...had himself moved up beside him. "There," he said. "Listen." The boy listened...He could hear Sam breathing at his shoulder. He saw the arched curve of the old man's inhaling nostrils.
"It's Old Ben!" he cried, whispering.
Sam didn't move save for the slow gradual turning of his head as the voices faded on and the faint steady rapid arch and collapse of his nostrils. "Hah," he said. "Not even running. Walking."
"But up here!" the boy cried. "Way up here!"
"He do it every year," Sam said. "Once. Ash and Boon say he comes up here to run the other little bears away. Tell them to get to hell out of here and stay out until the hunters are gone. Maybe...He dont care no more for bears than he does for dogs or men neither. He come to see who's here, who's new in camp this year, whether he can shoot or not, can stay or not. Whether we got the dog yet that can bay and hold him until a man gets there with a gun. Because he's the head bear. He's the man."
Isaac and Sam eventually do see Ben, up close too, but neither takes a shot at him. All too soon, the hunters focus on actually bagging this bear, instead of simply trading Old Ben tales. They've got to find a dog big enough and fearless enough to track and attack the bear.
And when the deed is done, the entire annual hunt ritual collapses. Another life lesson for Isaac.
But Faulkner kept this story going, with a section that works best, I think, in the context of Go Down, Moses. The Bear has appeared in several forms, first as a story/novella, then integrated into [Go Down, Moses], a collection of interrelated stories that Faulkner viewed as a novel, both versions being published in 1942. In 1955, a third version was published in Faulkner's collection of hunting stories, [Big Woods]. In 1958, it was published yet again in [Three Famous Short Novels] (the other short novels being Spotted Horses and Old Man). This is the version I re-read. (And since I now feel compelled to re-read Go Down, Moses I'll be revisiting The Bear again soon.)
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LibraryThing member paulpekin
Everybody reads The Bear but The Old Man is the must read story. "The old man" is the Mississippi River in full flood. A lot of this is clearly based on an actual historic event, but it is told as only Faulkner can tell it. Wonderful stuff, even for readers who don't "get" Faulkner.
LibraryThing member smetchie
I only read "The Bear"(and only half of that) but goodreads doesn't have just "The Bear" alone, without "Spotted Horses" and "Old Man" and neither did the library so what can I do?
I adored the first half of "The Bear", which gave me a whole new perspective on hunting, but then it got all
A few things confused me so if anyone has read this and knows the answers please pm me.
******SPOILERS********** (as if)
1) how did Sam die? did someone kill him? Was it Boone?
2) what was Boone pounding on at the very end with the butt of his gun? were those really squirrels or was Faulkner being metaphorical? was he bleeding?
I adored the first half of "The Bear", which gave me a whole new perspective on hunting, but then it got all
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philosophical about the environment and I lost interest. Ironic since I picked this up based on it's inclusion on Newsweek's list of 50 books for our time and it made that list because of it's importance as an environmental novel. Sometimes I mystify myself.A few things confused me so if anyone has read this and knows the answers please pm me.
******SPOILERS********** (as if)
1) how did Sam die? did someone kill him? Was it Boone?
2) what was Boone pounding on at the very end with the butt of his gun? were those really squirrels or was Faulkner being metaphorical? was he bleeding?
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LibraryThing member pussreboots
"Old Man" I've now read twice and neither time have I read it in its full context. The first time I read it, it was part of The Famous Short Novels which I read and released through BookCrossing but didn't review on this blog. I've since done some research on "Old Man" and have learned that it is
From my BookCrossing review I can see that last time I didn't like the book. I know that when I read it I was rushed and also suffering from the early stages of morning sickness (although I didn't know it at the time). With both readings I picked up on a O Brother Where Art Thou? vibe, the only difference being that this time I found the story humorous and entertaining.
I don't know if I've matured as a reader in 18 months or I was just in the right mind set but this second reading of "Old Man" was the first time that I really felt like I understood what all the fuss was about William Faulkner as a writer.
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actually part of a longer and more typical Faulkner novel, If I Forget Thee, Jerusalem, consisting of two different but complimentary narratives: "The Wild Palms" and "Old Man". Some reviews say these two narratives are separate novellas and an equal number says that the two are one novel and can't be separated out as unique stories (even though a variety of book editors would disagree).From my BookCrossing review I can see that last time I didn't like the book. I know that when I read it I was rushed and also suffering from the early stages of morning sickness (although I didn't know it at the time). With both readings I picked up on a O Brother Where Art Thou? vibe, the only difference being that this time I found the story humorous and entertaining.
I don't know if I've matured as a reader in 18 months or I was just in the right mind set but this second reading of "Old Man" was the first time that I really felt like I understood what all the fuss was about William Faulkner as a writer.
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LibraryThing member aegossman
I think I liked Spotted Horses the best of them.
LibraryThing member Pferdina
I could have used a guide or Cliff's Notes to make it through The Bear. The first part was fine, as it told the story of a boy learning to hunt in the forest with older relatives and friends. But after the death of Old Ben, the style changed dramatically and I had a much more difficult time
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figuring out what was going on, and even who was speaking. The other two short works were not as difficult. Spotted Horses was interesting and moved quickly, but felt unfinished to me, as if there should have been more to the story. Old Man was my favorite of the three. I enjoyed the strange journey of the convict and the women in a boat on the flooding river. Show Less
LibraryThing member reader1009
classic lit. These took me more than one read to understand. That done, they were ok (though the third one really could've benefited from some editing/punctuation, I don't care if you ARE Wm. Faulkner.
Language
Original publication date
1958
Physical description
320 p.; 6.86 inches
ISBN
0394701496 / 9780394701493