The Wild Palms
The Wild Palms by William Faulkner, published by Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group on October 31, 1995, is a 304-page novel that explores the complexities of human relationships and the struggle between desire and societal expectations. Originally titled If I Forget Thee, Jerusalem, this work interweaves two distinct narratives that illuminate each other, set against the backdrop of 20th-century America. The story unfolds in New Orleans in 1937, where a man and a woman flee into the wilderness of illicit passion, while a convict in Mississippi ten years earlier risks everything to save a pregnant woman.
Readers will find a rich tapestry of themes such as survival, self-sacrifice, and the interplay of elemental danger and spiritual turmoil. Faulkner’s prose is noted for its vividness, capturing the physical essence of the landscapes that shape the characters’ journeys. The novel delves into the intricacies of romance and the historical context of its time, offering a profound exploration of the human condition through its dual narratives.
Official synopsis Publisher
In this feverishly beautiful novel—originally titled If I Forget Thee, Jerusalem—William Faulkner interweaves two narratives, each wholly absorbing in its own right, each subtly illuminating the other. In New Orleans in 1937, a man and a woman embark on a headlong flight into the wilderness of illicit passion, fleeing her husband and the temptations of respectability. In Mississippi ten years earlier, a convict sets forth across a flooded river, risking his own chance at freedom to rescue a pregnant woman. From these separate stories Faulkner composes a symphony of deliverance and damnation, survival and self-sacrifice, a novel in which elemental danger is juxtaposed with fatal injuries of the spirit. The Wild Palms is grandly inventive, heart-stopping in its prose, and suffused on every page with the physical presence of the country that Faulkner made his own.
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