William Faulkner, Sanctuary

Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University)

Ed. by Stephen E. Meats, Pittsburg State University
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.3: American (US) Writing and Culture: The Early Twentieth-century , 1900-1945.
Vol. editors: Patrick Chura (University of Akron), J. Michael Duvall (College of Charleston), Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Dale Enggass (University of Utah), Matthew Hofer (University of New Mexico), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Tony Papanikolas (San Jose State University), Justin Parks (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway), Nick Selby (University of East Anglia)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1931

Places

United States (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

Sanctuary (New York: Jonathan Cape & Harrison Smith, 1931), published 9 February 1931 (Blotner and Polk, 1024), is William Faulkner’s sixth of nineteen novels in order of publication, and his fourth about Jefferson, Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi, the apocryphal town and county he created in his fiction. Written between January and May 1929 (Blotner and Polk, 1024), soon after he completed The Sound and the Fury, Sanctuary was, however, his fifth novel in order of composition. Arguably his most pessimistic novel, and perhaps his most cynical as well, its sensational subject matter – bootlegging, rape, murder, sex, prostitution, two murder trials, a lynching, and an execution – made it Faulkner’s first best seller, and, in literary circles at least, made him famous, if not infamous.

Characters

The novel’s three main characters are Horace Benbow, Temple Drake,...

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4765 words

Citation: Meats, Stephen E.. "Sanctuary". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 01 August 2014; last revised 27 August 2025. [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=2304, accessed 09 June 2026.]

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