Barn Burning
Abner Snopes is poor white man who gets his revenge on the privileged class of rural Mississippi by setting fire. One night after Snopes is successfully sued by Major De Spain’s, the latter’s house is mysterious set on fire. The story is really a coming of age story about Abner’s son Sarty who takes this senseless act of violence as his cue to run away from his mentally damaged father.
Two Soldiers
An unusual story about the aftermath of Pearl Harbor not often told and even less often heard. A young boy from rural Mississippi agonizes over the conflict between duty to family and farm and duty to country. What makes this story stand out is the young man’s parents and nearly everybody else are fervently opposed to his decision to enlist in this story that reveals in stark terms how World War II was fought on American soil in a manner of speaking when young men went off to war, leaving their own gardens untended.
A Rose for Emily
One of Faulkner’s most well-known works of short fiction tells a deceptively simple story about how townspeople react to the death of its most eccentric and mysterious old recluse.
Dry September
A black man named Will Mayes has been accused by Minnie Cooper of assaulting her. Inside a barbershop sit several men have discuss the need to take justice into their own hands in order to defend the honor of Miss Cooper.
That Evening Sun
A story of terror and racism in which a black woman who works for the wealthy Compson family who has been beaten by a white man from who she demanded payment, was subsequently jailed and attempted suicide before being released to live in terror of the return of her boyfriend Jesus whom she thinks will kill her. Her emotional protection against the anxiety of the waiting is the children of Compson family with whom she gets along so well. When Mr. Compson arrives, she expects him to be her savior, but instead he takes the kids home and leaves her to face the consequences of the return of her boyfriend, Jesus.
Red Leaves
The story of the need to capture a runaway slave, but with a twist: this slave is a servant of a Chicaksaw tribal chief and return is essential for the burial process: the servant is buried along with the master when the master dies.
Lo!
An unusual foray into satire has another Chickasaw chief outwitting the President of the United States by marching his tribe to D.C. and setting up an encampment outside the White House, demanding justice and remuneration for wrongs made against his tribe.
Turnabout
An exciting World War I adventure story bringing together and American aviator, a British seaman and a plot to torpedo a German ship.
Honor
The recollections of former Buck Monaghan, six years out of the Air Force and three weeks into the job selling cars he is about to quit. Buck’s drift into the past reveals that the excitement of being part of the beginning of the air flight industry and during wartime at that have place him forever out of sync with the rest of society.
There was a Queen
Another story that relies on the interior thoughts of characters as three generations struggle to reconcile the effects of the past with consequences of the present. Wheelchair bound Jenny De Pre, Narcissa Sartoris, her 10 year old son and the family’s black cook Elnora all fill in the gaps of the past with recollected events.
Mountain Victory
The Civil War over and lost, Confederate Major Saucier Weddel and his African-American servant (and former slave) Jubal are returning home when they stop to find shelter for the night in the wilds of Tennessee. Instead of a simple night’s rest, the Major has a tragic encounter with a poor mountain family far removed from his own aristocratic bearing.
Beyond
This reconsideration of the events of the past has a spin put on it that the others lack: the figure at the center of the trek through the past is the spirit of very recently deceased Judge Howard Allison. The chance to walk through memories into the past is taken by the Judge as a quest to search for truths that remained clouded during life.
Race at Morning
A rather unique hunting trip initiates a 12 year old boy into maturity. The older man who takes accompanies him refuses to shoot a magnificent 12-point-buck that has eluded the other hunters even when a clear and easy target is presented. The lesson the boy learns is that the joy lies in the hunt, not the kill.
