# 1st Chapter of The Sound and the Fury



## Swamp Thing (Apr 13, 2008)

Up to this point in my life, one of the few books I've not been able to get through was The Sound and the Fury.  I could never read the first chapter.  I finally gutted it out today.

Anyone else had problems with this first chapter?


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## Garden of Kadesh (May 13, 2008)

TSatF is a difficult book. I read it for a highschool AP class, and my teacher actually encouraged us to read chapter summaries online before attempting to read it. Doing so definitely did help. I didn't find chapter one so bad - Quentin's narrative (second part) was harder for me. The third and fourth chapters are much easier to read, but they don't really stand out. In the end, you'll realize that the first two are the ones that stick with you.


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## Swamp Thing (May 14, 2008)

In fact, Faulkner had included a sort of Cliff Notes biography of the family in a later edition, which I found out about after reading the entire novel. Reading it first would have made things a lot more comprehensible.


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## seigfried007 (May 14, 2008)

I'll ditto a Cliff-Notes-like summary making the work far more understandable, but I can't remember how far I was through the story before I sought something like that online (if I didn't read the whole thing and then do it). 

It's been about ten years since I read it and I recall it being a very 'literary' piece designed to be hell on the brain (and thus rather arrogant to write). It wasn't required reading for me but the teacher thought I was advanced enough to get it during sophomore year of high school. 

I recall liking Quentin and I've since written several characters like him.


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## Garden of Kadesh (May 14, 2008)

I loved Quentin too. The choppiness of his section helped to accentuate his insanity.


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