Light in August

Light in August

First edition
Author	William Faulkner
Language	English
Genre	Southern Gothic, modernist
Publisher	Smith & Haas
Publication date	1932
Pages	480
Dewey Decimal	813.52
Preceded by	Sanctuary
Followed by	Pylon

Light in August is a 1932 novel by American author William Faulkner. It belongs to the Southern gothic and modernist literary genres.

Set in the author's present day, the interwar period, the novel centers on two strangers, a pregnant white woman and a man who passes as white but who believes himself to be of mixed ethnicity. In a series of flashbacks, the story reveals how these two people are connected to another man who has deeply impacted both their lives.

In a loose, unstructured modernist narrative style that draws from Christian allegory and oral storytelling, Faulkner explores themes of race, sex, class, and religion in the American South. By focusing on characters who are misfits, outcasts, or otherwise marginalized in their community, he portrays the clash of alienated individuals against a Puritanical, prejudiced rural society. Early reception of the novel was mixed, with some reviewers critical of Faulkner's style and subject matter. However, over time, the novel has come to be considered one of the most important literary works by Faulkner and one of the best English-language novels of the 20th century.