Beach, Joseph Warren. "William Faulkner, Virtuoso," in American Fiction, 1920-1940, New York: Macmillan, 1941, pp. 147-69.

Beach devotes his attention to Faulkner's style; this chapter is a perceptive early attempt to deal with Faulkner's prose innovations.

Brooks, Cleanth. William Faulkner, First Encounters, New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1983, pp. 16-19, 97- 101.

From the perspective of decades of familiarity with his subject, Brooks undertakes a reasoned and objective assessment of Faulkner; in the sections on "Barn Burning," Brooks is especially sensitive to the moral nuances of the tale.

Geismar, Maxwell. "William Faulkner: The Negro and the Female," in Writers in Crisis (The American Novel: 1925-1940), London: Secker and Warburg, 1947, pp. 123-83.

Geismar offers a full discussion of the roles played by blacks and women in Faulkner's fiction; the critic deals with the importance of outsiders and pariahs in Faulkner's vision of things.

O'Donnell, George Marion. "Faulkner's Mythology," in...