Editing Intruder in the Dust

{{Short description|1948 novel by William Faulkner}}
{{Italic title}}
{{for|the film adaptation|Intruder in the Dust (film)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}

{{Infobox book
| italic title      = 
| name             = Intruder in the Dust
| image            = IntruderInTheDust.jpg
| image_size       = 
| border           = 
| alt              = 
| caption          = First edition cover ([[Random House]])
| author           = William Faulkner
| audio_read_by    = 
| title_orig       = 
| orig_lang_code   = 
| title_working    = 
| translator       = 
| illustrator      = 
| cover_artist     = 
| country          = 
| language         = 
| series           = 
| release_number   = 
| subject          = 
| genre            = 
| set_in           = 
| publisher        = [[Random House]]
| publisher2       = 
| pub_date         = 1948
| english_pub_date = 
| published        = 
| media_type       = 
| pages            = 247
| awards           = 
| isbn             = 
| isbn_note        = 
| oclc             = 
| dewey            = 
| congress         = 
| preceded_by      = 
| followed_by      = 
| native_wikisource = 
| wikisource       = 
| notes            = 
| exclude_cover    = 
| website          = 
| module           = 
}}

'''''Intruder in the Dust''' '' is a 1948 crime novel written by American author [[William Faulkner]]. Taking place in [[Mississippi]], it revolves around an African-American farmer accused of murdering a Caucasian man.

==Overview==
The novel focuses on Lucas Beauchamp, a [[Black people|black]] farmer accused of murdering a [[White people|white]] man. He is [[exonerated]] through the efforts of black and white teenagers and a spinster from a long-established [[Southern United States|Southern]] family. It was written as Faulkner's response as a Southern writer to the racial problems facing the South. {{citation needed|date=September 2019}}

''Intruder in the Dust'' is notable for its use of [[stream of consciousness writing|stream of consciousness]] style of narration. The novel also includes lengthy passages on the Southern memory of the [[American Civil War]], one of which [[Shelby Foote]] quoted in [[Ken Burns]]' 1990 documentary ''[[The Civil War (TV series)|The Civil War]]''.

The characters of Lucas Beauchamp and his wife, Molly, first appeared in Faulkner's collection of short fiction, ''[[Go Down, Moses (book)|Go Down, Moses]]''. A story by Faulkner, "Lucas Beauchamp", was published in 1999.

The character [[Gavin Stevens (Faulkner character)|Gavin Stevens]] appears as a protagonist in Faulkner's short story collection ''[[Knight's Gambit]]'' (1949).

''Intruder in the Dust'' was turned into a [[Intruder in the Dust (1949 film)|film of the same name]] directed by [[Clarence Brown]] in 1949 after [[MGM]] paid film rights of $50,000 to Faulkner. The film was shot in Faulkner's home town of [[Oxford, Mississippi]]. In 1950, Faulkner was awarded the [[Nobel Prize in Literature|Nobel Prize for Literature]] for "his powerful and artistically unique contribution to the modern American novel."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1949|title=The Nobel Prize in Literature 1949 |publisher=Nobelprize.org |access-date=July 3, 2013}}</ref> The Nobel Prize was not specifically for his novel ''Intruder in the Dust'' but for the enduring contribution of his writing as a whole.

==Analysis==
In her contemporary review of the novel, Eudora Welty noted its humor.<ref>{{cite journal | jstor=3847827 | last=Welty | first=Eudora | title=Review: In Yoknapatawpha | journal=The Hudson Review | volume=1 | issue=4 | pages=33–47 | date=Winter 1949 | doi=10.2307/3847827 }}</ref>  Dayton Kohler's 1949 article noted the book's recognition of black Americans in the American south.<ref>{{cite journal | jstor=806854 | last=Kohler | first=Dayton | title=William Faulkner and the Social Conscience | journal=The English Journal | volume=38 | issue=10 | pages=545–553 | date=December 1949 | doi=10.2307/806854 }}</ref>  John E. Bassett has commented that this novel represents a "serious attempt to explore contemporary Southern racism through Gavin and Chick."<ref>{{cite journal | jstor=25111705 | last=Bassett | first=John E. | title=Gradual Progress and ''Intruder in the Dust'' | journal=College Literature | volume=13 | issue=3 | pages=207–216 | date=Fall 1986 }}</ref>  Jean E. Graham has discussed the contrasting rhetorical styles of Gavin and Chick throughout the course of the novel.<ref>{{cite journal | jstor=20077989 | last=Graham | first=Jean E. | title=Gavin Stevens in Faulkner's ''Intruder in the Dust'': Only Too Rhetorical Rhetoric? | journal=The Southern Literary Journal | volume=22 | issue=2 | pages=78–89 | date=Spring 1990 }}</ref>  Ticien Marie Sassoubre has examined the novel in the context of the social issues related to lynching in the American South, and then-recent American federal law with respect to black Americans.<ref>{{cite journal | jstor=23128734 | last=Sassoubre | first=Ticien Marie | title=Avoiding Adjudication in William Faulkner's ''Go Down, Moses'' and ''Intruder in the Dust'' | journal=Criticism | volume=49 | issue=2 | pages=183–214 | date=Spring 2007 | doi=10.1353/crt.0.0016 | s2cid=153508996 }}</ref>

D. Hutchinson has elucidated the unifying literary devices of the novel.<ref>{{cite journal | jstor=41801885 | last=Hutchinson | first=D. | title=The Style of Faulkner's INTRUDER IN THE DUST | journal=Theoria: A Journal of Social and Political Theory | volume=39 | pages=33–47 | date=October 1972 | issue=39 }}</ref>  Peter J. Rabinowitz analyzed Faulkner's use of the detective story in the context of the "discovery novel" as compared to [[Dostoyevsky]].<ref>{{cite journal | jstor=437695 | last=Rabinowitz | first=Peter J. | title=The Click of the Spring: The Detective Story as Parallel Structure in Dostoyevsky and Faulkner | journal=Modern Philology | volume=76 | issue=4 | pages=355–369 | date=May 1979 | doi=10.1086/390876 | s2cid=162258674 }}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite book|last=Fadiman|first=Regina|title=Faulkner's "Intruder in the Dust": Novel into Film|publisher=[[University of Tennessee Press]]|place=[[Knoxville, Tennessee]]|year=1978}}
* {{cite journal|last=Degenfelder|first=E. Pauline|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/43795413|title=The Film Adaptation of Faulkner's "Intruder in the Dust"|journal=[[Literature/Film Quarterly]]|volume=1|issue=2|date=Spring 1973|pages=138–148|jstor=43795413}}
* {{cite journal|last=Li|first=Stephanie|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/24908324|title="Intruder in the Dust" From Novel to Movie: The Development of Chick Mallison|journal=[[Faulkner Journal]]|volume=16|issue=1/2|date=Fall 2000|pages=105–118|jstor=24908324}}

==External links==
* {{FadedPage|id=20190423|name=Intruder in the Dust}}
* [https://archive.today/20121210090845/http://pages.emerson.edu/faculty/John_Anderson/e_faulkn.htm John Anderson page on William Faulkner]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20071226171326/http://www6.semo.edu/cfs/tfn_online/light_longe.htm Laurel Longe's article ''Lucas Beauchamp, Joe Christmas, and the Color of Humanity'']
* [http://faulkner.iath.virginia.edu/?text=ID ''Intruder in the Dust'' at Digital Yoknapatawpha]

{{s-start}}
{{succession box |
  before=''[[Go Down, Moses]]'' |
  title=Novels set in [[Yoknapatawpha County]] |
  years= |
  after=''[[The Town (Faulkner)|The Town]]''
}}
{{end}}
{{Faulkner}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Intruder in the Dust}}
[[Category:1948 American novels]]
[[Category:American crime novels]]
[[Category:American novels adapted into films]]
[[Category:Novels about racism]]
[[Category:Novels by William Faulkner]]
[[Category:Random House books]]
[[Category:Southern noir novels]]