The Unvanquished is a 1938 book of fiction by the American author William Faulkner, set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County. In seven episodes, it tells the story of the Sartoris family, who first appeared in the novel Sartoris (or Flags in the Dust). The Unvanquished takes place before that story, and is set during the American Civil War.
Contents
Structure
The Unvanquished has been variously described as a novel, a short story collection, and a short story cycle. It comprises seven chapters, all but one of which had already been published separately as short stories. Critics have disagreed over whether they come together sufficiently to make a novel. The seven stories, published in The Saturday Evening Post except where noted, are :
"Ambuscade" (September 29, 1934)
"Retreat" (October 13, 1934)
"Raid" (November 3, 1934)
"The Unvanquished" (namesake for the novel, in which it is titled "Riposte in Tertio") (November 14, 1936)
"Vendée" (December 5, 1936)
"Drusilla" (titled "Skirmish at Sartoris" in the novel), published in Scribner's (April 1935)
"An Odor of Verbena" (never published prior to the release of the novel )
These seven episodes cover the years 1862 to 1873, sometimes immediately following one another in chronology, sometimes jumping months or years.
The principal characters are Bayard Sartoris, John Sartoris (Marse John, Father), Granny, Ringo (Morengo), Ab Snopes, Cousin Drusilla, Aunt Jenny, Louvinia, and the lieutenant (a Yankee soldier).
Plot summary
The book begins with Bayard Sartoris and his slave friend Ringo playing in the dirt on the Sartoris plantation. A slave named Loosh smugly interrupts their game, hinting that Union armies have entered northeastern Mississippi, near their town of Jefferson. The boys do not fully understand, but when Bayard's father, Colonel John Sartoris, returns home from the front that day, they overhear him telling Granny Millard that Vicksburg has fallen. Loosh obviously knows about the defeat, and Bayard decides he and Ringo will keep watch over Loosh. Several days into the watch, the boys spot a Yankee soldier on horseback riding up the road. The boys grab a musket off the wall and shoot at the soldier, then run into the house as a fist pounds on the front door. Granny hides them under her billowing skirts and insists to the angry Union sergeant that there are no children present. Colonel Dick, a Yankee officer, calls off the search but makes it clear that he does so out of pity, not because he believes Granny. Afterward, the boys learn they only hit the horse, not the rider.
The next year, following Colonel Sartoris's instructions, Granny carries a heavy trunk of silver to Memphis for safekeeping. After digging the buried chest out of the ground, she insists that the slaves carry it up to her bedroom so she can watch it during the night. The journey to Memphis carries them through Union-occupied areas. One afternoon, men with guns waylay the travelers, stealing their mules despite Granny's attempts to fend them off. Bayard and Ringo take a horse from a nearby barn and try to pursue the attackers, leaving Granny to fend for herself. They are discovered asleep the next day by Colonel Sartoris's troop. Furious and anxious for Granny's well-being, the colonel sees them back to Jefferson personally; on the way, they accidentally overcome the thieves, a group of Northern soldiers, and capture their supplies, though the colonel allows the men to escape. Granny arrives home safely, but the next day a Union brigade rides to the house looking for Colonel Sartoris. He escapes, but the Yankees burn the house and take the chest of silver.
Granny decides to personally petition the Yankees to return her silver, slaves and mules. With Bayard and Ringo, she sets off for Alabama and the Union army. They pass an army of freed slaves that is also seeking out the Yankees. On the way, they stop at Hawkhurst, where Bayard's Aunt Louisa lives. Ringo had been looking forward to seeing the railroad that runs nearby. But the railroad has been destroyed and the house burned. At Hawkhurst, Bayard's cousin Drusilla begs him to ask his father to let her join the regiment as a soldier. She accompanies them to the river crossing where the Yankees are encamped, and they are engulfed in a sea of restless slaves. The Northern troops dynamite the bridge over the river, and in the confusion the wagon falls into the water. The Yankees retrieve them, however, and are so overburdened with slaves that Colonel Dick issues Granny an order for more than 100 slaves and mules, as well as for several chests of silver. Granny dismisses most of the slaves, but she and Ringo use the order to get twelve extra horses from a Union encampment.