Sanctuary

New York: Jonathan Cape & Harrison Smith, 1931 First edition, first printing. Original publisher's gray cloth-backed red paper-covered boards, spine lettered in red, and red and white patterned endpapers; original dust jacket with modern geometric designs to the front panel and spine in black, blue and white, lettered in black and white. Near fine book, with light toning to spine, a very gentle lean to spine, and bookseller's label rear pastedown; very good unclipped dust jacket, with light toning to spine and extremities, shallow chipping to spine ends, a couple of small chips to top edge of front panel (lettering unaffected), a few small closed tears to edges, and some light chipping to corners. Overall, a pleasing copy. Sanctuary is a Southern Gothic novel set in Jefferson, the seat of the fictional Yoknapatawpha County in Mississippi, based on Faulkner's childhood experiences in Oxford. His most sensational novel, it tells the story of Temple Drake, a young Mississippi woman who becomes the victim of the criminal assistant of a notorious Tennessee moonshiner. After being raped and kidnapped, Drake is smuggled to a Memphis brothel, where she becomes hardened by her harsh new environment. Several townspeople seek justice for Temple by attempting to have her assailant arrested and vindicating the moonshiner who has been falsely accused. Although readers and critics were alarmed by its dark plotline, Sanctuary's eloquent prose and compelling story made the novel Faulkner's first commercial breakthrough. As the dust jacket lauds, "the novel is hideously and terrifically- and therefore beautifully- great." Faulkner would later return to Temple Drake's story in his 1951 text Requiem for a Nun. . First Edition. Hard Cover. Near Fine/Dust Jacket Included.