WILLIAM FAULKNER'S 'KNIGHT'S GAMBIT': A STUDY (MISSISSIPPI)

Knight's Gambit is among the most critically neglected of William Faulkner's works. The first aim of this study is to demonstrate that the previous neglect or misunderstanding of Knight's Gambit is based in various sorts of critical deficiency that can now be remedied by new readings of the stories. This study attempts to show that Faulkner's achievement in Knight's Gambit is in some ways comparable to his achievement in better-known works, that some of the same technique and power of Faulkner's other work can be found in Knight's Gambit.;Chapter II offers new readings of each of the six stories. "Smoke" is seen as a story about a story being told and about certain techniques of storytelling. Important to a reading of "Monk" is an understanding of the role of fictional voice in communicating myth and the role of myth in motivating human action. Faulkner's achievement in "Hand Upon the Waters" is the unsentimental development of a revenge theme and the subtle integration of that theme into a pantheistic view of a self-healing natural world. "Tomorrow" is a story in which the past has a stranglehold on the present, which is doomed to repeat it. "An Error in Chemistry" suggests that a community will triumph over an intruder and that the community, rather than the individual, confers personal identity. "Knight's Gambit" develops the theme of innocence and experience in the context of an impending World War II.;Chapter III examines the characterizations of Gavin Stevens and his nephew for the purposes of correcting some misconceptions arising from the assumption that the characterization of one story applies to the character of another and of offering an explanation of Steven's development as a consequence of his nephew's development.;Chapter IV demonstrates that the Knight's Gambit stories employ elements from both classical and hard-boiled detective stories, though none is a pure example of either type. Faulkner was familiar with the conventions, but he used those conventions for his own purposes.;Chapter I first places the stories--when and where they were published--and then summarizes their reception by contemporary reviewers and their treatment by subsequent critics. This summary provides the necessary foundation on which to build a critique of Knight's Gambit criticism and an accurate assessment of the stories.