The Wild Palms

Abstract

The Wild Palms is generally considered to be as puzzling as it is disturbing. The typical critical reaction when the novel first appeared in 1939 expressed consternation and confusion: not surprisingly, perhaps, many reviewers castigated Faulkner for yoking together two such seemingly disparate narratives; others, although more sympathetic to his resolute experimentalism, remained oblivious to the links between the two sections.¹ This misunderstanding of the structure of the book is reflected in its publishing history: the New American Library published the work as two separate novels in 1948; then in 1954 they placed both ‘Wild Palms’ and ‘Old Man’ in one volume but separated the sections into discrete units rather than alternating chapters, attempting perhaps to appeal to bargain-hunters by stating on the paper cover that the contents comprised ‘Two complete novels originally published in one volume, entitled The Wild Palms’. In 1946, The Portable Faulkner contained ‘Old Man’ without ‘Wild Palms’; and in 1950, the Modern Library first published that literary land-mine still available in the Vintage edition: Three Famous Short Novels: Spotted Horses, Old Man, The Bear.