Recurring Events

Listed here are the significant episodes in the Yoknapatawpha saga that Faulkner recounts in more than one text.

To see the event records, use the buttons on this page - or enter the event KEYWORD in the Events SEARCH form: http://faulkner.iath.virginia.edu/family/events/

Virginia Du Pre arrives at Sartoris

Date: 1866-1869
Summary: After her plantation home in Carolina is destroyed, Aunt Jenny travels alone to her brother's plantation in Yoknapatawpha.
Texts: Flags in the Dust (10); "There Was a Queen" (732); The Unvanquished (235)
Keyword: Aesthetics>Recurring Episodes>Jenny arrives

Sartoris loses command of regiment

Date: 1862
Summary: At the end of the first year of the Civil War, the men in Sartoris' regiment vote him out of command.
Texts: Flags in the Dust (20); "Retreat"|The Unvanquished (21|52, 221); Absalom, Absalom! (100)
Keyword: Aesthetics>Recurring Episodes>Sartoris deposed

Colonel Sartoris escapes Union cavalry

Date: 1862-1863
Summary: When a Yankee cavalry troop arrives at Sartoris to capture the Colonel, he finds a way to escape.
Texts: Flags in the Dust (20); "Retreat"|The Unvanquished (33|72)
Keyword: Aesthetics>Recurring Episodes>Sartoris escapes Yankees

Sartoris builds railroad

Date: 1866-1877
Summary: After the Civil War John Sartoris (with one or two partners) builds the railroad that runs through Yoknapatawpha.
Texts: Flags in the Dust (22); The Unvanquished (221, 225); Requiem for a Nun (187); The Reivers (72)
Keyword: Aesthetics>Recurring Episodes>Sartoris builds railroad

Colonel Sartoris' death

Date: 1876
Summary: Redlaw (later called Redmond) kills John Sartoris to avenge an electoral defeat.
Texts: Flags in the Dust (23, 396); The Unvanquished (218) ; Requiem for a Nun (187)
Keyword: Aesthetics>Recurring Episodes>Colonel Sartoris killed

Burying the Sartoris silver

Date: 1862-1863
Summary: During the Civil War the Sartoris silver is buried to keep the Union troops from taking it.
Texts: Flags in the Dust (37); "Ambuscade" (6); "Retreat" (19); The Unvanquished (18); "My Grandmother Millard" (667)
Keyword: Aesthetics>Recurring Episodes>Burying Sartoris silver

Young Bayard avenges Johnny's death

Date: 1918
Summary: After his twin brother is shot down over France, Bayard hunts down and destroys the German pilot who killed him.
Texts: Flags in the Dust (42); "Ad Astra" (414)
Keyword: Aesthetics>Recurring Episodes>Bayard avenges Johnny

Johnny Sartoris shot down

Date: 1918
Summary: Johnny is killed flying during the Great War - as World War I was called at the time.
Texts: Flags in the Dust (43, 257); "Ad Astra" (414); "All the Dead Pilots" (521); "There Was a Queen" (735); The Town (123); The Mansion (210)
Keyword: Aesthetics>Recurring Episodes>Johnny Sartoris shot down

Bayard tries to return from World War I

Date: 1919
Summary: Bayard cannot make peace with his experience in World War I.
Texts: Flags in the Dust (52, 155); The Town (123); The Mansion (210)
Keyword: Aesthetics>Recurring Episodes>Bayard and the lost generation

Narcissa and the anonymous Letters

Date: 1919
Summary: Narcissa tells Aunt Jenny about the anonymous love letters she has been receiving.
Texts: Flags in the Dust (62); "There Was a Queen" (735)
Keyword: Aesthetics>Recurring Episodes>Narcissa's anonymous letters

Flem Snopes arrives in Jefferson

Date: 1908-1927
Summary: Along with his wife and child, Flem first appears in Jefferson.
Texts: Flags in the Dust (166); "Centaur in Brass" (149); The Town (4); The Mansion (141)
Keyword: Aesthetics>Recurring Episodes>Flem reaches Jefferson

Colonel Sartoris captures Yankees

Date: 1862-1863
Summary: Accidentally coming upon a troop of Yankees, Sartoris captures them single-handedly.
Texts: Flags in the Dust (230); "Retreat" (29-31);|The Unvanquished (66)
Keyword: Aesthetics>Recurring Episodes>Sartoris captures Yankees

Colonel Sartoris kills two carpetbaggers

Date: 1865-1874
Summary: When two Reconstruction agents try to help newly emancipated Negroes vote in a Yoknapatawpha election, Sartoris intimidates the former slaves at gunpoint and shoots the two white men.
Texts: Flags in the Dust (242); Light in August (53, 248); "Skirmish at Sartoris" (70-71);|The Unvanquished (70-71|207, 219, 222)
Keyword: Aesthetics>Recurring Episodes>Negro voting

Bayard and Narcissa marry

Date: 1915-1920
Summary: Narcissa Benbow and Bayard Sartoris marry.
Texts: Flags in the Dust (264); "There Was a Queen" (734); The Mansion (210)
Keyword: Aesthetics>Recurring Episodes>Narcissa marries Bayard

Byron Snopes robs the Sartoris bank

Date: 1914-1919
Summary: Disappointed in what he would call love, Bryon robs the bank and flees Yoknapatawpha.
Texts: Flags in the Dust (277); "There Was a Queen" (739); The Town (125)
Keyword: Aesthetics>Recurring Episodes>Byron robs bank

Old Bayard's death

Date: 1919
Summary: Colonel John Sartoris' son dies in a car being driven by his great-grandson, another Bayard.
Texts: Flags in the Dust (326); "There Was a Queen" (736); Requiem for a Nun (190); The Town (123,149); The Mansion (150, 210)
Keyword: Aesthetics>Recurring Episodes>Old Bayard's death

Young Bayard's death

Date: 1920
Summary: After fleeing Yoknapatawpha, Bayard dies in Ohio while testing an experimental airplane.
Texts: Flags in the Dust (389); "There Was a Queen" (736); The Town (125); The Mansion (210)
Keyword: Aesthetics>Recurring Episodes>Young Bayard's death

Benjy's name changed

Date: 1900
Summary: Mrs. Compson changes her youngest son's name from Maury to Benjamin.
Texts: The Sound and the Fury (29, 61, 69, 88); "Appendix: Compson" (340)
Keyword: Aesthetics>Recurring Episodes>Benjy's name changed

Caddy marries Herbert Head

Date: 1910
Summary: Secretly pregnant, Caddy marries a man from Indiana.
Texts: The Sound and the Fury (38, 77); "Appendix: Compson" (330, 332)
Keyword: Aesthetics>Recurring Episodes>Caddy's wedding

Benjy with Burgess girl

Date: 1910-1913
Summary: Missing his sister Caddy, and finding the gate unlocked, Benjy Compson walks up to a schoolgirl "trying to say."
Texts: The Sound and the Fury (52, 253); "Appendix: Compson" (339)
Keyword: Aesthetics>Recurring Episodes>Benjy accosts schoolgirl

Miss Quentin runs away

Date: 1928
Summary: Jason's niece leaves home, taking with her the money he has been hoarding.
Texts: The Sound and the Fury (73); "Appendix: Compson" (330, 335, 338, 341, 342); The Mansion (354)
Keyword: Aesthetics>Recurring Episodes>Miss Quentin runs away

Compsons sell pasture

Date: 1909
Summary: The Compson family sells the pasture to pay for Caddy's wedding and Quentin's education.
Texts: The Sound and the Fury (124); "Appendix: Compson" (330); The Mansion (354)
Keyword: Aesthetics>Recurring Episodes>Compsons sell pasture

Quentin commits suicide

Date: 1910
Summary: At the end of his freshman year at Harvard, Quentin kills himself by drowning in the river.
Texts: The Sound and the Fury (174, 196); "Appendix: Compson" (330, 331); The Mansion (354)
Keyword: Aesthetics>Recurring Episodes>Quentin's suicide

General Compson in Civil War

Date: 1862-1865
Summary: Several differing accounts of Compson's war record.
Texts: The Sound and the Fury (176); Absalom, Absalom! (217); "Appendix: Compson" (329); The Reivers (20)
Keyword: Aesthetics>Recurring Episodes>General Compson's military record

End of Caddy's marriage

Date: 1910-1911
Summary: After Caddy gives birth to her illegitimate daughter Quentin, Herbert Head throws her out.
Texts: The Sound and the Fury (196-198); "Appendix: Compson" (332); The Mansion (354)
Keyword: Aesthetics>Recurring Episodes>Caddy's marriage ends

The Battle of Jefferson

Date: 1863-1864
Summary: While there is no combat inside the town itself, during the Civil War Union troops occupy Jefferson and burn the courthouse and surrounding square.
Texts: "A Rose for Emily" (119); "Vendee"|The Unvanquished (115|184); "Appendix: Compson" (329); Intruder in the Dust (49); Requiem for a Nun (37, 182); The Town (321)
Keyword: Aesthetics>Recurring Episodes>Battle of Jefferson

Auction of Texas ponies

Date: 1899-1926
Summary: The men of Frenchman's Bend purchase the spotted horses that come from Texas with Flem Snopes.
Texts: As I Lay Dying (112); "Spotted Horses" (168); "Centaur in Brass" (150); The Hamlet (308); The Town (35);
Keyword: Aesthetics>Recurring Episodes>Texas horses auctioned

Ikkemotubbe becomes "Doom"

Date: 1794-1804
Summary: The displaced Frenchman De Vitry gives his ambitious friend Ikkemotubbe the nickname "Doom."
Texts: "Red Leaves" (317); "A Justice" (348); "The Old People" (202); Go Down, Moses (157); "Appendix: Compson" (325); "A Courtship" (362)
Keyword: Aesthetics>Recurring Episodes>Ikkemotubbe becomes "Doom"

Doom becomes chief

Date: 1795-1817
Summary: Born outside the patriarchal line of descent, Doom (Ikkemotubbe) schemes and murders to usurp the place of chief.
Texts: "Red Leaves" (318); "A Justice" (349); "The Old People"|Go Down, Moses (202|158); "A Courtship" (363)
Keyword: Aesthetics>Recurring Episodes>Doom becomes chief

Old Frenchman's arrival

Date: 1790-1838
Summary: Louis Grenier, from whom Frenchman's Bend gets its name, arrives in Yoknapatawpha and builds a huge slave plantation.
Texts: Sanctuary (110); "Lizards in Jamshyd's Courtyard" (136); "Hand upon the Waters" (70); The Hamlet (4); Intruder in the Dust (73); "A Name for the City" (202); Requiem for a Nun (6); The Town (338); The Reivers (7)
Keyword: Aesthetics>Recurring Episodes>Old Frenchman's arrival

Will Mayes lynched

Date: 1920-1925
Summary: McLendon leads the group of white men who lynch Will Mayes.
Texts: "Dry September" (177); The Mansion (206)
Keyword: Aesthetics>Recurring Episodes>Will Mayes lynched

Temple leaves train

Date: 1929-1931
Summary: Temple's ordeal begins when she jumps down from the chartered train at a country station to join Gowan.
Texts: Sanctuary (36); Requiem for a Nun (100)
Keyword: Aesthetics>Recurring Episodes>Temple leaves train

Gowan and Temple drive to Old Frenchman's place

Date: 1929-1931
Summary: Looking for more alcohol, Gowan and Temple drive Gowan's car to Goodwin's.
Texts: Sanctuary (37); Requiem for a Nun (108)
Keyword: Aesthetics>Recurring Episodes>Driving to Goodwin's

Temple Drake at Old Frenchman's place

Date: 1929-1931
Summary: Temple's ordeal at Goodwin's occupies 10 chapters in Sanctuary. In Requiem she rehearses it in a few hundred words.
Texts: Sanctuary (41-104, 215-220); Requiem for a Nun (108)
Keyword: Aesthetics>Recurring Episodes>Temple at Goodwin's

Looking upon evil

Date: 1929-1931
Summary: "There's a corruption about even looking upon evil" - in Sanctuary Horace Benbow says this; in Requiem for a Nun Temple says Gavin Stevens said it.
Texts: Sanctuary (129); Requiem for a Nun (102)
Keyword: Aesthetics>Recurring Episodes>Looking upon evil

Temple at Reba's

Date: 1929-1931
Summary: Popeye takes Temple to Reba's bordello in Memphis; her life there is described in detail in Sanctuary and summed up, with variations, in Requiem.
Texts: Sanctuary (142-159, 208-221, 224-230); Requiem for a Nun (111-114)
Keyword: Aesthetics>Recurring Episodes>Temple at Reba's

Temple testifying

Date: 1929-1931
Summary: After perjuring herself at Goodwin's trial, Temple is escorted away by her father and brothers.
Texts: Sanctuary (283-290); Requiem for a Nun (121)
Keyword: Aesthetics>Recurring Episodes>Temple testifying

Popeye's arrest and execution

Date: 1929-1931
Summary: Popeye is arrested, tried and hanged in Alabama for a murder he did not commit.
Texts: Sanctuary (302, 309-316); Requiem for a Nun (114)
Keyword: Aesthetics>Recurring Episodes>Popeye's execution

Nancy confronts white man

Date: 1909-1930
Summary: Nancy publically confronts the man who owes her money for sex; he knocks her down and kicks her.
Texts: "That Evening Sun (291); Requiem for a Nun (96)
Keyword: Aesthetics>Recurring Episodes>Nancy confronts white man

Flem and Eula marry

Date: 1898-1925
Summary: Because Eula Varner is pregnant, her father marries her to Flem Snopes.
Texts: "Spotted Horses" (166); "Centaur in Brass" (149); The Hamlet (162); The Town (6); The Mansion (4, 140)
Keyword: Aesthetics>Recurring Episodes>Flem and Eula marry

Cotton|Mink Snopes kills Houston

Date: 1898-1929
Summary: The Frenchman's Bend landowner Zack or Jack Houston is ambused and killed.
Texts: "The Hound" (152); The Hamlet (240); The Town (83); The Mansion (5)
Keyword: Aesthetics>Recurring Episodes>Houston murdered

Mannie Hait cashes check

Date: 1924
Summary: Mrs. Hait collects the insurance money for her husband's death in cash.
Texts: "Mule in the Yard" (253); The Town (243)
Keyword: Aesthetics>Recurring Episodes>Mannie Hait cashes check

John Sartoris raises Yoknapatawpha regiment

Date: 1861
Summary: At the start of the Civil War, Sartoris organizes men from Yoknapatawpha into a Confederate regiment and leads them to Virginia to fight there.
Texts: "Retreat"|The Unvanquished (21|51); Absalom, Absalom! (63); Requiem for a Nun (36)
Keyword: Aesthetics>Recurring Episodes>Sartoris raises regiment

Boon shoots Negro

Date: 1878-1905
Summary: Boon shoots at a Negro on the Square; in one text he hits him, in another he misses, in the third he misses the man but wounds a Negro girl.
Texts: "Lion" (189); Go Down, Moses (217); The Reivers (13)
Keyword: Aesthetics>Recurring Episodes>Boon shoots Negro

Henry Sutpen kills Charles Bon

Date: 1865
Summary: Near the end of the Civil War, Henry shoots Bon at the gate at Sutpen's Hundred.
Texts: Absalom, Absalom! (6, 79, 105, 139); The Unvanquished (222)
Keyword: Aesthetics>Recurring Episodes>Henry kills Bon

Sutpen arrives in Yoknapatawpha

Date: 1826-1833
Summary: Thomas Sutpen arrives with the people he has enslaved.
Texts: Absalom, Absalom! (4, 24); Requiem for a Nun (30)
Keyword: Aesthetics>Recurring Episodes>Sutpen's arrival

Sutpen refuses to join night riders

Date: 1866-1870
Summary: When other white men ask Sutpen to join them in violently resisting Reconstruction, Sutpen refuses.
Texts: Absalom, Absalom! (130); The Unvanquished (222)
Keyword: Aesthetics>Recurring Episodes>Sutpen rejects KKK

Sutpen recaptures the French architect

Date: 1826-1834
Summary: When the architect whom Sutpen is forcing to design his mansion and grounds runs away, Sutpen and other white men use slaves and dogs to hunt him down.
Texts: Absalom, Absalom! (207); Requiem for a Nun (32, 176)
Keyword: Aesthetics>Recurring Episodes>Architect captured

Ringo whips Ab Snopes

Date: 1864
Summary: Ringo, Buck and Bayard capture and whip Ab in revenge for his role in Rosa Millard's murder.
Texts: "Vendee"|The Unvanquished (109|175); The Hamlet (32)
Keyword: Aesthetics>Recurring Episodes>Ringo whips Ab

Buck and Buddy's experiment

Date: 1837-1860
Summary: After their father's death, Buck and Buddy McCaslin decide to 'reconstruct' their relationship with the slaves on their plantation.
Texts: The Unvanquished (46); Go Down, Moses (8, 248)
Keyword: Aesthetics>Recurring Episodes>Buck and Buddy's experiment

Young woman scratches name on windowpane

Date: 1863-1864
Summary: A young woman - in Oxford (once) or Jefferson (twice); unnamed, or named Celia Cook, or Cecilia Farmer - uses a diamond ring to scratch her name on a windowpane.
Texts: The Unvanquished (15); Intruder in the Dust (49); Requiem for a Nun(182)
Keyword: Aesthetics>Recurring Episodes>Etching name on window

Ab Snopes' war wound

Date: 1863-1865
Summary: Trying to steal horses from his own side during the Civil War, Ab was shot - by either Colonel Sartoris or a Confederate quartermaster - or perhaps hanged. Accounts differ.
Texts: "Barn Burning" (5); The Hamlet (18, 32); The Town (5, 43
Keyword: Aesthetics>Recurring Episodes>Ab's war wound

First white settlers arrive

Date: 1790-1835
Summary: The first of the white men who settled in Yoknapatawpha and "built Jefferson" begin arriving; this group changes somewhat between texts, but includes Alexander Holston, Doctor Habersham and his son, Louis Grenier, and (once) a Stevens and Vladimir Kyrilytch Ratcliffe III (an ancestor of V.K. Suratt|Ratliff).
Texts: "Hand upon the Waters" (70); Intruder in the Dust (73); "A Name for the City" (202); Requiem for a Nun (6); The Town (338); The Mansion (421); The Reivers (7)
Keyword: Aesthetics>Recurring Episodes>First settlers arrive

Eula's suitors ambush McCarron

Date: 1898-1907
Summary: Hoping to chase Hoake McCarron out of the county, the Frenchman's Bend men who have been courting Eula ambush him; together he and Eula drive them off, and afterwards Linda Snopes is conceived.
Texts: The Hamlet (153); The Town (105); The Mansion (135)
Keyword: Aesthetics>Recurring Episodes>McCarron ambushed

Mannie dies

Date: 1930-1940
Summary: Six months after they marry, Rider's wife Mannie dies suddenly.
Texts: "Pantaloon in Black" (238) Go Down, Moses (129); Requiem for a Nun (156)
Keyword: Aesthetics>Recurring Episodes>Mannie dies

Rider in jail

Date: 1940
Summary: In his grief after his wife dies, Rider kills a white man and is arrested.
Texts: "Pantaloon in Black"|Go Down, Moses (252-255|147-152); ; Requiem for a Nun (156)
Keyword: Aesthetics>Recurring Episodes>Rider in jail

De Spain creates the hunting camp

Date: 1870-1920
Summary: Major de Spain converts Sutpen's fishing camp into a hunting camp.
Texts: "Delta Autumn" (273); Go Down, Moses (181, 333); The Town (45); The Reivers (18)
Keyword: Aesthetics>Recurring Episodes>De Spain creates camp

Confederate cavalry raids Memphis hotel

Date: 1863
Summary: A raiding party of Confederate horsemen ride into the Gayoso hotel lobbey and almost capture a Union general.
Texts: Go Down, Moses (221); The Reivers ()
Keyword: Aesthetics>Recurring Episodes>Confederate raid in Memphis

Indian removal

Date: 1825-1850
Summary: After being forced to sign a treaty with the federal government, the Indians in Yoknapatawpha depart for land west of the Mississippi.
Texts: Go Down, Moses (245); "Appendix: Compson" (325, 326); "A Name for the City" (200); Requiem for a Nun (7, 169, 173); The Town (11)
Keyword: Aesthetics>Recurring Episodes>Indian removal

Compson land acquired

Date: 1813-1821
Summary: The first Compson in Yoknapatawpha (either Jason or Quentin) acquires land from the Chickasaws (either Ikkemotubbe or Matahaha).
Texts: "Appendix: Compson" (325, 328); Requiem for a Nun (11); The Mansion (367)
Keyword: Aesthetics>Recurring Episodes>Compson land acquired

Compson domain becomes housing development

Date: 1940-1945
Summary: After Jason sells the Compson place to Flem, it is subdivided into a housing development.
Texts: "Appendix: Compson" (331); The Mansion (365)
Keyword: Aesthetics>Recurring Episodes>Plantation to housing development

Benjy Committed to State Asylum

Date: 1933
Summary: Jason Compson commits his brother Benjy to Jackson, the state mental asylum.
Texts: "Appendix: Compson" (339, 341); The Mansion (354)
Keyword: Aesthetics>Recurring Episodes>Benjy committed

Harriss' death in New Orleans

Date: 1923-1942
Summary:Mr. Harriss, Melisandre Backus' first husband, is murdered in New Orleans.
Texts: "Knight's Gambit" (167); The Town (187); The Mansion (218)
Keyword: Aesthetics>Recurring Episodes>Harriss' death

Max tries to kill Gualdres

Date: 1941-1942
Summary: Max Harriss tries to use a vicious stallion to kill Captain Gualdres.
Texts: "Knight's Gambit" (231); The Mansion (282)
Keyword: Aesthetics>Recurring Episodes>Trying to kill Gualdres

Confederate monument unveiled

Date: 1900-1905
Summary: The monument to the Confederate soldiers in dedicated in Court Square.
Texts: Requiem for a Nun (188); The Town (118)
Keyword: Aesthetics>Recurring Episodes>Confederate monument unveiled

First automobile in Jefferson

Date: 1900-1910
Summary: The earliest car in Jefferson appears in the Square.
Texts: Requiem for a Nun (190); The Town (12); The Mansion (37); The Reivers (26)
Keyword: Aesthetics>Recurring Episodes>Jefferson's first car

Eula's medallion unveiled

Date: 1927
Summary: The medallion of Eula's face that Gavin Stevens and Linda Kohl imported from Italy is affixed to her monument in the cemetery.
Texts: The Town (371); The Mansion (165)
Keyword: Aesthetics>Recurring Episodes>Eula's medallion unveiled

Byron's children torture a Snopes

Date: 1927-1929
Summary: The children that Byron ships to Yoknapatawpha torment Clarence (The Town) or Doris (The Mansion) Snopes.
Texts: The Town (388); The Mansion (327)
Keyword: Aesthetics>Recurring Episodes>Byron Snopes' children