FAULKNER, William

The Modern Library

Book No. 61

[380] pp.

1932

7 1/4″ x 5 1/4″

Jacket design by E. McKnight Kauffer ’40

Sanctuary is a 1931 novel by American author William Faulkner about the rape and abduction of an upper-class Mississippi college girl, Temple Drake, during the Prohibition era. The novel was Faulkner’s commercial and critical breakthrough and established his literary reputation, but was controversial given its themes. It is said Faulkner claimed it was a “potboiler”, written purely for profit, but this has been debated by scholars and Faulkner’s own friends.

The novel provided the basis for the films The Story of Temple Drake (1933) and Sanctuary (1961). It also inspired the novel No Orchids for Miss Blandish as well as the film of the same title and The Grissom Gang, which derived from No Orchids for Miss Blandish.

Faulkner later wrote Requiem for a Nun (1951) as a sequel to Sanctuary.