Requiem for a Nun

William Faulkner’s Requiem for a Nun revisits Sanctuary’s Temple Drake, now married to Gowan Stevens and the mother of two young children. On the eve of an execution, Temple is forced to confront her past as she explores how earlier violent events influenced the murder of her infant child by its nurse, Nancy. Beginning with the judgement of Nancy’s death sentence, Faulkner’s taut narrative focuses on how one’s past can impact the future of an entire family.
Published in 1950, 19 years after Sanctuary, Requiem for a Nun is unique for Faulkner’s use of both prose and play narrative. It was adapted for theater in 1956 by Albert Camus, who also wrote the preface to the French translation of the novel.
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