Letter to Edmund Wilson

This chapter contains Vladimir Nabokov's letter to Edmund Wilson, in which he criticized William Faulkner's novel Light in August that was sent to him by Wilson. In his letter, dated November 21, 1948, Nabokov expresses his dislike of Faulkner's work. In particular, Nabokov says he detests Faulkner's romanticism and claims that he can only explain the latter's popularity in France by the fact that all the popular mediocre writers in the country in recent years have also had their fling at l'homme marchait, la nuit était sombre [the man was walking, the night was dark]. According to Nabokov, Light in August is one of the tritest and most tedious examples of a trite and tedious genre.