Soldiers wages

Soldiers' Wages is the first novel published by William Faulkner ; it was first published in 1926 under the original English title Soldiers' Pay by Boni & Liveright in New York. The novel was published in German in 1958 in a translation by Susanna Rademacher as vol. 260 of the rororo paperbacks .

action

The novel is about an air officer returning home from the First World War, who no longer manages to gain a foothold in his old homeland, Georgia . He is accompanied on his return home by another veteran and a war widow . A bad head injury sustained in a crash eventually leads to his death.

classification

Like Hemingway , Faulkner is also a student of Sherwood Anderson , who probably owes the publication at Boni & Liveright mainly to. The novel is also in the number of other novels from the literature with the term "Lost Generation" ( Lost Generation ) is labeled.

Autobiographical references

William Faulkner wanted to take part in the events of the First World War as an aviator himself and therefore also reported to the Royal Air Force ( he was still too young for the American armed forces at the time). However, during his training he did not even get to his own solo flight because the war was over before then. Nevertheless, when he returned home, he spread the myth that he had been shot down as a plane. Later, as an already successful author, he got his flight license.