Michael Millgate

The testamentary acts of Michael Millgate's title are those strategies of self-protection and self-projection - textual and personal, before and after death - by which authors seek in old age to enhance posterity's view of themselves and their work. The four figures examined here in detail - Robert Browning, Alfred Tennyson, Henry James, and Thomas Hardy - sought to maintain their personal privacy and control the integrity of their texts by, for example, destroying documents, writing autobiographies, revising their earlier works and supplying them with retrospective prefaces, and publishing so-called `collected' editions that omitted items they no longer wished to preserve.

This volume brings together for the first time eight masterful essays on William Faulkner by one of his most eloquent and influential critics. Michael Millgate established himself as a leading authority on Faulkner with the publication of The Achievement of William Faulkner more than thirty years ago. Since then, in pieces such as "Faulkner and History" and "Faulkner's Masters," he has continued to reflect upon the legendary southern writer, his unique sense of physical place, and his place in literary history. Written with humor and insight, Faulkner's Place is lively, readable, and extremely accessible both to longtime Faulkner enthusiasts and to those who are new to his work. Taken together, the essays represent an impressive contribution to the understanding and appreciation of Faulkner's richly varied career.