A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner — A Reclusive Woman, a Vanished Suitor, and a Locked Room

About this episode

The episode explores William Faulkner's 'A Rose for Emily', a poignant story about a woman's tragic life and the town that observes her.

A woman alone in a decaying house. A town that watches her for fifty years, pitying, judging, whispering, and never once truly seeing her. And one room upstairs that no one has opened in forty years. Faulkner published it in 1930 and it just entered the public domain. This is a story that loses none of its grip on the second telling, or the tenth.  And you may have caught it: there's no rose anywhere in the story. Faulkner said the title was a salute, a flower handed to a woman whose tragedy could never be undone. The town watched her for fifty years and gave her nothing. The rose is Faulkner's, laid down after she's gone, the way roses usually are. If you enjoyed this story, buy me an e-book! https://www.buymeacoffee.com/donmcdonald or click FOLLOW Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

People in this episode

Host: Short Storyverses

Topics covered

• classic literature
• Southern Gothic
• isolation
• tragedy
• public domain
• Faulkner

Keywords

• A Rose for Emily
• William Faulkner
• classic short story
• Southern Gothic
• tragedy
• isolation
• public domain

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Apple Podcasts, shortstoryverses.com

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