Sanctuary (Faulkner novel)

Sanctuary

First edition cover. An alternate cover features shades of brown instead of blue.
Author	William Faulkner
Cover artist	Arthur Hawkins Jr.
Country	United States
Language	English
Publisher	Jonathan Cape and Harrison Smith
Publication date	1931
Media type	Print (hardback & paperback)
Preceded by	As I Lay Dying
Followed by	Light in August

Sanctuary is a novel by the American author William Faulkner about the rape and abduction of a well-bred Mississippi college girl, Temple Drake, during the Prohibition era. It is considered one of his more controversial works, given its theme of rape. First published in 1931, it was Faulkner's commercial and critical breakthrough, establishing his literary reputation. It is said Faulkner claimed it was a "potboiler", written purely for profit, but this has been debated by scholars and Faulkner's own friends.

The novel provided the basis for the films The Story of Temple Drake (1933) and Sanctuary (1961).

Faulkner later wrote Requiem for a Nun (1951) as a sequel to Sanctuary.

The novel is set in Faulkner's fictional Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi and takes place in May/June 1929.

In May 1929, Horace Benbow, a lawyer frustrated with his life and family, suddenly leaves his home in Kinston, Mississippi, and hitchhikes his way back to Jefferson, his hometown in Yoknapatawpha County. There, his widowed sister, Narcissa Sartoris, lives with her son and her late husband's great-aunt, Miss Jenny. On the way to Jefferson, he stops for a drink of water near the "Old Frenchman" homestead, which is occupied by the bootlegger Lee Goodwin. Benbow encounters a sinister man called Popeye, an associate of Goodwin's, who brings him to the decrepit mansion where he meets Goodwin and the strange people who live there with him. Later that night, Benbow catches a ride from Goodwin's place into Jefferson. He argues with his sister and Miss Jenny about leaving his wife, and meets Gowan Stevens, a local bachelor who has recently been courting Narcissa. That night, Benbow moves back into his parents' house, which has been sitting vacant for years.

After meeting Benbow, Stevens leaves to go to a dance in Oxford that same night. Stevens has returned to Jefferson after graduating college in Virginia, where he "learned to drink like a gentleman." He is from a wealthy family and prides himself on now having adopted the worldview of the Virginia aristocracy. His date that night is Temple Drake, a student at Ole Miss, who has a reputation of being a "fast girl." Temple also comes from a wealthy Mississippi family and is the daughter of a powerful judge. While they're out, Gowan and Temple make plans to meet the next morning to travel with her classmates to Starkville for a baseball game. But, after taking Temple home after the dance, Gowan learns from some locals where he can find moonshine and spends the night drinking heavily. He passes out in his car at the train station where he is supposed to rendezvous with Temple the next morning.