R. E. L. Masters. “Faulkner Concluding Novel of Snopes Family Is Unwieldy, Irritating and Dull.” Shreveport Times, November 1,1959, p. 4-G.

William Faulkner's chronicle of the Snopes family, which began with The Hamlet (1940) and was extended in “The Town” (1957), is concluded with this third volume, The Mansion. How Mr. Faulkner may feel about having at last wound up this complex, unwieldy narrative is anyone's guess, but this reviewer's most overpowering response to having finally reached the end is a heartfelt “thank goodness!”–couched in somewhat stronger terms for private consumption.

The three Snopeses who dominate this last book are Mink Snopes–the small, almost invisible, and infinitely patient killer, whose monomania makes him, despite his waifish appearance, about as sympathetic as a water moccasin; Flem Snopes–equally monomaniacal, but in the direction of acquiring everything within his reach; and Linda Snopes–no real Snopes at all, but going through life as Flem's daughter–whose hearing is lost fighting for the Communists in Spain, and who returns to the town of Jefferson to agitate among the Negroes, be investigated by the FBI, and eventually to bring about the novel's bloody and mildly surprising climax.

A large number of other characters–of greater or lesser importance–also skip, hop, meander, slither or skulk across those 436 pages. Only a few of them come to life–notably, Old Meadowfill, whose warfare against a neighbor's hog provides several hilarious scenes. The character who most lamentably fails to be brought to life is Eula Varner, Flem's wife and Linda's mother, who, as a kind of incarnate Venus, moves briefly across the Jefferson scene before taking her own life.