Three Famous Short Novels: Spotted Horses, Old Man, The Bear

This volume gathers three of William Faulkner’s most celebrated novellas, all set in his fictional Yoknapatawpha County in Mississippi. In “Spotted Horses,” a wry, energetic tale, the arrival of untamed ponies exposes the pride, greed, and comic stubbornness of small-town life. “Old Man” follows a convict swept up in the great Mississippi flood, transforming an ordeal of survival into a meditation on endurance and unexpected responsibility. “The Bear,” often considered one of Faulkner’s finest achievements, traces a young boy’s coming of age during annual hunting trips, confronting the vanishing wilderness and the burden of Southern history. Faulkner, a Nobel Prize–winning author, is renowned for his layered prose and profound exploration of memory, race, and moral struggle in the American South. These novellas showcase his range—from humor to high drama—and offer an accessible entry into his richly imagined world for both longtime admirers and new readers.