As I Lay Dying vs The Sound and the Fury: Which Should You Read?
Both live on shelves: American Manuscripts, Facsimiles, Manuscripts, Death, Social life and customs, Fiction
As I Lay Dying
Written in stream-of-consciousness style with multiple narrators, the story follows a journey wherein the family of a dead woman try to transport her body to her birthplace in Mississippi in accordance with her wishes.…
1 film adaptation
vs
The Sound and the Fury
In many ways this was an experimental novel, using several differing narrative styles. Divided into four parts, the author relates the same episodes from four different viewpoints, using a different style for each. The…
1 film adaptation
The verdict
- Ratings are close across the board — any is a safe pick by score.
- The Sound and the Fury has the widest readership — 201000 ratings behind its score.
- As I Lay Dying runs the darker storyline; The Sound and the Fury stays the lighter read.
How to choose
Scores by source
| As I Lay Dying | The Sound and the Fury | |
|---|---|---|
| Goodreads | 3.7 (193649) | 3.9 (201000) |
| Hardcover | 3.7 (309) | 4.0 (1) |
| Apple Books | 4.0 (231) | 4.0 (40) |
Reception
| As I Lay Dying | The Sound and the Fury | |
|---|---|---|
| Ratings | 193649 | 201000 |
| Editions | 62 | 94 |
| Film adaptations | 1 | 1 |
| Want to read | 285152 | 298492 |
| Reading it now | 9257 | 10751 |
| Written reviews | 14613 | 12068 |
| Wikipedia attention | 17736 | 25213 |
| Pages | 250 | 335 |