alternatehistory.com

Two books that have been referred to as the "Great American Novel", Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind and William Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom!, came out in 1936. Gone with the Wind was a great critical and financial success in part due to its romanticized view of the South. Absalom, Absalom!, which deconstructs the idealism of the South shown in books like Gone, was released to mixed reviews and sold only moderately well (its reputation would only go up as its author's did over the decades).

What if Absalom, Absalom! was the one that was successful and won the Pulitzer, and Gone with the Wind was seen at the time as stereotypical trash? Would Absalom greatly influence the way fiction portrayed the South like Gone did?

I admit that this is dangerously close to being ASB due to how much harder to read Absalom is than Gone, and how much the views of whites in 1936 hadn't changed since the time of the Civil War. But I wanted to ask anyway.
Top