Characters
Major characters
Popeye – Criminal with an unsavory past, involved in the Goodwin bootlegging operation. Also has unspecified ties to the Memphis criminal underworld. His mother had syphilis when he was conceived. He is impotent and has various other physical afflictions. He rapes Temple with a corncob and then takes her to Memphis and keeps her in a room at Miss Reba’s brothel.
Horace Benbow – Lawyer who represents Mr. Goodwin in the trial for Tommy’s murder. He is well-meaning and intelligent, but proves ineffective and powerless in the face of a troubled marriage and Temple’s false testimony.
He does not appear in the 1961 film adaptation.
Tommy – «Halfwit» member of the Goodwin bootlegging crew. He is murdered by Popeye while he is trying to protect Temple.
He does not appear in the 1961 film adaptation.
Lee Goodwin – Bootlegger who is accused of Tommy’s murder, for which he is tried, wrongly convicted, and lynched.
He does not appear in the 1961 film adaptation.
Ruby Lamar – Goodwin’s common-law wife and mother of his child. She is shunned and reviled by most of the cityfolk for «living in sin» with Goodwin.
In the portions of the 1961 Sanctuary adapted from the first novel, Nancy Mannigoe (played by Odetta), who in the novels appears only in the Requiem for a Nun, takes the role originally used by Ruby.
Temple Drake – Student at University of Mississippi, daughter of a prestigious judge, a vapid «fast girl» who gets in over her head when she ends up meeting Popeye and the Goodwin bootleggers. She is raped and kidnapped by Popeye. At the trial, she lies and says Lee Goodwin killed Tommy.
Degenfelder wrote that the author mainly gave a «flat» characterization to Temple in the novel. The reviewer added that «Faulkner sees woman as the instrument who instigates and perpetuates this pattern of evil» and that the use of Temple was «attacking the chivalric code of the South».
Gowan Stevens – Vain, self-important, alcoholic man who takes Temple to the Goodwin house, where he hopes to buy some whisky. He gets drunk, gets beaten up by Van, and passes out. He leaves the house by himself the next morning, abandoning Temple, who then falls into Popeye’s hands.
Miss Reba – Owns a Memphis brothel where Temple lives under Popeye’s control; she thinks highly of Popeye until he brings Red in as a «stud», which shocks and scandalizes her.
Minor characters
«Pap» – Probably Goodwin’s father; a blind and deafmute old man who lives at the Goodwin place.
Van – A young tough who works for Goodwin
Red – A Memphis criminal who has intercourse with Temple, at Popeye’s request, so that Popeye (who is impotent) can watch; Popeye later tires of this arrangement and murders Red
Minnie – Miss Reba’s maidservant
Narcissa Benbow – Horace’s younger sister (the widow of Bayard Sartoris)
Miss Jenny – Narcissa’s deceased husband’s great-aunt, who lives with Narcissa and young Bory
Benbow Sartoris, aka «Bory» – Narcissa’s ten-year-old son
Little Belle – Horace Benbow’s stepdaughter
Miss Lorraine, Miss Myrtle – friends of Miss Reba
Development
Faulkner stated that he wrote the novel for financial gain and was not motivated by internal passion. He did the first draft in a three-week period in 1929 and later made a new version with toned-down elements when the publisher expressed reluctance to publish the original.
According to Muhlenfeld, initially Temple was not the primary character, but this was changed in a revision. E. Pauline Degenfelder of Worcester Public Schools argued that Temple, Popeye, and Horace were all main characters even though the work presented itself as mainly being about Temple.
Reception
Most reviews described the book as horrific and said that Faulkner was a very talented writer. Some critics also felt that he should write something pleasant for a change.
In June 1932, Sanctuary was banned from importation to Canada by the Canadian Department of National Revenue.
Faulkner once headed a troop of Boy Scouts but the administrators removed him from his position after the release of the book.
Gene D. Phillips of Loyola University of Chicago wrote that because audiences were preoccupied with lurid scenes instead of its moral philosophy, the book was a «best seller for all of the wrong reasons».
Time commented that «A favorite question on Shakespeare examinations is ‘Distinguish between horror and terror.’ Sanctuary is both. The horrors of any ghost story pale beside the ghastly realism of this chronicle. When you have read the book you will see what Author Faulkner thinks of the inviolability of sanctuary. The intended hero is the decent, ineffectual lawyer. But all heroism is swamped by the massed villainy that weighs down these pages. Outspoken to an almost medical degree, Sanctuary should be let alone by the censors because no one but a pathological reader will be sadistically aroused.»
Editions
On February 9, 1931, Sanctuary was published by Jonathan Cape and Harrison Smith. In 1932, a cheaper hardcover edition was published by Modern Library. This second edition is notable in that it contains an introduction by Faulkner explaining his intentions in writing the book and a brief history of its inception. In it, Faulkner explains that he wished to make money by writing a sensational book.
His previous books were not quite as successful as he had hoped. However, after submitting the manuscript in 1929, his publisher explained that they would both be sent to prison if the story was ever published. Faulkner forgot about the manuscript. Two years later, Faulkner, surprised, received the galley copies and promptly decided to rewrite the manuscript as he was not satisfied with it. He thought that it might sell 10,000 copies. This version was published in 1931. All later editions featured the text from the 1931/32 editions; however, a plethora of typographical errors existed, some of which were corrected in the later editions.
In 1958, a new edition was published by Random House with the co-operation of Faulkner, the entire text was reset and errors corrected. The copyright year is listed as «1931, 1958» in this edition. In 1981, Random House published another edition titled Sanctuary: The Original Text, edited by Noel Polk. This edition features the text of Faulkner’s original manuscript as submitted in 1929, with errors corrected.
In 1993, another version was published by Vintage Books titled Sanctuary: The Corrected Text which corrects additional errors. This is the only edition currently in print, though reprints of it bear the original novel’s title, simply Sanctuary.
Analysis
Various observers had their own interpretations on the themes of the novel. André Malraux characterized it as, in the words of E. Pauline Degenfelder of Worcester Public Schools, «a detective story with overtones of Greek tragedy». Cleanth Brooks believed that the work was a «mood piece» on, in Degenfelder’s words, «the discovery of evil».
Doreen Fowler, author of «Reading for the «Other Side»: Beloved and Requiem for a Nun,» wrote that «it could be argued that the title» refers to the main character’s sexual organs, which are attacked by Popeye.
Adaptations
In 1933, Sanctuary was adapted into the Pre-Code film The Story of Temple Drake starring Miriam Hopkins, with the rapist character «Popeye» renamed «Trigger» for copyright reasons. According to film historian William K. Everson, the film was largely responsible for the Motion Picture Production Code crackdown on risque and controversial subject matter.
The novel was later a co-source, with its sequel Requiem for a Nun (1951), for the 1961 film Sanctuary, starring Lee Remick as Temple and Yves Montand as her rapist, now renamed «Candy Man».
Faulkner stated that initially he wished to end the plot at the end of Sanctuary but he decided that, in Degenfelder’s words, «Temple’s reinterpretation would be dramatic and worthwhile.» Degenfelder believes that he may have gotten inspiration for the sequel from The Story of Temple Drake due to common elements between the two.
Phillips wrote that due to the difficulties of adapting the novel into a film with the same spirit that would attract major audiences, «no film so far has retold Faulkner’s story of Temple Drake with quite the impact of the original. And at this point it seems safe to predict that none ever will.»
Legacy
Phillips wrote that the novel «earned him the reputation of being a sordid Gothic writer that he still holds in the popular mind.»
Phillips wrote that «It is a matter of record that James Hadley Chase’s lurid novel No Orchids for Miss Blandish was heavily indebted to Sanctuary for its plot line.» According to Phillips, that means both film adaptations, No Orchids for Miss Blandish and The Grissom Gang, received inspiration from Sanctuary.
A Russian film with a similar plot – Cargo 200, set in 1984 Russia – was made in 2007.
