This Norton Critical Edition includes:
- The authoritative text of Absalom, Absalom!, established by Noel Polk in 1986 and accompanied by Susan Scott Parrish's introduction and explanatory footnotes.
- Two maps and five other images.
- A rich selection of background and contextual materials carefully arranged to draw readers into the American South of William Faulkner's imagination. Topics include "Contemporary Reception," "The Writer and His Work," and "Historical Contexts."
- Seventeen critical essays on the novel's major themes, from classic literary critiques to recent scholarship on, among other topics, race, gender, and the environment.
- A chronology and a selected bibliography.