The Soun and the Fury is one of the most celebrated novels of the Twentieth Century, written by American author William Faulkner, which makes use of the stream of consciousness narrative technique pioneered by European authors such as James Joyce and Virginia Woolf. Published in 1929, it was his fourth novel. It first received commercial success in 1931 when Faulkner's novel Sanctuary, a sensationalist story which Faulkner later admitted was originally written only for money, drew widespread attention to the author. Critical praise soon followed. The book continues to sell well as of 2007, and it has become part of standard high school and university curricula around the United States.