rawal from the world quite as much as from his family, a wish almost granted when he nearly dies from a gas leak. What he retains, however, after he survives, is the wish to withdraw psychologically from his family, which has no meaning for him any more. His was a world out of joint, and emotional solitude is his way of putting it right again.
On the surface, the Compsons of The_Sound_and_the_Fury and the St. Peters of The_Professor's_House have all the attributes of the conventional nuclear family, extended by marriage. As each Compson in his or her own way escapes from the house (hardly a home) the attributes shift dramatically, with far reaching psychological consequences. In The_Professor's_House, by contrast, the appearance of the extended nuclear family retains its shape. That is, there are no idiots, harlots, or swindlers to speak of and little local gossip about how the St. Peters got to be so rich. But the emotional changes that occur because of the way the family members perceive one another very much mark the action of the novel. A
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