Sanctuary Author:William Faulkner The most sensational of all Faulkner's works, Sanctuary was, according to its author, "deliberately conceived to make money." The story of Temple Drake, an Alabama debutante who is kidnapped by bootleggers, raped in a peculiarly horrible manner and sent to a Memphis brothel, it horrified and fascinated readers when in was first published in 1931... more », was indeed the first of Faulkner's books to make money and, in a somewhat bowdlerized form, became a motion picture. Yet Faulkner's talent surmounted his expressed desire for simply commercial success, and the tortured motivations of the characters and the ironic course of justice make Sanctuary not a shocker but a major and enduring novel.« less
Content warning for violence, alcohol use, and sexual violence. I could not finish it. It's very well written; if you're not sensitive to these topics you may want to read it.