The Hamlet is a novel by the American author William Faulkner, published in 1940, about the fictional Snopes family of Mississippi.
Most of the book centers on Frenchman's Bend, into which the heirs of Ab and his family have migrated from parts unknown.
In the beginning of the book, Ab, his wife, daughter, and son Flem settle down as tenant farmers beholden to the powerful Varner family.
As the book progresses, the Snopeses move from being poor outcasts to a very controversial, if not dangerous, element in the life of the town.
Faulkner uses the eccentricities of the Snopeses to great comic effect, most notably in his description of Ike Snopes and his carnal inclinations toward a cow.
Ab is discovered to be mixed up in a second incident of barn-burning, over a dispute with de Spain over his wife's expensive French carpet.
Jody agrees to take on Flem as a clerk in the Varner store to keep Ab happy.
Ab picks up his wife's milk separator; trades Pat Stamper several teams, and comes out much the worse.
Flem disrupts the normal business practices of the Varner store by insisting on payment up front and always calculating the bill correctly.
Labove is drawn back to teaching at the Frenchman's Bend school even after he receives his university degree.
Labove worries about retribution until he realizes that Eula does not even see the event as important enough to complain to her older brother.
They wander down to Varner's store, where the verdict against Mink is discussed and the peep show in Mrs. Littlejohn's barn begins again.
Ike Snopes rises early and pursues Houston's cow; there are misadventures and he is chased off.
Ratliff determines to stop the peep show; gets other Snopeses involved, as they are concerned for the Snopes name.
Houston is drawn back to Yoknapatawpha County; he marries his wife, and they move into the house he has built for her; his stallion kills her.
Mink injures his neck trying to escape from a moving carriage after his arrest, but is treated and placed in jail.
Ratliff, Armstid, and Bookwright go out to the old Frenchman place at night and find Flem digging in the garden.
Speculation about what is out in the garden at the old Frenchman place: local legend has it that Confederate treasure was buried there when the Union army came through.
They agree to get Uncle Dick Bolivar, a local diviner, out to the property the next night, after Flem has gone to sleep.
Uncle Dick manages to locate three cloth bags with money buried in the earth; the three men confederate to purchase the property.
Ratliff rides out to find Flem and purchases the old Frenchman place from him; Flem refuses to negotiate and the three men own the property; they move out to find the treasure and discover that it is a "salted gold mine" when they finally examine the dollars that inspired them to purchase the property in the first place (none were manufactured before the Civil War).
Margaret Dunn has discussed parallelisms and contrasts between The Hamlet and Go Down, Moses, the idea of "freedom," and how Flem imitates and builds upon the actions of Will Varner.
[1] Joseph Gold has noted the complicity of the Jefferson townspeople in the rise of Flem Snopes, by their passivity and the latent traits of Snopesism that lurk in the people in less extreme form.
[3] Richard Godden has examined economic and legal aspects of land ownership and disputes in The Hamlet.
[5] Carey Wall has discussed the nature of The Hamlet as "a chain of episodes rather than a tightly woven plot.
"[6] Owen Robinson has noted the contrast in the narrative style and tone between The Hamlet and The Town.
[10] The movie The Long, Hot Summer (1958), starring Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, is very loosely based on stories by William Faulkner, primarily The Hamlet.