For over half a century readers trying to make sense of Faulkner's characters have found themselves misled, conned, shocked, and left in the lurch. Faulkner's tricks continue to meet all too often with critical misunderstanding or disapproval. A new mode of inquiry casts light on the way the characters assume meaning in the novels. Taking on the roles of recollecting insider and discovering outsider, the reader can describe a rhetoric of character which links reader, work, and author. This study recreates strands of the reading process in Light in August, Absalom, AbsalomAe', The Hamlet, Go Down, Moses, and Knight's Gambit.