French Architect

The architect who designs the mansion and grounds at Sutpen's Hundred is identified as "French," but comes (like the slaves who build the house) from the French Caribbean: "all the way from Martinique" (26). The first time he is mentioned, Miss Rosa's description anticipates the story by six chapters: "that French architect who looked like he had been hunted down and caught in turn by the negroes" - i.e. by the slaves whom, like the architect, are brought to Yoknapatawpha by Sutpen (10). The 3rd person narrator describes him as "a small, alertly resigned man with a grim, harried Latin face" (26). Even while living in the mud out of which he creates Sutpen's house, he wears his elegant clothing: "his embroidered vest and Fauntleroy tie and a hat like a Baptist congressman" (177).