William Faulkner’s novels have been translated into Spanish often by different publishing houses, mainly in Latin America, but Spanish publishers have been commissioning new translations in recent years. Two of these relatively recent publications have been examined and compared with earlier translations for two reasons: to find the extent to which the cultural background of the translator has coloured his choice of linguistic options, and to determine whether there is any evidence that it might be prudent for a translator to be familiar with the literary criticism published on the novel being translated. In the case of The Sound and the Fury, it was found that the second translator committed some very common errors. Above all, the analysis uncovered evidence of changes in point of view in connection with the delicate matter of the description of Benjy’s world, as well as of a clear lack of understanding of the source language.