Set This House on Fire

Set This House on Fire is a 1960 psychological novel by American essayist and novelist William Styron. It is narrated by a naive young American lawyer, Peter Leverett, who experiences misfortune in a small town along Italy’s Amalfi coast while on vacation from New York. The novel also includes vignettes from the memories of a troubled, alcoholic Southerner, Cass Kinsolving. Cass’s and Peter’s lives collide when Peter suspects Cass has a connection to the death of his friend Mason. The novel utilizes tropes and forms from crime fiction, including secret love affairs, paranoia, and narrative suspense, digging deeper and deeper into its characters’ psyches.

The novel begins several years after the events unfolded in Sambuco, Italy. Peter is still haunted by his memories of what took place—the worst of which were the rape and murder of an Italian woman, Francesca Ricci, and suspiciously simultaneous death of Peter’s friend, Mason Flagg. That year, hours after Francesca’s body is discovered, Mason’s is found at the base of a cliff. The authorities conclude that Mason raped and killed Francesca, then committed suicide. Though Peter knows that Mason had an obsessive personality and was capable of sexual assault, he also knows that his former classmate is not capable of committing murder. Shortly after, he sees a political cartoon created by another American visitor to Sambuco during the same dates: Cass Kinsolving. Peter suspects that Cass might know something about the deaths and travels to Charleston, South Carolina to speak to him.

Peter relates that Mason was a millionaire whose wealthy family moved from the North to Virginia when his father bought a plantation. Mason had an alcoholic mother who virtually neglected him, but to whom he was obsessively attached. His childhood and teenage years were riddled with disciplinary problems, which culminated in the sexual assault of a thirteen-year-old girl. After the assault, Mason was expelled from their school.



Next, Peter reconstructs his memories of the events just before Mason and Francesca’s deaths. He recalls that Mason had scratches on his face at a party. He also saw him drunkenly go after a young girl, even threatening her and tearing her dress before she fled from his house. Cass courted that same girl later on. Afterward, Mason received a threatening note from someone named “C.” Mason proceeded to make fun of Cass by forcing him to perform an embarrassing skit in front of a party. Peter then traveled with Cass to bring medicine to Francesca’s terminally ill father. The next time Peter woke, it was to the news of Francesca and Mason’s deaths.

Peter explains Cass’s background. Before traveling to Sambuco, he grew up in a poor family in the South. From an early age, he loved art, and aspired to become wealthy and well known as an artist. He was drafted into World War II and experienced severe trauma. After returning, he was unable to continue painting and turned to alcohol to dull his senses. Feeling distraught over his lost ability to paint, he traveled to Sambuco hoping to find inspiration. He reveals that he also hoped to escape the memories of his own crimes, which included drunkenly abusing an African American family. The task of helping Francesca and her father became Cass’s agenda because he thought it would raise him out of his depression.

Cass explains that after he concluded Mason raped and killed Francesca, he killed Mason and threw his body off a cliff. However, he soon learned that though Mason raped Francesca, she was killed by a mentally impaired man named Saverio. Cass’s friend, the police officer Luigi Migliore, then helped to cover up Cass’s murder of Mason. Luigi rationalized his actions with the belief that Cass had suffered enough, and that keeping Cass from jail would allow him to be proud of avenging the crimes inflicted on Francesca and recover from his depression and addiction.



Cass returned to the South and recovered somewhat from his addiction. He began to paint again and reconnected with Peter. Peter helps him understand the sickness of character and past experiences that drove Mason to rape Francesca. At the end of the novel, Peter returns to New York, somewhat relieved to know that his friend did not commit murder. Yet, he remarks on the fact that the disaster was seemingly determined by fate, as visible in the formative experiences of Mason and Cass.