This grand misadventure is the story of three unlikely thieves, or reivers: 11-year-old Lucius Priest and two of his familys retainers. In 1905, these three set out from Mississippi for Memphis in a stolen motorcar. The astonishing and complicated results reveal Faulkner as a master of the picaresque. nOne of Faulkners comic masterpieces, The Reivers is a picaresque that tells of three unlikely car thieves from rural Mississippi. Eleven-year-old Lucius Priest is persuaded by Boon Hogganbeck, one of his familys retainers, to steal his grandfathers car and make a trip to Memphis. The Priests black coachman, Ned McCaslin, stows away, and the three of them are off on a heroic odyssey, for which they are all ill-equipped, that ends at Miss Rebas bordello in Memphis. From there a series of wild misadventures ensues--involving horse smuggling, trainmen, sheriffs deputies, and jail.