GO DOWN, MOSES is a cycle of seven interrelated episodes (including the much-anthologized story, The Bear ) examining the complex, changing relationships among the descendents of the McCaslin family in Faulkner`s mythical Yoknapatawpha County. The novel recounts the early days of Lucius Quintus Carothers McCaslin, and continues through the lives of his many descendants, both black and white, in a noteworthy exploration of race and miscegenation, and of the impact of the South`s vanishing wilderness on the rural population.