All the King's Men [2006 Movie Tie-In Edition]

Description

One of the great classics of American fiction reissued as it was originally written.

Winner of the 1947 Pulitzer Prize, All the King's Men is one of the most famous and widely read works in American fiction. Its original publication by Harcourt catapulted author Robert Penn Warren to fame and made the novel a bestseller for many seasons. Set in the 1930s, it traces the rise and fall of demagogue Willie Talos, a fictional Southern politician who resembles the real-life Huey "Kingfish" Long of Louisiana. Talos begins his career as an idealistic man of the people, but he soon becomes corrupted by success, caught between dreams of service and a lust for power. All the King's Men is as relevant today as it was fifty years ago.

In a momentous publishing event, Robert Penn Warren's masterpiece has been restored and reintroduced by literary scholar Noel Polk, whose work on the texts of William Faulkner has proved so important to American literature. Polk presents the novel as it was originally written, and without the deletions required by its original editors. The result restores Warren's complexity and subtlety to an already near-perfect work, charging the characters with an energy and a more tangled web of relationships than previously was available. All the King's Men is a landmark in letters. This new edition brings it fully to life.

"The publication of a new, corrected edition of All the King's Men is welcome
news for all who care about American literature. Robert Penn Warren's
prize-winning novel has remained a classic since its publication more than half
a century ago. Editor Noel Polk has studied the manuscript and all other
available versions of Warren's finest novels, eliminating errors and retrieving deleted material. The result has been to enrich the character of narrator
Jack Burden and his protagonist, Willie Talos, in this story of tumultuous Louisiana politics which also has implications for morals and manners in the modern world." -Joseph Blotner, author of Robert Penn Warren: A Biography

---

This landmark book is a loosely fictionalized account of Governor Huey Long of Louisiana, one of the nation's most astounding politicians. All the King's Men tells the story of Willie Stark, a southern-fried politician who builds support by appealing to the common man and playing dirty politics with the best of the back-room deal-makers. Though Stark quickly sheds his idealism, his right-hand man, Jack Burden -- who narrates the story -- retains it and proves to be a thorn in the new governor's side. Stark becomes a successful leader, but at a very high price, one that eventually costs him his life. The award-winning book is a play of politics, society and personal affairs, all wrapped in the cloak of history.

---

Customer Reviews

An A-list summer must-read for the southern-fried lit fans!
This is Southern literature at its peak of perfection. I bought this for my BF a few years back when Sean Penn starred in the film remake of the original classic, as he usualy likes to read the books behind the film. Happily, I got much more than I bargained for. While I disagree about this being a "the best novel about American Politics", it is inarguably one of the best about Southern American life.
There are many kinds of writers: poets, storytellers(novelists), playwrites, and investigative journalists (reporters). Great literary works need to involve a combination of these, I think. Literature is what happens when language is spoken through the eyes of the soul. Literature transcends mere writing. Literature hits a nerve and pulsates throughout your entire being. It's what makes you speechless after you put it down. Such is the power of ATKM.
ATKM's force is driven by RPW's rich characterizations and narrative, seasoned by his deft prosaic hand. Clearly, the man knows how to tell a story. But this is more than that. It's an intimate look through a window in time and place that does what every great novel should do...pick you up and transport you, right into Willie Stark's crisp seersucker suits and spectator oxfords.
That being said, nothing feels more like summer than good ole', southern-fried drama lit, and this book was no exception. RPW's . glorious poetic prose reels you in form the first page. Hell, you can just hear the damned kudzu growing, taste the whiskey, the sweet tea, collards, fried-green tomatoes, feel the scorching, molasses-thick humidity dripping rivulets down your back with every page.
I'm not going to waste space feeding back to you the entire plot and storyline here. You already know that. Just add this one to your summer book list along with some Faulkner, Twain, O'Connor, Welty, Williams, et.al., and enjoy the ride with The Boss, Sugar Boy and Jack!

2010-08-23 (Philadelphia, PA USA) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 4

---

Good book
I wanted to find out about Huey Long and heard this was a good book to read- it's a novel, though.

2010-08-06 (Okemos, Michigan, USA) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 4

---

OVER-RATED.
ALL THE KING'S MEN is about the corrosive and corrupting forces of politics. When good people get involved in politics they generally become bad people. Its the story of a country chicken-kicker named Willie Stark who gets into politics to do good then becomes the king of the corrupt after he's elected governor.

My problems with this book are the backstories and the 'and then a miracle happened' moments. There is too much backstory, and much of it is irrelevant; Stark's election to the governor spot is a miracle that fell out of the sky; Stark was a chump and then he was governor. Getting from chump to governor woulda been interesting reading.

At the beginning the book is absorbing, later it becomes tedious, and towards the end I kept asking myself, ARE WE THERE YET? ARE WE THERE YET? ARE WE THERE YET?

2010-06-15 (HUDSON, FL United States) | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 3

---

Excellent book - just don't get the Polk "Willie Talos" edition
As with many of the "classics" it seems like there are a bunch of editions of "All the King's Men" floating around. I recommend that you get the originally published Robert Penn Warren edition, in which the main character is "Willie Stark", and not this "Willie Talos" edition. In my opinion, the tale of Willie Stark is one of the best books in 20th century literature, from a pure story-craft standpoint, and not to be messed with.

I'll admit I first came upon this book as part of the "summer reading list" for a school English class. There were some truly enjoyable books on that list as well as some that just seemed incomprehensible ("The Sound and the Fury", for example) and others where I had very little idea of what the author was getting at. "All the King's Men" was just a knock-your-socks-off novel. It has interesting characters, a (mostly) believable context, and enough suspense that you're not sure just what might happen next. The main characters in the book are Willie Stark, a powerful and corrupt state politician in the American pre-war South, and Jack Burden, a journalist from a wealthy background who essentially works for Willie. As the story begins, Willie hires Jack to find some dirt on a political rival that Willie wants out of the way. Jack's efforts to do so, and Willie's own hubris, eventually impact the lives of Jack and several people he loves, including the only consistent father figure he ever knew (an elderly judge) and Jack's teenage love. Jack tells the story of his own life intertwined with Willie's life, leading up to the climactic events where Willie finally falls from grace. In doing so, Jack shows how both he and Willie started out innocent but were gradually corrupted by the machinations of a system outside their control.

Although Willie's tactics seem brutal, they may also be seen as a way of exerting control over a system that would otherwise crush him and other common people. An outwardly even less powerful person, Willie's secretary Sadie Burke, who is herself from a poor background and is scarred by pock marks, turns out to be the one who pulls the strings that both bring Willie to power and knock him back down. Sadie is one of the most interesting female characters in 20th-century literature (much more so than her foil, the quiet, retiring, beautiful Southern belle Anne Stanton, who is barely developed) and is as much of a politician as any of the men.

This is a book that you can just enjoy reading from a pure standpoint of reading a political or historical novel, even if you don't want to get too deeply into analyzing it or understanding all the allusions and English-majory stuff. It's just a darn good book, period. I have seen the older movie adaptation but it is hard to do this book justice in the movie format since there's simply too much going on in it to fit comfortable into two hours.

2010-06-12 (Maryland, USA) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

---

not the novel
Beware, the "All the King's Men" version with ISBN-10: 082220018X is not the novel. It is the play, a short pamphlet.
Not only does Amazon not state this, but they put the reviews for the novel in the review section of this play.
I had to give it some stars, so I gave it 3, it doesn't mean anything, except for the fact that Amazon should fix this problem.

2010-05-10 | MonkGroupie (United States) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 3

---

World Enough and Time (Voices of the South)

Description

---

Customer Reviews

Out of a desire to be well read
As a music major during the mid-to-late 50s, I missed out on the great literature classes offered at Hendrix College, in Conway, AR.--except for Modern Novel (Dr. Walter Moffett). After retiring in 1994,I decided to begin collecting all the classics I could lay hands on in flea markets (a great source), Goodwills, and library book sales. I picked up World Enough and Time in 2005 in Eureka Springs AR merely because of Robert Penn Warren's reputation--three Pulitzers and a stint as US Poet Laureate.
I began without reading any online reviews--only the flyleaf. It had been so long since I read All the King's Men I had no recollection of it. I found this volume logy, dense and--as other reviewers have said--verbose. I had to read rapidly to keep up with the undercurrents of "idea," "truth," "lie," etc. About halfway through, after underlining several sentences that could just as well relate to my own late father, I read the reviews.
As one comment says, someone (reviewer) gave away two of the big events. Thereafter, I kept looking for them. I didn't realize until the "epilogue"--I thought the saving of Jeremiah would be the end--who was the villain. And the "surprise" came four pages from the end. I pursued the reading--hours' worth--until at midnight one night--I finished.
I'll keep the old, stained, well-used copy for my descendants, but I will not recommend it to anyone--unless it's my social worker brother in California.
At least I consider myself "more" well read--especially for one who desires to publish a novel. But never will I write in Warren's style--never.

2010-08-01 | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 3

---

A disappointing book
Back in 1958 I read All the King's Men and it was the best book I read that year. Recently I read a history of Kentucky and was interested in the Relief and anti-Relief factions which were big things in Kentucky in about 1820 and thereafter, and in the Old-Court-New Court dispute. I learned that this novel was laid in that time so decided to read it. The part of the novel which relates Jeremiah Beaumont's expedition to kill Colonel Fort and the trial are interest-holding, but the many pages preceding that part, and the many pages after that part I found quite boring and if I were a quitter I would have ceased reading the book. Much of the philosophizing which Jeremiah relates endlessly was a real drag. I do not know how much of the novel is based on fact, but I know that much of it is not. Warren states some charachters were elected to the Senate but they were not, altho some historical figures are referred to. I am always disturbed by fiction which says things which clearly are not true. If you enjoyed All the King's Men, I would say that you will not be admiratory of this work. I am not.

2010-05-06 | schmerguls (Sioux City, Ia USA) | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 2

---

To Name the Idea as All
I'll begin by praising the plot. This is a very well told story. Robert Penn Warren excites the reader's interest early in the text, and I never lost interest in the characters he creates, nor in their fates.

The prose style is lovely and intoxicating. Yet the author's is a very ornate, southern style. It is fair, I think, to say that Robert Penn Warren's style is diametrically opposed to the stripped down simplicity of Hemingway's early prose. Where Hemingway way is terse, Warren is verbose, where the one carefully removes adjectives, the other adorns his prose with a thicket of dense verbiage. If you think I exaggerate the importance of this issue, I offer the following quote as a sample of Robert Penn Warren's style:

"In any case, he had been spewed up out of the swamps and jungles of Louisiana, or out of some fetid alley of New Orleans - out of that dark and savage swill of bloods - a sort of monstrous bubble that rose to the surface of the pot, or a sort of great brute of the depth that swagged up from the blind, primal mud to reach the light and wallow in the stagnant flood, festooned with algae and the bright slime, with his scaled, armored, horny back just awash, like a log."

What are we to make of sentence like this? How does one approach an author capable of such a passionate, ornate prose? Either the reader closes the book, insisting that he will not read even one word more, or else he must give himself completely to this author, relinquishing his own will, setting himself afloat upon a current that will drag him inexorably into the heart of human sorrow and loft him to the heights of human imagination. There is no middle ground here. The reader cannot sit back and dispassionately turn the pages of a book whose every paragraph is aflame with passion and intellect.

Something must be said of the book's themes. The other reviewers have given a taste of Robert Penn Warren's interests. I would add only that I think his main theme is the danger of idealism, of falling in love with an idea and clinging to it with an unrelenting egoism. Warren writes at one point: "No, that crime for which I seek expiation is never lost. It is always there. It is unpardonable. It is the crime of self, the crime of life. The crime is I.... For ... it is the first and last temptation, to name the idea as all, which I did, and in that error was my arrogance, and the beginning of my undoing...."

Though I find it unlikely that Robert Penn Warren was interested in eastern philosophy, I nevertheless find it interesting that the sentiments expressed in the previous paragraph are central to certain forms of Buddhism. Those philosophies reject the very idea of the existence of a self, and they warn constantly about the danger of being caught up in ideas, in "views."

Well, regardless of the idiosyncratic interpretations and interests that I bring to the book, I hope that others take up this wonderful text and spend a few enjoyable evenings borne along on its current. As others point out, this is a dark book, but it is also a great story, well told, and a fierce, fiery example of what a passionate and deeply engaged writer can do with the English language. The fact that no one in this day writes in this style, and with this deep sense of commitment, makes me wonder about what we have lost in the last sixty years. Certainly it is refreshing to take up a text that is so passionate, so engaged, and to relish the experience of reading a great story told in a powerful, intoxicating style.

2009-07-11 | charliecal (Bellevue, WA United States) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

---

The World's Lie
This book is difficult, nay, impossible to review in the normal fashion. No adjectives come to mind but deep and dark, dark beyond your heart's wildest imaginings. It is if some daemon or muse from the underworld took hold of Robert Penn Warren's pen as soon as he set it to paper here. Nothing makes sense or lends itself to a rational review. The Andrew Marvell poem whence the book takes its title, with its carpe diem theme, is not apt at all to the book; nor are the Spenserian stanzas that preface the book applicable to it. It's as if Penn Warren had in mind another book altogether before he embarked upon its creation. It's as if Warren, a Pulitzer prize-winning poet, was seized by his dark muse and spirited away whilst the book took form. The poem that should form part of title or preface is Sir Walter Raleigh's "The Lie," but without that poem's consolation of the "soul."

The plot concerns, ostensibly at any rate, one Jeremiah Beaumont's coming of age in early 19th Century Kentucky and how he discovers, through trial (literally and figuratively) and tribulation that - as Raleigh sonorously intones it - the world is a lie.

The experience of reading the book was extremely visceral for me, as it will be for any poetically attuned reader. These lines from the book itself best describe its effect:

"Every gully and ditch was a bleeding wound, and every solid object, tree or stone or house, seemed to be losing itself in the vast irremediable deliquescence. Human strength and human meaning seemed to flow away, too, to bleed away with the dissolving world."

This deliquescence of everything of worth in the world is seamlessly interlarded - throughout the book - by Warren's dark muse, which is so deft as to quickly turn a description of a seemingly quiet domestic life into nightmare:

"Jeremiah says that that time made him think of what old age must be like when two people have outlived all their love and hate for each other, when they know each other's faults so well that the faults no longer have meaning, and the resentments are no more than the accustomed pain of a rheumatic joint, part of the nature of things, when they can live in peace because neither is more than a ghost to the other."

There is much ado about the law and justice herein. Jeremiah is himself a lawyer. When reading through these parts, I found myself thinking at one point that this would make good reading for anyone considering the law, only to realise quickly that it would turn any sensitive reader away from the law more powerfully than anything I have ever read. There is, in the end, no law, no justice, absolutely nothing of that nature that obtains here though Jeremiah (with the reader in tow) seeks it desperately. There remains only one truth Jeremiah discovers as he lies face down in the dark, awaiting his execution:

"It was dark, and in that darkness you could lie and not know the perimeter and boundary of your being if you did not lay finger to your face, for the darkness entered you and you dissolved into the darkness and were absorbed like a body thrown into the sea to sink forever and flow away from itself into the profundities of no intrusive light......There was always that truth."

Yes - one murmurs, much later, turning the last page - there is always that truth.

It becomes, upon finishing the novel, quite obvious why the literary world has turned a blind eye to this dark masterpiece in American fiction. It is simply too powerful.

2009-05-26 (Greenville, SC USA) | Helpful Votes: 4 | Rating: 5

---

Disillusionment in early Kentucky
This novel, one of Warren's best, is set in Kentucky in 1825, and is concerned with power and redemption - and also what may or may not be the truth. Jeremiah Beaumont, an idealistic lawyer and promising politician, becomes disillusioned with his benefactor (Cassius Fort) when he learns that Fort has seduced a young girl (Rachel Jordan). Beaumont "rescues" Rachel and proposes marriage to her; she accepts only if he promises to kill Fort. But Fort refuses to fight Beaumont, and in an excellent piece of character development, Warren shows the betrayal and weakness this refusal instills in Beaumont. He and Rachel marry anyway, but when Beaumont reads a political handbill revealing the affair between Rachel and Fort, he thinks Fort wrote it to end his political ambitions. Now he kills Fort and is arrested. He escapes from jail and learns that another character, Wilkie Barron, had written the handbill, not Fort. Rachel commits suicide and Beaumont is murdered while trying to get the truth told.

Warren, as part of his narrative method, uses a number of letters and diaries and a manuscript written by Beaumont found amongst his papers as a means of conveying the story. But, of course, these represent only Beaumont's side of the story and may not be "the truth" at all. Warren's characters are strongly drawn; the ambitious and evil manipulator, Wilkie Barron, is particularly good. The suicide of Rachel is a bit melodramatic, though it's tempered somewhat by the unhappiness and trials she faces living with Beaumont. Warren based the novel on a true story. A highly regarded work, it's among the best of his novels.

2006-04-02 (South Central PA, USA) | Helpful Votes: 14 | Rating: 5

---

The Collected Poems of Robert Penn Warren

Description

In this indispensable volume, John Burt has assembled every poem (with the exception of "Brother to Dragons") ever published by Robert Penn Warren, the first Poet Laureate of the United States.

---

Customer Reviews

Warren's Poetic Canon: 554
John Burt has provided an extraordinary service to students, teachers, scholars, and readers of Robert Penn Warren's poetry. Among the 554 poems included in this volume are previously uncollected poems and an unpublished poem, "With or Without Compass?" (in the textual notes)--all neatly organized chronologically in versions that are explained logically and thoroughly in the section on emendations and in the textual notes. The Explanatory Notes section adds glosses to words and references that might otherwise be obscure to a younger audience. Well formatted, well thoughtout, well articulated. "The" volume of Warren's poetry to own, to read, and to re-read.

2006-06-22 | Biblio-Bo (Commerce, TX USA) | Helpful Votes: 7 | Rating: 5

---

Truly comprehensive volume
I will leave it to others more qualified to sing the praises of Warren's poetry, and will merely add some vital information that is inexplicably left out of the books description above: this volume contains every poem published and unpublished that Warren ever wrote with the exception of his book-length poem "Brother to Dragons." It includes his earliest poems from the "Fugative" at Vanderbilt, the long and wonderful "Audubon: A Vision" and all subsequent books of poetry he published. Further, Warren was an constantly revising his poems, and the editor here includes Warren's final revised versions of the poems. Finally, Harold Bloom's introductory essay is a fabulous overview. In short, if you own this book and "Brother to Dragons" then you have ever word of Warren's poetry and you are set for a lifetime of enjoyment. Buy it.

2005-02-22 | tfn3 (Atlanta, GA USA) | Helpful Votes: 13 | Rating: 5

---

Warren's poems are a triumph of the human spirit.
I find most contemporary poetic practice notable only for its miserly concern for the difficulties attendant upon the small, the domestic, the momentary--huge acreages felled only to tell us that someone built a fence in their backyard once, and their husband helped them and the bindweed grew up around it and that was symbolic of relationships enduring and such. I'm therefore ensanguined by Burt's new collection (definitive enough, I should think, to silence the shrieks of Robert Penn Warren harpies), which teaches us that bindweed can't "hold candle to chokeweed," that fences tend "to grow thick with unfencing menses," and that husbands are meaningful only inasmuch as they "lung persevering into the guts of Cromwell." As a result, this collection--under Burt's sprightly editorship --provides a needed corrective; Warren takes an uncompromising view of the suffering subject splayed upon the rack of history, and the results are cheerful and life-affirming. This book made me realize that there's a reason for everything; I will recommend it to my co-workers.

1998-12-10 | Helpful Votes: 14 | Rating: 5

---

At Heaven's Gate (New Directions Paperbook)

Product Details

• Notes: BUY WITH Reliance, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and putting into play to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed
• ISBN13: 9780811209335
• Shape: USED - Very Good

Description

Plot summary

Sue Murdock searches for redemption throughout the novel. Her father repeatedly laments his inability to relate to his daughter. Sue rejects his assistance because she believes he is trying to control her. She has a stormy relationship with Jerry Calhoun, who, perhaps because he is profoundly naive and not particularly bright, is unable to understand her. Jerry clings to quaint notions of Southern honor and is respectful of the power and authority Bogan Murdock represents. Therefore, Sue can never be happy with him.

Sue rejects Jerry and soon finds herself with Slim Sarrett, a writer with a room full of pseduo-intellectual friends. Sue falls for Slim, who rejects honor and power in a way Jerry never could. In the end, however, nothing about Slim is real: he is a dedicated liar, deceitful to the last detail. As Sue discovers the depths of his lies - about his past and sexuality - she also discovers that he is not even, in fact, a particularly talented writer.

After rejecting Slim, and his artist's pose, she falls into a tepid relationship with Sweetwater. Sweetwater is a cynic, unlike Jerry, and a realist, unlike Slim. Sweetwater is also profoundly honest and struggles to maintain true to himself. Sweetwater falls in love with Sue, but she never loves him in return.

One can read Sue to represent the Southern lower class, abused and controlled for generations. Who can help the lower class escape its shackles? Not the lower class man who tastes a bit of success and abandons his class to serve selfish interests, as Jerry does. Not the intellectual, the artist, who poses at everything and is unable to fight for anything. The seduction is great, but the reward is small. Perhaps the honest man, Sweetwater's labor organizer, can save the class he to raise up even as he is betrayed and rejected by it. Perhaps Sue knows that Sweetwater's realism and devotion to cause can save her, but she is little interested in it.

Nashville background

At Heaven's Gate can be definitely linked to Warren's residence in Nashville, Tennessee during his time at Vanderbilt University. Scandals surrounding a Nashville bond-trading house, Caldwell & Company, in the 1930s provide a close parallel to some of the machinations of the Murdock empire. Several Caldwell-linked banks were declared insolvent, and the state government itself became embroiled in the matter. Too, Private Porsum is visibly based on Alvin C. York, Tennessee's most famous war hero, although in real life York had nothing to do with the bond scandal. News reports have indicated that in later years Warren acknowledged the link between his story and Nashville events during the Great Depression.

source: Wikipedia

---

All the King's Men (Modern Library, 170)

Description

---

Brother to Dragons

Description

---