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Phenomenal. Timeless writing. Every word seems so deliberate. Tight plot. Spun like a spinner.
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All the King's Men: Three Stage Versions
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The novel All the King's Men had its genesis in Warren's stage play Proud Flesh, unpublished in his lifetime. He also wrote a subsequent unpublished play titled Willie Stark: His Rise and Fall and a later dramatic version of the novel that shared the title All the King's Men.
This volume is the first to collect all three dramatic texts.
This volume is the first to collect all three dramatic texts.
264 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1,1960
This edition
- Format
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264 pages, Hardcover
- Published
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July 4, 2000 by University of Georgia Press
- ISBN
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9780820320977
- ASIN
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0820320978
- Language
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English
About the author
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Robert Penn Warren was an American poet, novelist, and literary critic and was one of the founders of New Criticism. He was also a charter member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers. He founded the literary journal The Southern Review with Cleanth Brooks in 1935. He received the 1947 Pulitzer Prize for the Novel for All the King's Men (1946) and the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1958 and 1979. He is the only person to have won Pulitzer Prizes for both fiction and poetry.
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Community Reviews
Rating(3.9 / 5.0, 19 votes)
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19 reviews All reviews
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This book is a must read if only for Willy Stark's description of good and bad. An extraordinary book.
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There are some books I love, and others I respect or emulate and admire. All the King's Men managed to be all three; indeed, as I write this an hour or two after finishing, I am hard-pressed to describe either the book or my feelings for it, except to say that it is a big aching book, big as life itself, and that one ought to read it if only for the churning, impossible feeling it leaves you with after. Georg Lukacs, in his 1916 classic, The Theory of the Novel, wrote that great novelists finger the chasm of impossibility in life: they find the places where one part of existence rubs up against the other, and a chasm or gap opens up because they don't fit. These are the holes we fall into in life--the stuff of terror and truth, chasms of depth. Robert Penn Warren does just this with his exploration of the Time-Reponsiblity-Historical Greatness-Fate-Corruption question. A book both Greek and Shakespearean in proportions, ancient in its portrayal of tragedy, and yet every bit American, modern and fresh, it asks the big questions and--with the exception of one or two rather obvious plot conveniences that occur late in the book but which, in hindsight seem necessary if inelegant--takes neither shortcuts nor easy answers, but presses steadily and solidly at the faults of life itself. A must read. Also a beautiful read at the sentence level--from about the middle of the book on, I kept bookmarking passages and re-reading sentences (some as long as two pages; Warren is a master of the run-on), partly for the sheer breathtaking beauty and originality of how they were written, but also to learn (thus the emulation). From meditations on the incongruities of life to questions of fate, free will, and faith, to what, to this reader at least, read as extended riffs on the nature of the writing life and perspective of the writer, the book offers a dazzling array of ideas, questions, problems, possible solutions, and images. So this book is a thing of beauty and greatness--a massive accomplishment for anyone, but one perhaps made understandable by Warren's having also earned a Pulitzer in poetry (the only writer to do so ever).
This was hands down the best American novel I have read. I still may love "To Kill a Mockingbird" more, but ATKM has my deepest respect.
This was hands down the best American novel I have read. I still may love "To Kill a Mockingbird" more, but ATKM has my deepest respect.
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Like a locomotive "All the King's Men" roared into my life, changed my view of the potential of fiction and burned the name Robert Penn Warren into my brain forever.
A powerful story told in sparkling, beautiful prose picked me up as it raced towards its conclusion with a frightening story of how a man like Huey Long could grab, keep, and abuse power.
Although Warren denies it "The Boss" seems to me to be a thinly disguised Huey Long, a populist who aspired for the White House.
Willie Stark starting out a good man but then is inexorably corrupted by the very power he once fought against. Long's motto was "Every Man a King". Warren does say his story could be a warning of the danger inherent in Democracy.
But its not the story but the long poem, the seductive, graceful, elegant prose that inspired awe in me. I was not surprised when I learned that Warren was a two time Pulitzer Prize winner and Poet Laurette. And what a wonderful combination.
Words cannot express my gratitude Robert Penn Warren once lived and stamped his own personal beauty upon the landscape of American Fiction and on me.
A powerful story told in sparkling, beautiful prose picked me up as it raced towards its conclusion with a frightening story of how a man like Huey Long could grab, keep, and abuse power.
Although Warren denies it "The Boss" seems to me to be a thinly disguised Huey Long, a populist who aspired for the White House.
Willie Stark starting out a good man but then is inexorably corrupted by the very power he once fought against. Long's motto was "Every Man a King". Warren does say his story could be a warning of the danger inherent in Democracy.
But its not the story but the long poem, the seductive, graceful, elegant prose that inspired awe in me. I was not surprised when I learned that Warren was a two time Pulitzer Prize winner and Poet Laurette. And what a wonderful combination.
Words cannot express my gratitude Robert Penn Warren once lived and stamped his own personal beauty upon the landscape of American Fiction and on me.
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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. This story is a play of politics, society and personal affairs, all wrapped in the cloak of history.
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Falls flat - a little dependent on a narrator to inform the audience, as there is not enough time to unwind the lengthy plot of the original novel into a short play.
It seems like Warren tried to fit in all the entanglements of the original work into a much shorter runtime, so it loses the emotional build of the novel. What he really should have done was cut the side-plots short and focused much more intensely on the rise and fall of Stark and Jack, even eliminating some of the side characters.
It seems like Warren tried to fit in all the entanglements of the original work into a much shorter runtime, so it loses the emotional build of the novel. What he really should have done was cut the side-plots short and focused much more intensely on the rise and fall of Stark and Jack, even eliminating some of the side characters.
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Not really a fan of the kind of play where the narrator has to continually fill the audience in on what has happened between scenes or in the past of the characters' lives. May be different to actually see the play than read it.
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A very interesting play about the rise and fall of a political figure. Other than a slow start, strong characters and interesting/shocking moments make this a play worth reading.
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