All the King's Men (Penguin Modern Classics)

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The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. Then I was traveling through New Mexico, which is a land of total and magnificent emptiness with a little white filling station flung down on the sand like a sun-bleached cow skull by the trail, with far to the north a valiant remnant of the heroes of the Battle of Montmartre in a last bivouac wearing huaraches and hammered silver and trying to strike up conversations with Hopis on street corners. I hesitate to suggest the novel should be longer, but the structure of the A story is at least three or four important scenes shy of wholeness.

My conception grew wider, but that element always remained, and Willie Stark remained, in one way, Willie Talos. I really picked up on the themes of corruption when I revisited Penn Warren’s novel, and the manners in which it is expressed. Another interesting aspect of Warren’s novel, and something that mirrors our society, is how The Boss’ populism polarises and divides his state.Tiny Duffy, initially Willie Stark’ political opponent and later his sycophantic supporter, repeatedly attempts to force Willie to drink. Willie pours enough whiskey ‘to floor the Irish and drank it off neat’, passing out on his hotel bed. While Willie Stark was defined by his rural simplicity and loyalty to his wife, The Boss is repeatedly and carelessly unfaithful to his partners, both his wife Lucy and later his mistress and political confidant Sadie Burke.

It is in that sense that the characters are "all the king's men", a line taken from the poem Humpty Dumpty (Warren biographer Joseph Blotner also notes, "Like Humpty Dumpty, each of the major characters has experienced a fall of some kind"). Jack suggests that one reason he is unable to complete his dissertation on Cass's life is that perhaps "he was afraid to understand for what might be understood there was a reproach to him.

One of the characters in Proud Flesh was named Willie Talos, referring to the brutal character Talus in Spenser’s The Faerie Queene. In conclusion, All the King's Men offers an unflinching look at the tangled web of politics, power, and personal ethics. All the King’s Men is not merely the story of Willie Stark, as Warren’s world is brimming with fascinating side characters. Nevertheless, Warren’s novel also provided me with hope that while demagogues may seem invincible, they and all they stand for can be defeated.