All the King's Men (Penguin Modern Classics)

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Robert Penn Warren’s great novel is at once a political tragedy, a study of individual corruption, and a compelling southern drama with a long afterlife. Nevertheless, Warren’s novel also provided me with hope that while demagogues may seem invincible, they and all they stand for can be defeated. Or we’ll go back to the time when Jack was in love with Anne Stanton, and learn how that has affected him throughout his life. In narrating the story, Jack commingles his own personal story with the political story of Governor Stark. To ensure all information is accurate and of value to you, we’ve designed a production system and a content review process that keeps this content close to the source and as factual as possible.

So, for example, we will go back in time to learn about how Jack and Willie met, when Jack was a young journalist covering Willie’s first failed run for Governor. The novel depicts the narrative of Willie Stark, a charismatic populist governor in the Depression-era Deep South, and his political manoeuvrings. The cover of at least one edition, for example, proclaims that it is a novel about "the rise and fall of an American dictator! Les personnages sont nombreux, dont le narrateur, un journaliste passé au service du gouverneur et chargé de réaliser ses basses œuvres.It starred Georgiy Zhzhonov (Willie Stark), Mikhail Kozakov (Jack Burden), Alla Demidova (Anne), Oleg Yefremov (Adam), Rostislav Plyatt (Irwin), Lev Durov (Sugar Boy). Jack tells us what happened from the moment the king’s men arrive at Burden’s Landing to threaten Judge Irwin. I only noticed on details like this when I recently revisited this novel years later, but it is small signifiers that made me appreciate Warren’s tale even more. And once you’ve used and abused everyone, including your family, who is there left that you can trust?

Anne is Jack Burden's childhood sweetheart and the daughter of Willie Stark's political predecessor, Governor Stanton. When Jack Burden narrates, he sounds like one of the hardboiled tough guys so popular in 1940s detective stories: like Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe perhaps, Marlowe with a few too many drinks in him and his mean streak showing. As a reader, a step removed from Jack’s involvement, it is yet another reminder of the truth that power corrupts, and that those who seek to rule us are usually the least fit to do so because of the very hubris that makes them want to. Stark’s demagogic descent mirrors the story of the real Louisiana governor and then senator Huey Long, whose radical economic program and charismatic personality ensured his political domination until his assassination in 1935.However, following learning of his betrayal by Tiny Duffy who used Willie in the election to ‘split the Hick vote’, alcohol becomes Willie’s gateway to corruption. For example, the events in Chapter One take place in 1936 and show Willie Stark to be a man who gets along with the common people, but they also show that he is a man who can be ruthless in dealing with his enemies.

The theme must shed light on a specific and important aspect of American culture and society of the time of its writing.All the King's Men portrays the dramatic and theatrical political rise and governorship of Willie Stark (in the screenplay the name is changed from Talos to Stark), a cynical populist in the 1930s American South. Willie Stark started out his political career with excellent ethics but he soon learnt that he had to play the same game as the current political circles if he wanted a chance to be elected and pass laws. Jack investigates thoroughly and finds what he is looking for: an incident many years ago when Judge Irwin took a bribe to dismiss a lawsuit against a fuel company, resulting in the personal destruction of a man named Mortimer Littlepaugh. He could have written something really polarized, good versus evil, virtue against sin but he didn’t. Another interesting aspect of Warren’s novel, and something that mirrors our society, is how The Boss’ populism polarises and divides his state.

While Burden has a uniquely intimate relationship with Stark, he is the embodiment of how the individual reacts to demagoguery: whether they embrace a cynical philosophy or strike against it, as Burden later does.

Yes, I love books about politics so long as they’re not pushing a specific political agenda – the whole democracy thing is so fascinating because it feels as if it is the right way to go, and yet so often ends up mired in corruption. But on the other hand, there were those who took the thing to be a rousing declaration of democratic principles and a tract for the assassination of dictators. Jack Burden, our narrator, tells the story of Willie Stark, an ambitious, high-flying politician in the Depression-era South. In 2001, the United States Library of Congress deemed the film "culturally significant", and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry. Among various critical responses, the New Republic praised it as a novel “in the tradition of many classics”, and compared it favourably with Moby-Dick ( No 17 in this series).