World Enough and Time

by Robert Penn Warren

In the admixture of wilderness and elegant society that was 1826 Kentucky, Jeremiah Beaumont, a brilliant, imaginative lawyer, stood trial for murdering his benefactor and father figure, the politician Colonel Cassius Fort. Now all the documents are in hand to reconstruct Beaumont's life story -- his crime, his trial, his ultimate sin and punishment -- and the historian-narrator of World Enough and Time sets about doing just that. Based on the famous murder case known as the Kentucky Tragedy, World Enough and Time is, like its precursor All the King's Men, a fictional wonder that personifies history, philosophy, politics, and passion.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Classics, 20th Century, Novels, Philosophy, American

528 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1950

About the author

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.

Reviews

[Nathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was familiar with Robert Penn Warren by name only when I picked up WORLD ENOUGH AND TIME. Reading the classics frequently involves setting aside whatever pop-cultural impressions of the work one has accumulated in order to go to it on its own terms, so there is an element of bliss in having no preconceived notions about a novel other than that it is most likely a worthy companion because it has stood the test of time. And WORLD is definitely a worthy companion.

Warren’s life nearly spans the twentieth century, and his is among the most storied of authorial trajectories in the United States, as decade after decade brought him success and prestige as a poet and a writer of prose. I am glad to have found him after spending time with two other writers of the South, Faulkner and John Barth (at least, the early Barth who wrote THE FLOATING OPERA) because to my mind, Warren exists on a continuum between them – not as aggressively modernist as Faulkner, not as subversive as Barth, but existing in brotherhood with both.

WORLD ENOUGH AND TIME is to a degree historical; it is contextualized by the nineteenth century conflict in Kentucky over whether land speculators should have been given debt relief for good-faith land investments that collapsed – a conflict that escalated to judicial and legislative standoffs and a good bit of bloodshed. Protagonist Jeremiah Beaumont is buffeted back and forth on the tides of this controversy, but in truth this novel is of two other stripes: It is a psychological romance and a criminal thriller.

Jeremiah’s tragic relationship with Rachel Jordan is the primary catalyst for the story, but the suspense arises from a crime – an actual crime that is committed almost perfectly, but with the extraordinary outcome of the perpetrator being charged for the crime – not based on evidence, though, but based on prejudice and artifice. The first half of the novel tangles up this knot, and the second half is not so much an untangling as a series of retanglings with no real relief for the reader, even at the very end. Because like the state of Kentucky in the eighteen hundreds, nothing and no one in this story is of one mind or one position, and circumstances and people continually pivot and shift, making a machine that walks forward now, backwards next, and sideways before long. In constructing such a story, Warren’s masterful control of a handful of complexly motivated characters and an intricate plot is staggering.

The title is certainly poetic and symbolic, but I couldn’t help noticing the way Warren universalized Jeremiah’s experience at almost every step. There are regular invocations of “the world” as both the perpetrator and the witness of all the injustices, all the transgressions Jeremiah experiences. This is a different sort of mythologizing: rather than position Jeremiah as an everyman, Warren continually positions him at the center of the snow globe that is the world, encouraging us to view his experience radiating out in every direction until it collides with the entirety of the human condition.

What sets this novel even further apart, though, is the lingering sensation at the end that the story has not really been Jeremiah’s at all, even though it has stuck with him throughout. The real center of this book is someone else entirely (no, it is not Rachel), and there is something extremely disorienting to find that after all that time, after all the events of such incredibly consequence in his life, after all the feats of will and audacity he undertakes, Jeremiah Beaumont’s life has been almost in its entirety the domain of someone else. He is given the chance to realize this before his story is over, but Warren makes sure that knowledge is no relief to Jeremiah or to us.

The scale of this novel, personally epic and epically personal, and the endurance it requires – both of writer and of reader – make WORLD ENOUGH AND TIME a truly great work of literature. I look forward to spending more time with Robert Penn Warren.

[Ruth Sims · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was one of those classic novels that makes me feel extremely small and ignorant. Who am I to criticize someone as gifted and honored as Robert Penn Warren? I read it some years ago, and don't remember many details except that it was a very, very long book and depressing as hell. I remember feeling such pity for Jeremiah, the protagonist, who came to such a ghastly end, and terrible pity for his poor wife, Rachel, disgraced and mad and grieving. I remember, probably more than anything else, the vivid descriptions, hundreds of them, scarcely a page without words that cut through to the humidity, the squalor, the vileness of evil of men. I remember the loathesome creature they called (if I recall correctly) Ole Hump. It was a book that left almost physically indelible impressions on my brain. Someday I will read it again.

[Steve Sanderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is as wide as the world, confronting the eternal questions of virtue, truth, self-worth, love, envy and their opposites. The setting is early 19th century Kentucky as it faced the closing frontier, but in some sense the setting is immaterial. The overriding question is the value of a life and the meaning of virtue. Robert Penn Warren is an under-appreciated titan of American literature, who wrote across various fictional forms, most beautifully in his poetry. This novel is dense with beautiful phrasing and dark portrayals, as is his more famous All The King's Men. The brutality and longwindedness of the story itself, combined with the personal psychology of the protagonist, makes one think of Faulkner meeting Dostoevski on the set of Cape Fear. It wore me out, but I'm glad I read it.

[Merilee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I did not enjoy this nearly as well as I did All the King's Men, but I do acknowledge that it is very well-written and Penn Warren's background as a poet it obvious.

[Sam Rennick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Robert Penn "Red" Warren was a Kentuckian, and "World Enough and Time" takes place in Kentucky. The book is not nearly as well known as another of the author's titles, "All the King's Men," which is loosely based on the life of Huey Long. Huey Long was notoriously long-winded. As the story goes, he was standing on the gallows with the hangman and the condemned man. "Any last words?" the hangman asked the condemned man. "No." Whereupon Huey Long said, "May I then use the condemned man's time to say a few words?" The condemned man said, "Hang me first." Although "World Enough and Time" is relatively obscure, it shouldn't be. It's the American "Crime and Punishment," just as good, and Rachel, for that matter, is a much better character than Sonia in Dostoyevsky's story. We have a murder, then the cat-and-mouse game between the murderer and the police, who know, as they do in Dostoyevsky's tale, they have their man but can't elicit a confession. The murderer, Jeremiah Beaumont, is the main character, and, by golly, he can hold his own with Raskolnikov. Unfortunately, "Red" botches his conclusion. He should have had enough laudanum for two.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

Before I begin, as we are in an era of trigger warnings, I feel the need to address the fact that this book is written about Kentucky in the 1820's, a period when slaves were kept. The author doesn't really address slavery until the end and it is only brought up tangentially. It is up to the reader to decide if the story itself is worth reading.

This book is really about truth vs lies and the crime of self. The story is about Jeremiah Beaumont, a poor young man who seeks revenge against his benefactor because his benefactor has dishonoured his wife. That is quite simplistic. To say more would be to require a spoiler warning. But the facts of the story are less important than the themes. It's a cross between Crime and Punishment and Shakespeare's Julius Caesar with Jeremiah as Brutus. Kentuckian politics serve as a backdrop with reliefers Vs antireliefers. In a way, it reminds me of current politics which is highly polarised and scheming. However the story drifted at times and I felt it difficult to keep up.

But the most important refrain in this story is truth vs "my truth". This is very relevant for today. So I will leave you with a quote from the book. If I took nothing else from this book, it would have been worth reading for this:

"Ah, that is the thing to fear, he thought, not the lie the world tells as a lie, but the lie the
world holds as its truth"

[Tim · Rating 3 out of 5]

"I lay there and shuddered that all man's life should be but the twisting and contortion of a cat hung up strangling in a string for sport of boys."

It is perhaps inevitable that Robert Penn Warren's first post-"All the King's Men" novel would suffer in comparison. And "World Enough and Time," set mostly in 1825-26, does. This 1950 novel goes on entirely too long — it's Warren's longest novel, I think — but there is enough of Warren's dazzling wordplay to recommend it.

Jeremiah Beaumont's life does, in fact, do a lot of twisting and contortion, as slave to others' machinations and his own dark desires. Inspired by an actual episode of Kentucky history, "World Enough and Time" tells the story of a man (Beaumont) who murders his benefactor. The story is told by an unnamed and largely uninvolved historian who pieces together Beaumont's life from known facts and Beaumont's own manuscript.

Beaumont hears of his love's unjust treatment at the hands of Cassius Fort before he ever meets her. Apparently, the tale goes, Fort, a married man, had a fling with Rachel Jordan, impregnated her and deserted her. Beaumont is intrigued by the tale and is driven to meet Rachel, the woman who inspires such passion. His obsession turns to love; he courts her. As Beaumont becomes involved in Kentucky politics — Relief vs. Ant-Relief (no, I don't completely understand the politics) — he continues to dwell on Rachel's past and swears to kill Fort (was it his idea or hers?), pledging to do it before they should marry. Beaumont challenges Fort to a duel; Fort refuses, and as Fort from then on is rarely around, Beaumont's vow simmers beneath the surface. He marries Rachel, his vow unfulfilled.

Eventually, inflamed by the views of his mentor, Wilkie Barron, Beaumont does murder Fort in Fort's home, at night.

From there, "World Enough and Time" becomes a tale of lies and truth, the individual in the world, the world in the individual. Beaumont is sought for his crime, and though he did kill Fort, he is tried on the basis of lies and creations as his act becomes entwined with the politics of the day. Beaumont chafes under these lies, finds them abhorrent, while in fact living with the truth of his deed.

Frankly, after the murder, this novel drags badly in a weak third quarter. Beaumont is taken from his home to the scene of the murder many miles away to answer for his crime, and Warren recounts every inch of the trek. There simply isn't enough plot to hang even Warren's strong prose on for the length that the novel drags on, and in fact, in the middle half of the novel, the author often seems to have forgotten to dazzle us with his words.

The book perks up after the result of Beaumont's trial, though, and Warren brings the tale home nicely, though again, not sparing any excess words in the process.

"World Enough and Time" remains, though, a satisfying story from a great writer. While sometimes excellent, the novel, published four years after "All the King's Men," made clear what novel Warren would be known for forever after.

[Christian Schwoerke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Robert Penn Warren writes a lush novel, whose principal characters are under the influence of Romantic and sublime ideals (the novel is set largely in 1826, not so coincidentally the period when the most fertile outpouring in literature of the Romantic tenets of sensibility/emotion have become, however diluted, prevalent in the educated culture at large). The contemporary narrator of this story has come across the journal of the principal actor in this tale—Jeremiah Beaumont, a well-educated scion of a failed but ambitious early settler of Kentucky—and he articulates the story without questioning or altering Beaumont’s essentially Romantic exposition.

Where the genius lies in this novel is how these Romantic elements are sundered and even made irrelevant when Warren goes beyond the story’s historical basis. This novel diverges from the real-life events of the “Kentucky Tragedy” when Beaumont and Rachel are spirited out of jail the night before their joint hanging. At this point, everything that Beaumont and Rachel are willing to die for is figuratively dismissed, and they are thrown into circumstances that force them to assess their values. Further alienating Beaumont from any sort of Romantic idealism is his discovery that the entire basis for his relationship with Rachel—and all the subsequent actions and motivations—had been based on duplicity and manipulation by his best friend (Wilkie Barron). It’s at this juncture, with probably less than a fifth of the novel to go, that I began to perk up as a reader, interested now to see not only how Warren digresses but how it affects the moral/philosophical underpinnings of the novel.

It’s interesting that Beaumont is from the first unconsciously aware that his assumption of Romantic ideals are themselves ill-fitting, as they are at the root of his father’s discontent and his grandfather’s slide into a temporary squalor amidst the slaves he owns. Beaumont is just shy of a full awareness that his learned ideals and the world are at odds—an awareness that is akin to the perpetual cloud of depression/resignation under which Rachel abides—where Romantic, even chivalric principles appear to cause more contention than relief. That Warren sets up an idealistic worldview in a historical period when slavery is justified as an inherent good/right—without making this particular contradiction the novel’s primary focus—is a rhetorical masterstroke, taking aim at smaller fish so that the alert reader might see the larger whale in the distance…

[Kristy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is an uneven and melodramatic retelling of a real murder and trial in 1820s Kentucky, and I just loved it. Warren (who is most famous for his novel All the King’s Men) draws the reader into the near-frontier of 19th century Kentucky, and swirls us around in the (coincidentally) uneven and melodramatic minds of Jeremiah Beaumont and his wife, Rachael. Esoteric 19th century politics, damn depressing characters, and inevitable tragedies all combine into an unexpectedly moving novel. A few sections need to be slogged through, but the slogging is half the fun. And for you archivists, the book is told to us by a historian character and involves lots of primary source research.

[Susan's Sweat Smells Like Literature · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. Great read. A bit dense at times, but well worth the effort. What masterful storytelling. I'm all wrung out.

[India Watkins · Rating 2 out of 5]

There was some interesting exploration here of the nature of justice, of truth versus lies (versus a personal version of the truth), of the meaning of life… But I just could not stand the protagonist, Jeremiah Beaumont, through whom the narrative is focalized (sometimes even quoting from his “journal”). I can deal with an unlikeable protagonist, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that I, as the reader, was supposed to sympathize with his plight—and I couldn’t have cared less. So in way of explanation of my two-star rating, a list of reasons why Jeremiah Beaumont is a 19th-century “nice guy”:

- When Jeremiah hears that a female acquaintance of his friend, Rachel, has been “wronged” by his mentor and employer, Cassius Fort, he rides out to her county and posts up there, repeatedly visiting her, borrowing books, ignoring her pleas to be left alone. He seems interested in her only for her checkered past, not herself, and uses her reluctance to be outright rude to insinuate himself into her life under the guise of friendship.
- He knows that she had conceived a child by Cassius Fort, which was stillborn, yet he violently badgers her into telling him of her baby’s death before she is ready, almost causing a mental breakdown. The reason? He wants to hear about her child’s death from her own lips so that the “impediment” to their “love” can be removed.
- Throughout their relationship, he willfully refuses to see her as the grieving mother she is. Instead, he interprets her grief as anger and hatred for Fort, and pushes her into an outburst in which she says she will only marry him if he kills Fort and then blames her for it. (Personally, I just think she did not want to marry him and didn’t think he would follow through.)
- After the “impediment” to their “love” was removed, Rachel is spent, subdued. Jeremiah then reports that he “took” her on the settee in the parlor, where he imagines she and Fort slept together, and for this reason married her shortly thereafter. I think we’re supposed to laud Jeremiah for keeping his word and marrying this fallen woman, but really, he took advantage of her near-nervous breakdown to have sex with her, forcing her into a quick wedding.
- After their marriage, he continues to be uninterested in her thoughts and feelings, except as they pertain to him—he is obsessed with making her love him. When she is distressed or in grief, he does not empathize with her, but coolly surveys her appearance, noting that she is less attractive to him. He repeatedly notes at these times that she does not look beautiful—the beauty mark on her cheek, which he first found charming, stands out like a black mark on her pale cheek when she is upset.
- After they escape from jail, he repeatedly cheats on her, with no guilt or sense of responsibility for her mental breakdown. After she kills herself, he leaves her body without a second thought—though to be honest, this callousness came as no surprise, given the 400+ previous pages of his misogyny and selfishness.
- The way Jeremiah describes other women betrays his misogynistic attitude. In his mind, womankind is divided into three types, ranked by their attractiveness and sexual availability: 1) “ladies” like Rachel, sexually desirable but unavailable, 2) “wenches” or “sluttish” girls, sexually available but not highly desirable (young Black women fall exclusively into this category), and 3) old crones (e.g., Rachel’s mother, Fort’s wife), who are disgusting because they are not sexy anymore.

I fully realize that this is a book set in the 1820s, written in the 1950s, so some degree of misogyny (not to mention racism) is expected, and perhaps even “authentic” to the voice of a landowning antebellum enslaver. What I couldn’t stomach was the impression I got that we, the readers, are supposed to sympathize with his predicament, root for his release, share his musing on justice, and, too, see Rachel and the other female characters of the novel through his eyes.

[Drew Norwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

"We live in the world, boy, and when the sun is down it is a place of darkness where the foot knoweth not the way."

Warren’s fourth novel doesn’t have the same dazzle as All the King’s Men but it has the same craftsmanship and the same quality. It is dark in tone and slow at times but it too succeeds in probing deep, universal truths and in telling a complex and intriguing story. With this novel, RPW takes up three major themes (and a host of subordinate ones): (1) self-knowledge, (2) justice and (3) what I view to be the sovereignty of man, or perhaps the autonomous self, man cut free from his creatureliness and dependence. The first is developed in stages throughout the story and the vital knowledge sought feels similar to Book of Ecclesiastes or perhaps the Book of Job. The second and third themes are indicated before the book even begins. Warren chooses as his epigraph three stanzas from the Fifth Book of The Faerie Queen (dealing with Justice), and the third theme is alluded to in the title itself, which is taken from Andrew Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress." These two poetic allusions enlighten the narrative. You see these themes running throughout the book and it is worth keeping these anchor points in mind as you read.

The form of the book is also noteworthy: a historian reviewing the time-faded record of Jeremiah Beaumont's life, which he gleans mainly from Beaumont's own memoirs, and attempting to make sense of it all. The narrator invites you, the reader, to conisder Beaumont’s life and he compels you to take part in the endeavor. He opens with a realization that Beaumont left his record "for us,” and he concludes with a question for you to sit with: "Was all for naught?" I think this framework must be kept in view in order to keep the record straight and to draw the appropriate conclusions. It's easy to miss the point if you don't pay attention. RPW seems inclined to scatter hints and clues, to reveal in small ways rather than declaring. There is much to gain in attending to Beaumont's tale.

This is my second RPW novel to read, with the first being All the King's Men. Maybe all of Warren's other novels will inevitably be compared to All the King's Men, but this is unavoidable for me at this stage. It must be said that All the Kings Men is the superior of the two works. It is superior mainly because the characters and the plot are more capable of bearing the weight of Warren's heavy themes and rich prose. Willie Stark, Jack Burden, Adam and Anne Stanton, Judge Irwin--such a great cast of characters provided strong branches on which to grow Warren’s ideas and philosophy. World Enough and Time, in contrast, seems like a tree sagging beneath the weight of its heavy fruit. The metaphysical questions considered here are rich and important, and they are most worthy of the reader’s close attention, but the main characters are not as strong to bear the weight. And, as a result, the books felt more heady, more contrived. This is a small critique though as I still thought it was a fabulous book.

[Caleb LaRue · Rating 4 out of 5]

All The King's Men is a masterpiece and literary success full of suspense and lessons on power and life. Coming into my second Robert Penn Warren novel the bar was set very high and while this novel is arguably a great novels, it is not cut from the same cloth as his masterpiece.

In World Enough and Time Penn Warren chooses to go back in time and focus on a setting of pre-civil war Kentuckian ambiance, to weave a tale of romance, honor and desperation. The plot is gripping at times and the characters are captivating and flawed, but motivations and honor driven revenge is often lost in the dated setting. The setting and the length of the novel combined with an enormous attention to detail make this a challenging read, that while enjoyable for me, was not something I would recommend quickly to friends.

[Jeff Clausen · Rating 3 out of 5]

As advertised, this is bloody and highly evocative of a long-past time of duels and honor killings. Also full of existential struggles when a character has to decide about the big stuff: why am I here, what am I doing, should I just give up or fight on, etc. It does make for some slow going, but when the protagonist and his fellows get the action moving, it’s pretty entertaining. A definite self-quarantine read, as pondering larger issues seems to happen daily now.

[Willy Walsh · Rating 4 out of 5]

This might be my favorite Penn Warren novel if its not "All the Kings Men."

[Mary Schneider · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't know what to say or think. Maybe someday I will have had world enough and time to embrace all there is here.

[Sahar · Rating 5 out of 5]

i spent years writing essays involving this book, using it as the basis for all my projects in and out of school; poems, videos, pictures, whatever. I was more entranced by this writing than any ever before. I dont know if it would have the same effect if i read it for the first time as an adult, but the concept of the purity of the idea used by the main character was as revolutionary to me at 14 as the metaphor of the fog in one flew over the cuckoos nest. A prosaic and philosophical novel from an amazing poet at the very least.

[John Harder · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jeremiah Beaumont, living in the Kentucky frontier is pushed to murder in defense of his wife’s honor. He never regards his victim as a fully developed human being – he only sees his one alleged dishonorable act.

The tables are turned when Beaumont, a highly complex, intelligent, feeling human being is judged by his community.

This novel is a tragedy in the classic sense – one sees that the natures of Beaumont and his wife, and their inability to let matters rest doom them to heartache.

World Enough and Time is not to the caliber of All the Kings Men…but it is close.

[Carol · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dark and depressing, yet strangely ~at times~ fascinating. A constant train wreck of misguided honor and deceit. Comparable, I would suppose, to a lengthy 465 page visit into the minds of a brilliant sociopath (Beaumont) and his equally disturbed, duplicitous wife/friends/enemies. Written by a Pulitzer Prize/Poet Laureate winner, I was slightly disappointed by his exceptionally redundant writing style. Gifted author, yes....but the fact remains, this semi-factual tale could have been told more interestingly, IMO, with fewer repetitive, convoluted speculations of Beaumont's thought processes.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

First three chapters very dull, with documentary framework very intrusive. Rest of book very interesting, if sometimes overly philosophical. Assume is actually based on described historical record; if not framing device often clumsy (particularly in beginning of book). Quite a potent example of what I saw termed "honor culture" in an article a while ago. Some motivations very difficult to understand or sympathize with outside the honor culture framework, but book is a good entree into the justifications of that society.

[Robert Hays · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first read this book many years ago, and just went back to it for a second look recently. It is classic Robert Penn Warren and anyone who likes historical fiction will find it hard to put down. When I read it the first time it brought vivid memories of Frankfort, the capital of Kentucky, which I had unintentionally wound up in as a hitchhiker when I was in the Army. I've been there a few times since, and every time I visit I think again of Warren's great story.

[Richard Epstein · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Name another novel by Robert Penn Warren." "Uh...." That would be the most common response, I think. This one will do. It's a good book, thoroughly Penn Warren-ish, and, after all, the end of man is knowledge. It's not All the King's Men, but what is?

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

This story is intriguing and stretches the mind which is admirable. However, I felt this needed to be edited better (as far as shortening the length of this novel) as I was beginning to feel tortured like Jeremiah. This book wore me down as it seemed to march on past the core of the story.

[Lucy · Rating 4 out of 5]

intense story, beautiful writing

[Jamie Barringer (Ravenmount) · Rating 4 out of 5]

8 years afterwards I only vaguely recall what this book was about, but it was entertaining enough while I was reading it.

[Peter Tubbs · Rating 3 out of 5]

Slow and melodramatic. Some beautiful passages.

[Melissa]

Didn't finish.