Powerful and Subtle

Band of Angels, by Robert Penn War- ren. 375 pp. New York: Random House. $3.95 Band of Angels, Warren’s fourth nov- el, clearly constitutes an advance over what is still his best known novel, All the King’s Men. And over World

Enough and Time, for though it is somewhat less ambitious, it is perhaps better proportioned and bears its bur- den of philosophical speculation more gracefully. And in this heyday of the bosomy histodcal novel, it provides a refreshing demonstration that the his- torical novel is capable of becoming literature after all.

CB

About the Author

Cleanth Brooks

Band of Angels, by Robert Penn War- ren. 375 pp. New York: Random House. $3.95 Band of Angels, Warren’s fourth nov- el, clearly constitutes an advance over what is still his best known novel, All the King’s Men. And over World

Enough and Time, for though it is somewhat less ambitious, it is perhaps better proportioned and bears its bur- den of philosophical speculation more gracefully. And in this heyday of the bosomy histodcal novel, it provides a refreshing demonstration that the his- torical novel is capable of becoming literature after all.