Warren's characterization of Beaumont is thorough and relentless, almost to the point of tedium. The reader follows Beaumont from his early and unsatisfactory relationship with a dominating father, through his years as a promising law student and his naive hero worship of the affable Colonel Fort, to his fateful marriage to Rachel Jordan, and his efforts to avenge Rachel's honor in a duel with the unwilling Fort. Beaumont is seen maturing during some years of happiness with Rachel, while living as a peaceful planter; but his unwillingness to accept a commonplace happiness in the presence of what he considers a monstrous injustice to Rachel motivates the second half of the novel.

Beaumont's desperate clinging to his idealism, in the second half of the novel, and his residual naivete, however, frequently arouse skepticism and impatience in readers. It seems rather surprising that despite some legal experience, the same Beaumont...