The Reign of Law: A Tale of the Kentucky Hemp Fields

Overview
James Lane Allen's The Reign of Law: A Tale of the Kentucky Hemp Fields is a pastoral novel that stages a profound struggle between inherited religious doctrine and a sensuous, naturalistic vision of life. Set in the hemp-growing regions of Kentucky, the narrative follows a central figure whose inner life is rent between the strict Calvinist traditions that shaped his upbringing and an awakening affinity for the natural world and human feeling. The novel probes how belief, habit, and the inexorable forces of nature and society shape moral choice and destiny.

Setting and Atmosphere
The Kentucky hemp fields provide more than a backdrop; they are a living presence that shapes character and thought. Allen renders rural landscapes with lyrical detail, making soil, weather, and the slow rhythms of agricultural labor into metaphors for moral and metaphysical conditions. The atmosphere is both rich and austere: beauty and fecundity are constantly balanced against limits, labor, and the social codes of a conservative community.

Main Characters and Conflict
At the heart of the narrative is a protagonist torn between two orders: the doctrinal "reign" of law and the liberating appeal of nature and human sympathy. Surrounding figures, family, ministers, neighbors, embody the expectations of tradition, while a few characters, often female or simply more attuned to the landscape, personify the possibility of a different life. Much of the drama plays out inwardly, through prolonged reflection and moral testing, but public actions and social consequences make the private struggle visible and consequential.

Themes and Motifs
The novel grapples with determinism, free will, and the moral meaning of natural law. Allen interrogates whether the "laws" that govern the universe are impersonal forces or expressions of a moral will, and whether individuals can reconcile a loving sensibility with doctrines that emphasize predestination and strict judgment. Nature functions as a counter-voice to creed: its patterns are portrayed as both liberating and indifferent, offering solace and aesthetic truth but refusing to be converted into easy moral prescriptions. The hemp fields themselves become a central motif, symbolizing fertility, toil, and the tangled interdependence of human life and larger natural processes.

Style and Legacy
Allen's prose is characteristic of regional American fiction at the turn of the century: eloquent, observant, and attuned to local speech and custom while remaining philosophically ambitious. Rather than dramatic action, the narrative relies on nuance, moral atmosphere, and the slow accumulation of small gestures and inner revelations. The Reign of Law sits within Allen's broader concern with Kentucky life and the tensions between tradition and change; it is regarded as a thoughtful, lyrical exploration of faith, nature, and conscience that resonates beyond its regional setting. The novel's emphasis on ethical ambiguity and its rich depiction of rural America helped consolidate Allen's reputation as a writer who could blend pastoral beauty with serious intellectual inquiry.

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