Novel with troops succeeds among faint-hearts (2,4,3,3)
I believe the answer is:
of mice and men
'novel' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'with troops succeeds among faint-hearts' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'with' could be 'and' (I've seen this before) and 'and' is found within the answer.
'troops' could be 'men' (I've seen this in other clues) and 'men' is present in the answer.
This may be the basis of clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for of mice and men that I've seen before include "novella" , "American novel" , "John Steinbeck novel" , "story by Steinbeck" , "Dealing with people with computer devices" .)