James Branch Cabell Books In Order

The Eagle’s Shadow

This is the story of Margaret Hugonin and of the Eagle. And with your permission, we will for the present defer all consideration of the bird, and devote our unqualified attention to Margaret. I have always esteemed Margaret the obvious, sensible, most appropriate name that can be bestowed upon a girl child, for it is a name that fits a woman any woman as neatly as her proper size in gloves. Yes, the first point I wish to make is that a woman child, once baptised Margaret, is thereby insured of a suitable name. Be she grave or gay in after life, wanton or pious or sullen, comely or otherwise, there will be no possible chance of incongruity; whether she develop a taste for winter gardens or the higher mathematics, whether she take to golf or clinging organdies, the event is provided for. One has only to consider for a moment, and if among a choice of Madge, Marjorie, Meta, Maggie, Margherita, Peggy, and Gretchen, and countless others if among all these he cannot find a name that suits her to a T why, then, the case is indeed desperate and he may permissibly fall back upon Madam or if the cat jump propitiously, and at his own peril on Darling or Sweetheart.

The Line of Love

James Branch Cabell 1879 1958 was an American author of fantasy fiction and belles lettres. He worked from 1898 to 1900 as a newpaper reporter in New York City, but returned to Richmond in 1901, where he worked several months on the staff of the Richmond News. In 1902, seven of his first stories appeared in national magazines and over the next decade he wrote many short stories and articles, contributing to nationally published magazines including Harper’s Monthly Magazine and the Saturday Evening Post, as well as carrying out extensive research on his family’s genealogy. In the early 1920s he became the leader of a group of writers known as ‘The James Branch Cabell School’, which included such figures as H. L. Mencken, Carl Van Vechten and Elinor Wylie. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1937. Amongst his best known works are: The Eagle’s Shadow 1904, The Cords of Vanity: A Comedy of Shirking 1909, and The Rivet in Grandfather’s Neck: A Comedy of Limitations 1915.

Gallantry

James Branch Cabell 1879 1958 was an American author of fantasy fiction and belles lettres. He worked from 1898 to 1900 as a newpaper reporter in New York City, but returned to Richmond in 1901, where he worked several months on the staff of the Richmond News. In 1902, seven of his first stories appeared in national magazines and over the next decade he wrote many short stories and articles, contributing to nationally published magazines including Harper’s Monthly Magazine and the Saturday Evening Post, as well as carrying out extensive research on his family’s genealogy. In the early 1920s he became the leader of a group of writers known as ‘The James Branch Cabell School’, which included such figures as H. L. Mencken, Carl Van Vechten and Elinor Wylie. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1937. Amongst his best known works are: The Eagle’s Shadow 1904, The Cords of Vanity: A Comedy of Shirking 1909, and The Rivet in Grandfather’s Neck: A Comedy of Limitations 1915.

Chivalry

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www. million books. com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: The Story of the Navarrese IN the year of grace 1386, upon the feast of Saint Bartholomew thus Nicolas begins, came to the Spanish coast Messire Peyre de Lesnerac, in a war ship sumptuously furnished and manned by many persons of dignity and wealth, in order suitably to escort the Princess Jehane into Brittany, where she was to marry the Duke of that’province. There were now rejoicings throughout Navarre, in which the Princess took but a nominal part and young Antoine Riczi none at all. This Antoine Riczi came to Jehane that August twilight in the hedged garden. ‘King’s daughter!’ he sadly greeted her. ‘Duchess of Brittany! Countess of Rougemont! Lady of Nantes and of Guerrand! of Rais and of Toufon and Guerche!’ She answered, ‘No, my dearest, I am that Jehane, whose only title is the Constant Lover.’ And in the green twilight, lit as yet by one low hanging star alone, their lips and desperate young bodies clung, now, it might be, for the last time. Presently the girl spoke. Her soft mouth was lax and tremulous, and her gray eyes were more brilliant than the star yonder. The boy’s arms were about her, so that neither could be quite unhappy, yet. ‘Friend,’ said Jehane, ‘I have no choice. I must wed with this de Montfort . I think I shall die presently. I have prayed God that I may die before they bring me to the dotard’s bed.’ Young Riczi held her now in an embrace more brutal. ‘Mine! mine!’ he snarled toward the obscuring heavens. ‘Yet it may be I must live. Friend, the man is very old. Is it wicked to think of that ? For I cannot but think of his great age.’ Then Riczi answered: ‘My desires may God forgive me! have clutched like starving persons at that sorry sustenance. Friend! ah, fair, sweet friend! the man is human and must die, but love, we read, is…

The Cords of Vanity

James Branch Cabell 1879 1956 is best known for his tales of the imaginary land of Poictesme, where chivalry and galantry live on. All of Cabell tms works from before 1930 including The Cords of Vanity, an otherwise mainstream novel were assembled into the grand Biography of the Life of Manuel, the supposed redeemer of the land of Poictesme, and they form a series which follows Manuel and his descendants through the centuries. Cabell has been a favorite author of many famous writers, raniging from Lin Carter to Robert A. Heinlein. The Cords of Vanity Introduction by Wilson Follett Mr. Cabell gives an airy chronicle of the love affairs of his hero, Robert Townsend, who has adopted infancy as a profession, and never gets out of boyhood. Townsend is also one of the self hypnotized persons who, in the moment of saying it, believes everything that he says, and thus romances alluringly of himself with no regard to the fetters of fact ‘truly a captivating liar. In this higher carelessness all his contradictions and repetitions are merged into a fine unity. By playing at emotion so long he finally breaks down the inward integrities, so that he is not able to realize when he is acting a part and when he is sincere. And his sin overtakes him in the circumstance that, having played at love so long, he finally is not able to love anybody in reality. ‘Edwin Markham, in N. Y. American

Domnei

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www. million books. com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: Ill HOW MELICENT WOOED PERION THEN Perion knew that vain regret had turned his brain, very certainly, for it seemed the door had opened and Dame Melicent herself had come, warily, into the panelled gloomy room. It seemed that Melicent paused in the convulsive brilliancy of the firelight, and stayed thus with vaguely troubled eyes like those of a child newly wakened from sleep. And it seemed a long while before she told Perion very quietly that she had confessed all to Ayrart de Montors, and had, by reason of de Montors’ love for her, so goaded and allured the outcome of their talk ‘ignobly,’ as she said that a clean handed gentleman would come at three o’clock for Perion de la Foret, and guide a thief toward unmerited impunity. All this she spoke quite levelly, as one reads aloud from a book; and then, with a signal change of voice,Melicent said: ‘Yes, that is true enough. Yet why, in reality, do you think I have in my own person come to tell you of it?’ ‘Madame, I may not guess. Hah, indeed, indeed,’ Perion cried, because he knew the truth and was unspeakably afraid, ‘I dare not guess!’ ‘You sail to morrow for the fighting oversea ‘ she began, but her sweet voice trailed and died into silence. He heard the crepitations of the fire, and even the hurried beatings of his own heart, as against a terrible and lovely hush of all created life. ‘Then take me with you.’ Perion had never any recollection of what he answered. Indeed, he uttered no communicative words, but only many foolish babblements. ‘Oh, I do not understand,’ said Melicent. ‘It is as though some spell were laid upon me. Look you, I have been cleanly reared, I have never wronged any person that I know of, and throughout my quiet, sheltered life I have loved truth and honour most of all. My judgment g…

The Rivet in Grandfather’s Neck

James Cabell was an early 20th century author of fantasy fiction. His works were considered escapist and fit well in the culture of the 1920s. Cabell’s works can be ironic and satirical. The Rivet in Grandfather’s Neck is a comedy of limitations which begins, ‘ In the middle of the cupboard door was the carved figure of a man…
. He had goat’s legs, little horns on his head, and a long beard; the children in the room called him, ‘Major General field sergeant commander Billy goat’s legs’…
He was always looking at the table under the looking glass where stood a very pretty little shepherdess made of china…
. Close by her side stood a little chimney sweep, as black as coal and also made of china…
. Near to them stood another figure…
. He was an old Chinaman who could nod his head, and used to pretend he was the grandfather of the shepherdess, although he could not prove it. He, however, assumed authority over her, and therefore when ‘Major general field sergeant commander Billy goat’s legs’ asked for the little shepherdess to be his wife, he nodded his head to show that he consented.’

From the Hidden Way

James Branch Cabell 1879 1958 wrote many of the Twentieth Century’s finest fantasies, including the controversial ‘Jurgen,’ which was famously banned by the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice. It was only after the furor died down that readers and critics were fully able to appreciate that the author was no mere sensationalist, but a literary artist of very high calibre. Cabell was above all else, an elegant stylist, whose gently caustic, beautifully fantasic comedies struck a chord in the Jazz Age and still resonate today. He was an important influence on subsequent writers as diverse as Fritz Leiber and Neil Gaiman. ‘ He is a delightful author…
I like the sheer audacity and the scope of his work .’ Neil Gaiman ‘One of the all time greats of fantasy, whose cynical yet romantic view of the human comedy is simultaneously hilarious, beautiful, and melancholy. A writer you must read.’ Darrell Schweitzer ‘From the Hidden Way‘ collects Cabell’s poetry, which illustrates a mastery of of a wide range of styles and forms, and is filled with sly allusions to Cabell’s other books. It was included in the famous Storisende Edition of the collected ‘Biography of Manuel,’ which Cabell considered to be the centerpiece of his art.

The Cream of the Jest

James Branch Cabell 1879 1958 was an American author of fantasy fiction and belles lettres. He worked from 1898 to 1900 as a newpaper reporter in New York City, but returned to Richmond in 1901, where he worked several months on the staff of the Richmond News. In 1902, seven of his first stories appeared in national magazines and over the next decade he wrote many short stories and articles, contributing to nationally published magazines including Harper’s Monthly Magazine and the Saturday Evening Post, as well as carrying out extensive research on his family s genealogy. In the early 1920s he became the leader of a group of writers known as The James Branch Cabell School , which included such figures as H. L. Mencken, Carl Van Vechten and Elinor Wylie. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1937. Amongst his best known works are: The Eagle s Shadow 1904, The Cords of Vanity: A Comedy of Shirking 1909, and The Rivet in Grandfather s Neck: A Comedy of Limitations 1915.

Beyond Life

Beyond Life is yet another wholly original work from Virginia writer James Branch Cabell. It’s an imagined conversation between John Charteris, a successful author, and a young editor. They sit in a library lined with books categorized as unwritten masterpieces or intended editions a wry commentary on the business of publishing by one of America’s overlooked masters.

The two discuss writers and writing, especially those who published in the early 20th century and the demands of the market. Anyone interested in the act of writing and publishing will find an amusing and thought provoking discussion in Beyond Life.

Jurgen

From the introduction: ‘In a letter dated December 12, 1920, Deems Taylor wrote, ‘I have finished Jurgen; a great and beautiful book, and the saddest book I ever read. I don’t know why, exactly. The book hurts me tears me to small pieces but somehow it sets me free. It tells me everything I am, and have been, and may be, unsparingly.’ Jurgen wrestles, in its odd way, with the fundamental tragedy of human life in general and male life in particular: We are doomed to age and die; meanwhile happiness will prove elusive. Jurgen isn’t for everyone. Some will ‘get it’ and some won’t. It’s a story of fantastic adventures, but it will be fully appreciated only by those who are stirred by symbol and metaphor. We may not be prancing through a magical world as Jurgen does, but some of us will see echoes of our own dreams and nightmares in his story. If you’re such a person, then Jurgen may hit you like a ton of bricks. For those who are interested, some rabid fans of which there are many put together a collection of explanatory footnotes in 1928, and these have been included in this edition. It’s worth noting that Jurgen is obscurely suggestive without being explicit; it went over the heads of some, but others saw what was going on, and they either guffawed or objected vigorously. There were serious attempts to suppress it, which of course only made the text notorious. It was and still is politically incorrect, and it garnered something of a counter cultural following for all the wrong reasons. Well, so be it. The book is among the greatest works of fantasy, and that’s all there is to say.’ Along with the notes, this edition of Jurgen includes the classic illustrations of Frank C. Pape and a map of Jurgen‘s land, making this the most complete version of the book ever published. Newly designed and beautifully typeset in a 6 by 9 inch format by Waking Lion Press.

Figures of Earth

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www. million books. com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: 7. How Manuel Left the Mire THEY of Poictesme narrate that in the old days when miracles were as common as fruit pies, young Manuel was a swineherd, living modestly in attendance upon the miller’s pigs. They tell also that Manuel was content enough: he knew not of the fate which was reserved for him. Meanwhile in all the environs of Rathgor, and in the thatched villages of Lower Targamon, he was well liked: and when the young people gathered in the evening to drink brandy and eat nuts and gingerbread, nobody danced more merrily than Squinting Manuel. He had a quiet way with the girls, and with the men a way of solemn, blinking simplicity which caused the more hasty in judgment to consider him a fool. Then, too, young Manuel was very often detected smiling sleepily over nothing, and his gravest care in life appeared to be that figure which Manuel had made out of marsh clay from the pool of Haranton. This figure he was continually reshaping and re altering. The figure stood upon the margin of the pool; and near by were two stones overgrown withmoss, and supporting a cross of old worm eaten wood, which commemorated what had been done there. One day, toward autumn, as Manuel was sitting in this place, and looking into the deep still water, a stranger came, and he wore a fierce long sword that interfered deplorably with his walking. ‘Now I wonder what it is you find in that dark pool to keep you staring so?’ the stranger asked, first of all. ‘I do not very certainly know,’ replied Manuel, ‘but mistily I seem to see drowned there the loves and the desires and the adventures I had when I wore another body than this. For the water of Haranton, I must tell you, is not like the water of other fountains, and curious dreams engender in this pool.’ ‘I speak no ill agai…

The Jewel Merchants

GUIDO Am I to be welcomed merely for the sake of my gems? You were more gracious, you were more beautifully like your lovely name, on the fortunate day that I first encountered you…
only six weeks ago, and only yonder, where the path crosses the highway. But now that I esteem myself your friend, you greet me like a stranger. You do not even invite me into your garden. I much prefer the manner in which you told me the way to the inn when I was an unknown passer by. And yet your pennant promised greeting.

The High Place

‘In the sulphurous The High Place, the amoral hero Florian enters the sleeping beauty story and unlike Jurgen with Helen does not draw back at the sight of excessive beauty. Complications ensue: Beauty is realistically diminished during pregnancy, the first born child is forfeit to Satan under the pact that guaranteed Florain’s success, and an irascible saint is eager to call down holy fire on transgressors. Florian treads close to damnation and is saved only when Satan and the angel Michael conspire to let recent events become, again, a dream: he has a rare second chance and learns better.’ The Encyclopedia of Fantasy

Straws and Prayer Books

Straws and Prayer Books, one of the least well known entries in the Poictesme series, consists of collected shorter works.

Something About Eve

Something About Eve, an entry in the Poictesme series, ‘shows its non hero feebly intending to gain promised glory awaiting in the land of ‘Antan’ but forever delayed on Mispec Moor anagram: ‘Compromise’, wearing literal rose colored spectacles and beguiled by the woman Maya, while bolder folk like Solomon and Odysseus pass by on the road to Antan.’ The Encyclopedia of Fantasy

The Way of Ecben

1929. Decorations by Frank C. Pape. Today, some recognize Cabell as one of the first contemporary writers from the South. He is also noted for his unique blending of classic myths and legends with his own imagination and is considered a pioneer of fantasy writing. The Way of Ecben is derived from the Norrovian legend upon which is based Felix Kennaston’s The King’s Quest, but Cabell claims that his tale clings rigorously to the queer legend’s restrained, and quite unfigurative, first shaping. The story begins: It is an old tale which tells of the fighting between Alfgar, the King of Ecben, and Ulf, the King of Rorn. Their enmity took hold of them because they both desired that daughter of Thordis who was called Ettaine. See other titles by this author available from Kessinger Publishing.

The Certain Hour

James Branch Cabell 1879 1958 was an American author of fantasy fiction and belles lettres. He worked from 1898 to 1900 as a newpaper reporter in New York City, but returned to Richmond in 1901, where he worked several months on the staff of the Richmond News. In 1902, seven of his first stories appeared in national magazines and over the next decade he wrote many short stories and articles, contributing to nationally published magazines including Harper’s Monthly Magazine and the Saturday Evening Post, as well as carrying out extensive research on his family’s genealogy. In the early 1920s he became the leader of a group of writers known as ‘The James Branch Cabell School’, which included such figures as H. L. Mencken, Carl Van Vechten and Elinor Wylie. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1937. Amongst his best known works are: The Eagle’s Shadow 1904, The Cords of Vanity 1909, and The Rivet in Grandfather’s Neck 1915.

Smirt

‘Cabell’s most substantial post-Biography fantasy was ‘The Nightmare Has Triplets,’ a sequence comprising Smirt: An Urban Nightmare, Smith: A Sylvan Interlude, and Smire: An Acceptance in the Third Person. This explicitly emulates the logic and geography of dreams…
successfully mistly and dreamlike…
‘ –The Encyclopedia of Fantasy

Smith

‘ Cabell’s most substantial post Biography fantasy was ‘The Nightmare Has Triplets,’ a sequence comprising Smirt: An Urban Nightmare, Smith: A Sylvan Interlude, and Smire: An Acceptance in the Third Person. This explicitly emulates the logic and geography of dreams…
successfully mistly and dreamlike…
‘ The Encyclopedia of Fantasy

Smire

‘ Cabell’s most substantial post Biography fantasy was ‘The Nightmare Has Triplets,’ a sequence comprising Smirt: An Urban Nightmare, Smith: A Sylvan Interlude, and Smire: An Acceptance in the Third Person. This explicitly emulates the logic and geography of dreams…
successfully mistly and dreamlike…
‘ The Encyclopedia of Fantasy

These Restless Heads

James Branch Cabell 1879 1958 wrote many of the Twentieth Century’s finest fantasies, including the controversial Jurgen, which was famously banned by the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice. It was only after the furor died down that readers and critics were fully able to appreciate this was no mere sensationalist, but a literary artist of very high caliber. Cabell was above all else, an elegant stylist, whose gently caustic, beautifully fantasic comedies struck a chord in the Jazz Age and still resonate today. He was an important influence on subsequent writers as diverse as Fritz Leiber and Neil Gaiman.

There Were Two Pirates

‘His name was Jose Gasparilla, and he was the self proclaimed King of Pirates. He terrorized the waters around Florida, demanding tribute from every merchant ship he encountered. Riches flowed into his tiny island kingdom…
and yet he longed for a life he could never have, for he had left his beloved Isabel behind in Spain. One day he would return to claim her for his bride, he knew, and she had vowed to wait for him. When he captures a ship and discovers Isabel and her elderly husband aboard, he strikes a deal with the man who stole his bride. For Jose Gasparilla, it means a chance to regain the lost years of his life…
to live his childhood again and pick a new path, in the Land Without Shadows…
‘There Were Two Pirates‘ is a fantasy adventure in James Branch Cabell’s best style, and a terrific addition to the Wildside Fantasy Classics line.’

The Devil’s Own Dear Son

‘The Devil’s Own Dear Son‘ is Cabell’s final philsophical comedy, about a man who discovers that his father was a demon and goes to Hell for a disquieting family reunion. James Branch Cabell 1879 1958 wrote many of the Twentieth Century’s finest fantasies, including the controversial Jurgen, which was famously banned by the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice. It was only after the furor died down that readers and critics were fully able to appreciate that the author was no mere sensationalist, but a literary artist of very high calibre. Cabell was above all else, an elegant stylist, whose gently caustic, beautifully fantasic comedies struck a chord in the Jazz Age and still resonate today. He was an important influence on subsequent writers as diverse as Fritz Leiber and Neil Gaiman. ‘ He is a delightful author…
I like the sheer audacity and the scope of his work .” Neil Gaiman ‘One of the all time greats of fantasy, whose cynical yet romantic view of the human comedy is simultaneously hilarious, beautiful, and melancholy. A writer you must read.” Darrell Schweitzer

James Branch Cabell, Centennial Essays

Louisiana State University Press, 1983. Hardcover. First Edition.

Let Me Lie

When Let Me Lie was first published in 1947, most reviewers missed the double meaning of the book’s title. Deaf to James Branch Cabell’s many layered ironic wit, they read the book as a paean to the old South. Readers of this new paperback edition are unlikely to repeat the mistake. Let Me Lie is indeed a carefully researched and brilliantly written historical narrative of Virginia from 1559 to 1946 focusing on Tidewater, Richmond, and the Northern Neck but as a fictional scholar remarks in the book, Cabell’s history is ‘both accurate and injudicious.’ Virginia’s story of itself, Cabell claims, depends on illusion and myth, and his skill as a satirist allows him to construct and deflate these myths simultaneously. Ranging from Don Luis de Velasco and Captain John Smith to Edgar Allan Poe and Ellen Glasgow, from Confederate heroes to the oddities of the post Civil War Old Dominion, Let Me Lie remains compulsively readable, as history, entertainment, or both. Foreward by R. H. W. Dillard.