Book Description
This digital document, covering the life and work of James Branch Cabell, is an entry from Contemporary Authors, a reference volume published by Thompson Gale. The length of the entry is 2733 words. The page length listed above is based on a typical 300-word page. Although the exact content of each entry from this volume can vary, typical entries include the following information:

• Place and date of birth and death (if deceased)
• Family members
• Education
• Professional associations and honors
• Employment
• Writings, including books and periodicals
• A description of the author's work
• References to further readings about the author

Book Description
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.Download Description
I say to you, then, John Copeland continued, "that to-day you are master of Europe. I say to you that, but for this woman whom for twenty years you have neglected, you would to-day be mouldering in some pauper's grave. Eh, without question, you most magnanimously loved that shrew of Salisbury! because you fancied the color of her eyes, Sire Edward, and admired the angle between her nose and her forehead. Minstrels unborn will sing of this great love of yours. Meantime I say to you"--now the man's rage was monstrous--"I say to you, go home to your too-tedious wife, the source of all your glory! sit at her feet! and let her teach you what love is!" He flung away the dagger. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

What is Chivalry?
A young Cabell weaves tales (annotated by authorities (?) of the era) spinning tales of some of the descendants (lineal and "spiritual")(and their consequences)that enrich the History of Dom Manuel of Poictesme. And outlines one of the characteristic approaches taken by the male in his inevitable pursuit of "Domnei".

A gentleman will always serve God, his honor and his lady
These ten stories are attributed to Nicolas de Caen who wrote them in 1470 while serving as the priest and secretary to Philippe, Duke of Burgundy. The stories begin in the 13th century and end in the early years of the15th. During this time the English Kings are struggling to retain theirFrench possessions.In the "Sestina" chapter, Alianora ofProvence, the wife of King Henry III, enlists the aid of Osmund Heleigh tohelp her secure the escape of her son Prince Edward whom the barons haveimprisoned.The bookish Osmund helps her with disasterous consequences tohimself. In the "Tenson" chapter, Prince Edward defeats thebarons at the Battle of Evesham, after which he goes to Spain to get hiswife Ellinor who he married ten years earlier. Several try to get him toset aside his claim to her with dire consequences for his opponents. In the"Rat-Trap" chapter, Prince Edward, now Edward I, arranged tomarry Blanch, daughter of King Philippe of France.When he goes to France,King Philippe has second thoughts about the marriage and arranges to haveEdward assassinated. Edward discovers the plot and humiliates the Frenchking then departs France with a wife but her name is not Blanch.In"Choices," Queen Ysabeau spends a holiday toying with Sir GregoryDarrell and Rosamund Eastney. In "Housewife," Queen Phillipa,wife of Edward III thwarts a conspiracy against him and inspires theEnglish army to defeat the Scottish forces invading England. In"Satraps," Dame Anne of Bohemia, wife to Richard II, preventsRichard's uncles from placing his brother Edward Maudlain on the throne byhaving Edward M. leave the court and go into hiding. In"Heritage," Edward Maudlain with the help of Richard II's 11 yearold wife, Isobel Valois, takes his brother's place in prison and is slain,after which Henry of Derby becomes King Henry IV.In "Scabbard,"the deposed Richard II changes his surname to Holland and makes a long tourof the continent. On his return to England, he has a chance to recover hisusurped throne but opts to settle in Wales at Caer Idion, marry a peasantgirl named Branwen and become a shepherd.In the "Navarrese,"Antoine Riczi remains loyal to Princess Jehane de Navarre.In the"Fox-Brush," King Henry V traveling incognito in France as AlainMaquedonnieux the Irish harpist, kills a fox near the Convent of Chartresand has a chance meeting with Lady Katherine the Fair.He falls in lovewith her, and after an angst-filled courtship they become betrothed in theCathedral of Troyes. In his "Epilogue," Nicolas de Caen gives theauthorities for his tales and apologizesfor being unable to confirmsolidly the facts of the first three tales. As the events in the talestake place, the Hundred Years War blossoms and the seeds for the War of theRoses are sown. ... Read more

Book Description
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. ... Read more

Book Description
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. ... Read more

Book Description
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. Preface by Joseph Hergesheimer; Critical comments by E. Noel Codman and Paul Verville ... Read more

Book Description
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. ... Read more

Book Description
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. ... Read more

Book Description
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.Download Description
The day was clear as a new-minted coin. It was not yet wholly aired, not wholly free from the damp savour of night, but low in the east the sun was taking heart. A mile-long shadow footed it with Billy Woods in his pacings through the amber-chequered gardens. Actaeon-like, he surprised the world at its toilet, and its fleeting grace somewhat fortified his spirits. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Saga of Poictesme First Installment
Reprint of the 1904 first edition with black and white illustrations by Will Grefe. The first installment of Cabell's Saga of Poictesme. Fine hardback in red cloth with gilt lettering. Published without a jacket. ISBN 0879680881 ... Read more

Book Description
During the recent resurgence of interest in Cabell's work, literary scholars have given the fantasy aspect of his novels only cursory consideration, assigning them a place in the popular "high fantasy" tradition established by William Morris. Riemer shows us a different and more innovative writer who, though drawing on the medieval, mythological, and folk sources associated with high fantasy, wrote in a darker, satirical vein that is closer in spirit to some of our postmodern writers. Rather than expressing an idealized, heroic view of the past, Cabell's work exploits the tension between those ideals and reality. Raised on glamorous overblown tales of Confederate gallantry in the Civil War, Cabell realized very early in life that even the "Arthurian" generals of the Confederacy had human failings and that modern Richmond was a far cry from Camelot. His acute awareness of the discrepancies between myth and reality, and his perception that belief could invest myth with the substance and power of reality, became central to the issues Cabell explored through literary fantasy. Questioning the nature of reality, he satirized human behavior and commented dramatically on our frequent inability to make accurate distinctions between either the real and the illusory, or the real and the ideal. Though the fantasy novels were generally well received, some readers complained that Cabell's irreverence and humor betrayed a lack of respect for the "true" nature of the Middle Ages and its values. Riemer devotes a chapter to each of the major fantasy works on which Cabell's reputation rests. Jurgen, which was banned briefly by the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice after its publication in 1919, is Cabell's best-known work. Other fantasy novels considered are The Cream of the Jest, Figures of Earth, The High Place, The Silver Stallion, and Something about Eve. Riemer's study offers stimulating discussion and major new insights on a novelist whose works are deservedly regaining a wide readership. This book will be of interest for courses or studies in modern American fiction and fantasy fiction. ... Read more

Book Description
When Let Me Lie was first published in 1947, most reviewers missed thedouble 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 isindeed a carefully researched and brilliantly written historical narrative of Virginia from1559 to 1946--focusing on Tidewater, Richmond, and the Northern Neck--but as a fictionalscholar remarks in the book, Cabell's history is "both accurate and injudicious." Virginia'sstory of itself, Cabell claims, depends on illusion and myth, and his skill as a satirist allowshim to construct and deflate these myths simultaneously. Ranging from Don Luis deVelasco and Captain John Smith to Edgar Allan Poe and Ellen Glasgow, fromConfederate heroes to the oddities of the post-Civil War Old Dominion, Let Me Lieremains compulsively readable, as history, entertainment, or both. Foreward by R. H. W.Dillard. ... Read more