William Leigh Godshalk (1937–2015)

In Quest of Cabell compiles five previously published essays plus an annotated bibliography. Godshalk's articles scan quickly but are substantive for all that, highlighting Cabell's politics & attendant metaphysics; his view of literature (I suspect politics and aesthetics are nearly the same thing for Cabell); and Godshalk links Cabell's fiction with his essays. A solid introduction to Cabellian criticism, demonstrating Cabell is not merely a stylist of the first rank, but an important if neglected author.

Central: the postulated human capacity for imagining principles or ideals, and living into them as opposed to living by them. In fact, life imitates art, not vice versa, a serious application of a Realist metaphysic and its grounding belief in the validity of both material existence and ideas. Godshalk cites but does not examine closely Cabell's debt to literature for this conception of Romanticism.

"James Branch Cabell at William and Mary" addresses Cabell's biography, especially his undergraduate education, and the origin of some of his enduring ideas.

"The Growth of a Credo" was first published as the introduction to an edition of Cabell's Beyond Life and serves as both critical analysis and summary of that work, but also the Biography generally. The keystone essay in this collection.

"Cabell's Sources" is a short discussion of Cabell's use of the mirror throughout his ouevre, arguing Cabell used it contextually and not as a constant symbol. Godshalk identifies two general approaches, though: either objective empiricism, reminding a character of the harsh facts of his situation, or an emblem of the power of Romance.

"Cabell's Cream of the Jest and Recent American Fiction" examines the thematic link between Cabell's breakthrough 1917 novel and its anticipation of post-WWII U.S. fiction.

"Cabell and Barth" draws comparison between these two U.S. writers, concluding both evaluate humanity from the vantage of an ironic skepticism, but that Cabell ultimately finds more meaning in the human condition (primarily through his Romantic credo).… (meer)