Recommendations

Thought I would start a thread to recommend books/authors that may not fit into the "Cabell's Heir's" thread from earlier, but are still likely to be enjoyed by fans of Cabell's style.

One recommendation I would make for those that like Cabell's early short romances from "Chivalry", "Gallantry", and "Line of Love" would be Balzac's Droll Stories, some of which Cabell seemed to be trying to emulate in his early works.

Another, for those interested in a novel length work, would be Frans Bengtsson's The Long Ships, a viking adventure story which, with a touch of ironic Cabellian humor, captures a variety of male-female relationships. From bare toleration of the long married viking couple, to the doting over-protection of a viking mother for her youngest son, and the rose-tinted optimism of the young, newly married couple.

The book also deals with religion, a common Cabellian theme. Luck is the supreme deity of the young pagan hero, and being pragmatic, he is willing to worship whichever god will bring him the most of it. He dabbles with Islam after being captured by a Muslim prince in Spain, and later in the book, he converts to Christianity when that seems to be the path to maximum luck. Of course, even as a Christian, he must still occasionally participate in pagan ritual when circumstances require.

What works and authors would others recommend?

For those who like Figures of Earth and Something About Eve, I might recommend Beckford's Vathek.

Bengtsson was on my wishlist, but his place is secure based on the parallel to Cabell. I've added Vathek.

Thanks for both recommendations.

Good thread idea...
... and thanks for reminding me about the Long Ships. I had it on a wishlist too, somewhere, but it seems to have dropped off.

I've been thinking about DCBlack's question for a bit. I'm going to have to divide my recs according to the 'three Cabells' -- the romantic writings, the Virginia writings, and the fantastic writings.

The Romantic Cabell
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
For those of us who enjoy the pre-1915 romantic material -- Line of Love (7 story 1905 version), Gallantry, Chivalry, Soul of Melicent-- I recommend the English writer Maurice Hewlett. It was common in the early reviews of Cabell's books for them to be described as "in the manner of Maurice Hewlett." The census of JBC's library shows he had all of Hewlett's books, and as late as 1917 he lauded Hewlett in a letter to a friend. This changed after Hewlett wrote him a letter expressing disgust at the smuttiness of Jurgen, and then published a negative review of Figures of Earth in a prominent New York newspaper -- see Cabell's revenge in the afterword to Lineage of Lichfield.

Anyway, I have only dipped into Hewlett, but he sure can sound like Cabell sometimes, in phrasing and rhythms. These are the openings of two of the tales in Hewlett's Fond Adventures (1905): "It is a tale of love and lovers which they tell..." and "As I do not think the worse of a tale because it may be true, so it is no detriment to it in my eyes that it has been pieced together from a hundred scraps...". When I read "The Tale of the Half-brothers" in New Canterbury Tales (1901) I could easily imagine I was reading early Cabell. And Paul Spencer pointed out in Kalki that at the end of Brazenhead the Great (1911) the Falstaffian soldier Brazenhead has a surreal experience wherein he encounters embodiments of all the women he has loved in the past-- shades of Jurgen! Finally, it is unlikely to be a coincidence that several of Hewlett's modern social novels are subtitled "A Comedy of Degrees." "A Comedy of Resolution," and "A Comedy with a Sting". I haven't read these though, and Hewlett was better known for his neo-medieval stuff.

The Virginian Cabell
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Cabell is often spoken of by literary critics (when they speak of him at all) along with his fellow Richmond writer Ellen Glasgow. Although they maintained a precarious friendship (based mostly on giving each other good reviews) their writings are for the most part not very similar, hers being concerned mostly with the Virginia working-class. However, in the 20s and early 30s, she wrote three 'comedies of manners' (The Romantic Comedians, They Stooped to Folly, and The Sheltered Life) that might bear some comparison to Cabell's early Virginian social novels (Eagle's Shadow, Cords of Vanity, Rivet in Grandfather's Neck, and the non-dream parts of Cream of the Jest). I read The Romantics Comedians only to fill out my knowledge of the Cabellian milieu, but was very pleasantly surprised. She isn't the smart-ass Cabell is but can be quite ironic and witty. In fact as I read Romantic Comedians I felt almost as if I were reading her reply to Rivet and Cream of the Jest. Imagine a slightly older Rudolph Musgrave (Rivet) in Felix Kennaston's place... he has left his Ettarre behind and married the sensible wife. But when his wife dies, he finds his original Ettarre is now too old for him, and he meets and idealizes another beautiful, untouchable and very young woman -- and marries her. Bad move -- as Kennaston found out, when one touches Ettarre she disappears. If you read Romantic Comedians you'll see what I mean by all this. I enjoyed it sufficiently that I plan to read Glasgow's other two comedies eventually.

The Fantastic Cabell
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Golden Ass of Apuleius, translated by Robert Graves. Picaresque adventures, with witchcraft, goddesses, sex, and satire written in an urbane tongue-in-cheek style. Sound familiar? I re-read it recently and it's still good.

The Crock of Gold (1913) by James Stephens. I read this long ago but don't remember much of it. Have just dug it out for a re-read. It was sometimes compared to Cabell's fantastic work back in the day, and there is a copy in his library.

Twilight of the Gods (1888; expanded 1903) by Richard Garnett. Avaialbe here on googlebooks http://books.google.com/books?id=ch03AAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=ric...
Witty rehandlings of material from various mythologies. I've only dipped into it but like what I've seen and will continue to do so. Not sure if it was in Cabell's library-- don't feel like walking upstairs right now to check.

The Unfortunate Fursey (1946) by Mervyn Wall -- I've gotten this but haven't read it yet. It's a satire by an Irish writer concerning a hapless monk's adventures after he's expelled from his monastery for making friends with various devils. It has a cult following; sounds promising.

A veritable Crock of Gold for my wishlist! I don't have anything to add myself, but enjoy this thread. Will post here as I encounter / recall titles that seem appropriate.

And I'd overlooked the Balzac recommendation. Short stories are a current interest of mine, so they would fit right in. Time for a visit to my library.

>4 Crypto-Willobie: updates

Richard Garnett's Twilight of the Gods was indeed in Cabell's library but his copy of it was printed in 1924 so is unlikely to have influenced him.

Cabell's copy of James Stephens' Crock of Gold was given to him in 1916 by his editor and friend Guy Holt, just on the cusp of the explosion of fantasy into his writing. Hmm...

Another book I read long ago and recall only dimly but which seems to bridge the gap between Hewlett and Stephens is The Dryad (1905) by the Irish writer Justin McCarthy (not to be confused with his father of the same name, also an Irish writer).

Finally (for now) there is the Welsh writer Arthur Machen. Machen is probably familiar to most Cabellians and readers of fantastic or weird fiction. Most of his work is not very like Cabell, but Machen's masterpiece The Hill of Dreams is often claimed as a key influence on Cream of the Jest. In a way it is, and Cabell acknowledged this and sent Machen a copy of Cream, but its similarity is exaggerated. Dreams do invade the everyday life of Machen's protagonist, but the mood and outcome are quite different from Cabell's book. A closer match among Machen's work would be his long story A Fragment of Life (which Cabell also acknowledged as an influence). It's not very fantastical, but its narrative of everyday drudgery contrasted with a world beyond is for me more evocative of The Cream of the Jest.

Thanks CW for many interesting recommendations. I had read Cabell's biographical essay about Ellen Glasgow in Let Me Lie, and had intended to read some of her works, but didn't know where to start.

I have read a few stories by Richard Garnett that were included in the Discoveries in Fantasy anthology from the ballantine adult fantasy series. I'll have to check out a few more from the googlebooks link you provided. BTW, that BAF anthology also includes a few stories by Donald Corley from his collection The House of Lost Identity originally published by McBride and for which Cabell wrote an introduction.

I hadn't heard of Maurice Hewlett before, but his works look especially interesting for their possible influence on Cabell.

not to neglect E.R. Eddison about whose WORM OUROBOROS Cabell said "I find here - in his finest, his purest, and his most romantic vein - the finest living writer of pure fantasy."

Stephens, Garnett and Corley all marvelous - thanks for the reminders

Glasgow's They Stooped to Folly: A Comedy of Morals is dedicated to Cabell, and is very, very good. Her The Romantic Comedians is obviously a reference to The Tragic Comedians by George Meredith, whose name might deserve listing as a precursor to Cabell.

Meredith wrote in an almost convoluted style, as if he were riffing on the story he was telling, more than telling a story. (Bring to mind anyone?) There were whole sections of Evan Harrington where I wasn't sure what was happening . . . but I was enjoying the ride.

Meredith wrote comedies. Indeed, his Essay on Comedy is must reading. Meredith's method was to prick at the egoism of his major characters. He regarded comedy as the perfect instrument of this mission, and he considered it a moral mission, if joyous and fun, and not at all dour. Subcurrents of Cabell's philosophy seem to stream from Meredith's vision of comedy.

Meredith also wrote a famous fantasy, an opulent Arabian Nights-style fantasy called The Shaving of Shagpat. He wrote another, which I have not even dipped into, called Farina, which seems to be best known for having no known partisans. The Shaving of Shagpat has one of the best opening lines in literary fantasy.

>9 wirkman: one of the best opening lines in literary fantasy.

Tease! Why not put it in Common Knowledge, then?

> Hear, hear!

> 9
Thanks, wirkman... you just made me buy some books. I discovered I had a neglected copy of Evan Harrington that I picked up somewhere, but no other Meredith. I did have the audiobook of The Egoist on my Amazon long-list because I had seen someone somewhere (in Kalki? The Cabellian? Joe Lee Davis?) mention it in relation to Cabell, but the price hasn't come down far enough. So imagine my surpise when I find that Duke's inventory of JBC's library shows not a single Meredith volume! Hmmm. This doen't mean he hadn't read him-- for one thing his first library went up in flames around the turn of the century; and he was known to use the public liberry and also to have sold off some volumes that were easily available there.

By the way I'm well into James Stephens' The Crock of Gold and, not to sound like a hack movie reviewer, it's delightful. I can understand the Cabell comparisons, though JS is much more good-tempered than JBC.

The opening lines of George Meredith's first novel:

THE SHAVING OF SHAGPAT

BOOK I.
THE THWACKINGS

It was ordained that Shibli Bagarag, nephew to the renowned Baba Mustapha, chief barber to the Court of Persia, should shave Shagpat, the son of Shimpoor, the son of Shoolpi, the son of Shullum; and they had been clothiers for generations, even to the time of Shagpat, the illustrious.

Now, the story of Shibli Bagarag, and of the ball he followed, and of the subterranean kingdom he came to, and of the enchanted palace he entered, and of the sleeping king he shaved, and of the two princesses he released, and of the Afrite held in subjection by the arts of one and bottled by her, is it not known as 'twere written on the finger-nails of men and traced in their corner-robes? As the poet says:

Ripe with oft telling and old is the tale,
But 'tis of the sort that can never grow stale.

Now, things were in that condition with Shibli Bagarag, that on a certain day he was hungry and abject, and the city of Shagpat the clothier was before him; so he made toward it, deliberating as to how he should procure a meal, for he had not a dirhem in his girdle, and the remembrance of great dishes and savoury ingredients were to him as the illusion of rivers sheening on the sands to travellers gasping with thirst.

Thanks! And I've duly pasted the first sentence into CK.

I've been re-reading Candide for the first time since college (I recently picked up the lovely 1975 Random House edition with Rockwell Kent illustrations), and the clear influence on Cabell stands out on this reading. As I read, I feel that the book's skewering of 'Panglossian' optimism must be the inspiration for Cabell's famous witticism: "The optimist claims that we live in the best of all possible worlds, while the pessimist fears this is true."