A new book called Jurgen

... well sort of...
I've recently seen it said in a couple places that Jurgen is out of print. This clearly does not take into account the several facsimile/POD/reprints -- of widely varying quality -- from BiblioBazaar, IndyPublish, Forgotten Books, and tha' ilk... and (sigh) Kindle. But there are several other 'new' Jurgens which I have not seen mentioned here but are worth noting...

- Here's one from Waking Lion Press / The Editorium http://www.amazon.com/Jurgen-James-Branch-Cabell/dp/1434102475/ref=sr_1_1?s=book... ... It's a reprint of the Pape-illustrated edition but with a new introduction and with an updated version of Cover's "Notes to Jurgen" interspersed as footnotes in the text. It's nicely done.

- Here's an unabridged audio recording of Jurgen: http://www.amazon.com/Jurgen-Justice-James-Branch-Cabell/dp/1574534505/ref=sr_1_... . It's a little weird and may not be to everyone's taste ... instead of being read by just one actor it's performed by an ensemble who trade off sentences in a way I've never encountered in an audiobook. At first I really disliked this aspect of it but I soon got used to it and ultimately enjoyed the reading a lot. A bonus is that they use the almost-never-heard Deems Taylor 'Jurgen Suite' as incidental music. This audiobook was going for insane prices just a year or two ago ($80 and up) but I see it's now on Amazon in the $30-$40 range.

-As you probably know, Dover (grandaddy of quality reprint houses) re-issued the Pape edition of Jurgen in 1977 -- not sure how long it remained in print but a couple decades or so I think. Anyway, they're reissuing it in April 2011: http://www.amazon.com/Jurgen-James-Branch-Cabell/dp/0486479153/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF...

- And finally there's the Webster's Hungarian Thesaurus edition of Jurgen: http://www.amazon.com/Jurgen-James-Branch-Cabell/dp/0486479153/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF....
Uh... the only thing weirder than this is that they've accorded the same Hungarian footnote-gloss treatment to The Cords of Vanity, The Line of Love and Domnei too. Unless it's that you can get this 'series' done up instead with glosses in Japanese, Portuguese, Dutch, Czech, Arabic or Chinese. Jurgen gets around...

Thanks for the tips! Especially good news on the Dover reissue.

I'm especially intrigued by the audiobook, though that's not typical of me. I'll see if I can get it from a library first, I think.

Because Jurgen is JBC's "popular" title, I've been prejudice against reading it, wanting to get a few other titles under my belt before succumbing to his "accessible" work. (And yes, I realise how silly it is in general to hold such an opinion, but it seems especially silly in light of Jurgen specifically.)

So I have another consideration: do I read Jurgen first, and then listen? Hmmmn.

I would read it before listening, and I would read it 'straight' without explanatory notes, or prefaces referring to the controversy. It deserves to stand on its own unadorned.

Or you could read Cream of the Jest...

> 3

Keep in mind, where the "popularity" of Jurgen is at stake, that it sold more copies that any other Cabell book, due to its tremendous notoriety. But few of those copies were actually read in their entirety. It's as wry as any other Cabell fantasy.

Jurgen is worth knowing because of the role it plays in cultural contexts, such as the decline of Comstockery, and the development of Thelema. (It's all in Chapter 22!)

I recently read the greater part of Taboo (Cabell's post-Jurgen parable about sex-censorship) aloud to my wife, and we were roaring. It's not quite as good as the Holy Nose of Lytreia, but it comes close.

You can get real copies of Taboo for less than $20 on ABE and elsewhere, but for a quick free read, here it is on Googlebooks: http://books.google.com/books?id=1UVEAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=cab...

One of its humorous features that doesn't survive in most copies is its dustjacket -- instead of being a standard McBride jacket it's a parody of a "plain brown wrapper"...

> 4
but wait elenchus -- you Have read cream, right? i was thinking youd only read silver stallion... sorry...

I have, indeed, read Cream and strongly suspect it will be the Cream of the Geste for me, as well. But I do look forward to finding out for myself.

Cream was the first I read, and, of the "novels," still seems the best to me.

That being said, the shorter work "The Music from Behind the Moon" strikes me as Cabell at apogee. Yes, it's the epitome.

Favorite of the non-fantasies: The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck

Favorite post-Biography of Manuel: The Devil's Own Dear Son

Favorite essay: "The First Virginian"

Favorite preface: to "Smirt"

Favorite non-fiction book: tie between "Special Delivery" and his memoir of his wives

twv

I can't disagree about Cream. In addition to being a great book, it's also pivotal in his canon in a number of ways.

That said I find it hard to choose between the 'big five' -- Cream, Jurgen, Figures, Silver Stallion and High Place. Whichever one I'm reading, that's my favorite. And when you get to a certain level of excellence choosing becomes unnecessary. Which is the best Shakespeare play? Othello? Twelfth Night? Macbeth? Much Ado? Hamlet? Henry IV? half a dozen others?... and which is my favorite? I dunno...

My favorite of his earliest books -- Chivalry and Cords of Vanity.

My favorite of his later books --
Smith and The King was in his Counting-House

His non-fiction books? hard to choose ... they all have parts I like a lot and some parts not so much. If I HAD to choose one, Special Delivery would certainly be a front-runner. But they're all worth reading. I don't think he ever wrote a book not worth reading and, eventually, re-reading...

Cream is probably my least favorite of the "big five" you list. It just all seemed so obvious to me somehow.

Jurgen is religiously important to me, so there's that. And Figures is the indispensible Illiad to its Odyssey.

Silver Stallion is delightful, but its episodic construction keeps me from thinking of it as a unified work.

The High Place is consummate, just consummate.

>11 paradoxosalpha:
I thought you bore a high regard also for Something About Eve?

>12 Crypto-Willobie:

I do! It wasn't on your short list.

As a reader, I find it in many respects to be a "long version" of The Music from Behind the Moon, which--I concur with wirkman--is a distilled germ of the corpus. But I love all the changes and additions.

Well, the 'big five' are not so much my personal shortlist as a sort of (perceived) critical and readerly consensus. Eve makes a worthy sixth.

Music from Behind the Moon is, for me, a little too boiled down, too much a 'fable'; so that while I acknowledge its perfection I withhold my affection. (Now it sounds like I'm saying I don't like it, which isn't true...)

For sheer romantic beauty of style it's hard to beat Domnei...