Other Fiction Cabell, James Branch: The Cords of Vanity, v1, 11 March 2010.

[Patricia]

James Branch Cabell [1879–1958]
The Cords of Vanity: A Comedy of Shirking
Revised and Expanded Edition with an Introduction by Wilson Follett [1887–1963]

The narrator is a Casanova, who leaves a trail of young women in his wake. He is a writer who uses his mistresses for his own advancement, while wondering why he feels dissatisfied. Then events take an unexpected turn when he meets a literary lady…

The source was a Project Gutenberg text file. The book is on the US server because, while the text is out of copyright in Canada, the Introduction is not. However, Follett failed to renew the US copyright.

[Greg Anos]

For those interested in the minutia of Cabell, this is the second version of Cords. The final rewrite is the Storiesende version.

(Jurgen for example has 4 different versions - 1919, 1922, 1926 and Storiesende...)

He never could leave his text alone...

[Patricia]

Thanks, RSE.

It was RSE who got me interested in the works of James Branch Cabell. Many of his novels seem to have a similar cyclical structure, and certain plot devices are used again: presumably JBC wanted to refine them. The writing style is wonderful; with a great sense of irony, and a feeling for mythology.

[Greg Anos]

Originally Posted by Patricia

Thanks, RSE.

It was RSE who got me interested in the works of James Branch Cabell. Many of his novels seem to have a similar cyclical structure, and certain plot devices are used again: presumably JBC wanted to refine them. The writing style is wonderful; with a great sense of irony, and a feeling for mythology.

Very much of his work was cyclical. He went into much detail about his work in his letters. Unfortunately, they are not in the public domain.

He was not a popular writer, his style was far more elevated that the common American taste. That he was able to publish as much as he did was because of a famous obscenity case in 1920 over Jurgen. (Anyone who reads Jurgen today could not possible understand how it could have caused a scandal.) This brought his name into prominence, and let him publish until the end, although only in university presses at the last.

Ended up at where you started was a favorite formula of Cabell's....

(I hope to have The High Place ready for Patricia in a week or so. That will complete the prose fiction of The Biography of Manuel that is not in the US public Domain (all is in the Canadian public domain). Remaining from the Biography will be a volume of poetry and two Books of Commentary. - And three trilogies created after the Biography)