(no subject)

[james_davis_nicoll]

[Poll #1730770]

Comments

[jamesenge.livejournal.com]

It was the prefaces that got me hooked on Cabell. I'm pretty sure DOMNEI is the first thing I read by him (in the Ballantine Fantasy series), and the preface to that one is hilarious: about, among other things, how hard it was to get the book published, how poorly its first edition did ("And it seemed to me at this period, I confess, that, through some concerted and really earnest effort, the publishers might have sold the usual 500 copies"), along with a snarky survey of the fall publishing season in 1913. He really puts the iron in irony.

I think DOMNEI, FIGURES OF EARTH, JURGEN and a few others are worth reading by those who like fantasy. But I wouldn't say he's for everybody. His social opinions are pretty reactionary, even for his time and place, and his female characters are all as empty as "the thin queen of Elfhame" who figures in one of his most disturbing stories. Also, he frequently clutters up his text with goop that he seems to feel is some sort of philosophy. But, when he's interested in actually telling a tale, he can tell an interesting one in an interesting way.