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The Biography of Manuel #10
Gallantry: Dizain des Fetes Galantes
A landmark of classic fantasy from the author of DOMNEI, THE CREAM OF THE JEST, and JURGEN.
372 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1907
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58 people want to read
About the author
James Branch Cabell
262 books126 followersJames Branch Cabell was an American author of fantasy fiction and belles lettres. Cabell was well regarded by his contemporaries, including H. L. Mencken, Edmund Wilson, and Sinclair Lewis. His works were considered escapist and fit well in the culture of the 1920s, when they were most popular. For Cabell, veracity was "the one unpardonable sin, not merely against art, but against human welfare."
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
August 13, 2025
Reread:
Continuing my reread of the Biography of Manuel, now in hardcopy. Physical object, a leatherbound print-on-demand with the text being the 1924 McBride edition with introduction by Louis Untermeyer.
First Read:
...where she would tantalize me nightly, from her balcony, after the example of the Veronese lady in Shakespeare's spirited tragedy, which she prodigiously admired.
As concerns myself, a reasonable liking for romance had been of late somewhat tempered by the inclemency of the weather and the obvious unfriendliness of the dog; but there is no resisting a lady's commands...
Yet another in the long line of Cabell’s historical romance short story collections. Its all filigree and artificiality but completely self-aware both from the authorial point of view and that of its characters who are generally quite practical at heart regardless of their pretensions for high romance.
Each story is presented like a scene from a play to add to the idea of life as stage sort of thing. Unlike most of Cabell’s story collections which are spread throughout time this one is much more connected with each tale leading on from the one before.
So a side-character in one will be the main character in the next, or the villain in one might be the hero in the following.
Personally i prefer the more historically spread collections but this format does allow you to see a different perspective on some of the previous stories and characters.
I think its probably the nicest of Cabell’s works. Usually the ratio of sweet to bitter in Cabell’s books is about 50/50 or worse but this is more like 80/20.
Its very nicely written but its happily-ever-afterness did start to grate on me a bit, of course my favourite Cabell so far is Figures of Earth, probably his bitterest work :P .
After i finished the final proper chapter it was still going to be 4-stars but probably the Cabell work i would have least liked to reread.
However the afterpiece really brings everything together and actually makes me want to reread the whole thing again keeping in mind the effect of the whole rather than seeing it as a series of tales.
...and my children will be reared on moral aphorisms and rational food, with me as a handy example of everything they should avoid. Deuce take it, Amalia," he added, "a father must in common decency furnish an example to his children!"
Edit: I did some translations and notes https://www.librarything.com/topic/37...
Continuing my reread of the Biography of Manuel, now in hardcopy. Physical object, a leatherbound print-on-demand with the text being the 1924 McBride edition with introduction by Louis Untermeyer.
First Read:
...where she would tantalize me nightly, from her balcony, after the example of the Veronese lady in Shakespeare's spirited tragedy, which she prodigiously admired.
As concerns myself, a reasonable liking for romance had been of late somewhat tempered by the inclemency of the weather and the obvious unfriendliness of the dog; but there is no resisting a lady's commands...
Yet another in the long line of Cabell’s historical romance short story collections. Its all filigree and artificiality but completely self-aware both from the authorial point of view and that of its characters who are generally quite practical at heart regardless of their pretensions for high romance.
Each story is presented like a scene from a play to add to the idea of life as stage sort of thing. Unlike most of Cabell’s story collections which are spread throughout time this one is much more connected with each tale leading on from the one before.
So a side-character in one will be the main character in the next, or the villain in one might be the hero in the following.
Personally i prefer the more historically spread collections but this format does allow you to see a different perspective on some of the previous stories and characters.
I think its probably the nicest of Cabell’s works. Usually the ratio of sweet to bitter in Cabell’s books is about 50/50 or worse but this is more like 80/20.
Its very nicely written but its happily-ever-afterness did start to grate on me a bit, of course my favourite Cabell so far is Figures of Earth, probably his bitterest work :P .
After i finished the final proper chapter it was still going to be 4-stars but probably the Cabell work i would have least liked to reread.
However the afterpiece really brings everything together and actually makes me want to reread the whole thing again keeping in mind the effect of the whole rather than seeing it as a series of tales.
...and my children will be reared on moral aphorisms and rational food, with me as a handy example of everything they should avoid. Deuce take it, Amalia," he added, "a father must in common decency furnish an example to his children!"
Edit: I did some translations and notes https://www.librarything.com/topic/37...
Read
April 1, 2023Undoubtedly the most elegant book ever set in Tunbridge Wells. And other places too, granted, but from pocket duchies to grand houses, all share a similar soap-bubble luminescence. For these linked tales tell of that "flippant and unprudish age" in the middle years of the eighteenth century, "when politeness was obligatory, and morality a matter of taste, and when well-bred people went about the day's work with an ample leisure and very few scruples". The perfect setting in which Cabell, having elsewhere considered the artistic and the chivalrous attitude towards life, can examine the eponymous gallantry - at whose heart lies a determination "to accept the pleasures of life leisurely and its inconveniences with a shrug". So our cast of lords and ladies, jades and scoundrels dance elegantly through the motions of life, ready to hazard life or happiness on the perfect bon mot, the unsurpassable gesture. Protagonists include one described in the Dramatis Personae as "tormented beyond measure with the impertinences of life", and an aristocrat seized with the scandalous notion of romancing his own wife. The jokes are abstruse, and the sorrows staunchly denied by all concerned - both, of course, hitting all the harder because of that. The tone is rueful, wry, arch - modes which I know not everyone enjoys as much as I do, hence the fact that even that select band of Cabell enthusiasts tend to consider this a minor work. And in fairness, it never claims to be anything else, but what an exquisite miniature it is.
August 20, 2025
I came to James Branch Cabell, like most, I suspect, because I stumbled upon one or more of Cabell’s sardonic and urbane fantasies—Figures of Earth, Jurgen, etc.—and was inspired to read more. There is no doubt that Cabell wrote amazing fantasy during the 1920’s.
Unfortunately, perhaps, at the close of the 1920’s Cabell decided that all his writing up to that time could be viewed as belonging to a single series, the Biography of the Life of Manuel. He lightly edited some of his earlier works accordingly and reissued everything he had written as the 18-volume Storisende edition of the Biography of the Life of Manuel.
Lovers of Cabell's fantasy may be drawn to read the entirety of the Biography, as I was, to the point of collecting the first editions. However, with the best will, I cannot bring myself fully to enjoy much of Cabell's non-fantasy. Certainly, in his early career, Cabell had a good eye for a beautifully printed book, and the first editions of Gallantry, Chivalry, The Line of Love, and The Soul of Melicent (later reissued as Domnei) are gorgeous. All have colour illustrations by Howard Pyle. The disappointment that they are nowise fantasy is mitigated by the pleasure of holding and reading these beautiful old books from the early years of the last century.
Indeed, Gallantry forms a pair with Chivalry, both consisting of magazine stories collected and issued by Harper Brothers. Gallantry was published in 1907, two years before Chivalry. The four colour plates by Howard Pyle all belong to one of the stories, “In the Second April.” The tales in Gallantry take place in the mid-Eighteenth Century and involve the foppish, duplicitous upper classes of France and England. In “The Epistle Dedicatory,” Cabell writes, “The secret of gallantry, I take it, was to accept the pleasures of life leisurely and its in inconveniences with a shrug” (p. 4).
The stories are loosely linked, with an overarching cast of characters flowing in and out of the narrative. The book is set in Tunbridge Wells and Poictesme. The former was a vacation town for the English upper classes needing a break from the London scene. I read somewhere that Cabell never visited Tunbridge Wells, and it shows in the paucity of his description of this town. The latter is Cabell’s invented French province, including Bellegarde, the Forest of Acaire, and so on, which is the main location for Figures of Earth, Jurgen, and other Cabell fantasies. Gallantry may be the first of Cabell’s books to mention Poictesme.
Cabell’s writing is as clever and sophisticated as ever—so much so in fact that it’s difficult sometimes to follow the story precisely. He fills Gallantry with light social satire and cynical love stories.
Nevertheless, if it weren't for Cabell's great fantasies, I would not have picked up anything like Gallantry and spent the time reading it—slowly and carefully, by the way, in an attempt to understand it fully. In a manner, I feel hoodwinked into reading Gallantry, Chivalry, et al, by Cabell's device of grouping them with his great fantasies in a single series. Well, yes, it's possible to appreciate Cabell's philosophy of life and literature through a close reading of Beyond Life, and subsequently to trace this philosophy throughout the Biography. But this is somewhat of an academic exercise. Cabell was a fantasist of genius, but his view of life is ultimately too pessimistic to attract my enduring interest beyond his fantasies. Yes, his writing is leavened with an urbane and sardonic sense of humour, but frankly even Cabell's jokes are easier to appreciate in his fantasy than in social satires like Gallantry.
Cabell completionists will need to read Gallantry—for its references to Poictesme at least. Conceivably fans of romantic historical fiction will also enjoy the book, though ultimately I suspect Cabell is too cynical and obscure to attract many fans of the genre.
Unfortunately, perhaps, at the close of the 1920’s Cabell decided that all his writing up to that time could be viewed as belonging to a single series, the Biography of the Life of Manuel. He lightly edited some of his earlier works accordingly and reissued everything he had written as the 18-volume Storisende edition of the Biography of the Life of Manuel.
Lovers of Cabell's fantasy may be drawn to read the entirety of the Biography, as I was, to the point of collecting the first editions. However, with the best will, I cannot bring myself fully to enjoy much of Cabell's non-fantasy. Certainly, in his early career, Cabell had a good eye for a beautifully printed book, and the first editions of Gallantry, Chivalry, The Line of Love, and The Soul of Melicent (later reissued as Domnei) are gorgeous. All have colour illustrations by Howard Pyle. The disappointment that they are nowise fantasy is mitigated by the pleasure of holding and reading these beautiful old books from the early years of the last century.
Indeed, Gallantry forms a pair with Chivalry, both consisting of magazine stories collected and issued by Harper Brothers. Gallantry was published in 1907, two years before Chivalry. The four colour plates by Howard Pyle all belong to one of the stories, “In the Second April.” The tales in Gallantry take place in the mid-Eighteenth Century and involve the foppish, duplicitous upper classes of France and England. In “The Epistle Dedicatory,” Cabell writes, “The secret of gallantry, I take it, was to accept the pleasures of life leisurely and its in inconveniences with a shrug” (p. 4).
The stories are loosely linked, with an overarching cast of characters flowing in and out of the narrative. The book is set in Tunbridge Wells and Poictesme. The former was a vacation town for the English upper classes needing a break from the London scene. I read somewhere that Cabell never visited Tunbridge Wells, and it shows in the paucity of his description of this town. The latter is Cabell’s invented French province, including Bellegarde, the Forest of Acaire, and so on, which is the main location for Figures of Earth, Jurgen, and other Cabell fantasies. Gallantry may be the first of Cabell’s books to mention Poictesme.
Cabell’s writing is as clever and sophisticated as ever—so much so in fact that it’s difficult sometimes to follow the story precisely. He fills Gallantry with light social satire and cynical love stories.
Nevertheless, if it weren't for Cabell's great fantasies, I would not have picked up anything like Gallantry and spent the time reading it—slowly and carefully, by the way, in an attempt to understand it fully. In a manner, I feel hoodwinked into reading Gallantry, Chivalry, et al, by Cabell's device of grouping them with his great fantasies in a single series. Well, yes, it's possible to appreciate Cabell's philosophy of life and literature through a close reading of Beyond Life, and subsequently to trace this philosophy throughout the Biography. But this is somewhat of an academic exercise. Cabell was a fantasist of genius, but his view of life is ultimately too pessimistic to attract my enduring interest beyond his fantasies. Yes, his writing is leavened with an urbane and sardonic sense of humour, but frankly even Cabell's jokes are easier to appreciate in his fantasy than in social satires like Gallantry.
Cabell completionists will need to read Gallantry—for its references to Poictesme at least. Conceivably fans of romantic historical fiction will also enjoy the book, though ultimately I suspect Cabell is too cynical and obscure to attract many fans of the genre.
Want to read
September 27, 2009fantasy
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews