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The Biography of Manuel #3
Silver Stallion
They relate how Dom Manuel that was the high Count of Poictesme, & was everywhere esteemed the most lucky & the least scrupulous rogue of his times, had disappeared out of his castle at Storisende, without any reason or forewarning, upon the feast day of St Michael & All the Angels. They tell of the confusion & dismay which arose in Dom Manuel's lands when it was known that Manuel the Redeemer--thus named because he had redeemed Poictesme from the Northmen, thru the aid of Miramon Lluagor, with a great & sanguinary magic, was now gone, quite inexplicably out of these lands.
256 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1926
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About the author
James Branch Cabell
258 books125 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 - 25 of 25 reviews
July 3, 2013
as my compulsive consumption of cabell continues (this has been in my purse a month now and this is my third re-read), i have been alerted to the fact that i am reading these books "out of order" though it hardly seems to matter. i will say that it seems the more you read cabell, the more intertextualities you recognize as you come upon them. i discovered the paternity of dame lisa, jurgen's wife in reading the silver stallion, which added a certain piquancy. my beloved jurgen also make appearances here: as a child, then a youth, then the jurgen that bewitched me but he is by no means a main character. this book is about heroes not poet/pawnbrokers. these include jurgen's father coth of the rocks, and the other eight heroes who made up the fellowship of the silver stallion under their tenth member and leader, the count dom manuel, redeemer of poictesme (cabell's fictionalized medieval french demesne) who saved it from the pagan north men.
the action of this pseudo-history novel occurs when, one fine day, dom manuel disappears and nobody knows where or how he left. the only two that claim to have seen him go are children, and each relate incredible stories of a supernatural departure. dom manuel's wife and her counselors (among them horvendile, the author's interlocutor) call the silver stallion together, only to disband the fellowship and set about fashioning a puritanical christian cult around the lost hero, to smooth out and reinvent his reputation, to make him now a spiritual redeemer that will return a la king arthur, in the hour of poictesme's need. cabell's interest in the autumn years rears its head again here, in choosing to tell the tales of the last adventures of these heroes' careers, these men who knew a different version of the man who disappeared, while he examines what makes a hero, and reminds us how easy it is to put pretty words around previously inappropriate deeds. everyone can be redeemed, in time. and so too, can they be forgotten with just a few more grains of sand.
the silver stallion is perhaps not quite as ribald as jurgen but there are romantical shenanigans aplenty. these heroes really know how to woo a dame. but seeing as there are so many of them and just one jurgen, the effect is rather less concentrated. the quotes i've selected to showcase here highlight cabell's interest in love. he embraces it while he denounces it and he seems to recognize it in all its incarnations. the first comes from the story ninzian, the most devoutly rigorous of all dom manuel's former allies after his wife founds out his terrible secret. and the other is one of the cantankerous coth of the rocks softer moments (i can think of only one other, actually, just after this) these are poignant moments but mostly cabell is fun and cabell is witty even if cabell is wise. i wish i could have taken a turn around the maypole with him. :)
***
"No, Ninzian, I simply cannot stand having a husband who walks like a bird and is liable to be detected the next time it rains. It would be on my mind day and night, and people would say all sorts of things. No, Ninzian, it is quite out of the question, and you must go back to hell. I will get your things together at once, and I leave it to your conscience if, after the way I have worked and slaved for you, you had the right to play this wrong and treachery upon me."
And Balthis said also: "For it is a great wrong and treachery which you have played upon me, Ninzian of Yair, getting from me such love as men will not find the equal of in any of the noble places of this world until the end of life and time. This is a deep wound that you have given me. Upon your lips were wisdom and pleasant talking; there was kindliness in the gray eyes of Ninzian of Yair; your hands were noble at sword-play. These things I delighted in, these things I regarded; I did not think of the low mire, I could not see what horrible markings your feet had left to this side and to that Bide. Let all women weep with me, for I now know that to every woman's loving is this end appointed. There is no woman that gives all to any man, but that woman is wasting her substance at bed and board with a greedy stranger, and there is no wife who escapes the bitter hour wherein that knowledge smites her. So now let us touch hands, and now let our lips, too, part friendlily, because our bodies have so long been friends, the while that we knew nothing of each other, Ninzian of Yair, on account of the great wrong and treachery which you have played upon me."
Thus speaking, Balthis kissed him. Then she went into the house that was no longer Ninzian's home.
***
And very often, too, Coth would look at his wife, Azra, and would remember the girl that she had been in the times when Coth had not yet given over loving anybody. He rather liked her now. It was a felt loss that she no longer had the spirit to quarrel with anything like the fervor of their happier days; not for two years or more had Azra flung a really rousing taunt or even a dinner plate in his direction: and Coth pitied the poor woman's folly in for an instant bothering about that young scoundrel of a Jurgen, who had set up as a poet, they said and--in the company, one heard, of a grand duchess,--was rampaging every-whither about Italy, with never a word for his parents. Coth, now, did not worry over such ingratitude at all: not less than twenty times a day he pointed out to his wife that he, for one, never wasted a thought upon the lecherous runagate.
His wife would smile at him, sadly: and after old Coth had been particularly abusive of Jurgen, she would, without speaking, stroke her husband's knotted, stubby, splotched hand, or his tense and just not withdrawing cheek, or she would tender one or another utterly uncalled-for caress, quite as though this illogical and broken-spirited creature thought Coth to be in some sort of trouble. The woman though, had never understood him...
Then Azra died. Coth was thus left alone. It seemed to him a strange thing that the Coth who had once been a fearless champion and a crowned emperor and a contender upon equal terms with the High Gods, should be locked up in this quiet room, weeping like a small, punished, frightened child.
the action of this pseudo-history novel occurs when, one fine day, dom manuel disappears and nobody knows where or how he left. the only two that claim to have seen him go are children, and each relate incredible stories of a supernatural departure. dom manuel's wife and her counselors (among them horvendile, the author's interlocutor) call the silver stallion together, only to disband the fellowship and set about fashioning a puritanical christian cult around the lost hero, to smooth out and reinvent his reputation, to make him now a spiritual redeemer that will return a la king arthur, in the hour of poictesme's need. cabell's interest in the autumn years rears its head again here, in choosing to tell the tales of the last adventures of these heroes' careers, these men who knew a different version of the man who disappeared, while he examines what makes a hero, and reminds us how easy it is to put pretty words around previously inappropriate deeds. everyone can be redeemed, in time. and so too, can they be forgotten with just a few more grains of sand.
the silver stallion is perhaps not quite as ribald as jurgen but there are romantical shenanigans aplenty. these heroes really know how to woo a dame. but seeing as there are so many of them and just one jurgen, the effect is rather less concentrated. the quotes i've selected to showcase here highlight cabell's interest in love. he embraces it while he denounces it and he seems to recognize it in all its incarnations. the first comes from the story ninzian, the most devoutly rigorous of all dom manuel's former allies after his wife founds out his terrible secret. and the other is one of the cantankerous coth of the rocks softer moments (i can think of only one other, actually, just after this) these are poignant moments but mostly cabell is fun and cabell is witty even if cabell is wise. i wish i could have taken a turn around the maypole with him. :)
***
"No, Ninzian, I simply cannot stand having a husband who walks like a bird and is liable to be detected the next time it rains. It would be on my mind day and night, and people would say all sorts of things. No, Ninzian, it is quite out of the question, and you must go back to hell. I will get your things together at once, and I leave it to your conscience if, after the way I have worked and slaved for you, you had the right to play this wrong and treachery upon me."
And Balthis said also: "For it is a great wrong and treachery which you have played upon me, Ninzian of Yair, getting from me such love as men will not find the equal of in any of the noble places of this world until the end of life and time. This is a deep wound that you have given me. Upon your lips were wisdom and pleasant talking; there was kindliness in the gray eyes of Ninzian of Yair; your hands were noble at sword-play. These things I delighted in, these things I regarded; I did not think of the low mire, I could not see what horrible markings your feet had left to this side and to that Bide. Let all women weep with me, for I now know that to every woman's loving is this end appointed. There is no woman that gives all to any man, but that woman is wasting her substance at bed and board with a greedy stranger, and there is no wife who escapes the bitter hour wherein that knowledge smites her. So now let us touch hands, and now let our lips, too, part friendlily, because our bodies have so long been friends, the while that we knew nothing of each other, Ninzian of Yair, on account of the great wrong and treachery which you have played upon me."
Thus speaking, Balthis kissed him. Then she went into the house that was no longer Ninzian's home.
***
And very often, too, Coth would look at his wife, Azra, and would remember the girl that she had been in the times when Coth had not yet given over loving anybody. He rather liked her now. It was a felt loss that she no longer had the spirit to quarrel with anything like the fervor of their happier days; not for two years or more had Azra flung a really rousing taunt or even a dinner plate in his direction: and Coth pitied the poor woman's folly in for an instant bothering about that young scoundrel of a Jurgen, who had set up as a poet, they said and--in the company, one heard, of a grand duchess,--was rampaging every-whither about Italy, with never a word for his parents. Coth, now, did not worry over such ingratitude at all: not less than twenty times a day he pointed out to his wife that he, for one, never wasted a thought upon the lecherous runagate.
His wife would smile at him, sadly: and after old Coth had been particularly abusive of Jurgen, she would, without speaking, stroke her husband's knotted, stubby, splotched hand, or his tense and just not withdrawing cheek, or she would tender one or another utterly uncalled-for caress, quite as though this illogical and broken-spirited creature thought Coth to be in some sort of trouble. The woman though, had never understood him...
Then Azra died. Coth was thus left alone. It seemed to him a strange thing that the Coth who had once been a fearless champion and a crowned emperor and a contender upon equal terms with the High Gods, should be locked up in this quiet room, weeping like a small, punished, frightened child.
December 9, 2008
Mundus vult decipi: Here begins the history of the birth and of the triumphing of the great legend about Manuel the Redeemer, whom Gonfal repudiated as blown dust, and Miramon, as an imposter, and whom Coth repudiated out of honest love: but whom Guivric accepted, through two sorts of policy; whom Kerin accepted as an honorable old human foible, and Ninzian, as a pathetic and serviceable joke; whom Donander accepted whole-heartedly (to the eternal joy of Donander), and who was accepted also by Naifer, and by Jurgen the Pawnbroker, after some little private reservations: and hereinafter is recorded the manner of the great legend's engulfment of these persons.
The Silver Stallion is a darkly humorous, often sad, satire on human hypocrisy and our need for heroes. Cabell is unsparing in his skewering of the delusions of religion, marriage and politics, among others. Yet, he doesn't leave us utterly forlorn, as the final paragraphs attest:
Anyhow, young Jurgen had brought down from Morven a most helpful and inspiring prediction which kept up people's spirits in this truly curious world; and cheerfulness was a clear gain. The fact that nothing anywhere entitled you to it could only, he deduced, make of this cheerfulness a still clearer gain...
There might, besides, very well have been something to build upon. Modesty, indeed, here raised the point if Jurgen...could have invented out of the whole cloth anything quite so splendid and far-reaching? And that question he modestly left unanswered. Meanwhile...it was certain that Poictesme, along with the rest of Christendom, had now its wholly satisfactory faith and its beneficent legend (p. 354).
The novel is divided into 10 books that take place in and around Poictesme, an imaginary, 13th century land somewhere in France, and reount the adventures of Dom Manuel's followers (The Fellowship of the Silver Stallion) after his miraculous assumption into Heaven (according to the sole eye-witness testimony of the young child Jurgen) (for maps and a fuller explanation of Cabell's imaginary realm, see The Atlas of Fantasy and The Dictionary of Imaginary Places; and for a short but concise bio of Cabell, see the entry in The Encyclopedia of Fantasy).
I'll leave off this unabashedly positive recommendation with a short sample of Cabell's lyrical, darkly humorous prose:
Then Madame Niafer arose, black-robed and hollow-eyed, and she made a lament for Dom Manuel, whose like for gentleness and purity and loving kindliness toward his fellows she declared to remain nowhere in this world. It was an encomium under which the attendant warriors stayed very grave and rather fidgety, because they recognized and shared her grief, but did not wholly recognize the Manuel whom she described to them.
As an FYI: The copy I have is the 1926 first edition (bought at an outrageously cheap price from aLibris) but I abhor the "Image Not Available" thumbnail and like to have a covershot in there whenever I can so I went with the more recent paperback edition's photo.
The Silver Stallion is a darkly humorous, often sad, satire on human hypocrisy and our need for heroes. Cabell is unsparing in his skewering of the delusions of religion, marriage and politics, among others. Yet, he doesn't leave us utterly forlorn, as the final paragraphs attest:
Anyhow, young Jurgen had brought down from Morven a most helpful and inspiring prediction which kept up people's spirits in this truly curious world; and cheerfulness was a clear gain. The fact that nothing anywhere entitled you to it could only, he deduced, make of this cheerfulness a still clearer gain...
There might, besides, very well have been something to build upon. Modesty, indeed, here raised the point if Jurgen...could have invented out of the whole cloth anything quite so splendid and far-reaching? And that question he modestly left unanswered. Meanwhile...it was certain that Poictesme, along with the rest of Christendom, had now its wholly satisfactory faith and its beneficent legend (p. 354).
The novel is divided into 10 books that take place in and around Poictesme, an imaginary, 13th century land somewhere in France, and reount the adventures of Dom Manuel's followers (The Fellowship of the Silver Stallion) after his miraculous assumption into Heaven (according to the sole eye-witness testimony of the young child Jurgen) (for maps and a fuller explanation of Cabell's imaginary realm, see The Atlas of Fantasy and The Dictionary of Imaginary Places; and for a short but concise bio of Cabell, see the entry in The Encyclopedia of Fantasy).
I'll leave off this unabashedly positive recommendation with a short sample of Cabell's lyrical, darkly humorous prose:
Then Madame Niafer arose, black-robed and hollow-eyed, and she made a lament for Dom Manuel, whose like for gentleness and purity and loving kindliness toward his fellows she declared to remain nowhere in this world. It was an encomium under which the attendant warriors stayed very grave and rather fidgety, because they recognized and shared her grief, but did not wholly recognize the Manuel whom she described to them.
As an FYI: The copy I have is the 1926 first edition (bought at an outrageously cheap price from aLibris) but I abhor the "Image Not Available" thumbnail and like to have a covershot in there whenever I can so I went with the more recent paperback edition's photo.
September 1, 2023
This is one of Cabell’s more fun and Pratchett-esque entry’s. Although more adult of course, or at least more sardonic. Also some flavour of Anatole France, with hints of Tolkien, wars with the Easterlings and Northmen, i was convinced Sclaug was going to be a dragon but its more or a weird werewolf demon thing ;) ;
Dunsany, Cabells weird names somehow just sound more real than Dunsanys though, probably because some of them are real stolen from various mythologies while the gods had their backs turned :P ;
and Lovecraft, lots of talk of the Old Gods who once ruled the earth.
Anyway, its a joy as usual, possibly even the best entry point into Cabell’s work? Yet i didn’t give it five stars... hmmm?
I’m not entirely sure why this wasn’t a homerun for me. I am reading it rather late in the ‘Biography’ with only two entry's left, perhaps some of the theme are becoming rather worn.
I was also reading a rather taxing book at the same time which may have put me in the wrong mood for Cabells particular brand of humour.
In addition this is the first of Cabell’s books I’m reading in hardcopy and while the 1969 Ballantine edition I’ve acquired certainly has its merits with the excellent Frank C. Pape drawings and that wonderful old paper smell.. perhaps I’ve just gotten used to reading him with a much larger font from my ereader.
However there is also one structural element which may not have worked for me. I don’t do great with short stories and while not strictly a set of short stories this set of interconnected narratives is functionally similar, following the various members of the Fellowship of the Silver Stallion.
Something akin to the arthurian legends where you follow the various separate knights in quest of the grail.
Anyway, while not apparently MY personal favourite, this is very fun and I’m sure one of the top of Cabells books with other readers for good reason.
Dunsany, Cabells weird names somehow just sound more real than Dunsanys though, probably because some of them are real stolen from various mythologies while the gods had their backs turned :P ;
and Lovecraft, lots of talk of the Old Gods who once ruled the earth.
Anyway, its a joy as usual, possibly even the best entry point into Cabell’s work? Yet i didn’t give it five stars... hmmm?
I’m not entirely sure why this wasn’t a homerun for me. I am reading it rather late in the ‘Biography’ with only two entry's left, perhaps some of the theme are becoming rather worn.
I was also reading a rather taxing book at the same time which may have put me in the wrong mood for Cabells particular brand of humour.
In addition this is the first of Cabell’s books I’m reading in hardcopy and while the 1969 Ballantine edition I’ve acquired certainly has its merits with the excellent Frank C. Pape drawings and that wonderful old paper smell.. perhaps I’ve just gotten used to reading him with a much larger font from my ereader.
However there is also one structural element which may not have worked for me. I don’t do great with short stories and while not strictly a set of short stories this set of interconnected narratives is functionally similar, following the various members of the Fellowship of the Silver Stallion.
Something akin to the arthurian legends where you follow the various separate knights in quest of the grail.
Anyway, while not apparently MY personal favourite, this is very fun and I’m sure one of the top of Cabells books with other readers for good reason.
might-read
August 11, 2015This books is the source of the following quote - "The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds; and the pessimist fears this is true."
November 4, 2019
I have read this book at least twice. It is, I think, among the author’s very best productions, and may even be the best book to start with ... after having read the version of “The Music from Behind the Moon: An Epitome” that can be found in The Witch Woman: A Trilogy About Her.
It is a series of connected novellas that work as perhaps the best example of Menippean satire in the 20th century. The final segment, with the Christian knight Donander accidentally carried off to Valhalla, is quite funny, far funnier than the later-in-sequence Jurgen: A Comedy of Justice for which Cabell is best known.
This book was written after Jurgen. The sequence I allude to is Cabell’s somewhat forced assemblage, the multi-volume mock-epic, “The Biography of the Life of Manuel,” best collected in the MacBride-printed “Storisende Edition” in green boards.
Figures of Earth is the first in the story sequence, though written late in the game — and the only one to deal with Manuel the Redeemer directly. Beyond Life is the literary manifesto that serves as the ‘biography’s” manifesto, and Straws and Prayer-Books is a fond look back in a similar vein. I have this bizarre idea that The Silver Stallion joins The Cream of the Jest: A Comedy of Evasions and the aforementioned ‘epitome’ as must reading for all readers who can read comedies in what loosely might be thought of as The Voltaire Idiom.
Great stuff.
It is a series of connected novellas that work as perhaps the best example of Menippean satire in the 20th century. The final segment, with the Christian knight Donander accidentally carried off to Valhalla, is quite funny, far funnier than the later-in-sequence Jurgen: A Comedy of Justice for which Cabell is best known.
This book was written after Jurgen. The sequence I allude to is Cabell’s somewhat forced assemblage, the multi-volume mock-epic, “The Biography of the Life of Manuel,” best collected in the MacBride-printed “Storisende Edition” in green boards.
Figures of Earth is the first in the story sequence, though written late in the game — and the only one to deal with Manuel the Redeemer directly. Beyond Life is the literary manifesto that serves as the ‘biography’s” manifesto, and Straws and Prayer-Books is a fond look back in a similar vein. I have this bizarre idea that The Silver Stallion joins The Cream of the Jest: A Comedy of Evasions and the aforementioned ‘epitome’ as must reading for all readers who can read comedies in what loosely might be thought of as The Voltaire Idiom.
Great stuff.
July 22, 2014
Originally published on my blog here in May 2003.
Many readers of fantasy today basically assume that it is a genre which originated with J.R.R. Tolkien; this is not at all the case, and the best of the earlier writing is, in my opinion, well worth resurrecting. James Branch Cabell is today almost completely unknown, even with the occasional cheap reprint in some "fantasy classics" series, and he has a charm and humour almost totally lacking in most post-Tolkien fantasy. In the second half of the twenties, he wrote a loosely connected trilogy set in the kingdom of Poictesme, of which this is the second. It was attacked at the time as blasphemous and indecent, two charges which would hardly be made today even though it is still just about possible to understand why people reacted in this way.
The Silver Stallion is the best of the volumes in the trilogy. Figures of Earth lacks the ingredients which mark out The Silver Stallion from just about every other fantasy novels, and Jurgen sometimes reads as though Cabell is trying too hard to shock the reader. The reason this novel is different is that it is about what happens after the end of the quest, during the living "happily every after". It starts with the death of Dom Manuel, central character (if not exactly hero) of Figures of Earth. The fellowship of nine companions who fought under the banner of the Silver Stallion ("rampant in every member") is disbanded, and his widow sets about turning his reputation as the liberator of Poictesme into that of a national saviour and redeemer, sort of a cross between Christ and King Arthur. (It is Cabell's appropriation of Christian ideas and even Biblical quotations to his manifestly false redeemer and particular what is said about the survival of any religion in Part IX which provoked the charge of blasphemy.) The Silver Stallion is about both how the cult of Dom Manuel becomes established and the ageing of his former companions. These nine men find it hard to fit in with the changes in Poictesme, partly because they remember better than anyone else what Dom Manuel was really like, and partly because they miss the old days of fighting and wenching.
The them of the ageing heroes makes The Silver Stallion pretty unusual in the fantasy genre, even today. (In this era of debunked heroes, fantasy has generally continued to depict the old fashioned superhuman goodies.) The closest parallels I can think of are the world weariness of some of Michael Moorcock's heroes, the character of the aged Bilbo in TThe Lord of the Rings and Cohen the Barbarian, who has a minor role in several of the Discworld novels. Reading the novel reveals, however, that stylistically Cabell is not like these authors stylistically, reminding me instead of L. Sprague de Camp and Tom Holt. It is a pity that Cabell is not still widely known, and this trilogy at least is well worth seeking out.
Many readers of fantasy today basically assume that it is a genre which originated with J.R.R. Tolkien; this is not at all the case, and the best of the earlier writing is, in my opinion, well worth resurrecting. James Branch Cabell is today almost completely unknown, even with the occasional cheap reprint in some "fantasy classics" series, and he has a charm and humour almost totally lacking in most post-Tolkien fantasy. In the second half of the twenties, he wrote a loosely connected trilogy set in the kingdom of Poictesme, of which this is the second. It was attacked at the time as blasphemous and indecent, two charges which would hardly be made today even though it is still just about possible to understand why people reacted in this way.
The Silver Stallion is the best of the volumes in the trilogy. Figures of Earth lacks the ingredients which mark out The Silver Stallion from just about every other fantasy novels, and Jurgen sometimes reads as though Cabell is trying too hard to shock the reader. The reason this novel is different is that it is about what happens after the end of the quest, during the living "happily every after". It starts with the death of Dom Manuel, central character (if not exactly hero) of Figures of Earth. The fellowship of nine companions who fought under the banner of the Silver Stallion ("rampant in every member") is disbanded, and his widow sets about turning his reputation as the liberator of Poictesme into that of a national saviour and redeemer, sort of a cross between Christ and King Arthur. (It is Cabell's appropriation of Christian ideas and even Biblical quotations to his manifestly false redeemer and particular what is said about the survival of any religion in Part IX which provoked the charge of blasphemy.) The Silver Stallion is about both how the cult of Dom Manuel becomes established and the ageing of his former companions. These nine men find it hard to fit in with the changes in Poictesme, partly because they remember better than anyone else what Dom Manuel was really like, and partly because they miss the old days of fighting and wenching.
The them of the ageing heroes makes The Silver Stallion pretty unusual in the fantasy genre, even today. (In this era of debunked heroes, fantasy has generally continued to depict the old fashioned superhuman goodies.) The closest parallels I can think of are the world weariness of some of Michael Moorcock's heroes, the character of the aged Bilbo in TThe Lord of the Rings and Cohen the Barbarian, who has a minor role in several of the Discworld novels. Reading the novel reveals, however, that stylistically Cabell is not like these authors stylistically, reminding me instead of L. Sprague de Camp and Tom Holt. It is a pity that Cabell is not still widely known, and this trilogy at least is well worth seeking out.
September 14, 2022
direct follow up to figures of earth, where the stupid dullard hero of that book becomes the object of a cult asserting that he was a pure and virtuous redeemer who will come again some day to redeem the entire world(sound familiar?). all of his high ranking followers get tangled up in the cult's mythmaking, with most of them thinking it's stupid, and most of them end up getting incorporated into the (totally fictionalised)redeemer's story in their attepts to leave or reject it. because it deals with each of the 10 followers in turn cabell gets to have a whole bunch of different fun little plots happen, so for example you've got: a guy travelling ever west and ending up in mesoamerican type land where they worship the smoking mirror; a wizard inadvertently dislodging the magical bees on a rock that hold the present state of reality together, nearly reawakening the primordial creator god of an earlier reality and dooming the present; a guy being pushed down a well by his wife and finding a cave that contains every book in the world and spending 20 years reading all of them; a guy who turns out to be a demon in human form, is found out by his wife, and then is chastised by lucifer for not doing his job corrupting humankind; etc etc, and it's all written with cabell's typical barbed wit and satirical edge.
May 29, 2011
After
Domnei: A Comedy of Woman-Worship
(1913),
Jurgen: A Comedy of Justice
(1919), and other novels set in the fictional medieval province of Poictesme, comes this 1926 tale, subtitled "A Comedy of Redemption". Here, as in Jurgen, James Branch Cabell gave full rein to his taste for low comedy, much of it misogynistic. I find paragraphs about nagging wives and stupid but sexy princesses quite stale; I was just waiting for the mother-in-law to put in a tiresome appearance (she eventually does). That apart, though, there's a lot in this book that's quite brilliant, as Cabell subtly takes apart the pieties associated with the posthumous elevation of Count Manuel to the status of Redeemer. Cabell heartily dislikes hypocrisy, and in all of his books he shows up the lies that people tell to one another and to themselves. Yet he doesn't have some great idealism to promote himself. He's a thoroughgoing skeptic, a doubter, and that (besides his splendid control of language) is the best thing about his stories.
March 17, 2015
Like Jurgen and Figures of Earth, this is one of the greatest fantasy novels, all the better for being funny (and wise). It shows how myths and religions develop, and it's a thinly disguised commentary on the growth of Christianity.
November 9, 2024
The Silver Stallion is the fourth volume in the Ballantine Adult Fantasy Series edited by Lin Carter. The Ballantine version of the book was published in 1969 with cover art by Bob Pepper. The book was originally released in 1926. The edition that I actually read was published by The Bodley Head in 1928, the first large-format British edition containing beautiful artwork by Frank C. Papé. (My page references below are to The Bodley Head edition.) The Ballantine edition also contains reproductions of Papé's illustrations, although The Bodley Head original consists of photogravure prints protected by tissue overlay sheets, and the quality is superior. Papé's art is the perfect accompaniment to Cabell's droll and cynical prose.
The Silver Stallion contains perhaps the most recognizable Cabellian quote, when Coth of the Rocks says, “The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds; and the pessimist fears that this is true” (Chapter XXVI, p. 130).
The Silver Stallion is Volume 3 in the Storisende Edition of Cabell’s 18-volume Biography of the Life of Manuel, coming after Figures of Earth, Volume 2, and before Jurgen, Volume 6. For me, the these three pure fantasies are the epitome of Cabell's best writing, and together form a kind of trilogy.
The order of first publication was Jurgen (1919), Figures of Earth (1921), and The Silver Stallion (1926). Jurgen is Cabell's best known book, though its fame stems largely from the 1920-1922 court case for "indecency"—meaning Cabell's use of sexual innuendo. Figures of Earth, published while the court case was ongoing, is largely free of these veiled sexual references, though The Silver Stallion, published after Cabell had won the case, is again replete with double-entendres—as well as an irreverent approach to established religion.
The three books are best read in the order, Figures of Earth, The Silver Stallion, and lastly Jurgen. Many of the references to earlier times in The Silver Stallion, to when Manuel was still living and the overlord of Poictesme, cannot be appreciated without a familiarity with Figures of Earth.
The Silver Stallion begins with Jurgen as a young boy, who has seen the miraculous ascent of "Manuel the Redeemer." The growth of the Redeemer legend is certainly helped along by Jurgen's vision, no matter Cabell's broad hints that Manuel's miraculous departure was invented by the boy Jurgen to avoid a beating from his father, Coth, for staying out too late. On the other hand, no corpse of Manuel is embalmed in his tomb, and the ending of Figures of Earth, which describes Manuel's passing, is exceedingly mysterious. Where does the truth lie? Cabell is ambiguous.
The Silver Stallion ends also with Jurgen, who is now a middle-aged pawnbroker. Jurgen’s comment here about his “extensive and disturbing dream” upon Walburga’s Eve, the previous month, apparently refers to the story in Jurgen, which places the events of this latter book just before the time of the end of The Silver Stallion.
The Silver Stallion follows the stories of the nine Lords of the Fellowship of the Silver Stallion, those warriors who fought under Count Manuel when the latter was establishing his realm of Poictesme, Cabell's invented province in the south of France. With Manuel included, the Fellowship membership amounts to ten—it being a law that all things should go in ten's forever in Poictesme. One of those lords is that creator of dreams, Miramon Lluagor, who makes a welcome reappearance following his role in Figures of Earth.
The Silver Stallion reads like a series of short stories, as Cabell deals with each lord in turn. Holden and Anavalt do not have chapters of their own, but Gonfal, Miramon Lluagor, Guivric, Kerin, Ninzian, and Donander each have one chapter, and Coth has two chapters. The opening chapter deals with Jurgen's vision and the choosing of each lord's doom by the mysterious Horvendile; the tenth and final chapter is devoted to the Countess Niafer, Manuel's now elderly widow, and the middle-aged Jurgen. All things in Poictesme go in ten's!
What glues the individual stories together is that each of these lords is, as it were, an unwitting apostle of Manuel the Redeemer. The truth of Manuel, as we know from Figures of Earth, is that he is unheroic and self-serving. Yet, unerringly, he makes his way to become Count Manuel of Poictesme, loved and respected by the Lords of the Fellowship of the Silver Stallion, for all his failings. Then, following his death and helped along by the stories of Jurgen, Manuel is transformed into the embodiment of perfection and the object of worship by the cult of Manuel the Redeemer. Characters in The Silver Stallion expect the imminent second coming of Manuel.
One can see how Cabell may be regarded as disrespectful of established religion. Nevertheless, it is better to think of Cabell's approach to religion as pragmatic rather than dismissive. The cult of Manuel the Redeemer makes people happier and better, although it is but a dream, an invention. At the end of The Silver Stallion, Cabell has Jurgen say,
Horvendile, who may be regarded as the alter-ego of Cabell himself in his works, appears at the start, as I mentioned, but also at the end of the novel. At the end, Horvendile summarizes the meaning and significance of the Redeemer figure:
In similar vein, the Gander, in Kerin’s story says, “Nothing, nothing in the universe, is of importance, or is authentic to any serious sense, except the illusions of romance. For man alone of the animals plays the ape to his dreams” (Chapter XLV, p. 229). The final sentence, another relatively well known Cabell quote, expresses the core of Cabell's message. Likewise, Manuel’s motto, and one suspects it is Cabell’s, too, is “Mundus Vult Decipi,” the World Wants to Be Deceived.
Cabell's married couples usually consist of a nagging wife and a harried and misunderstood husband and are very stereotyped in this respect. Cabell could certainly be accused of sexism. However, the term "sexism" was coined only as early as the 1960's. While Cabell's contemporaries could take issue with his indecency and lack of respect for religion, they would not have taken him to task for his sexist stereotypes. One hundred years later, perhaps we shouldn't judge Cabell by our own standards, he was a man of his time.
Even here, however, Cabell is ambiguous. At root, his men all love their wives and are gently affectionate with them. Coth is devastated when his wife passes, and dies not long after himself. On the distaff side, side, Niafer pines sorely for her departed Manuel, despite all the failings she would have attributed to him during their life together. For all his cynicism, Cabell does have a heart, and a pragmatic respect for the benefits of the institution of marriage.
The Silver Stallion is perhaps the most advanced and complete presentation of Cabell's basic philosophy. Perhaps I prefer both Figures of Earth and Jurgen, because of their single-focused investigations of a single character. And, as I mentioned, it's better to read Figures of Earth first—although Carter republished Figures of Earth after The Silver Stallion in the Ballantine series. Moreover, despite republishing four further Cabell novels under the Sign of the Unicorn, Carter does not give us Jurgen—I suspect because the latter, as Cabell's best known book, was already in print by another publisher.
In any case, Cabell writes beautifully crafted sentences, with a ubiquitous sense of wry amusement. As I mentioned, he is irreverent and makes use of sexual innuendo, while never being explicit. He is sardonically humourous, the epitome of droll, a brilliant stylist.
The Silver Stallion, particularly as part of the trilogy as I have described it, is a treasure of early fantasy. There's nothing else quite like Cabell, and The Silver Stallion is one of his very best books.
The Silver Stallion contains perhaps the most recognizable Cabellian quote, when Coth of the Rocks says, “The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds; and the pessimist fears that this is true” (Chapter XXVI, p. 130).
The Silver Stallion is Volume 3 in the Storisende Edition of Cabell’s 18-volume Biography of the Life of Manuel, coming after Figures of Earth, Volume 2, and before Jurgen, Volume 6. For me, the these three pure fantasies are the epitome of Cabell's best writing, and together form a kind of trilogy.
The order of first publication was Jurgen (1919), Figures of Earth (1921), and The Silver Stallion (1926). Jurgen is Cabell's best known book, though its fame stems largely from the 1920-1922 court case for "indecency"—meaning Cabell's use of sexual innuendo. Figures of Earth, published while the court case was ongoing, is largely free of these veiled sexual references, though The Silver Stallion, published after Cabell had won the case, is again replete with double-entendres—as well as an irreverent approach to established religion.
The three books are best read in the order, Figures of Earth, The Silver Stallion, and lastly Jurgen. Many of the references to earlier times in The Silver Stallion, to when Manuel was still living and the overlord of Poictesme, cannot be appreciated without a familiarity with Figures of Earth.
The Silver Stallion begins with Jurgen as a young boy, who has seen the miraculous ascent of "Manuel the Redeemer." The growth of the Redeemer legend is certainly helped along by Jurgen's vision, no matter Cabell's broad hints that Manuel's miraculous departure was invented by the boy Jurgen to avoid a beating from his father, Coth, for staying out too late. On the other hand, no corpse of Manuel is embalmed in his tomb, and the ending of Figures of Earth, which describes Manuel's passing, is exceedingly mysterious. Where does the truth lie? Cabell is ambiguous.
The Silver Stallion ends also with Jurgen, who is now a middle-aged pawnbroker. Jurgen’s comment here about his “extensive and disturbing dream” upon Walburga’s Eve, the previous month, apparently refers to the story in Jurgen, which places the events of this latter book just before the time of the end of The Silver Stallion.
The Silver Stallion follows the stories of the nine Lords of the Fellowship of the Silver Stallion, those warriors who fought under Count Manuel when the latter was establishing his realm of Poictesme, Cabell's invented province in the south of France. With Manuel included, the Fellowship membership amounts to ten—it being a law that all things should go in ten's forever in Poictesme. One of those lords is that creator of dreams, Miramon Lluagor, who makes a welcome reappearance following his role in Figures of Earth.
The Silver Stallion reads like a series of short stories, as Cabell deals with each lord in turn. Holden and Anavalt do not have chapters of their own, but Gonfal, Miramon Lluagor, Guivric, Kerin, Ninzian, and Donander each have one chapter, and Coth has two chapters. The opening chapter deals with Jurgen's vision and the choosing of each lord's doom by the mysterious Horvendile; the tenth and final chapter is devoted to the Countess Niafer, Manuel's now elderly widow, and the middle-aged Jurgen. All things in Poictesme go in ten's!
What glues the individual stories together is that each of these lords is, as it were, an unwitting apostle of Manuel the Redeemer. The truth of Manuel, as we know from Figures of Earth, is that he is unheroic and self-serving. Yet, unerringly, he makes his way to become Count Manuel of Poictesme, loved and respected by the Lords of the Fellowship of the Silver Stallion, for all his failings. Then, following his death and helped along by the stories of Jurgen, Manuel is transformed into the embodiment of perfection and the object of worship by the cult of Manuel the Redeemer. Characters in The Silver Stallion expect the imminent second coming of Manuel.
One can see how Cabell may be regarded as disrespectful of established religion. Nevertheless, it is better to think of Cabell's approach to religion as pragmatic rather than dismissive. The cult of Manuel the Redeemer makes people happier and better, although it is but a dream, an invention. At the end of The Silver Stallion, Cabell has Jurgen say,
Let us wildly imagine the cult of the Redeemer, which now is spread all over our land, to be compact of exaggeration and misunderstanding and to be based virtually upon nothing. The fact remains that that this heroic and gentle and perfect Redeemer, whether or not he ever actually existed, is now honored and, within reason and within reach of human frailty, is emulated everywhere, at least now and then. His perfection has thus far, I grant you, proved uncontagious; he has made nobody anywhere absolutely immaculate: but none the less,—within limits, within the unavoidable limits,—men are quite appreciably better because of this Manuel’s example and teachings. (Chapter LXIX, p. 339)
Horvendile, who may be regarded as the alter-ego of Cabell himself in his works, appears at the start, as I mentioned, but also at the end of the novel. At the end, Horvendile summarizes the meaning and significance of the Redeemer figure:
So does it come about that the saga of Manuel and the sagas of all the Lords of the Silver Stallion have been reshaped by the foolishness and the fond optimism of mankind; and these sagas now conform in everything to that supreme romance which preserves us from insanity. For it is just as I said, years ago, to one of those so drolly whitewashed and ennobled rapscallions. All men that live, and that go perforce about this world like blundering lost children whose rescuer is not yet in sight, have a vital need to believe in this sustaining legend about the Redeemer, and about the Redeemer’s power to make those persons who serve him just and perfect. (Chaper LXVII, p. 333)
In similar vein, the Gander, in Kerin’s story says, “Nothing, nothing in the universe, is of importance, or is authentic to any serious sense, except the illusions of romance. For man alone of the animals plays the ape to his dreams” (Chapter XLV, p. 229). The final sentence, another relatively well known Cabell quote, expresses the core of Cabell's message. Likewise, Manuel’s motto, and one suspects it is Cabell’s, too, is “Mundus Vult Decipi,” the World Wants to Be Deceived.
Cabell's married couples usually consist of a nagging wife and a harried and misunderstood husband and are very stereotyped in this respect. Cabell could certainly be accused of sexism. However, the term "sexism" was coined only as early as the 1960's. While Cabell's contemporaries could take issue with his indecency and lack of respect for religion, they would not have taken him to task for his sexist stereotypes. One hundred years later, perhaps we shouldn't judge Cabell by our own standards, he was a man of his time.
Even here, however, Cabell is ambiguous. At root, his men all love their wives and are gently affectionate with them. Coth is devastated when his wife passes, and dies not long after himself. On the distaff side, side, Niafer pines sorely for her departed Manuel, despite all the failings she would have attributed to him during their life together. For all his cynicism, Cabell does have a heart, and a pragmatic respect for the benefits of the institution of marriage.
The Silver Stallion is perhaps the most advanced and complete presentation of Cabell's basic philosophy. Perhaps I prefer both Figures of Earth and Jurgen, because of their single-focused investigations of a single character. And, as I mentioned, it's better to read Figures of Earth first—although Carter republished Figures of Earth after The Silver Stallion in the Ballantine series. Moreover, despite republishing four further Cabell novels under the Sign of the Unicorn, Carter does not give us Jurgen—I suspect because the latter, as Cabell's best known book, was already in print by another publisher.
In any case, Cabell writes beautifully crafted sentences, with a ubiquitous sense of wry amusement. As I mentioned, he is irreverent and makes use of sexual innuendo, while never being explicit. He is sardonically humourous, the epitome of droll, a brilliant stylist.
The Silver Stallion, particularly as part of the trilogy as I have described it, is a treasure of early fantasy. There's nothing else quite like Cabell, and The Silver Stallion is one of his very best books.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 23, 2012
After the disappearance of Count Manuel, his widow and a missionary start the legend of Count Manuel the Redeemer. The Knights of the Silver Stallion dissolve the order and wander to the ends of the earth and beyond. Some of the knights have difficulty associating the Manuel of legend with the ordinary man they knew. One wanders in search of a young princess. One wanders in search of Manuel and winds up in pre-Columbian Mexico. One dies in battle and accidentally goes to the wrong religion's paradise. One seeks knowledge in an underground library. One turns out to be a minor devil, to the dismay of his wife. One wanders in search of a spirit that is trying to take over his body, and finds it.
As usual, Cabbellian wit and irony.
As usual, Cabbellian wit and irony.
May 25, 2014
This had been sitting on my to-read pile since my vintage fantasy phase. I guess I'd grown too tired of Eddison and Pratt to try this, but it's proven to be the most likeable of them. The book is still terrifyingly full of alien names and hints to a complex history, but it is split comfortably into short storylines containing mostly amusing fables, and the style is that of an author who knows he's overdoing it and sniggers while he does it. And I learned a few new words.
August 11, 2013
One of James Branch Cabell's best. In this sequel to Figures of Earth, which ended with Manuel of Poictesme disappearing from this world, his devoted followers meet their own eccentric endings as Cabell satirizes religion, politics, idealism, fairy tales and of course there's sex. Throughout all this the legend of Manuel slowly transforms the cynical, conniving conqueror into a saintly redeemer possessed of all the virtues.
January 31, 2020
Wanted to understand the influence on Vance and find out about this author, whom I've heard about but knew very little. I found a whimsical but sometimes stirring fantasy novel that was humorous on the surface, but had a lot to say about modern religion, marriage, growing old.. without really being a satire. (Though had satirical elements.) Firmly dated in the way of early SF/Horror authors (Lovecraft, Bourroughs et al). Definitely let me wanting to read more JBC.
February 9, 2019
His repetitive superficial ironies grate, and he's as incapable of sustained dramatic momentum as the Spenser he parodies, but he can produce a wild and charming fantasy of domestic and fairy-tale life intermingled.
April 26, 2023
Fun to look back to a 1920's fantasy classic. Series of short loosely related vignettes. There's a lot of comedy so it ages somewhat worse than other types of novels, but it still got a bunch of chuckles from me and some downright emotional pulls are done really well.
November 6, 2024
I became interested in this book because it is suggested as the origin of the quote "The optimist
proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds; and the pessimist fears this is true." which is in the book.
It is the story of the disbanding of The Silver Stallion the group of 10 knights led by Count Don Manuel the ruler of Poictesme who disappears at the start of the book. Each of the 9 go their various ways (some merely staying at home) and meet some odd end or adventure with each getting 1 of the ten books in this work. The final book tells of Manuel's widow.
A thread running through all the stories is that Don Manuel who was a rather corrupt and brutal fellow is being remembered as a saintly hero and he is styled Manuel the redeemer who will return on the morrow of judgement and redeem sins and bring prosperity. Most of the stories involve the knight dealing with some specific problem, but really the theme is more confronting the disappointments of life such as old age. There is not much action as such mostly conversations, what combat there is tends to be told rather summarily. Some of the knights are actually more wizards their powers are mostly alluded to and there are no wizard's duels. Likewise there are no intricate court intrigues or battles of wits with riddles or traps. Thus most of the book is conversations where characters voice their objections, disagreements and regrets.
The setting is full of references to bespoke gods, monsters and relics with some real history thrown in here and there (some of which I probably missed). A conceit of the book is that it is the translation of an old chronicle rather than a new fiction. Although Poicstme is in Christendom, some of the knights travel to pagan lands. The heathen gods are based on actual myths from various places and in some cases the depictions seem like they owe a lot to exoticism.
As the subtitle "A comedy of redemption" suggests this is a pastiche or satire of a story. Roughly of a medieval romance of knight errant, but few if any of the characters are particularly virtuous. Many are corrupt and brutal and most are guilty of lustful indiscretions (mostly obliquely but unmistakeably described). The hypocrisy that such disreputable characters become known for virtue is one of the running ironies of the story. One of the themes is that time will bring defeat and bring down everything. So the mood of the stories is sardonic and negative. However there are some softer moments. Many husbands despite various infidelities and arguments love find that in the end they love and take comfort from their wives. The fact that myths transformers sinners into saints stands as a powerful and inspiring development to some and so on. Most importantly I think many of the jokes are funny.
It is a very different take on fantasy than one finds later in the 20th century. It is also very different from earlier knightly romances or even works like Don Quixote (although it no doubt owes something to these). The knights of this story are really more people of the 1920s in historical costume. Perhaps I am merely not read enough in this sort of genre but I think it is a distinctive take on things.
I read this has a scan of the 1926 edition. I did not have any trouble with the pdf I read.
proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds; and the pessimist fears this is true." which is in the book.
It is the story of the disbanding of The Silver Stallion the group of 10 knights led by Count Don Manuel the ruler of Poictesme who disappears at the start of the book. Each of the 9 go their various ways (some merely staying at home) and meet some odd end or adventure with each getting 1 of the ten books in this work. The final book tells of Manuel's widow.
A thread running through all the stories is that Don Manuel who was a rather corrupt and brutal fellow is being remembered as a saintly hero and he is styled Manuel the redeemer who will return on the morrow of judgement and redeem sins and bring prosperity. Most of the stories involve the knight dealing with some specific problem, but really the theme is more confronting the disappointments of life such as old age. There is not much action as such mostly conversations, what combat there is tends to be told rather summarily. Some of the knights are actually more wizards their powers are mostly alluded to and there are no wizard's duels. Likewise there are no intricate court intrigues or battles of wits with riddles or traps. Thus most of the book is conversations where characters voice their objections, disagreements and regrets.
The setting is full of references to bespoke gods, monsters and relics with some real history thrown in here and there (some of which I probably missed). A conceit of the book is that it is the translation of an old chronicle rather than a new fiction. Although Poicstme is in Christendom, some of the knights travel to pagan lands. The heathen gods are based on actual myths from various places and in some cases the depictions seem like they owe a lot to exoticism.
As the subtitle "A comedy of redemption" suggests this is a pastiche or satire of a story. Roughly of a medieval romance of knight errant, but few if any of the characters are particularly virtuous. Many are corrupt and brutal and most are guilty of lustful indiscretions (mostly obliquely but unmistakeably described). The hypocrisy that such disreputable characters become known for virtue is one of the running ironies of the story. One of the themes is that time will bring defeat and bring down everything. So the mood of the stories is sardonic and negative. However there are some softer moments. Many husbands despite various infidelities and arguments love find that in the end they love and take comfort from their wives. The fact that myths transformers sinners into saints stands as a powerful and inspiring development to some and so on. Most importantly I think many of the jokes are funny.
It is a very different take on fantasy than one finds later in the 20th century. It is also very different from earlier knightly romances or even works like Don Quixote (although it no doubt owes something to these). The knights of this story are really more people of the 1920s in historical costume. Perhaps I am merely not read enough in this sort of genre but I think it is a distinctive take on things.
I read this has a scan of the 1926 edition. I did not have any trouble with the pdf I read.
December 19, 2024
The legend of Manuel is growing without him, and his -- ten was it? twelve? -- comrades-in-arms are finding that the Manuel being praised is not the Manuel they remember. They each set off, in different directions, to search for Manuel and bring the world to its senses. And things go all awry.
Probably not an accurate summary of the story, but why spoil anyone's fun? Those who liked Figures of Earth will enjoy this as well: like the first one, the start is a little slow and gives no indication what you are in for, but once this train gathers steam there's no going back. It's like having 9 (yes, I looked it up) mini-Manuel biographies in a single book.
You want more quotes? You got more quotes:
On domestic life:
She spoke then, in a different tone, to Miramon Lluagor. "And with what are you cluttering up the house now?"
On marriage:
Did I not make my creatures male and female? and did I not make the tie which is between them, that cord which I wove equally of love and of disliking?
On another marriage:
Guivric got on with is own wife as well, he flattered himself, as any person could hope to do upon the more animated side of deafness.
On the same marriage:
"And do not be discouraged, wife," he would exhort her, as he was now exhorting upon this fine spring evening, "for women and their belongings are, beyond doubt, of some use of another, which by and by will be discovered."
Yet another marriage? Cabell has a thing or two to say about the eternal knot.
Vanadis smiled, in the way of any wife who finds her husband occupied upon the whole less reprehensibly that you would expect of the creature.
On able-bodied youth standing idle:
"Hail, friend! and does a stout fine fellow of your length and of your thickness go languidly shunning work or seeking work?"
On protecting secrets:
Koschel, who made all things as they are, had decreed that these bright perils could be freed only in the most obvious way, because he knew this would be the last method attempted by amu learned person.
On justice:
"To expiate the sins of one person by killing another person," replied Coth, "is not an atonement. It is nonsense."
On female logic and the male lack thereof:
She instead admitted, with the vast practicality not ever to be comprehended by any male creature, that their behavior was sensible.
There's a veritable battle of the sexes on these pages, I tell ya.
And just a nice turn of phrase:
...when Coth also was tempted by such an ill-regulated princess as but to think of crimsons the cheek of decency.
Probably not an accurate summary of the story, but why spoil anyone's fun? Those who liked Figures of Earth will enjoy this as well: like the first one, the start is a little slow and gives no indication what you are in for, but once this train gathers steam there's no going back. It's like having 9 (yes, I looked it up) mini-Manuel biographies in a single book.
You want more quotes? You got more quotes:
On domestic life:
She spoke then, in a different tone, to Miramon Lluagor. "And with what are you cluttering up the house now?"
On marriage:
Did I not make my creatures male and female? and did I not make the tie which is between them, that cord which I wove equally of love and of disliking?
On another marriage:
Guivric got on with is own wife as well, he flattered himself, as any person could hope to do upon the more animated side of deafness.
On the same marriage:
"And do not be discouraged, wife," he would exhort her, as he was now exhorting upon this fine spring evening, "for women and their belongings are, beyond doubt, of some use of another, which by and by will be discovered."
Yet another marriage? Cabell has a thing or two to say about the eternal knot.
Vanadis smiled, in the way of any wife who finds her husband occupied upon the whole less reprehensibly that you would expect of the creature.
On able-bodied youth standing idle:
"Hail, friend! and does a stout fine fellow of your length and of your thickness go languidly shunning work or seeking work?"
On protecting secrets:
Koschel, who made all things as they are, had decreed that these bright perils could be freed only in the most obvious way, because he knew this would be the last method attempted by amu learned person.
On justice:
"To expiate the sins of one person by killing another person," replied Coth, "is not an atonement. It is nonsense."
On female logic and the male lack thereof:
She instead admitted, with the vast practicality not ever to be comprehended by any male creature, that their behavior was sensible.
There's a veritable battle of the sexes on these pages, I tell ya.
And just a nice turn of phrase:
...when Coth also was tempted by such an ill-regulated princess as but to think of crimsons the cheek of decency.
June 29, 2025
I read Cabell's Jurgen in my 20s, and found it nicely cynical, clever, arch, and too much inclined to sexual humor for my tastes. Overall I liked it, especially the games he was playing with Arthurian legends and Dante. Those games seemed serious, logical, and coherent. I put the Dover reprint edition on the shelf with Lewis Carroll and other game-players, but I never looked for another title of his.
But then I was introduced to this novel by Noel Perrin's A Reader's Delight (which cannot be praised enough), which is a collection of reviews of excellent books that everybody has forgotten about. (Perrin's rule for the collection was that he would walk around the offices of the Washington Post and if more than two of his colleagues knew the book, it wouldn't make the list.) I have greatly benefited from chasing down the titles that seemed interesting, and The Silver Stallion was by an author I already knew, so I included it on my search list.
Well, this is the only disappointment I've met with from Perrin's suggestions, though it's only a mild disappointment. And perhaps I should have been warned, because Perrin explicitly observed, "Cabell is not everyone's cup of tea. The sexual innuendo that seemed daring in 1926 is not going to give nearly so many delightful shocks and thrills now. His vast impudence is going to amuse younger readers more than older ones -- it amused me more when I was twenty than it does now. (I was more interested in seeing authority figures successfully mocked in those days.) His smooth and elaborate style will not impress admirers of minimalism; it may even annoy them."
Perrin hits several nails on the head there, for me. One thing I now find particularly wearing is his affected high-tone prose style. It's done for humor, for arch condescension, and I understand that, but it also soon grows tedious. I was particularly tired of it near the end, so I counted the three-or-more-syllable words on the second-to-last page: 43 out of just 232 words on the page. Basically 20% of the words are clunky.
And the problem is that Cabell seemed to be playing similar games in this one as in Jurgen, but they weren't as meaningful (no Dante), careful or rigorous as in that volume (at least as I remember it). The book does cynically touch on how legends and heroes are made, and how religions are concocted, and I get that, but it does it slowly through rather obvious fables. Nobody in the book is admirable, there is no protagonist, and so it feels somewhat pointless. A parlor game for the sophisticated intellectual.
Ah, well.
But then I was introduced to this novel by Noel Perrin's A Reader's Delight (which cannot be praised enough), which is a collection of reviews of excellent books that everybody has forgotten about. (Perrin's rule for the collection was that he would walk around the offices of the Washington Post and if more than two of his colleagues knew the book, it wouldn't make the list.) I have greatly benefited from chasing down the titles that seemed interesting, and The Silver Stallion was by an author I already knew, so I included it on my search list.
Well, this is the only disappointment I've met with from Perrin's suggestions, though it's only a mild disappointment. And perhaps I should have been warned, because Perrin explicitly observed, "Cabell is not everyone's cup of tea. The sexual innuendo that seemed daring in 1926 is not going to give nearly so many delightful shocks and thrills now. His vast impudence is going to amuse younger readers more than older ones -- it amused me more when I was twenty than it does now. (I was more interested in seeing authority figures successfully mocked in those days.) His smooth and elaborate style will not impress admirers of minimalism; it may even annoy them."
Perrin hits several nails on the head there, for me. One thing I now find particularly wearing is his affected high-tone prose style. It's done for humor, for arch condescension, and I understand that, but it also soon grows tedious. I was particularly tired of it near the end, so I counted the three-or-more-syllable words on the second-to-last page: 43 out of just 232 words on the page. Basically 20% of the words are clunky.
And the problem is that Cabell seemed to be playing similar games in this one as in Jurgen, but they weren't as meaningful (no Dante), careful or rigorous as in that volume (at least as I remember it). The book does cynically touch on how legends and heroes are made, and how religions are concocted, and I get that, but it does it slowly through rather obvious fables. Nobody in the book is admirable, there is no protagonist, and so it feels somewhat pointless. A parlor game for the sophisticated intellectual.
Ah, well.
January 2, 2026
It’s true Morvyth could give up Gonfal’s ideas once he is gone, and commit to her own counter-philosophy that comes more properly out of her youth and regality. But the attendant or whomever brings the head should be given exception to the nine suitors, and be chosen as he who has brought the greatest gift: the head of a most offensive traitor. Also Morvyth should be surrounded by skin-baring lovers, despite being so seriously counseled by a religion man, marriage will damn her past life of lovers and pleasures, unless she makes a mockery of her subjects by maintaining frivolity?
Most ideas are absolutes. Where Miramon observes of Manuel “in any time of trouble or uncertainty he kept quiet which struck terror to his ever-babbling race.” It is suitable for a parody. That in one absolute there must be a comedic hidden side of the coin. In a human context this leader would be said to have “the knowledge of what to say in any situation, and when not to say anything at all.”
“I pity the woman who is married to one of you moonstruck artists. She has not half a husband, but the tending of a baby with long legs.” A metaphorical insult combined with a tangible detail about him, making a double metaphor.
“I express myself and none other. The rose bush doesn’t put forth wheat, nor flax either.”
“A great deal it means to you—you rose bush!”
Pushing back an image with positive association as if it were damning—forcing one to think of negative connotations (girly? Etc.).
“There is no marriage for the maker of dreams, for he is perpetually creating finer women than earth provides.”
“In Poictesme all are forgetting that Manuel, and our poets are busied with quite another Manuel, and my own wife has builded a large tomb for that other Manuel... Coth, that is always so. It is love, not carelessness, which bids us forget our dead, so that we may love them the more whole-heartedly.”
"I follow the true Manuel,” Coth replied, “because to do that was my oath. There was involved, I cannot deny it, sir, some affection.” Coth gulped. “I, for the rest, am not interested in these new-fangled, fine lies they are telling about you nowadays.”
“Against banalities a married woman has no protection whatsoever!”—1926
Little fluorescent “lizardheaded-maidens” dancing over the top of a dark water in a deep cavern tunnel. A water that holds them there with the dark loveliness of doom, with an abiding hatred to it. They dance above it imagining warmth and food. But for some the water is surmountable, non hazardous, a slight obstacle.
It loses itself in not having a repetitive structure as seems to make more successful myths and fairy tales. Individual segments are strong fantasy, driven by ideas and their fantasy. But the middle and later section loses that for a more situational thing? It's hard to explain now I'm through it. But there's less reasoning behind the decline of half Manuel's fellowship.
The misogyny also falls out of pace as Cabell loses more control. He must've worked very hard on the first few chapters and then gotten tired of working so hard and just wanted it done. Can relate to that. Not as strong as the unified 'Figures of Earth.' Whimsical enough though. AND ALSO I WAS READING THIS AT WORK MOST OF THE TIME SO I WASN'T IMMERSED AS THE CAFE MUSIC IS SO HARD TO FOCUS DURING...! :(
Most ideas are absolutes. Where Miramon observes of Manuel “in any time of trouble or uncertainty he kept quiet which struck terror to his ever-babbling race.” It is suitable for a parody. That in one absolute there must be a comedic hidden side of the coin. In a human context this leader would be said to have “the knowledge of what to say in any situation, and when not to say anything at all.”
“I pity the woman who is married to one of you moonstruck artists. She has not half a husband, but the tending of a baby with long legs.” A metaphorical insult combined with a tangible detail about him, making a double metaphor.
“I express myself and none other. The rose bush doesn’t put forth wheat, nor flax either.”
“A great deal it means to you—you rose bush!”
Pushing back an image with positive association as if it were damning—forcing one to think of negative connotations (girly? Etc.).
“There is no marriage for the maker of dreams, for he is perpetually creating finer women than earth provides.”
“In Poictesme all are forgetting that Manuel, and our poets are busied with quite another Manuel, and my own wife has builded a large tomb for that other Manuel... Coth, that is always so. It is love, not carelessness, which bids us forget our dead, so that we may love them the more whole-heartedly.”
"I follow the true Manuel,” Coth replied, “because to do that was my oath. There was involved, I cannot deny it, sir, some affection.” Coth gulped. “I, for the rest, am not interested in these new-fangled, fine lies they are telling about you nowadays.”
“Against banalities a married woman has no protection whatsoever!”—1926
Little fluorescent “lizardheaded-maidens” dancing over the top of a dark water in a deep cavern tunnel. A water that holds them there with the dark loveliness of doom, with an abiding hatred to it. They dance above it imagining warmth and food. But for some the water is surmountable, non hazardous, a slight obstacle.
It loses itself in not having a repetitive structure as seems to make more successful myths and fairy tales. Individual segments are strong fantasy, driven by ideas and their fantasy. But the middle and later section loses that for a more situational thing? It's hard to explain now I'm through it. But there's less reasoning behind the decline of half Manuel's fellowship.
The misogyny also falls out of pace as Cabell loses more control. He must've worked very hard on the first few chapters and then gotten tired of working so hard and just wanted it done. Can relate to that. Not as strong as the unified 'Figures of Earth.' Whimsical enough though. AND ALSO I WAS READING THIS AT WORK MOST OF THE TIME SO I WASN'T IMMERSED AS THE CAFE MUSIC IS SO HARD TO FOCUS DURING...! :(
April 2, 2024
The follow-up to Figures of Earth has a lot of characters, with the focus on the Order of the Silver Stallion, the knights appointed by the late Manuel to keep order in Poictesme. Despite having actually known Manuel, they go about turning him from a flawed figure to an object of worship, a great hero who saved the country and would return someday. The Order disbands and the knights go their separate ways. There isn't really all that much to distinguish one of these knights from another, as they all speak in Cabell's rambling kind of dialogue. And there are a lot of unhappy marriages, a constant theme in the works of this author being that his heroes tend to be irresistible to women, but are never happy once they have them. A magician almost frees an ancient being to end the universe due to an argument with his wife, and another guy is thrown down a well by his wife and discovers a mystical library. It's still entertaining, however, with such weird incidents as a Christian ending up in Valhalla, marrying Freyja, and becoming a creator god in his own right. As is typical in this series, there's a lot of mixing of mythology and legends from different cultures, sometimes used in strange ways. I've mentioned before how Koshchei the Deathless is the creator of the world, and his predecessor Toupan, who's imprisoned in the Pleiades, might be a South American name for God. Yatol, whom Coth meets in Mesoamerica, is a name associated with the Aztec Tezcatlipoca. The self-insert character Horvendile is a Norse figure known as the harbinger of the dawn, etymologically related to Tolkien's Earendil. Leshy, a Slavic forest spirit, is Cabell's name for supernatural beings in general. And I really don't know why Odin is called Sidvrar.
February 10, 2025
It's so hard to write a review of a wonderful book that I love dearly that I know most people won't like!
Reasons you may not like this book (or anything in this series): it's written 100 years ago, and is more verbose than most modern books. While there's a lot of plot, much of it is summarized efficiently, so there is more time for conversations about how to approach life. It's a fantasy, which would immediately put my mother off, but it's not a traditional fantasy, which might alienate current readers who expect quests and magic rings and bad guys and so forth. It's also awfully sad, really: it's about loss (of life, of pleasure, of illusion, so much loss).
But if those aren't deal-breakers for you, and you want to read a wonderful book, here is what's great about it, for much of the same reasons: it's written 100 years ago, so the language is rich, it's beautifully written. It doesn't dwell on action sequences because it's a literary work really that wants to say something meaningful about life. Yet it's a fantasy, in all fantasy's glory, with a breadth of imagination rivalled only by someone like Jack Vance. But it's not fantasy in the sword-and-sorcery vein exactly, it's something much more exquisite than that. And it's incredibly moving, telling the tales of (what is essentially a French equivalent to) the knights of Dom Manuel's round table, and what became of them after his death or disappearance.
I was moved to tears several times during the reading of this, and I'm older now than when I first read it as a callow youth. It seemed fun and rollicking when I was a teenager (I barely noticed the philosophy and just enjoyed the magic and plot points), but now that I know loss better, I get it. (I'm someone who will go misty-eyed at the thought of the books I will necessarily leave unread one day when I'm no longer here, it can't be helped).
The other absolutley marvellous thing about the series itself is it's hugeness: it's a great big 100-year-old multi-volume historical epic soap opera, where every episode tackles different but related characters, sometimes in a quite different but connected time period. That always appealed to me, it's one of the reasons I was so into stories of the British monarchy, the War of the Roses, the Plantagenets, the Tudors, it was because they seemed like this great big important serialized drama (and still do: the longest-running true-life historical epic soap opera has to be the British Royal Family).
This is rather like that: the tale begins with Figures of Earth, which I would read first, but it doesn't have to be done that way, introducing Dom Manuel and his rise to power. This book takes up immediately after that one, but covers quite a lot of time thereafter (almost all the time, really, since one character becomes immortal, so their story extends past the end of the earth itself).
The third book, Domnei (or The Story of Melicent) covers an event mentioned in The Silver Stallion, and so forth. Everything's connected.
It doesn't exactly pass the Bechdel test, although interestingly in Cabell's work it often seems that the men are treated as sexual objects rather than the other way around; he often shows powerful women calling the shots and deciding who pleases them. But there is only one scene with multiple women speaking, and they speak about the man who connects them. But despite Joan of Arc (who's a famous exception for a reason) most medieval knights were men, and it seems reasonable that to tell the story of a band of knights one would be telling the story of male characters, so I let that go.
And finally, it's essentially a series of short stories, with preamble and postamble, but the bulk of the book is a few chapters per knight, telling each one's story, rinse-and-repeat. I'm not a huge fan of collections of completely disparate stories, but related stories like this (rather like a Maeve Binchy book) work beautifully.
(Note: I'm a writer, so I suffer when I offer fewer than five stars. But these aren't ratings of quality, they're a subjective account of how much I liked the book: 5* = an unalloyed pleasure from start to finish, 4* = really enjoyed it, 3* = readable but not thrilling, 2* = disappointing, and 1* = hated it.)
Reasons you may not like this book (or anything in this series): it's written 100 years ago, and is more verbose than most modern books. While there's a lot of plot, much of it is summarized efficiently, so there is more time for conversations about how to approach life. It's a fantasy, which would immediately put my mother off, but it's not a traditional fantasy, which might alienate current readers who expect quests and magic rings and bad guys and so forth. It's also awfully sad, really: it's about loss (of life, of pleasure, of illusion, so much loss).
But if those aren't deal-breakers for you, and you want to read a wonderful book, here is what's great about it, for much of the same reasons: it's written 100 years ago, so the language is rich, it's beautifully written. It doesn't dwell on action sequences because it's a literary work really that wants to say something meaningful about life. Yet it's a fantasy, in all fantasy's glory, with a breadth of imagination rivalled only by someone like Jack Vance. But it's not fantasy in the sword-and-sorcery vein exactly, it's something much more exquisite than that. And it's incredibly moving, telling the tales of (what is essentially a French equivalent to) the knights of Dom Manuel's round table, and what became of them after his death or disappearance.
I was moved to tears several times during the reading of this, and I'm older now than when I first read it as a callow youth. It seemed fun and rollicking when I was a teenager (I barely noticed the philosophy and just enjoyed the magic and plot points), but now that I know loss better, I get it. (I'm someone who will go misty-eyed at the thought of the books I will necessarily leave unread one day when I'm no longer here, it can't be helped).
The other absolutley marvellous thing about the series itself is it's hugeness: it's a great big 100-year-old multi-volume historical epic soap opera, where every episode tackles different but related characters, sometimes in a quite different but connected time period. That always appealed to me, it's one of the reasons I was so into stories of the British monarchy, the War of the Roses, the Plantagenets, the Tudors, it was because they seemed like this great big important serialized drama (and still do: the longest-running true-life historical epic soap opera has to be the British Royal Family).
This is rather like that: the tale begins with Figures of Earth, which I would read first, but it doesn't have to be done that way, introducing Dom Manuel and his rise to power. This book takes up immediately after that one, but covers quite a lot of time thereafter (almost all the time, really, since one character becomes immortal, so their story extends past the end of the earth itself).
The third book, Domnei (or The Story of Melicent) covers an event mentioned in The Silver Stallion, and so forth. Everything's connected.
It doesn't exactly pass the Bechdel test, although interestingly in Cabell's work it often seems that the men are treated as sexual objects rather than the other way around; he often shows powerful women calling the shots and deciding who pleases them. But there is only one scene with multiple women speaking, and they speak about the man who connects them. But despite Joan of Arc (who's a famous exception for a reason) most medieval knights were men, and it seems reasonable that to tell the story of a band of knights one would be telling the story of male characters, so I let that go.
And finally, it's essentially a series of short stories, with preamble and postamble, but the bulk of the book is a few chapters per knight, telling each one's story, rinse-and-repeat. I'm not a huge fan of collections of completely disparate stories, but related stories like this (rather like a Maeve Binchy book) work beautifully.
(Note: I'm a writer, so I suffer when I offer fewer than five stars. But these aren't ratings of quality, they're a subjective account of how much I liked the book: 5* = an unalloyed pleasure from start to finish, 4* = really enjoyed it, 3* = readable but not thrilling, 2* = disappointing, and 1* = hated it.)
January 17, 2008
I am currently reading this book. It makes me laugh out loud but also puts me to sleep. Frank C. Pape's illustrations are fascinating.
September 26, 2009
fantasy
September 23, 2010
He writing style just didn't work for me. Indeed, I couldn't even finish the book.
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