Customer Reviews

Figures of Earth (Wildside Fantasy)

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Manuel, a swineherd for his brother-in-law the miller, was a resident in the area ruled by Count Demetrios d'Arnaye. His girlfriend was the lovely Suskind. On her deathbed, Dorothy, his mother, told him that she wanted him to make himself a figure in the world that was a splendid and admirable young man in all respects. After her death, he spent much time at the Pool of Haranton using its marsh clay to make a figure of earth of himself. After he had an adventure with Miramon Lluagor, the wizard, which netted him a lover named Niafer who was then taken by death to the pagan paradise, he decided to seek his fortune elsewhere. He did the following: provided wisdom for King Helmas, turned the wicked King Ferdinand into a saint and ended up engaged to Alianora the Unattainable Princess, the daughter of King Berenger of Arles. The princess taught him her magic and he saved the life of a stork that became indebted to him. He relinquished Alianora to the King of England and found a way to turn Queen Freydis of Audela into a woman permanently. That queen gave life to one of his figures that ran away fom them and became Sesphra, the god of the Philistines. After Queen Freydis taught him how to invoke Misery to free Niafer from the pagan paradise, he invoked Misery and served him for 30 of Misery's days which turned out to be 30 years for Manuel. Misery returned Niafer to him and they were married. For a time, they lived with Queen Freydis on her enchanted island where the stork delivered Melicent, their first child. With the aid of Queen Freydis and Miramon Lluagor, Manuel became the Count of Poictesme which had been granted to him by King Ferdinand, but had been occupied by the Northmen. As count, he founded The Fellowship of the Silver Stallion and turned Poictesme into a prosperous place. He gave one of his stork invoices to Queen Alianora so that she could have a son. The stork added Emmerick and Dorothy to his family. After succeeding at everything, Manuel vanished and legends about him began to form.

This work is a treasure-trove of subtle parodies, satires and social criticism that are unique for their fluency and urbanity.

This is where it starts (maybe); the epic History of Dom Manuel of Poictesme (pronounced pwa-tem), progenitor of a clan that stretches from pre-revolutionary France to the American South and includes Kings of England and Shakespeare. Cabell was witty, erudite and scandalous,,,by far the finest, widely unknown fantasist ever produced in America. Only for those who relish dense language and wisdom that is inevitable.

James Branch Cabell shares, with Lord Dunsany, the honor of being the most influential fantasist that everyone today has forgotten, occluded behind Mount Tolkien. He was considered a major literary writer in his day, a friend of H.L. Mencken and others, and he's been an influence on Heinlein and Gaiman and many other major writers. . Generally, his works are satiric fantasy with literary bite -- imagine a cynical, agnostic C.S. Lewis, writing pointed fantasies to skewer the pretensions of his Oxford chums, and you might have some preliminary idea of what to expect with Cabell.

This book is chronologically the first in his "series" -- his fantasy works are primarily set in a mythical medieval french realm called "Poictesme", and this book is a biography of the founder, Count Manuel, whose motto is "Mundus Vult Decipiti" ("The World Wishes to be Deceived"). It's a sharp book, aimed at sharp readers, and very amusing for what it is (if somewhat bitter). The only problem with it is that he wrote it after writing _Jurgen_, and Jurgen is simply funnier and more entertaining and better -- as good as this book is, Jurgen is the same thing, but better, pretty much across the board, a better satire of contemporary norms, a better puncturing of worldly ideals. So, read Jurgen first; if you really like it and want more, read this one next.

As a general fantasy lover, I came to Cabell with the highest of hopes and expectations, but sadly, I have put down Figures of Earth about half way through. Either the book is going above my head or Cabell's brand of writing is simply far removed from my tastes, or maybe he really is over-rated. Figures of Earth seems an unformed mass of episodic balderdash written in stylish, elegant prose. Cabell does show the occasional sparkling imagination, but the overall effect to my nares is the equivalent of gilding a cow patty. For example, the central pun of the book is that the young protagonist's mother put a spell on him to "make himself a fine figure of a young man", so he is trying to sculpt a statue of a young man from clay! That's lame even for something said off the cuff in general conversation, in my opinion.

One struggles to understand Cabell's popularity among the literary elite in the early part of the century. Most of his acclaim probably stems from the fact that Cabell was the first to write in the style of fantasy farce. He was offering something fun and fanciful when nobody else was. If one has only ever tasted pound cake, he doesn't realize wedding cake is much better. Cabell's schtick, as it were, has been adopted and perfected by his more able heirs and imitators, such as Douglas Adams, Jack Vance, Pratt and deCamp, Poul Anderson, and Terry Prachett. Cabell probably deserves reverence as an innovator of the genre, but has been surpassed and eclipsed by his more capable descendents.

I rarely review a purchase. I even more rarely return a book. The typeface used in this book is terrible, faded, and almost unreadable. It appears to have been typeset with a typewriter. Although probably not important to the story, none of the original illustrations are in this edition (it just says "[Illustration]" where there should be an actual illustration). Curling up with this oversized book (I didn't expect 8 1/2 by 11 size pages) would have all the charm of reading an ancient hand-typed grad-school monograph on the crystalline structure of dipenzenemonophosphate. I strongly recommend finding another edition. That's what I will do.

This is one of his shorter novels, but incredibly rich from beginning to end. I don't consider it inferior to any of his books. Some readers will be completely befuddled by his references to obscure mytholigies, his strange spelling of what turn out to be familiar names, and his use of anagrams. My recomendation is to read it. If the names of gods and queens have no resonance, read them as characters in the novel. Don't waste time looking for Manuel's County on a map. This is a fantasy grounded firmly in a fantatsic view of history and human nature and human mythlogy.

At some point something may click. It's not like a secret being revealed; it's just another layer to the story. One of the central dynamics is the contrast between youth and age. This alone may inspire a re-reading. Some may be put off by Cabell's jaundiced view of humanity, its strivings, and its hypocricies. Others may be put off by the clear immoralty of its characters and its raucous blending of fantasy and history. Don't feel sorry for such people; they cause more misery than they suffer.