The Line of Love [Hardcover]

James Branch Cabell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 2004

"The Cabell case belongs to comedy in the grand manner. For fifteen years or more the man wrote and wrote--good stuff, sound stuff, extremely original stuff, often superbly fine stuff--and yet no one in the whole of this vast and incomparable Republic arose to his merit--no one, that is, save a few encapsulated enthusiasts, chiefly somewhat dubious. It would be difficult to imagine a first-rate artist cloaked in greater obscurity, even in the remotest lands of Ghengis Khan. The newspapers, reviewing him, dismissed him with a sort of inspired ill-nature; the critics of a more austere kidney--the Paul Elmer Mores, Brander Matthewses, Hamilton Wright Mabies, and other such brummagem dons--were utterly unaware of him. "

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

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--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 172 pages
• Publisher: IndyPublish.com (February 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1414275706
• ISBN-13: 978-1414275703
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Troubadores, Courtships and Nostalgia for Youthful Love, April 29, 2000

By 

Robert Throckmorton (Las Vegas, Nevada USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Line of Love (The Collected Works of James Branch Cabell (Library Binding)

The "line" extends over ten courtships from April 14, 1355 to May 27, 1559 and traverses northern France and southern England during the Hundred Years War,the rise of the French Monarchy and the accession of the Tudor Family to the English Throne. In the first courtship, Sir Adhelmar de Nointel and Hugues d'Arques vie for the hand of Melite de Puysange. Hugues and Melite marry but have to flee to England to save their lives. From this couple a line develops that goes back and forth from England and France. Sylvia, Melite's daughter, and Falstaff are youthful lovers, but marry others. Noel, Sylvia's son, vies with Francois Villon for the hand of Catherine de Vaucelles and wins. And so it goes. The stories around Falstaff, Villon and Will Sommers--court fool to King Henry VIII provide pathos, wild adventure and wit in that order. Cabell makes a magnficent summation of the line: "For they loved very greatly, these men and women of the past. Nature tricked them to noble ends, lured them to skyey heights of adoration and sacrifice. At bottom they were, perhaps, no more heroical than you or I: Indeed, Melite was a light woman, and Falstaff is scarcely describable as immaculate; Villon thieved, and will Sommers was but a fool . . . and yet to each in turn was granted to love greatly, to know at least one hour of pure magnanimity. This work was a favorite of President Theodore Roosevelt and his letter of praise of the work to the author was one of Cabell's prized possessions.