The Biography of Manuel

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The Biography of Manuel is a series of novels, essays and poetry by James Branch Cabell. It purports to trace the life, illusions and disillusions of Dom Manuel, Count of Poictesme (a fictional province of France), and of his physical and spiritual descendants through many generations. The series is more fully titled The Biography of the Life of Manuel, notwithstanding the implicit redundancy.

Contents

[edit] Theme

The conceit of the series is that the life (or at least the expectations) of Dom Manuel 'the Redeemer', which is the subject of the novel Figures of Earth, did not end in his death but was continued in his heirs. The life of each follows the same pattern.

"The comedy is always the same. In the first act the hero imagines a place where happiness exists. In the second he strives towards that goal. In the third he comes up short or what amounts to the same thing he achieves his goal only to find that happiness lies a little further down the road."

[edit] Sequence

The components of the Biography were written between 1905 and 1927; some of them were originally conceived before Cabell had thought of Manuel and had to be rewritten to a greater or lesser extent to enable them to fit into the sequence. Although the Biography is a mix of fantasies, historical romances, social satires, verse, plays, and essays, Cabell said that he considered it a single work.

[edit] Bibliography

The works comprising the Biography are as follows. Each work is given:

  • the date of its first publication, and of its revision (if any)
  • an 'S' number (thus: S1) representing the volume of the uniform Storisende Edition, This edition, prepared under Cabell's supervision, appeared in 18 volumes between 1927 and 1930, published by R. M. McBride. An asterisk following a number indicates that the work concerned formed only part of the volume.
  • a 'B' number (thus: B15) representing the number of the work in the official bibliography of Cabell, prepared with his assistance in 1957 by F. J. Brewer.[1]

[edit] The Biography of the Life of Dom Manuel

  • Beyond Life (1919) S1, B1. Essentially a non-ficton essay on life and fiction-writing.
  • Figures of Earth (1921) S2, B2 The tale of the rise of Dom Manuel himself from swineherd to count.
  • The Silver Stallion (1926) S3, B3. The story the Lords of the Silver Stallion, Manuel's court, after his death
  • Domnei (1920) S4*, B5. The original version of this was published as The Soul of Melicent in 1913.
  • The Music from Behind the Moon (1926) S4*, B45.
  • Chivalry (1909, revised 1921) S5, B6. The 1909 edition had no references to Manuel.
  • Jurgen (1919) S6, B7 (1919) Cabell's most famous book.
  • The Line of Love (1905, revised 1921) S7, B8.
  • The High Place (1923) S8, B9.
  • Gallantry (1907, rev. 1922) S9, B10.
  • Something About Eve (1927) S10, B11.
  • The Certain Hour (1916) S11, B12.
  • The Cords of Vanity (1909, rev. 1920)
  • From the Hidden Way (1916) S13*, B14 (verse)
  • The Jewel Merchants (1921) S13*, B15 (play)
  • The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck 1915) S14, B16.
  • The Eagle's Shadow (1904, rev. 1923) S15, B17.
  • The Cream of the Jest (1917) S16*, B18.
  • The Lineage of Lichfield, (1922) S16*, B 19 (a fantastic genealogy of the Biography)
  • Straws and Prayer-Books (1924) S17, B20. Essays, plus one fantasy story.
  • Townsend of Lichfield (1930, collecting essays published since 1920) S18*, B 21. Essays.
  • The Way of Ecben (1929) S18*, B48. Contains a symbolic colophon to the series entitled Hail and Farewell.
  • The White Robe (1928) S18*, B47.
  • Sonnets of Antan (1929) S18*, B49 (verse)
  • Taboo, (1921, rev. 1930) S18*, B44 (a thinly veiled fantasy-style recounting of the Jurgen obscenity trial)

Related to the biography are the following:

  • The Witch-Woman (1948) (B4), consists of three related books: The Music From Behind the Moon, The Way of Ecben, and The White Robe, from the Biography, plus a new introduction (which does not appear in the Storisende edition). The stories illustrate how men with the three basic attitudes towards life, the poetic, the chivalrous, and the gallant deal with the love of Ettarre, the witch-woman.
  • Preface to the Past (1936) B22. Prefaces and notes extracted from the Storisende Edition.
  • The Judging of Jurgen (1920) B 42. Like 'Taboo', a parody of the proceedings against 'Jurgen'.

Some of Cabell's other books appear to have teasing references to the Biography. For example, the hero of Hamlet Had an Uncle (1927, B27) is the historical prince Horwendill, whose name suggests Manuel's nemesis, Horvendile.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Frances Joan Brewer, James Branch Cabell: A Bibliography of his Wrtings, Biography and Criticism, University of Virginia Press, Charlottesville, 1957

[edit] External links