"And he found it, as many others have done, but cheerless sexton's work, this digging up of boyish recollections. One by one, they come to light—the brave hopes and dreams and aspirations of youth; the ruddy life has gone out of them; they have shriveled into an alien, pathetic dignity. They might have been one's great-grandfather's or Hannibal's or Adam's; the boy whose life was swayed by them is quite as dead as these."

I really liked that. My 3 stars is more a general survey of quality than a reflection of personal enjoyment. Its a sort of anti-romance, like '500 Days of Summer' or maybe just a realistic romance like 'When Harry Met Sally'.
Its kind of funny, but not a comedy, did remind me a bit of Jeeves and Wooster at times though.
Set in the deep south of america after the civil war, set amongst the dying aristocracy of the former slave owners. Or rather their descendents and while it doesn't tackle racism head on it gives a good idea of the sort of stubborn minded traditionalism which inevitably tends to create such thinking.

The rivet in the title is really a metaphor for peoples inability to change both on a social and a personal level. The book is very bookish... :P i mean its the sort of writing which doesn't care about normal conventions and might be more appreciated by fellow authors or at least people who read a lot, than average readers.

Overall its a whimsically depressing book about peoples general lack of ambition.
"for it would mirror the life of Lichfield with unengaging candor; and, as a consequence, people would complain that my tragedy lacked sustained interest, and that its participants were inconsistent; that it had no ordered plot, no startling incidents, no high endeavors, and no especial aim; and that it was equally deficient in all time-hallowed provocatives of either laughter or tears." ( )

The first edition contains a synopsis of the great Hans Christian Anderson story of the shepherdess and the chimney sweep. It's best to find the story, then read the novel. ( )

The best of Cabell's realistic fictions. ( )

The greatest of Cabell's early "realistic" comedies, set in Lichfield (in the state of Virginia, in all but name). This British edition contains the page-long preface (summarizing a Han-Christian Anderson fable) as well as the subtitle Cabell added to the book after its initial publication in 1915. A droll book with a heartbreakingly beautiful ending. One of my favorite novels. ( )