"But I cannot put aside the thought that I, who for the while exist in this mortgaged body, cannot ever get out to you. Freydis, there is no way in which two persons may meet in this world of men: we can but exchange, from afar, despairing friendly signals, in the sure knowledge they will be misinterpreted.
So do we pass, each coming out of a strange woman's womb, each parodied by the flesh of his parents, each passing futilely, with incommunicative gestures, toward the womb of a strange grave: and in this jostling we find no comradeship.
No soul may travel upon a bridge of words. Indeed there is no word for my foiled huge desire to love and to be loved, just as there is no word for the big, the not quite comprehended thought which is moving in me at this moment. But that thought also is a grief—"

Wow that was depressing, amongst many other things. An early fantasy comedy satire, but also heavily allegorical. This is the closest of Cabells works to his famous book Jurgen (great novel, even if it did have a bit of a limp, insider joke :P ) which was banned for indecency but cleared after a trial.

I hadn’t checked the dates of the work so assumed this was an early one but it became clear from the plot that this was written after Jurgen. Indeed you could see it as a direct response to that work. Now that i think about it there’s a bit where Manuel becomes old really quickly and that might be a reference to the trial over Jurgen, maybe it prematurely aged the author.

Anyway aswell as a great bit of fantasy as i mentioned it has a lot of allegories going on and certainly didn’t decipher all of them, only close friends of Cabell could work them all out not that you need to decipher them. You can read this on many levels.

However the main allegory is pretty obvious. This book is about what do you do after you become successful? And related topics. What should an artist sacrifice for their art? How do you react to the growing obligations of life and family and the expectations of others?

There’s so much here and its a real delight, but also really depressing (for me) because its so truthful. But that's just me, if your an optimist this will probably just be delightful for you.

I think this might actually be better than Jurgen, but not quite as fun :) . Oh and this one isn’t naughty, in fact its very unnaughty.
I don’t think Cabell censored himself out of fear of another obscenity trial but rather because he wanted to rebel, against the rebels. His audience wanted him as the poster child for naughtiness so he did this (mostly) very clean book instead, at least that's my theory.

Almost exhausting in its brilliance. ( )

Cabell's major work, being the basis of all further references to the career of Dom Manuel the Redeemer, of Poictesme, the former herder of swine. There is also found some matter referring to his three major loves. The tale is sometimes funny, sometimes sad, but always cleverly phrased. ( )

Who influences the influencers - according to many fantasy and satirists alike it was Cabell who's fantasy and wit is wry and dryer than the Mojave. I can definitely see where many of the greats appreciated his craft at the time from Twin, Heinlein, Leiber, Gaiman and Pratchett, but those masters took the craft to another dimension entirely. Read at the risk of curing your insomnia. ( )

Cabell apparently intended the Biography of Manuel as "one single, one continuous, and one undivisible Book" -- which description may prove initially confusing at the realisation the 18 novels do not treat of the same character, nor a chronological order. After completing this, my third novel from the Biography, I do begin to see some of the themes and motifs. Clearest is that the Biography is a comedy in the classic sense; and essentially tells the same story in different guises with each manifestation. That said, each novel is not merely that same story, though that would be achievement enough given the very different plots, characters, and settings used each time. Like any myth, though, there is a fundamental story at root.

WR Parker in his 1932 essay, 'A Key to Cabell' [434]:
"Cabell writes of it again in Straws and Prayer-Books: 'It is perhaps the main point of the Biography that it -- and human life -- present for all practical purposes the same comedy over and over again with each new generation.' An understanding of this perennial comedy constitutes the true key to Cabell. Briefly and simply stated, the comedy is this: Man becomes dissatisfied with reality, grows weary of futile routine and foolish conventions and ugliness. He seeks escape by creating in his own mind an ideal world, a utopia, in which his thoughts can dwell pleasantly. Most of the Cabellian characters literally move into the dream-world, where they go in quest of some particular perfection. Then man becomes aware of the fact that he is desiring the unattainable, and so, thoroughly disenchanted, he returns to reality and makes the best of things as they are."

Manuel here seeks explicitly the perfection of a mate, most particularly does not find satisfaction with three candidates, and indeed "makes do" with the girl he meets at the very beginning, whom he fell for as a lad and returns to after much chivalry and dishevel, eyes wide open. Apparently Figures of Earth explores the "literal" biography of Manuel, echoed and alluded to in other tales, and itself echoing and alluding to Horvendile (Cream of the Jest) and to various others in Silver Stallion, at least. Another Cabellian irony that this was not the first volume, but the 13th in publication order and the 2nd in Cabell's revised sequence.

Cabell's prose is gossamer, but in effect not aesthetically: I find it difficult to attend to the writing and track the plot, helpless unless I pick one or the other. And yet, the tale is plainly told. For some reason I can't summarise the story arc unless I focus explicitly, which then results in lost appreciation for the prose itself (as wordcraft, as literary and mythopoeic writing). All of Cabell's prose is like this for me. Partly a result, I think, of Cabell's choice to use myth and romance and fantasy as a means of structuring a tale, and then commenting upon modern life rather than focusing specifically on the realm he's imagined. His ironic distance, again, though in no way does this detract from his care in world building. Poictesme is fitted with a fully-realised culture, history, and people. Layers and layers.

Cabell is cynical, ironic, romantic, realist -- and somehow fuses that into a knowing idealism. I do love his perspective, it is matched only by his stylings and erudition. Never hesitate to purchase or re-read anything by Cabell: a working thesis to be tested from here on. ( )

This, the designated first book of The Biography of Manuel, James Branch Cabell's cycle of comedies, cricitism and poems that hit American literature like a ton of feathers in the 1920s, is not the best of the series. Nor is it the worst. What it is is necessary. A bit overlong, I thought. But a great ending, and great droll scenes throughout. Must readers for Cabell lovers, but though it is the first in a cycle, it is not the cream of the geste. ( )