{"product_id":"2940015488746","title":"CHIVALRY","description":"Introduction\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFew of the more astute critics who have appraised the work of James\u003cbr\u003eBranch Cabell have failed to call attention to that extraordinary\u003cbr\u003ecohesion which makes his very latest novel a further flowering of the\u003cbr\u003eseed of his very earliest literary work. Especially among his later\u003cbr\u003ebooks does the scheme of each seem to dovetail into the scheme of the\u003cbr\u003eother and the whole of his writing take on the character of an\u003cbr\u003euninterrupted discourse. To this phenomenon, which is at once a fact and\u003cbr\u003ean illusion of continuity, Mr. Cabell himself has consciously\u003cbr\u003econtributed, not only by a subtly elaborate use of conjunctions, by\u003cbr\u003erepetition, and by reintroducing characters from his other books, but by\u003cbr\u003eactually setting his expertness in genealogy to the genial task of\u003cbr\u003edevising a family tree for his figures of fiction.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIf this were an actual continuity, more tangible than that fluid\u003cbr\u003eabstraction we call the life force; if it were merely a tireless\u003cbr\u003ereiteration and recasting of characters, Mr. Cabell's work would have an\u003cbr\u003eunbearable monotony. But at bottom this apparent continuity has no more\u003cbr\u003ematerial existence than has the thread of lineal descent. To insist\u003cbr\u003eupon its importance is to obscure, as has been obscured, the epic range\u003cbr\u003eof Mr. Cabell's creative genius. It is to fail to observe that he has\u003cbr\u003etreated in his many books every mainspring of human action and that his\u003cbr\u003ethemes have been the cardinal dreams and impulses which have in them\u003cbr\u003eheroic qualities. Each separate volume has a unity and harmony of a\u003cbr\u003ecomplete and separate life, for the excellent reason that with the\u003cbr\u003econsummate skill of an artist he is concerned exclusively in each book\u003cbr\u003ewith one definite heroic impulse and its frustrations.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt is true, of course, that like the fruit of the tree of life, Mr.\u003cbr\u003eCabell's artistic progeny sprang from a first conceptual germ--\"In the\u003cbr\u003ebeginning was the Word.\" That animating idea is the assumption that if\u003cbr\u003elife may be said to have an aim it must be an aim to terminate in\u003cbr\u003esuccess and splendor. It postulates the high, fine importance of excess,\u003cbr\u003ethe choice or discovery of an overwhelming impulse in life and a\u003cbr\u003econscientious dedication to its fullest realization. It is the quality\u003cbr\u003eand intensity of the dream only which raises men above the biological\u003cbr\u003enorm; and it is fidelity to the dream which differentiates the\u003cbr\u003eexceptional figure, the man of heroic stature, from the muddling,\u003cbr\u003eaimless mediocrities about him. What the dream is, matters not at\u003cbr\u003eall--it may be a dream of sainthood, kingship, love, art, asceticism or\u003cbr\u003esensual pleasure--so long as it is fully expressed with all the\u003cbr\u003eresources of self. It is this sort of completion which Mr. Cabell has\u003cbr\u003eelected to depict in all his work: the complete sensualist in\u003cbr\u003eDemetrios, the complete phrase-maker in Felix Kennaston, the complete\u003cbr\u003epoet in Marlowe, the complete lover in Perion. In each he has shown that\u003cbr\u003ethis complete self-expression is achieved at the expense of all other\u003cbr\u003epossible selves, and that herein lies the tragedy of the ideal.\u003cbr\u003ePerfection is a costly flower and is cultured only by an uncompromising,\u003cbr\u003estrict husbandry.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAll this is, we see, the ideational gonfalon under which surge the\u003cbr\u003eromanticists; but from the evidence at hand it is the banner to which\u003cbr\u003elife also bears allegiance. It is in humanity's records that it has\u003cbr\u003ereserved its honors for its romantic figures. It remembers its Caesars,\u003cbr\u003eits saints, its sinners. It applauds, with a complete suspension of\u003cbr\u003emoral judgment, its heroines and its heroes who achieve the greatest\u003cbr\u003eself-realization. And from the splendid triumphs and tragic defeats of\u003cbr\u003ehumanity's individual strivings have come our heritage of wisdom and of\u003cbr\u003epoetry.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOnce we understand the fundamentals of Mr. Cabell's artistic aims, it is\u003cbr\u003enot easy to escape the fact that in _Figures of Earth_ he undertook the\u003cbr\u003estaggering and almost unsuspected task of rewriting humanity's sacred\u003cbr\u003ebooks, just as in _Jurgen_ he gave us a stupendous analogue of the\u003cbr\u003eceaseless quest for beauty. For we must accept the truth that Mr. Cabell\u003cbr\u003eis not a novelist at all in the common acceptance of the term, but a\u003cbr\u003ehistorian of the human soul. His books are neither documentary nor\u003cbr\u003erepresentational; his characters are symbols of human desires and\u003cbr\u003emotives. By the not at all simple process of recording faithfully the\u003cbr\u003eprojections of his rich and varied imagination, he has written thirteen\u003cbr\u003ebooks, which he accurately terms biography, wherein is the bitter-sweet\u003cbr\u003etruth about human life.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47070938759408,"sku":"2940015488746","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940015488746","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}