Figures of Earth: A Comedy of Appearances (1921) is a comic fantasy novel by James Branch Cabell. Set in a world where history and fantasy collide, where a lowly swineherd can rise to be Count of Poictesme, Figures of Earth: A Comedy of Appearances is one of Cabell's best-known works of fiction, and is included in a series of novels, essays, and poems known as the Biography of the Life of Manuel. "They of Poictesme narrate that in the old days when...

Chivalry (1909) is a fascinating collection of tales that draw inspiration from the popular chronicles of medieval Europe. Author James Branch Cabell immerses his reader into this distant world, masking his authorship in order to ensure a fluidity of form and content that injects his work of high fantasy with a sense of truth. Intentionally layered in mystery and claims of authenticity, Chivalry purports to be a copy made by royal scribe Colard Mansion...

The Line of Love (1913) is a collection of comic fantasy tales by James Branch Cabell. Set in a world where history and fantasy collide, where a lowly swineherd can rise to be Count of Poictesme, The Line of Love is one of Cabell's best-known works of fiction, and is included in a series of novels, essays, and poems known as the Biography of the Life of Manuel. It is a tale which they narrate in Poictesme, telling how love began between Florian de...

Gallantry (1922) is a collection of comic fantasy tales by James Branch Cabell. Set in a fictionalized version of 18th-century England, Gallantry is a relative outlier among Cabell's body of work, and is included in a series of novels, essays, and poems known as the Biography of the Life of Manuel. "We begin at a time when George the Second was permitting Ormskirk and the Pelhams to govern England, and the Jacobites had, not yet ceased to hope for...

A Certain Hour (1922) is a collection of stories by James Branch Cabell. Recreating the lives of some of history's most celebrated poets, A Certain Hour is a relative outlier among Cabell's body of work, and is included in a series of novels, essays, and poems known as the Biography of the Life of Manuel. "Indisputably the most striking defect of this modern American literature is the fact that the production of anything at all resembling literature...

The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck (1921) is a comic romance novel by James Branch Cabell. Set in a world, where history and fantasy collide, where the laws of chivalry and honor continue to hold sway in postbellum South, The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck is included in a series of novels, essays, and poems known as the Biography of the Life of Manuel.

The Cream of the Jest (1923) is a novel by James Branch Cabell. Set in a world, where history and fantasy collide, where a lowly pawnbroker can encounter monsters, gods, and devils, The Cream of the Jest is one work in a series of novels, essays, and poems known as the Biography of the Life of Manuel. Partly inspired by the obscenity trial surrounding his novel Jurgen, a Comedy of Justice, The Cream of the Jest is a metafictional blend of literary...