 First edition title page | |
| Author | James Branch Cabell |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Series | Biography of the Life of Manuel |
| Genre | Fantasy |
| Publisher | Robert M. McBride |
Publication date | 1921 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (Hardback) |
| Pages | 356 |
| Preceded by | Beyond Life |
| Followed by | The Silver Stallion |
Figures of Earth: A Comedy of Appearances (1921) is a fantasy novel or ironic romance by James Branch Cabell, set in the imaginary French province of Poictesme during the first half of the 13th century.[1] The book follows the earthly career of Dom Manuel the Redeemer from his origins as a swineherd, through his elevation to the rank of Count of Poictesme, to his death. It forms the second volume of Cabell's gigantic Biography of the Life of Manuel.
Cabell's working title for Figures of Earth was initially The Fairy Time, then The Figure or The Figures, before the final version emerged.[2] The book was published in February 1921, during the legal battle to clear his previous novel, Jurgen, from charges of obscenity. He accordingly dedicated Figures of Earth to "six most gallant champions" who had rallied to Jurgen's defense: Sinclair Lewis, Wilson Follett, Louis Untermeyer, H. L. Mencken, Hugh Walpole, and Joseph Hergesheimer. The scandal that surrounded Cabell's name at this time may have adversely affected reviews of Figures of Earth, which, according to the author, registered "some disappointment over its lack of indecency"; he himself preferred Figures of Earth to Jurgen.[3] In the "Author's Note" preceding the novel's 1927 reprint, Cabell observed that "Not many other volumes, I believe, have been burlesqued and cried down in the public prints by their own dedicatees"[4] alluding to the fact that both Untermeyer and Mencken had publicly expressed dislike with the novel in comparison with Jurgen. A 1925 reissue included illustrations by Frank C. Papé. In Cabell's later years Figures of Earth fell, like most of his other works, into comparative neglect, but two paperback reissues in 1969 and 1971, with introductions by Lin Carter and James Blish respectively, brought it back into circulation.
- ^ In The Lineage of Lichfield Cabell fixed the period covered by the novel as August 7, 1234 to September 29, 1239. See James Branch Cabell The Cream of the Jest, The Lineage of Lichfield: Two Comedies of Evasion (London: Pan/Ballantine, 1972) p. 265.
- ^ Edward Wagenknecht (ed.) The Letters of James Branch Cabell (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1975) pp. 33-4.
- ^ Edward Wagenknecht (ed.) The Letters of James Branch Cabell (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1975) pp. 137, 251.
- ^ Figures of Earth (1927 edition), Author's Note.
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