On Rereading Jurgen by James Branch Cabell (again)
Due to my ongoing need for literary comfort food, I turn once again to the brilliantly written fantasy Jurgen (subtitled in the original, though not in the edition I own, A Comedy of Justice). I think I was still a teen when I first encountered Jurgen, and I have read it several times since. Shortly after its publication in 1919 the author and publisher were prosecuted for obscenity, although no sexual activity is described explicitly. Instead, Cabell makes inferences and liberally uses double entendres to make his points.
The story follows Jurgen on a journey through various fantasy lands to recover his lost wife, who has been abducted by Koshchei the Deathless “who made things as they are.” As he travels, he meets, woos, and sometimes marries a variety of beautiful women, including Guinevere, Helen of Troy, a tree nymph, a vampire in hell, and others. Proclaiming himself “a monstrous clever fellow,” he promotes himself to be a duke, a prince, an emperor, and even a pope as he ascends for a brief time to heaven to meet the God of his grandmother. As he sojourns in each land he conforms to its customs and has many strange and unique adventures. However, despite his heroics and his numerous affairs, he doesn’t find peace, and eventually he recovers his middle-aged wife and goes back to his life as a respectable pawnbroker. During much of the book, a spell has given him his lost youth, yet in the end he relinquishes even this, as he realizes that his youthful body does not match his more mature mind.
When I first read Jurgen, so many years ago, I identified with his youthful incarnation who reveled in new adventures and experiences. As I read it now, though, as an older man, I find myself in sympathy with the middle-aged person who can not quite reconcile his audacity and profligacy with the “respectable” life he has settled into with his wife. He has grown comfortable in his marriage and comes to appreciate his wife’s faithfulness and companionship.
It’s all in great fun, of course; Cabell is not particularly attempting to moralize, but rather to tell a tall tale with a multitude of unexpected twists and turns. The language he uses is a feast for the inner ear, and the outlandish places Jurgen’s destiny takes him are described in intricate and outrageous detail.
If you are looking for deep lessons and social and political relevance, you might have to look elsewhere, but if you want to enjoy a magnificent and humorous fantasy told in exquisite prose, you couldn’t do better than to read Jurgen. For a time, especially after the obscenity trial, Cabell was internationally famous and well-regarded by his literary contemporaries. He is less known now, although still revered by connoisseurs of fine fantasy. Among Cabell’s admirers were writers such as Mark Twain, Sinclair Lewis, Robert Heinlein, Neil Gaiman, and many others. If you’re a fan of humorous fantastic adventures and adroit wordplay, give Jurgen a try. You won’t be disappointed.
