Rereading: BEYOND LIFE by James Branch Cabell

Second edition from The Modern Library, 1923

I discovered the books of Cabell (rhymes with rabble) in the 1970s when several were issued in paperback as part of the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series. I became a fan of those fantasy novels, and learned that Cabell’s master work was a long series of about 20 books, depending on how you count them, written over many years, and with some later rewritten to fit into the series called “The Biography of Manuel.” Over the next 20 years or so I collected all the books in the series, one at a time, and enjoyed most of them, but always thought I should read them in the order Cabell suggested. I’ve begun that with this one, and it was a difficult and challenging read. I didn’t recall anything about it, I may not actually have read it before.

Unlike most of the series, it’s not a story, more of a series of essays or arguments in the form of the main character, author John Charteris, lecturing to a visitor in his home library. The library will be of interest to Sandman fans, as it contains such things as “the cream of the unwritten books—the masterpieces that were planned and never carried through.” Also, somehow, famous books that are not the published version, but the one the author intended to write, sort of like today’s “preferred text” editions. In essence, this is the Library of Dream, and Neil Gaiman is a fan of Cabell, so that fits.

If the book had gone further with that, I would have liked it better, but it soon turns to Charteris’ opinions and theories about literature and writing. His main argument is that romance is what lasts, and what makes books stand the test of time, rather than realism, a trend beginning to dominate in his time, as it still often does. By romance he means humans striving to be “as they ought to be,” rather than as they often are in real life. Characters that are noble, heroic, chivalrous, gallant, caring, even possessing superhuman strength and abilities. Comics fit right into this idea, as do many fantasy and science fiction books, but Cabell explains it’s always been there, from the ancient Greek classics by Homer, through Roman and medieval authors, folk and fairy tales, and up to authors of the book’s present (written in 1919). Even religion he sees as romance. In fact, since apes descended from trees, he says they have been telling stories about themselves that yearn toward romance rather than the grim reality of their actual lives.

From these initial arguments, much of the book is literary criticism, both pro and con, of authors and their works, focusing largely on those in English beginning in Shakespeare’s time, and working forward to Cabell’s contemporaries. This was a slog for me, having not read many of those authors, and the writing style is florid and complex, with a very large vocabulary. There were words on most pages I didn’t know and had to look up or infer from context, and I know a lot of words. Further, Charteris, and therefore Cabell, comes across as rather cranky and snobbish about some of the subjects, I thought, though he has kind words to say about a few contemporaries I also like.

I anticipate with more interest continuing with the titles containing real stories going forward. This book is not one I can really recommend, though I did enjoy parts of it, and as Cabell intended, completists must read it.

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