The King Was in His Counting House

by James Branch Cabell

_The King Was In His Counting House_ might best be described as history-as-fantasy. It is set in the Renaissance Italy of Jacobean tragedy rather than history, where every powerful nobleman is a Machiavellian fiend, plots abound, and virtue is in peril. Shimmering just beyond the horizon is the land of Branlon, the country of minor poets, a refuge from the treachery and danger of politics and power. A satirical romance in the best Cabell manner.

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1938

About the author

James Branch Cabell was an American author of fantasy fiction and belles lettres. Cabell was well regarded by his contemporaries, including H. L. Mencken, Edmund Wilson, and Sinclair Lewis. His works were considered escapist and fit well in the culture of the 1920s, when they were most popular. For Cabell, veracity was "the one unpardonable sin, not merely against art, but against human welfare."