Figures of Earth

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 miracles were as common as fruit pies, young Manuel was a swineherd, living modestly in attendance upon the miller's pigs. They tell also that Manuel was content enough: he knew not of the fate which was reserved for him.” Unsatisfied with life as a lowly swineherd, Manuel follows his heart in pursuit of place where true happiness exists. A proponent of medieval chivalry, he encounters gods and goddesses, kings and queens, as he passes from one otherworldly realm to the next. As the chains of the past begin to fall away, Manuel discovers that through determination and valor, he can excel the circumstances of his humble birth. Set in a fictionalized France of the 13th century, Figures of Earth: A Comedy of Appearances is a captivating story of fantasy and adventurer featuring a flawed hero whose mythical world is not entirely different from our own. Cabell’s work has long been described as escapist, his novels and stories derided as fantastic and obsessive recreations of a world lost long ago. To read Figures of Earth: A Comedy of Appearances, however, is to understand that the issues therein—the struggle for power, the unspoken distance between men and women—were vastly important not only at the time of its publication, but in our own, divisive world. This edition of James Branch Cabell’s Figures of Earth: A Comedy of Appearances is a classic of fantasy and romance reimagined for modern readers.

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