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James Branch Cabell
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Jurgen Paperback – 24 Jun. 2011

by James Branch Cabell (Author)
4.2 out of 5 stars 97 ratings
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A middle-aged pawnbroker-poet is allowed to regain his youth for a year of amorous adventures in this compelling fantasy. Filled with strange beasts, alien gods, fabulous lands, beautiful ladies, and an aura of the supernatural, Cabel's allegory leads its hero through affairs with Guenevere and the Lady of the Lake as well as confrontations with God and the Devil.
The 1919 publication of Jurgen catapulted its author into a position as one of the most enigmatic and controversial literary figures of his era. Critical response ranged from lavish praise to violent denunciations, including attempts to have the novel banned for obscenity. Modern readers consider it a landmark in the history of American fantastic fiction and a successor to the traditions of Rabelais, Sterne, Swift, and Voltaire. Its gentle blend of comedy and irony in a fantastic setting has enchanted generations of readers. This edition features more than a dozen striking full-page illustrations by Frank C. Papé.
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  1. ISBN-10
    0486479153
  2. ISBN-13
    978-0486479156
  3. Publisher
    Dover Publications Inc.
  4. Publication date
    24 Jun. 2011
  5. Language
    English
  6. Dimensions
    13.34 x 2.54 x 20.96 cm
  7. Print length
    400 pages
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Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Dover Publications Inc.
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ 24 Jun. 2011
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 400 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0486479153
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0486479156
  • Item weight ‏ : ‎ 366 g
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 13.34 x 2.54 x 20.96 cm
  • Best Sellers Rank: 5,404 in Fiction Classics (Books)
  • Customer reviews:
    4.2 out of 5 stars 97 ratings

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James Branch Cabell

James Branch Cabell

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4.2 out of 5 stars
97 global ratings

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Top reviews from United Kingdom

  • Robert Campion
    5.0 out of 5 stars I'm glad I worked up the courage to give this one a go
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 1 September 2015
    Verified Purchase
    I didn't know if I'd like this book or not--I wasn't sure what to expect. Martin Seymour-Smith describes it as a masterpiece, in his "Guided to Modern World Literature". Seymour-Smith didn't let me down. Jurgen is indeed a masterpiece, if by that we mean a master work, which only one author could have written. The story (a mock-medieval romance-cum metaphysical novel) is exuberantly told, and quite mad. Wonderful. I bought the Dover edition, which is well presented: there are illustrations, as well as the original short story out of which the novel developed.
    3 people found this helpful
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  • DV
    4.0 out of 5 stars Even better with the pictures
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 12 December 2018
    Verified Purchase
    I have read and reread Jurgen with great pleasure but I needed to see Pape's illustrations and they are excellent, although I suspect the first edition would have used finer paper for them than this modern reproduction. hence the 4*
    I can't forget the lovely one of Jurgen's rather domestic mistress Chloris with the washing on the line.
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  • Hugh T. Paterson
    5.0 out of 5 stars Jurgen
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 7 November 2013
    Verified Purchase
    James Branch Cabell is an unjustly neglected novelist. 'Jurgen' is probably his best book. It is a biting satire and funnmy with it.
    One person found this helpful
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  • Amazon Customer
    3.0 out of 5 stars Three Stars
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 15 November 2016
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    OK
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  • Captain Birdseye
    5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 6 April 2018
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    Bought for a friend
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  • VC Cox
    5.0 out of 5 stars An Irreverent Romp
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 18 July 2008
    James Branch Cabell is apparently one of Neil Gaiman's favourite authors - and you can see why, if you read this witty fantasy. Once controversial, it was subject to a court case in the 1920's for its tongue-in-cheek 'lewd' content. To which accusations the author published a very typically pointed, allegorical retort.

    The unlikeliest of heroes, Jurgen is a middle-aged pawnbroker who, upon meeting what he takes for the devil, decides to pay the fellow a compliment. Flattered, this devil then rewards Jurgen by taking his nagging wife off his hands. Initially, the pawnbroker finds this a comfortable arrangement, until his wife's family force him to attempt her rescue. This sets him off on a series of (mis)adventures romping through various fantastic realms, in a narrative that is packed full of double-entendres as well as classical and literary allusions.

    Perhaps not for everyone's tastes, but if you have a keen sense of humour and are relatively well-read, then it's definately one worth owning.
    One person found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

  • grozny
    5.0 out of 5 stars A rewarding return trip
    Reviewed in the United States on 6 September 2009
    Verified Purchase
    Like many others who have written reviews, I read Jurgen long ago and was totally captivated. This hardly meant that I even came close to "totally understaning" it. In my 20's I was able to teach it and other works by Cabell. I am now in my 70's and am able to re-read the great and not so great books of my youth. My advice to new reders is just to read it and don't be intimidated by the blend of history and faantasy, the archaic and fake-archaic spellings, and the constant anagrams. Eventually some things will be clear. They are not "secret meanings," just additional layers. Enjoy, then (if it strikes you) dig more.

    Jurgen is not cheap victorian porn as at least one reviewer has suggested. It is a vicious and brutal attack on the prudish and hypocrtical criticism that are as much a reality today as they were in Cabell's day. The brutal kingdom of Philistia destroys as much "evil" today as it did in Jurgen's novel.

    A clue to entering Cabell's world here is his return to the garden between dawn and sunrise, where Jrgen starts his second journey through life. This dream of returning to reclaim the beauties and adventures of youth and to get a second chance may be common to all men or just to the lucky few. It was a time when the objects of our desire were not quite as beautiful as they seemed and when even our greatest adventures were not quite as great or as adventurous as they seemed then. Going back allows us to view them from the perspective of age and time, and if we have become wise, to sort them out.

    Cabell ended another book (The Devil's Only Son) with one charater observing that "dreams are the disease of youth; growing up is being cured of them." Enjoy reading Jurgen. Enjoy returning to the dreams of youth. Join Cabell in the sadness that comes not from the fact that we are no longer young, but from the realization that these were just dreams. . .
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  • Amazon Customer
    5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
    Reviewed in Canada on 7 May 2016
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    A completely underestimated novel. A must read for every artist and writer.
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  • Marc Haefele
    4.0 out of 5 stars James Branch Cabell's Most Famous Book
    Reviewed in the United States on 18 July 2013
    Verified Purchase
    It's hard to believe it, but "Jurgen" was once a cause celebre. Widely banned in the US for its randy allusions, its open publication was supported by the likes of SInclair Lewis and even philosopher George Santayana. Nowadays, it merely seems a mildly off-color but charming fable of romantic sexual fantasy versus the dour but certain reality of the married life. It is written in a drolly archaic style that was rather mannered even in the 1920s, but deeply loved by readers of that time (in some ways, Cabell was the Tolkien of the Jazz Age) and years since.

    The tale tells of Jurgen, a middle-aged medieval pawnbroker who inadvertently speaks well of the Devil, and is hence rewarded with a fantasy journey that puts him in intimacy with a wide variety of great beauties of the past in worlds of Cabell's learned imagination. The running joke is that Jurgen can get away with nearly everything if he properly observes the appearance of the middle-class proprieties. Of course, in the end he finds that even the intense fantasy of Helen of Troy cannot equal the humble reality of his own home and hearth, to which he begs to return.

    The language is wonderful, and quite a few of the japes are still roaringly funny. This may be the best place to begin reading Cabell, one of the 20th century's under-appreciated important writers. But I think that some of his other fantasies, such as "The High Place" and "Figures of Earth" cut much deeper. So does his non-fantasy novel, "The RIvet in Grandfather's Neck."
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  • DHStraayer
    5.0 out of 5 stars A fine listen; Let's get it on MP3/CD!
    Reviewed in the United States on 29 April 2002
    Verified Purchase
    After 20 years of reading single-voice narrations, it was one of
    my few exposures to multi-voice dramatizations.
    I did find the inevitable range of loudness of a dramatization
    to be a bit of a problem with my hearing. Struggling with the
    overly-complex user interfaced tone controls on my JVC in-dash
    CD/MP3 player finally got that mostly under control.
    They fellow who played "the black guy" reminded me and my fellow
    listener ever so much of Burgess Meredith. I didn't see a cast
    listing on the printed enclosure, I would have appreciated it.
    That way, I wouldn't have to say "the black guy" to avoid my
    uncertainty of the spelling of the character's name.
    (Kothschai?).
    I just love banned books, and Jurgen is a fine early example.
    (Right now, I'm reading "Harmful to Minors", there's nothing
    like finding out that people are trying to keep me away to make
    me want to read it...)
    The story is full of nuance and implication. The phrase
    "treating fairly" will always have a new meaning for me.
    The accompanying music was added in just the right amounts and
    at the right times. I'm resentful of Jurgen's whistling, as I
    thought that I was preeminent at tuneless whistling, but be that
    as it may...
    A delightful read in all, and my thanks to Yuri.
    David H. Straayer
    The Self-Appointed CD/MP3 Audiobook Gadfly...
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  • Royce Kessel
    3.0 out of 5 stars Inspired Tolkein
    Reviewed in the United States on 29 January 2019
    Verified Purchase
    My interest in this was simply that it, among other books, may have inspired Tolkein. Do, as a Tolkein fan I was compelled to read it. It was interesting.
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