The Cream of the Jest (1923) is a novel by James Branch Cabell. Set in
a world where history and fantasy collide, where a lowly pawnbroker can
encounter monsters, gods, and devils, The Cream of the Jest is one work
in a series of novels, essays, and poems known as the Biography of the
Life of Manuel. Partly inspired by the obscenity trial surrounding his
novel Jurgen, a Comedy of Justice, The Cream of the Jest is a
metafictional blend of literary criticism and fantasy fiction about an
author whose sudden fame shocks his sleepy hometown. To the people of
Lichfield, Felix Kennaston is an unremarkable neighbor whose literary
ambitions are pursued in secrecy and obscurity. While completing a
fantasy novel, he discovers a strange talisman not unlike the one his
hero Horvendile presented to his beloved Ettare. That night, Felix meets
Ettare in a dream, inspiring him to rewrite the story's ending. When it
is published, charges of obscenity threaten to sink his dreams before
they can be realized. But critical attention has the opposite effect,
making Kennaston a bestselling author overnight. Told from the
perspective of Richard Harrowby, a neighbor from Lichfield, The Cream
of the Jest is a fascinating blend of literary criticism and fantasy
that poses important questions about the divide between fiction and the
world we live in. 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 The Cream of the Jest, 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. With a
beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this
edition of James Branch Cabell's The Cream of the Jest is a classic of
fantasy and romance reimagined for modern readers.
