The Jewel Merchants: A Comedy in One Act (1921) is a comic fantasy
play by James Branch Cabell. Set in a world where history and fantasy
collide, where a loyal Count can rise to defy the Duke he so diligently
serves, The Jewel Merchants: A Comedy in One Act is included in a
series of novels, essays, and poems known as the Biography of the Life
of Manuel. "Am I to be welcomed merely for the sake of my gems? You
were more gracious, you were more beautifully like your lovely name, on
the fortunate day that I first encountered you ... only six weeks ago,
and only yonder, where the path crosses the highway. But now that I
esteem myself your friend, you greet me like a stranger." Roaming the
hills on the outskirts of Florence, Graciosa, the lovely daughter of
Balthazar Valori, encounters the jewel merchant Guido. Examining his
wares, she is drawn to a magnificent set of pearls intended for Count
Eglamore, a man who informed on her cousin Cibo, a man her family has
sworn an oath to kill. Set in a fictionalized Tuscany of the Renaissance
era, The Jewel Merchants: A Comedy in One Act is a captivating tale of
jealousy, revenge, and the lengths to which a man will go for love.
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 Jewel Merchants: A Comedy in One Act, 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 Jewel Merchants: A Comedy in One
Act is a classic of fantasy and romance reimagined for modern readers.
