"In the sulphurous The High Place, the amoral hero Florian enters the sleeping-beauty story and (unlike Jurgen with Helen) does not draw back at the sight of excessive beauty. Complications ensue: Beauty is realistically diminished during pregnancy, the first-born child is forfeit to Satan under the pact that guaranteed Florain's success, and an irascible saint is eager to call down holy fire on transgressors. Florian treads close to damnation and is saved only when Satan and the angel Michael conspire…" – The Encyclopedia of Fantasy
This, the latest of Mr- Cabell’s romances, is the story of how a young Southern gentleman ol the early nineteenth century went out of his natural body to journey toward the goal of all the gods; of how he became a god, and rode upon the Silver Stallion; of the Two Truths which he found to be enduring; and of his disastrously happy marriage, and his collapse into an honourable career.
Based on the bestselling novel by James Branch Cabell, Jurgen is a philosophical fantasy in the manner of Candide, which strings together the hero's sexual adventures into an ironic and satirical commentary on life and sex. During his travels through space and time, Jurgen encounters a number of different characters from history, and always manages to escape his follies, relying on his natural attractive charm to rescue him when nothing else works. The sexual innuendoes in the original novel were so strong that attempts were made to prevent the book's publication, and to ban it from circulation–but now his escapades just seem bitingly funny and entertaining. A sophisticated comedy for adults with a sharply-pointed stiletto of satire!
Compiled in one book, the essential collection of books by James Branch Cabell:<br><br>The Certain Hour<br>Chivalry<br>The Cords of Vanity<br>Domnei<br>The Eagle's Shadow<br>Figures of Earth<br>Gallantry<br>The Jewel Merchants<br>Jurgen A Comedy of Justice<br>The Line of Love<br>The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck<br>Taboo