Penguin 601 (August, 1946).
“Jurgen, A Comedy of Justice” was originally published in 1919 and soon gained notoriety when the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice brought a prosecution for obscenity, and the printing plates were seized on January 4, 1920. The case went on for two years before Cabell and his publisher, Robert M. McBride, won. The so-called “indecencies” were double entendres that also had a perfectly decent interpretation.
The story is a humorous romp through a medieval cosmos, including a send-up of Arthurian legend and excursions to heaven and hell as in “The Divine Comedy.” The hero journeys through ever more fantastic realms and, everywhere he goes, he makes the acquaintance of rather eccentric knights and damsels, in an acerbic satire of contemporary America. He gets the attention of the Lady of the Lake, Queen Guinevere and even the Devil’s wife.
Cabell took revenge on the Society for the Suppression of Vice when he produced a revised edition of the book in 1926. It included a previously “lost” passage in which the hero is placed on trial by the Philistines, with a large dung-beetle as the chief prosecutor. He also wrote a short book, Taboo, in which he thanks John H. Sumner and the Society for generating the publicity that gave his career a boost. "Jurgen" is now recognized as a landmark in the creation of the comic fantasy novel. [Source: Wikipedia]
Penguin 601 (August, 1946).
“Jurgen, A Comedy of Justice” was originally published in 1919 and soon gained notoriety when the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice brought a prosecution for obscenity, and the printing plates were seized on January 4, 1920. The case went on for two years before Cabell and his publisher, Robert M. McBride, won. The so-called “indecencies” were double entendres that also had a perfectly decent interpretation.
The story is a humorous romp through a medieval cosmos, including a send-up of Arthurian legend and excursions to heaven and hell as in “The Divine Comedy.” The hero journeys through ever more fantastic realms and, everywhere he goes, he makes the acquaintance of rather eccentric knights and damsels, in an acerbic satire of contemporary America. He gets the attention of the Lady of the Lake, Queen Guinevere and even the Devil’s wife.
Cabell took revenge on the Society for the Suppression of Vice when he produced a revised edition of the book in 1926. It included a previously “lost” passage in which the hero is placed on trial by the Philistines, with a large dung-beetle as the chief prosecutor. He also wrote a short book, Taboo, in which he thanks John H. Sumner and the Society for generating the publicity that gave his career a boost. "Jurgen" is now recognized as a landmark in the creation of the comic fantasy novel. [Source: Wikipedia]