The Cream of the Jest
Encyclopedia
The Cream of the Jest : A Comedy of Evasions is a comical and philosophical novel with possible fantasy elements, by James Branch Cabell
, published in 1917. Much of it consists of the historical dreams and philosophical reflections of the main character, the famous writer Felix Kennaston. An early reviewer said it was more a series of essays than a novel.
, particularly in Kennaston's house, in the country. However, Kennaston's dreams take place in various parts of Europe
and the Mediterranean basin
at various times in the past. Also, part of The Cream of the Jest consists of the ending of the first version of Kennaston's novel, which is set in the Middle Ages
around the castle of Storisende in a mythical country.
The time covers a few years, apparently not long before the novel's publication in 1917.
n cosmetics manufacturer, promises to explain the sudden appearance of "genius" in his late neighbor, Felix Kennaston. His story will be based on his notes from a conversation with Kennaston.
There follow the last six chapters of Kennaston's first draft. A clerk named Horvendile is in love with the heroine, Ettare, but sees her as the ideal woman who is in all desired women, not someone he can love with the disappointments of living with a flesh-and-blood person. He brings about the climactic confrontation between hero and villain. After the hero wins, Horvendile reveals to him and Ettare that they are characters in a book and that he is the Author's stand-in. He must return to his own, prosaic country. As safe-conduct back to Storisende, Ettare gives him half of a talisman
she wears, the Sigil of Scoteia.
Having composed this while walking in his garden, Kennaston realizes he has dropped a piece of lead: a broken half of a disk inscribed with indecipherable characters. He surmises he was unconsciously inspired by it to invent the sigil. That night he falls asleep looking at the gleaming metal and has a lucid dream of Ettare, who is also aware that she is dreaming. When he touches her, he wakes up.
Kennaston writes a new ending for his novel. After a reviewer condemns it as indecent, it becomes a bestseller.
When Kennaston sleeps facing light reflected from the mysterious sigil, he dreams that he as Horvendile meets Ettare in various times and places, but she is always untouchable. (He can set up the reflections conveniently because he sleeps in a separate room from his wife; their relations had long been friendly but mutually uncomprehending.) Fascinated by the sigil and mysterious clues he receives, by his dreams, and by the ironic philosophical speculations they lead him to, he loses interest in ordinary life apart from his next book.
Just before that book is published, he enters his wife's dressing room in her absence and finds the other half of the sigil. He concludes that she was Ettare all along, and he remembers his former love for her. However, she ignores his tentative affection, and her only comment when he shows her the sigil is that their neighbor Harrowby might know something about it. She throws both pieces away. Without the inspiration of his dreams, Kennaston largely stops writing.
His wife dies. As Harrowby is interested in the occult, Kennaston follows his wife's hint by showing him the sigil (found in her dressing room) and telling him about the dreams. Harrowby recognizes it as the mock-antique lid of his company's brand of cold cream
. He does not disillusion Kennaston, but "gently" raises the possibility that the sigil might not be miraculous. Kennaston scornfully replies that such a possibility would not change what the sigil taught him: everything in life is miraculous.
Cabell himself drew the book's image of the sigil, which looks like writing in a strange alphabet. When turned upside-down and looked at in a mirror
, it reads, "James Branch Cabell made this book so that he who wills may read the story of man's eternally unsatisfied hunger in search of beauty. Ettare stays inaccessible always and her loveliness is his to look on only in his dreams".
, The Cream of the Jest achieved "critical success". A review in the New York Times
of the first publication called the book "interesting and something more than entertaining", though not for the "prosaic" or the "literal-minded". It was "one of those books which make one feel that it was written because the author more than enjoyed, actually loved, writing it."
Also on the book's publication, Burton Rascoe
compared it to the work of Anatole France
and James Stephens
. He praised Cabell's delicacy and self-directed satire, and suggested that Cabell understood himself and others better than most writers do.
Louis D. Rubin praised its "hilarious situations" and specified that "the scene in which Harrowby 'deciphers' the meaning of the Sigil is absurdly comic." C. John McCole, though stating that the reader would "nod a great deal" during this and Cabell's earlier work, also singled out some humorous parts—the rejection letters Kennaston gets on his first novel and his discussion with "his rather unsympathetic wife" of a writer's difficulties—as among Cabell's best.
Seeing a more serious side, Carl Van Doren wrote that Kennaston's story allegorically
represented the human race's tendency to "create better regions to dream in" Likewise Hugh Walpole
regarded the story as less interesting than Cabell's theme of longing for dreams, given its clearest expression (as of 1920) in this book.
For Frank Northen Magill, what Cabell expressed with more sophistication here than elsewhere was his "genius for metafiction
al illusion".
, Horwendill
, and the like. In other books Cabell connects the name both to Hamlet
's father in the Gesta Danorum
and to the character in the Prose Edda
whose big toe froze off and was made into a star.
In the excerpt from Kennaston's book, Horvendile extemporizes a poem in Provençal
; aside from two lines in the original, it is given in English prose. The poem is Can vei la lauzeta mover by Bernart de Ventadorn
.
A minor character, a man famous for many achievements, is a portrait of Theodore Roosevelt
.
The narrator mentions a number of Protestant theologians whose ideas Kennaston sees as akin to the Christianity he arrives at, with its "Artist-God" Whose greatest character was Himself as Christ. Among those theologians are exponents of the moral-influence theory of Christ's atonement
such as Friedrich Schleiermacher and Horace Bushnell
.
to write of characters who rebel against their author, as in At Swim-Two-Birds
. (Though Kennaston's characters interact with him in the person of Horvendile, they do not rebel against him.)
James Branch Cabell
James Branch Cabell, ; April 14, 1879 – May 5, 1958) was an American author of fantasy fiction and belles lettres. Cabell was well regarded by his contemporaries, including H. L. Mencken and Sinclair Lewis. His works were considered escapist and fit well in the culture of the 1920s, when his...
, published in 1917. Much of it consists of the historical dreams and philosophical reflections of the main character, the famous writer Felix Kennaston. An early reviewer said it was more a series of essays than a novel.
Plot introduction
The novel takes place almost entirely around Lichfield, Virginia, Cabell's fictionalization of Richmond, VirginiaRichmond, Virginia
Richmond is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. It is an independent city and not part of any county. Richmond is the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Greater Richmond area...
, particularly in Kennaston's house, in the country. However, Kennaston's dreams take place in various parts of Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
and the Mediterranean basin
Mediterranean Basin
In biogeography, the Mediterranean Basin refers to the lands around the Mediterranean Sea that have a Mediterranean climate, with mild, rainy winters and hot, dry summers, which supports characteristic Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub vegetation...
at various times in the past. Also, part of The Cream of the Jest consists of the ending of the first version of Kennaston's novel, which is set in the Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
around the castle of Storisende in a mythical country.
The time covers a few years, apparently not long before the novel's publication in 1917.
Plot summary
The book begins with a chapter in which Richard Harrowby, a VirginiaVirginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
n cosmetics manufacturer, promises to explain the sudden appearance of "genius" in his late neighbor, Felix Kennaston. His story will be based on his notes from a conversation with Kennaston.
There follow the last six chapters of Kennaston's first draft. A clerk named Horvendile is in love with the heroine, Ettare, but sees her as the ideal woman who is in all desired women, not someone he can love with the disappointments of living with a flesh-and-blood person. He brings about the climactic confrontation between hero and villain. After the hero wins, Horvendile reveals to him and Ettare that they are characters in a book and that he is the Author's stand-in. He must return to his own, prosaic country. As safe-conduct back to Storisende, Ettare gives him half of a talisman
Amulet
An amulet, similar to a talisman , is any object intended to bring good luck or protection to its owner.Potential amulets include gems, especially engraved gems, statues, coins, drawings, pendants, rings, plants and animals; even words said in certain occasions—for example: vade retro satana—, to...
she wears, the Sigil of Scoteia.
Having composed this while walking in his garden, Kennaston realizes he has dropped a piece of lead: a broken half of a disk inscribed with indecipherable characters. He surmises he was unconsciously inspired by it to invent the sigil. That night he falls asleep looking at the gleaming metal and has a lucid dream of Ettare, who is also aware that she is dreaming. When he touches her, he wakes up.
Kennaston writes a new ending for his novel. After a reviewer condemns it as indecent, it becomes a bestseller.
When Kennaston sleeps facing light reflected from the mysterious sigil, he dreams that he as Horvendile meets Ettare in various times and places, but she is always untouchable. (He can set up the reflections conveniently because he sleeps in a separate room from his wife; their relations had long been friendly but mutually uncomprehending.) Fascinated by the sigil and mysterious clues he receives, by his dreams, and by the ironic philosophical speculations they lead him to, he loses interest in ordinary life apart from his next book.
Just before that book is published, he enters his wife's dressing room in her absence and finds the other half of the sigil. He concludes that she was Ettare all along, and he remembers his former love for her. However, she ignores his tentative affection, and her only comment when he shows her the sigil is that their neighbor Harrowby might know something about it. She throws both pieces away. Without the inspiration of his dreams, Kennaston largely stops writing.
His wife dies. As Harrowby is interested in the occult, Kennaston follows his wife's hint by showing him the sigil (found in her dressing room) and telling him about the dreams. Harrowby recognizes it as the mock-antique lid of his company's brand of cold cream
Cold cream
Cold cream is an emulsion of water and certain fats, usually including beeswax and various scent agents, designed to smooth skin and remove makeup. The name derives from the cooling feeling that the cream leaves on the skin...
. He does not disillusion Kennaston, but "gently" raises the possibility that the sigil might not be miraculous. Kennaston scornfully replies that such a possibility would not change what the sigil taught him: everything in life is miraculous.
Cabell himself drew the book's image of the sigil, which looks like writing in a strange alphabet. When turned upside-down and looked at in a mirror
Mirror writing
Mirror writing is formed by writing in the direction that is the reverse of the natural way for a given language, such that the result is the mirror image of normal writing: it appears normal when it is reflected in a mirror. It is sometimes used as an extremely primitive form of cipher...
, it reads, "James Branch Cabell made this book so that he who wills may read the story of man's eternally unsatisfied hunger in search of beauty. Ettare stays inaccessible always and her loveliness is his to look on only in his dreams".
Reception
According to Edmund WilsonEdmund Wilson
Edmund Wilson was an American writer and literary and social critic and noted man of letters.-Early life:Wilson was born in Red Bank, New Jersey. His father, Edmund Wilson, Sr., was a lawyer and served as New Jersey Attorney General. Wilson attended The Hill School, a college preparatory...
, The Cream of the Jest achieved "critical success". A review in the New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
of the first publication called the book "interesting and something more than entertaining", though not for the "prosaic" or the "literal-minded". It was "one of those books which make one feel that it was written because the author more than enjoyed, actually loved, writing it."
Also on the book's publication, Burton Rascoe
Burton Rascoe
Arthur Burton Rascoe , was an American journalist, editor and literary critic of the New York Herald Tribune....
compared it to the work of Anatole France
Anatole France
Anatole France , born François-Anatole Thibault, , was a French poet, journalist, and novelist. He was born in Paris, and died in Saint-Cyr-sur-Loire. He was a successful novelist, with several best-sellers. Ironic and skeptical, he was considered in his day the ideal French man of letters...
and James Stephens
James Stephens (author)
James Stephens was an Irish novelist and poet.James Stephens wrote many retellings of Irish myths and fairy tales. His retellings are marked by a rare combination of humor and lyricism...
. He praised Cabell's delicacy and self-directed satire, and suggested that Cabell understood himself and others better than most writers do.
Louis D. Rubin praised its "hilarious situations" and specified that "the scene in which Harrowby 'deciphers' the meaning of the Sigil is absurdly comic." C. John McCole, though stating that the reader would "nod a great deal" during this and Cabell's earlier work, also singled out some humorous parts—the rejection letters Kennaston gets on his first novel and his discussion with "his rather unsympathetic wife" of a writer's difficulties—as among Cabell's best.
Seeing a more serious side, Carl Van Doren wrote that Kennaston's story allegorically
Allegory
Allegory is a demonstrative form of representation explaining meaning other than the words that are spoken. Allegory communicates its message by means of symbolic figures, actions or symbolic representation...
represented the human race's tendency to "create better regions to dream in" Likewise Hugh Walpole
Hugh Walpole
Sir Hugh Seymour Walpole, CBE was an English novelist. A prolific writer, he published thirty-six novels, five volumes of short stories, two plays and three volumes of memoirs. His skill at scene-setting, his vivid plots, his high profile as a lecturer and his driving ambition brought him a large...
regarded the story as less interesting than Cabell's theme of longing for dreams, given its clearest expression (as of 1920) in this book.
For Frank Northen Magill, what Cabell expressed with more sophistication here than elsewhere was his "genius for metafiction
Metafiction
Metafiction, also known as Romantic irony in the context of Romantic works of literature, is a type of fiction that self-consciously addresses the devices of fiction, exposing the fictional illusion...
al illusion".
Allusions
The name Horvendile is that of characters in Germanic mythology and history also spelled AurvandilAurvandil
The names Aurvandil or Earendel are cognate Germanic personal names, continuing a Proto-Germanic reconstructed compound *Auziwandilaz "luminous wanderer", in origin probably the name of a star or planet, potentially the morning star ....
, Horwendill
Horwendill
Horwendill was a legendary Jutish chieftain, who is the prototype for William Shakespeare's King Hamlet, Prince Hamlet's father. He appears in Chronicon Lethrense and in Saxo Grammaticus' Gesta Danorum ....
, and the like. In other books Cabell connects the name both to Hamlet
Prince Hamlet
Prince Hamlet is a fictional character, the protagonist in Shakespeare's tragedy Hamlet. He is the Prince of Denmark, nephew to the usurping Claudius and son of the previous King of Denmark, Old Hamlet. Throughout the play he struggles with whether, and how, to avenge the murder of his father, and...
's father in the Gesta Danorum
Gesta Danorum
Gesta Danorum is a patriotic work of Danish history, by the 12th century author Saxo Grammaticus . It is the most ambitious literary undertaking of medieval Denmark and is an essential source for the nation's early history...
and to the character in the Prose Edda
Prose Edda
The Prose Edda, also known as the Younger Edda, Snorri's Edda or simply Edda, is an Icelandic collection of four sections interspersed with excerpts from earlier skaldic and Eddic poetry containing tales from Nordic mythology...
whose big toe froze off and was made into a star.
In the excerpt from Kennaston's book, Horvendile extemporizes a poem in Provençal
Provençal language
Provençal is a dialect of Occitan spoken by a minority of people in southern France, mostly in Provence. In the English-speaking world, "Provençal" is often used to refer to all dialects of Occitan, but it actually refers specifically to the dialect spoken in Provence."Provençal" is also the...
; aside from two lines in the original, it is given in English prose. The poem is Can vei la lauzeta mover by Bernart de Ventadorn
Bernart de Ventadorn
Bernart de Ventadorn , also known as Bernard de Ventadour or Bernat del Ventadorn, was a prominent troubador of the classical age of troubadour poetry. Now thought of as "the Master Singer" he developed the cançons into a more formalized style which allowed for sudden turns...
.
A minor character, a man famous for many achievements, is a portrait of Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States . He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity...
.
The narrator mentions a number of Protestant theologians whose ideas Kennaston sees as akin to the Christianity he arrives at, with its "Artist-God" Whose greatest character was Himself as Christ. Among those theologians are exponents of the moral-influence theory of Christ's atonement
Atonement (moral influence view)
The moral influence view of the atonement teaches that the purpose and work of Jesus Christ was to bring positive moral change to humanity. This moral change came through the teachings and example of Jesus, the Christian movement he founded, and the inspiring effect of his martyrdom and resurrection...
such as Friedrich Schleiermacher and Horace Bushnell
Horace Bushnell
Horace Bushnell was an American Congregational clergyman and theologian.-Life:Bushnell was a Yankee born in the village of Bantam, township of Litchfield, Connecticut. He attended Yale College where he roomed with future magazinist Nathaniel Parker Willis. Willis credited Bushnell with teaching...
.
Literary legacy
This book inspired Flann O'BrienFlann O'Brien
Brian O'Nolan was an Irish novelist, playwright and satirist regarded as a key figure in postmodern literature. Best known for novels such as At Swim-Two-Birds, The Third Policeman and An Béal Bocht and many satirical columns in The Irish Times Brian O'Nolan (5 October 1911 – 1 April 1966) was...
to write of characters who rebel against their author, as in At Swim-Two-Birds
At Swim-Two-Birds
At Swim-Two-Birds is a 1939 novel by Irish author Brian O'Nolan, writing under the pseudonym Flann O'Brien. It is widely considered to be O'Brien's masterpiece, and one of the most sophisticated examples of metafiction....
. (Though Kennaston's characters interact with him in the person of Horvendile, they do not rebel against him.)
External links
- Full-view scan at Google Books
- Full text with frames hosted by the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee
- Page with links to photographs of the first edition. The frontispiece image shows the Sigil of Scoteia.