Front matter
Reading edition
SOMETHING ABOUT EVE
A Comedy of Fig-leaves
BY
JAMES BRANCH CABELL
“I WAS AFRAID, BECAUSE I WAS
NAKED: AND I HID MYSELF”
LONDON
JOHN LANE THE BODLEY HEAD LIMITED
First Published in 1927
Made and Printed in Great Britain by
Tonbridge Printers Peach Hall Works Tonbridge
To
ELLEN GLASGOW
—very naturally—this book which
commemorates the intelligence
of women
CONTENTS
PART ONE: THE BOOK OF OUTSET
1How the Tempter Came3
2Evelyn of Lichfield6
3Two Geralds15
4That Devil in the Library21
PART TWO: THE BOOK OF TWILIGHT
5Christening of the Stallion33
6Evadne of the Dusk38
PART THREE: THE BOOK OF DOONHAM
7Evasherah of the First Water-Gap51
8The Mother of Every Princess65
9How One Butterfly Fared72
PART FOUR: THE BOOK OF DERSAM
10Wives at Caer Omn77
11The Glass People83
12Confusions of the Golden Travel86
13Colophon of a God99
14Evarvan of the Mirror102
PART FIVE: THE BOOK OF LYTREIA
15At Tenjo’s Court113
16The Holy Nose of Lytreia120
17Evaine of Peter’s Tomb126
18End of a Vixen142
19Beyond the Veil146
PART SIX: THE BOOK OF TUROINE
20Thaumaturgists in Labor155
21They That Wore Blankets159
22The Paragraph of the Sphinx164
23Odd Transformation of a Towel176
PART SEVEN: THE BOOK OF POETS
24On Mispec Moor183
25The God Conforms190
26“Qualis Artifex!”195
27Regarding the Stars206
PART EIGHT: THE BOOK OF MAGES
28Fond Magics of Maya215
29Leucosia’s Singing220
30What Solomon Wanted225
31The Chivalry of Merlin229
32A Boy That Might As Well Be238
PART NINE: THE BOOK OF MISPEC MOOR
33Limitations of Gaston247
34Ambiguity of the Brown Man255
35Of Kalki and a Döoppelganger259
36Tannhäuser’s Troubled Eyes263
37Contentment of the Mislaid God270
PART TEN: THE BOOK OF ENDINGS
38About the Past of a Bishop281
39Baptism of a Musgrave294
40On the Turn of a Leaf298
41Child of All Fathers301
42Theodorick Rides Forth305
43Economics of Redemption310
44Economics of Common-Sense319
45Farewell to All Fair Welfare323
PART ELEVEN: THE BOOK OF REMNANTS
46The Gray Quiet Way of Ruins329
47How Horvendile Gave Up the Race333
PART TWELVE: THE BOOK OF ACQUIESCENCE
48Fruits of the Sylan’s Industry345
49Triumph of the Two Truths352
50Exodus of Glaum362
THE ARGUMENT OF THIS COMEDY
Set forth as clearly as discretion permits, for the convenience
of the intending reader
THESE shadows here are subtle: for they wait
Like usurers that briefly lend the sun
Disfavor and a stinted while to run
With flaunting vigor through life’s large estate
Of fire and turmoil; or like thieves that hate
No law-lord save the posturing of desire
With genuflexions where dejections tire
The fig-leaf’s trophy with the fig-leaf’s weight.
Yes; they are subtle: and where no light is
These tread not openly, as heretofore,
With whisperings of that at odds with this
To veil their passing, where a broken door
Confronts the zenith, and Semiramis,
At one with Upsilon, exhorts no more.
PART ONE
THE BOOK OF OUTSET
“Wheresoever a Man Lives, There
Will be a Thornbush Near His Door.”