Number 1386 of 1550 copies available to the trade. Issued without jacket between 1927 and 1930 as Mr. Cabell completed the revision of his opus to conform with the wider scope of the Life of Manuel, described in the foreword of each volume in the set. Tight, clean, flat, square book. Lightly bumped corners. Top edge gilt, a bit dulled with age. These were issued with unopened pages, some pages may as yet be unopened but the vast majority of this set has been read. See pictures for other flaws.
If you are a fan of Tolkien or C.S. Lewis or King's "Dark Tower" or Pratchett's "Discworld," you would do well to add the Biography to your repertoire.
Limited Edition of 1590 Sets Published from 1927-1930 as the author compiled and edited older works to fit the larger format of "Biography of the Life of Manuel." Publisher's Original Green Cloth with Blind Embossed Covers, Gilt Title/Author, Top Edges Gilt. Each Volume is Hand-Numbered, though not matching, as the sets were shipped throughout the course of three years. Each volume is [facsimile] signed by James Branch Cabell at the end of the author's introduction.
Ursula Le Guin spoke for me when she wrote of James Branch Cabell: "He mocks everything: not only his fantasy, but our reality. He doesn't believe in his dreamworld, but he doesn't believe in us, either. His tone is perfectly consistent: elegant, arrogant, ironic. Sometimes I enjoy it and sometimes it makes me want to scream..."
An early collection of loosely linked stories, not yet the brilliance of Cabell's later masterpieces: Figures of Earth, Jurgen, and Cream of the Jest. Its still Cabell, still beautifully written with those so often surprising bursts of humanity amidst the high medieval events.
FYI: Each chapter is prefaced by a quote from a medieval troubadour, untranslated from the original occitan. There are also other untranslated elements in occitan or latin.