Domnei

Set in the imaginary province of Poictesme and the wider medieval world around it, this romance follows Melicent, daughter of Dom Manuel, and the men whose obsession with her drives them to ruin. The word domnei names the old chivalric devotion in which a man worships his lady as something close to a goddess, and Cabell examines that impulse with equal parts tenderness and mockery. When Melicent is held captive by the pagan lord Demetrios, her lover Perion crosses the world to reach her, and the story turns on how far idealized love can survive contact with reality. First published as The Soul of Melicent in 1913 and later revised, it appears here as a free PDF and EPUB edition.