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The Cords of Vanity

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First published: 1920
Pages: 257

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About this book

Robert Townsend, the narrator of this comedy of manners, is a charming and thoroughly selfish young Southerner who fancies himself a writer while drifting through flirtations he never means to honor. Cabell sets the story in his fictional Virginia town of Lichfield and lets Townsend confess, with disarming wit, to a long habit of shirking every duty and every woman who might have grounded him. The result is a portrait of vanity narrated by the vain man himself, funnier and more uncomfortable for being wholly unrepentant. Written in the same years as Cabell's fantasies but planted firmly in the modern South, it shows the ironic voice he would carry into his better known romances. Presented here as a free PDF and EPUB edition.

About the author

James Branch Cabell

James Branch Cabell (1879-1958) was an American author from Richmond, Virginia, best known for the elaborate fantasy cycle he called the Biography of the Life of Manuel. His ironic, ornate style won admirers including Mark Twain, and drew wide notoriety when Jurgen faced an obscenity trial.