---
title: "Once we understand the fundamentals of Mr. Cabell's artistic aims, it… — James Branch Cabell Quote #52 | QuotesBy.net"
description: "Once we understand the fundamentals of Mr. Cabell's artistic aims, it is not easy to escape the fact that in Figures of Earth he undertook the stagge… — a quote by James Branch Cabell."
image: "https://quotesby.net/wp-content/themes/quotesby-editorial/assets/og-default.png"
---

> # Once we understand the fundamentals of Mr. Cabell's artistic aims, it is not easy to escape the fact that in Figures of Earth he undertook the staggering and almost unsuspected task of rewriting humanity's sacred books, just as in Jurgen he gave us a stupendous analogue of the ceaseless quest for beauty. For we must accept the truth that Mr. Cabell is not a novelist at all in the common acceptance of the term, but a historian of the human soul. His books are neither documentary nor representational; his characters are symbols of human desires and motives. By the not at all simple process of recording faithfully the projections of his rich and varied imagination, he has written thirteen books, which he accurately terms biography, wherein is the bitter-sweet truth about human life.

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## More from James Branch Cabell

1. > Cabell's Biography of Manuel had been structured as parallel examinations of three contrasting modes of life, the Way of the Artist, the Way of Chivalry, and t…

[Permalink to quote \#51](https://quotesby.net/James-Branch-Cabell/51/ "Permalink to quote 51")
2. > I have finished Jurgen; a great and beautiful book, and the saddest book I ever read. I don't know why, exactly. The book hurts me - tears me to small pieces -…

[Permalink to quote \#53](https://quotesby.net/James-Branch-Cabell/53/ "Permalink to quote 53")
3. > Surely the cosmic irony that loves men's dullness because it alone can preserve them from madness, and retorts upon the cosmic terrors with a jest, is higher t…

[Permalink to quote \#50](https://quotesby.net/James-Branch-Cabell/50/ "Permalink to quote 50")

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