MORE CABELL

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 24, 29 January 1927, Page 21

MORE CABELL

"The Silver Stallion." By James ' Branch Cabell. London: John Lane The Bodley Head. (Through Dymock's, Sydney.) No careful reader of his works can evade the admission that James Branch Cabell is an exceedingly clever writer. Many of them, if pressed, might even admit that he is just too. clever, even, for them. That he is entertaining, probably all such readers will admit; moreover, his skill in concealment under a thin veil of ambiguity or Bo.me things not usually met with in print outside of Babelais will be readily granted. There is that advantage in Mr. Cabell's books, notably in "Jurgen," that one has to be in a certain frame of mind to perceive his point. If not, one misses it, but the entertainment 13 not missed on that account. Publishers now rank James Branch Caboll with the "bestsellers," but to do him justice he has ( ,never written down to the girl just out of high school. 'fThe Silver Stallion" was an order or Fellowship of which Dom Manuel was the head. He was called the Bedeemer because he had delivered Poictesme -from .the nOTtS-iaen. Birt one day,-

he rode out of his castlo in Storisendo, aud he never came back. He was last seen riding out by his little daughter Meliceut, and the boy .Turgen. The story is concerned with the fruitless quest made by the other membership of the Silver Stallion. It is rich in imagination, well seasoned with humour, and its style is remarkable for the clarity and beauty of expression for which James Branch Cabell is very properly distinguished by thousands of English and American readers alike. "Whore is the imaginary Poictesme? Who or what do Dorn Manuel, Holy Holmendi's, Scornful Balthis, Cordial Sclaug represent, and why Jurgen is represented as a. pawnbroker the reader must settle for himself—not for herself, for most women would find "The Silver Stallion rather bewildering reading. But of the picturesque imagination and the quamtness, often the oinateness of expression characteristic of James Branch Cabell, no reader can be in doubt. What it all means, who can say, but this undoubtedly highly original romantic writer. "The Silver Stallion," like some other works of this talented American novelist, can be read between the lines.