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Displayed Title
The Library in Cocaigne
Description
From Chapter 24 - "Of Compromises in Cocaigne"
Anaïtis is jealous, which makes Jurgen nervously imagine a spider devouring its mate. Their differences begin to take a toll as she is a creature of the Mythopoeic age and he is a living man. Jurgen is just not as perverse as she is, and can never be. He cannot keep up with the constant pursuit of "curious pleasures." Furthermore, Jurgen is flippant while, as a priestess to the Moon, Anaïtis thinks Jurgen should be solemn about carnal excess. She is unhappy that he spends so much time in the Library.
The Library was a vaulted chamber, having its walls painted with the twelve Asan of Cyrene ; the ceiling was frescoed with the arched body of a woman, whose toes rested upon the cornice of the east wall, and whose outstretched finger-tips touched the cornice of the western wall. The clothing of this painted woman was remarkable: and to Jurgen her face was not unfamiliar.
"Who is that?" he inquired of Anaïtis.
Looking a little troubled, Anaïtis told him this was AEsred.
….Now in the Library of Cocaigne was garnered a record of all that the nature myths had invented in the way of pleasure. And here, with no companion save his queer shadow, and with Aesred arched above and bleakly regarding him, Jurgen spent most of his time, rather agreeably, in investigating and meditating upon the more curious of these recreations. … Hitherto unheard-of forms of diversion were unveiled to him, and every recreation which ingenuity had been able to contrive, for the gratifying of the most subtle and the most strong-stomached tastes. No possible sort of amusement would seem to have been omitted, in running the quaint gamut of refinements upon nature which Anaïtis and her cousins had at odd moments invented, to satiate their desire for some more suave or more strange or more sanguinary pleasure. Yet the deeper Jurgen investigated, and the longer he meditated, the more certain it seemed to him that all such employment was a peculiarly unimaginative pursuit of happiness.
"I am willing to taste any drink once. So I must give diversion a fair trial. But I am afraid these are the games of mental childhood."
… So Jurgen was content enough. But still he was not actually happy, not even among the endless pleasures of Cocaigne.
Topical Subject
Historical fiction; Fantasy fiction; Linoleum block-printing
Personal Name Subject
Cabell, James Branch, 1879-1958; Ogden, Samuel Robinson, Jr. (1896-1985)
Language
eng
Genre
linocuts (prints); books
Local Genre
artwork; text
Type
Still Image
Digital Format
image/jpg
Rights Statement URL
https://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/
Rights
This material is in the public domain in the United States and thus is free of any copyright restriction. Acknowledgement of Virginia Commonwealth University Libraries as a source is requested.
Collection
Twenty-two Plates From Cabell's Jurgen
Source
Ogden S, James Branch Cabell Collection, James Branch Cabell Collection. Twenty-Two Plates from Cabell’s Jurgen. [publisher not identified]; 1929.
File Name
jurgenplates_021.jpg