Chapter I: Front Matter

SOMETHING ABOUT EVE

A Comedy of Fig-leaves

BY
JAMES BRANCH CABELL

“I WAS AFRAID, BECAUSE I WAS
NAKED: AND I HID MYSELF”

LONDON
JOHN LANE THE BODLEY HEAD LIMITED

First Published in 1927
Made and Printed in Great Britain by
Tonbridge Printers Peach Hall Works Tonbridge

To
ELLEN GLASGOW

—very naturally—this book which
commemorates the intelligence
of women

CONTENTS
PART ONE: THE BOOK OF OUTSET

1 How the Tempter Came 3
2 Evelyn of Lichfield 6
3 Two Geralds 15
4 That Devil in the Library 21

PART TWO: THE BOOK OF TWILIGHT

5 Christening of the Stallion 33
6 Evadne of the Dusk 38

PART THREE: THE BOOK OF DOONHAM

7 Evasherah of the First Water-Gap 51
8 The Mother of Every Princess 65
9 How One Butterfly Fared 72

PART FOUR: THE BOOK OF DERSAM

10 Wives at Caer Omn 77
11 The Glass People 83
12 Confusions of the Golden Travel 86
13 Colophon of a God 99
14 Evarvan of the Mirror 102

PART FIVE: THE BOOK OF LYTREIA

15 At Tenjo’s Court 113
16 The Holy Nose of Lytreia 120
17 Evaine of Peter’s Tomb 126
18 End of a Vixen 142
19 Beyond the Veil 146

PART SIX: THE BOOK OF TUROINE

20 Thaumaturgists in Labor 155
21 They That Wore Blankets 159
22 The Paragraph of the Sphinx 164
23 Odd Transformation of a Towel 176

PART SEVEN: THE BOOK OF POETS

24 On Mispec Moor 183
25 The God Conforms 190
26 “Qualis Artifex!” 195
27 Regarding the Stars 206

PART EIGHT: THE BOOK OF MAGES

28 Fond Magics of Maya 215
29 Leucosia’s Singing 220
30 What Solomon Wanted 225
31 The Chivalry of Merlin 229
32 A Boy That Might As Well Be 238

PART NINE: THE BOOK OF MISPEC MOOR

33 Limitations of Gaston 247
34 Ambiguity of the Brown Man 255
35 Of Kalki and a Döoppelganger 259
36 Tannhäuser’s Troubled Eyes 263
37 Contentment of the Mislaid God 270

PART TEN: THE BOOK OF ENDINGS

38 About the Past of a Bishop 281
39 Baptism of a Musgrave 294
40 On the Turn of a Leaf 298
41 Child of All Fathers 301
42 Theodorick Rides Forth 305
43 Economics of Redemption 310
44 Economics of Common-Sense 319
45 Farewell to All Fair Welfare 323

PART ELEVEN: THE BOOK OF REMNANTS

46 The Gray Quiet Way of Ruins 329
47 How Horvendile Gave Up the Race 333