TOM RICKSHAW” (1888), and children’s fantasies
such as Puck of Pook’s Hill(1906). Some of his
books are collections of individual tales with com-
mon settings or characters rather than actual nov-
els, as is the case with The Jungle Book,which
draws upon Kipling’s personal experiences in India,
although in large part he invented his own mythol-
ogy for the book rather than relying on an already-
existing folk tradition.
The stories fall into the category of animal
fantasy because various animal characters can
speak to the chief protagonist, Mowgli, a young
boy raised in the wild by a pack of wolves, from
whom he learns the law of the jungle, a phrase that
has entered into general usage. Mowgli’s chief pro-
tectors are a bear and a feral cat, although he later
proves to be considerably adept at defending him-
self without assistance, defeating a snake with the
power of hypnotism, a village of nasty natives, an
attack by a pack of dogs, and a test in which he
proves he can master fire, a talent beyond that of
any of his animal friends.
Kipling followed up with The Second Jungle
Book(1895), and the two collections are often pub-
lished in one volume. Mowgli, Rikki-tikki-tavi the
mongoose, and their arch nemesis, Shere Khan, the
tiger, return for more adventures, although the best
tales are contained in the first volume. We also
learn the fate of Mowgli’s parents and wander into
side stories about some of the minor characters. An
excellent live-action film was produced in 1942, and
a classic Disney animated version in 1967, as well as
several less interesting renditions over the years.
Jurgen James Branch Cabell(1919)
Although the majority of the fantasy of the Vir-
ginian writer James Branch CABELLis set within
the framework of the Biography of the Life of
Manuel and in the mythical country of Poictesme,
there is no single unifying plot, and each novel
holds up well in isolation from the others. The best
of this lengthy series of titles is Jurgen,which came
fairly early in his career but which is unquestion-
ably his most important novel.
Jurgen is a pawnbroker in Poictesme and also
something of an egomaniac, believing himself in-
telligent and witty enough to banter with the gods
themselves. One day he embarks on an intellectual
defense of evil and its positive side, after which he
is approached by Koshchei, a deity of sorts, who
grants him a single wish. Since Jurgen has long
chafed under the scolding of his wife, he impul-
sively wishes to be free of her. Koshchei complies,
but Jurgen discovers that he regrets his impulse,
partly because of his lingering affection for the
missing Lisa but also because public opinion has
gone against him.
There follows an episodic, though unified,
series of adventures, in each of which Jurgen
hopes to reclaim what he has lost through his
own foolishness. His first attempt is to convince
a goddess to restore him to his youth, but he
learns that the past cannot be reclaimed even by
the gods. The second episode is further subdi-
vided into separate scenes, each of which signi-
fies another aspect of life—physical attraction,
faith, and others. None of these offer a solution,
either, and his eventual encounter with the
Brown Man fails to convince him that he is in-
significant, that the universe is oblivious to the
lives of individuals. He interacts with a number
of characters who recur in some of the later nov-
els and eventually finds himself sentenced to
hell, though he later visits heaven as well, where
he discovers that the God worshipped by Chris-
tians was, in fact, created by Koshchei. The final
section describes Jurgen’s confrontation with
Koshchei and the achievement of his goal when
the god erases the events of the previous year.
Cabell’s allegorical fantasy was very contro-
versial at the time of its publication, ostensibly
because of the covert sexuality, although proba-
bly also because of its scoffing characterization of
Christianity. It was banned in New York, though
Cabell triumphed in the subsequent court case.
Cabell later added a separate episode, “The Judg-
ing of Jurgen” (1920), particularly directed at
those who had attempted to suppress the original
text.Jurgen 187