View source for Domnei: A Comedy of Woman-Worship

{{Short description|1913 novel by James Branch Cabell}}
{{Infobox book|<!-- See [[Wikipedia:WikiProject Novels]] or [[Wikipedia:WikiProject Books]] -->
| name              = Domnei
| title_orig        = The Soul of Melicent
| image             = File:Domnei,_A_Comedy_of_Woman-Worship.png
| caption           =
| author            = [[James Branch Cabell]]
| illustrator       = [[Howard Pyle]]
| cover_artist      =
| country           = [[American literature|United States]]
| language          = English
| series            = [[Biography of the Life of Manuel]]
| genre             = [[Fantasy novel]]
| publisher         = Frederick A. Stokes
| release_date      = 1913
| english_release_date =
| media_type        = Print (hardcover)
| pages             = 216 pp
| congress          =
| dewey             =
| preceded_by       = [[The Silver Stallion]]
| followed_by       = The Music from Behind the Moon
}}
'''''Domnei: A Comedy of Woman-Worship''''' (1913) is a fantasy novel by [[James Branch Cabell]], set in the imaginary French province of [[Poictesme]] during the second half of the 13th century.<ref group=lower-alpha>Cabell fixed the period covered by the novel as August 1256 to July 1274. See James Branch Cabell ''The Cream of the Jest, The Lineage of Lichfield: Two Comedies of Evasion'' (London: Pan/Ballantine, 1972) p. 265.</ref>
It forms the fifth volume of Cabell's gigantic ''[[Biography of the Life of Manuel]]'', and tells the story of Dom Manuel's daughter Melicent, and of the disastrous struggle between her successive husbands Demetrios of Anatolia and Perion de la Forêt.  [[Carl Clinton Van Doren|Carl Van Doren]] characterised the book as "Mr. Cabell's highest flight in the representation of the extravagant woman-worship developed out of the [[chivalric code]]", and as being "unified and dramatic beyond any other of the Cabell novels".<ref>Carl Van Doren ''James Branch Cabell'' (New York: The Literary Guild, 1932) pp. 51, 52.</ref>
''Domnei'' was written during the years 1910 to 1912, the story being inspired by various illustrations by [[Howard Pyle]] which Cabell had cut out of old numbers of ''[[Harper's Magazine]]''.<ref>Edward Wagenknecht (ed.) ''The Letters of James Branch Cabell'' (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1975) p. 130.</ref> The manuscript was sent to no less than twelve publishers before finally being accepted by the thirteenth, Frederick A. Stokes, on the advice of [[Sinclair Lewis]] who was then working as a reader for them.  Cabell had always intended the novel to appear as ''Domnei'', but the publisher insisted on the less recondite title ''The Soul of Melicent''.  Despite this precaution, and the presence of the Howard Pyle illustrations, the book sold only 493 copies.<ref>Lin Carter "Introduction". James Branch Cabell ''Domnei, The Music from Behind the Moon: Two Comedies of Woman-Worship'' (New York: [[Ballantine Books|Ballantine]], 1972) pp. xiii-xvii, xxi.</ref><ref>Wagenknecht (ed.) p. 151.</ref>
In 1920 it was republished by [[Robert M. McBride]] in a revised edition with an introduction by [[Joseph Hergesheimer]]; this, like all subsequent editions, used the title ''Domnei''.  The book was further revised in 1926 and 1928, and appeared in an edition illustrated by [[Frank C. Papé]] in 1930.  In 1972 ''Domnei'' and Cabell's ''The Music from Behind the Moon'' were published together in paperback as the 44th volume of the [[Ballantine Adult Fantasy series]], with an introduction by [[Lin Carter]].
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==See also==
*[[Domnei]]
== Notes ==
{{reflist|group=lower-alpha}}
== References ==
{{reflist}}
==External links==
* {{StandardEbooks|Standard Ebooks URL=https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/james-branch-cabell/domnei|Display Name=Domnei}}
* [https://books.google.com/books?id=iUgTOsrSr7YC Domnei] (Google Books)
[[Category:Novels by James Branch Cabell]]
[[Category:1913 American novels]]
[[Category:American fantasy novels]]
[[Category:1913 fantasy novels]]
[[Category:Novels set in the 13th century]]
[[Category:Novels set in France]]