A late entry in the biography of Dom Manuel, and a slight one. Still, the illustration are the usual style, and the epigrams come nicely arranged. ( )

A distilled episode in the Biography, more developed than a vignette, but less embroidered than the more typical novels. Cabell elsewhere applies "epitome" as subtitle: here, then, is his epitome of chivalry. Ecben is joined by The White Robe exemplifying gallantry, and The Music from Behind the Moon, poetry, rounding out Cabell's proposed three attitudes toward Romantic life.

This edition includes The Colophon Called: "Hail and Farewell, Ettarre!", an essay on the writing of Ecben and its planned inclusion in an eight-part Way of the Witch-Woman. Only three parts were written, later compiled in The Witch-Woman. Though cast in the familiar format of Cabell's Biography, it treats of American letters and the tendency of authors to continue writing past that time in which they contribute novel works. Cabell announces the end of the Biography with Ecben, at 20 volumes and Cabell's own 50th year (though the Biography tallies to slightly more, depending upon versions and inclusions). As the novella is reprinted in anthologies or bundled with other of Cabell's works, not all editions include the essay.

Some of Papé's illustrations were used elsewhere in the Biography: perhaps, all of them. They remain welcome decorations, some wicked / some droll.

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The chapter in Beyond Life, "Which Hints At The Witch-Woman", is instructive here: a tongue-in-cheek survey of characteristics applied to witches across centuries and cultures, with Cabell's take on the cultural myth of witches. But pointedly, Cabell's more serious remarks on the type of Witch with whom he is occupied, and her link to domnei (woman-worship), to Romance, and living one's life as a work of art. Here, (Witch-)Woman is by definition unattainable because ideal, "providentially set between her lover's apprehension and God, as the mobile and vital image and corporeal reminder of Heaven, as a quick symbol of beauty and holiness, of purity and perfection." [77-78] Yet the lover's pursuit is not vain insofar as "there is that in every human being which demands communion with something more fine and potent than itself. Perhaps, indeed, this is only another way of saying every man is innately religious ..." [81] ( )