It took me a while to understand the humor style of this book, but once I let go of a need for a coherent plot, I was quite entertained by this satire. I can see where authors such as [a:Terry Pratchett|1654|Terry Pratchett|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1235562205p2/1654.jpg] and [a:Douglas Adams|4|Douglas Adams|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1189120061p2/4.jpg] were probably influenced by Cabell's use of wordplay, puns, and double entendres to make fun of the political, religious, and sexual mores of the time. Although I probably missed many of the jokes, I found this book to be a delightful and funny romp. Much of the satire is as applicable to today's world as it was when the book was published.

A highly unusual bit of early 20th century fantasy . . .

So, Amazon's algorithms Katherine up with Jurgen, citing my enjoyment of any number of obscure early fantasy books. I found it enjoyable, though dense and often obscure, and I am thankful for the education afforded me that I can follow the allusions and occasional bits of Latin. There were some surprisingly risque double-entendres, and a little research reveals that Cabell was indeed prosecuted for "indecency" (he won) . . . The obscurity of the text leads me to rate it 4 stars rather than 5, but the quality of the writing itself is really first-rate!

3.5

Puanım 4/5 (%79/100)

Uzun ve ağır bir kitap olsa da inceleme yazmakta zorlandığım bir durumdayım. Öncelikle İthaki Yayınları'nın Unutulmuş Fantastik Eserler serisinin üçüncü ve şimdilik sonuncu kitabı Jurgen. Seri çok iyi düşünülmüş ve seriden okuduğum diğer kitap Dünyanın Sonundaki Orman çok güzeldi. Jurgen'i bir tık daha çok sevdiğimi söyleyebilirim.

Jurgen benim her zaman ilgimi çeken bir Trickster figürü. (Loki gibi oyuncu, düzenbaz) Aslında karakter olarak öyle değil fakat diğer karakterlerle olan diyalogları harika. Çok zeki olduğu için herkese ilginç ve okuması eğlenceli cevaplar veriyor. Zeki olması zaten en büyük özelliği olabilir.

Olay örgüsü de oldukça güzeldi. Yine de kitap biraz daha kısa olabilirdi diye düşünmüyor değilim. Yaratılan dünya mükemmeldi. Belki de kitaptaki en sevdiğim özellik bu olabilir. İçerisinde onlarca farklı mitolojik ve efsanevi yaratıkların, kişilerin bulunduğu bir dünya yaratılmış ve Jurgen gibi zeki bir karakterin onlarla iletişimini görebiliyoruz. Fakat bu konuda bir uyarım olacak. Mitoloji bilginiz veya ilginiz yoksa kafanız çok karışabilir. Özellikle Arthur ve onunla ilgili efsanelere bir göz atmanız iyi olacaktır çünkü kitap birçok şeyi "zaten bunu okuyucu biliyordur" düşüncesiyle veriyor.

Kısacası; okuması zevkli, Jurgen karakteri çok başarılı ve mitolojik elementlerin fantastik dünyaya koyulması da bir o kadar başarılı. Tavsiye ediyorum okumanızı. (Serinin devamı geleceği için bir an önce başlayın derim.)

This book has the honor of being one of the strangest and impossible to summarize that I have ever read. Jurgen, a dissatisfied, middle-aged pawnbroker in the land of Poictesme with a rather difficult wife, loses his wife one day. She doesn't die; she is just lost. He goes in search of her, but in the process is granted a year in which to relive his youth. He wanders the mythological realms, taking up with Guenevere, the Lady of the Lake, a wood dryad in the realm of Queen Helen, and with several other women besides. He even takes a tour through both heaven and hell, finding them quite hilariously otherwise than one would have supposed, until he finally meets Koshchei the Deathless, he who made all that was, is, or shall be, who sets everything back to where it was before he even started.

That's just the bald framework of the matter. The book is a hilarious--if glibly misogynistic-- meditation on being a middle-aged man. At times it is comically perverse--the book was the subject of an actual obscenity trial after its publication, due to its several erudite but veiled dick jokes.

Fans of Neil Gaiman may recall that Cabell gets mentioned multiple times in his Sandman series. It was interesting to note that the influence of Cabell on that series is quite real. The version of Hell Gaiman presents us with in Season of Mists owes a great deal to the Hell of Jurgen's journeys, so much so that Lucifer, in that book, has speeches that almost directly quote this one. It's interesting to see an author's influences at work like that.

This bizarre novel from the 1920s is like an amalgamation of [b:The Pilgrim's Progress|29797|The Pilgrim's Progress|John Bunyan|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1405982367l/29797._SY75_.jpg|1960084], [b:The Inferno|591221|The Inferno of Dante|Dante Alighieri|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1417605453l/591221._SX50_.jpg|2377563], and Flaubert’s [b:The Temptation of St. Antony|355034|The Temptation of St. Antony|Gustave Flaubert|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1174031029l/355034._SY75_.jpg|1717112], with a touch of [b:The Damnation of Theron Ware|821176|The Damnation of Theron Ware Or Illumination|Harold Frederic|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1347296825l/821176._SY75_.jpg|807009] thrown in -- minus many of the merits of each of those previous works. I’m not a fan of fantasy, as I usually find it to be over-the-top to the point of absurdity, and this novel is no different. A minor curiosity.