Jurgen

Jurgen: A Comedy of Justice is a 1919 fantasy book by James Branch Cabell--the 8th among some 52 books written by this author--which gained fame (notoriety, in the view of some) shortly after its publication. The eponymous hero, who considers himself a "monstrous clever fellow", embarks on a journey thru ever more fantastic realms, even to hell & heaven. Everywhere he goes, he winds up seducing local women, even the Devil's wife. The novel was denounced by the NY Society for the Suppression of Vice; they attempted to bring a prosecution for obscenity. The case went on for two years before Cabell & his publishers won: the "indecencies" were double entendres that also had a perfectly decent interpretation, tho it appeared that what had actually offended the prosecution most was a joke about papal infallibility. Cabell took an author's revenge: the revised edition of 1926 included a previously "lost" passage in which the hero is placed on trial by the Philistines, with a large dung-beetle as the chief prosecutor. He also wrote a short book, Taboo, in which he thanks John H. Sumner & the Society for Suppression of Vice for generating the publicity that gave his career a boost.