The success of James Branch Cabell among Russian readers is greatly harmed by the success of Tolkien. This book is published under the heading "fantasy", which in reality is no more fair to the American writer than to Mervyn Peake or Tolkien. Cabell worked in the first half of the 20th century, when fantasy was still unheard of, and went about his own business. It would be more appropriate to compare it not with fantasy, but, for example, with Swift, but if this is Swift, then it is even more ironic and metaphysically inclined.