Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations

The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck (1921) is a comic romance novel by James Branch Cabell.

Set in a world where history and fantasy collide, where the laws of chivalry and honor continue to hold sway in postbellum South, The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck is included in a series of novels, essays, and poems known as the Biography of the Life of Manuel. "e;For Colonel Musgrave was by birth the lineal head of all the Musgraves of Matocton, which is in Lichfield, as degrees are counted there, equivalent to what being born a marquis would mean in England.

Handsome and trim and affable, he defied chronology by looking ten years younger than he was known to be."e; A man of honor and tradition, Colonel Musgrave comes from a prominent family whose wealth and power once depended on its ownership of slaves.

Despite his illustrious title, "e;won by four years of arduous service at receptions and parades while on the staff of a former Governor of the State,"e; Musgrave is a librarian whose influence in town depends largely on the esteem of his ancestors.

When a distant cousin visits Lichfield, bringing with her the intellect and wit of a modern woman, Colonel Musgrave finds how easily traditions can falter.

Set in a fictionalized Southern town, The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck is a captivating, hilarious tale of chivalry and romance.

Cabell's work has long been described as escapist, his novels and stories derided as fantastic and obsessive recreations of a world lost long ago.

To read The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck, however, is to understand that the issues therein-the struggle for power, the unspoken distance between men and women-were vastly important not only at the time of its publication, but in our own, divisive world.

With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of James Branch Cabell's The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck is a classic of fantasy and romance reimagined for modern readers.