Going through Cabell's "Biography of the Life of Manuel", I found any number of instances where I was moved to tears. While most make the mistake of thinking the term "ironic comedy" (which is generally applied to most of his work) is synonymous with "satire", the truth of the matter is that a genuine ironic comedy is much closer to tragedy than what most people think of as comedy. The "comic" aspects come from the contrast between our ideals and our self-image (or sense of self-importance) and the reality of our flawed condition, coupled with the poignancy of our high aspirations to be better than what we all too often are... and this is a mainstay of this work, making the "comedy" often very bitter indeed, but not cynical or hateful. Rather, it tends to be of that poetic sensibility which combines such awareness with a certain wistful, Romantic view of life; hence far more often tends toward a rather somber sort of humor than the farcical sort most tend to think of.
Or, as John Charteris, the leading character of Beyond Life puts it: "[A]nd [it is] needfui, too, to speak of these [...] with flippant levity, because such enormities grow unbearable when regarded seriously..." Cabell often walks a very fine line between the two, and the combination is a powerful and very moving one.
