James Branch Cabell 
Cords of Vanity 
A Comedy of Shirking

American author James Branch Cabell developed into a well-known fantasy writer later in his literary career, but his early novels focused on documenting (and slyly commenting upon) the lives of the American aristocracy in the early twentieth century. The Cords of Vanity follows the travails of a troubled protagonist whose creative aspirations slowly begin to tear him apart.