James Branch Cabell 
Rivet in Grandfather’s Neck 
A Comedy of Limitations

Though he later gained widespread acclaim as a pioneering writer of fantasy fiction, James Branch Cabell’s early novels are largely realistic and dryly humorous in tone. The Rivet in Grandfather’s Neck, which unfolds in early-twentieth-century Virginia, is a comedy of manners set among the upper echelons of Richmond high society.