Jurgen

From the introduction: "In a letter dated December 12, 1920, Deems Taylor wrote, 'I have finished Jurgen; a great and beautiful book, and the saddest book I ever read. I don't know why, exactly. The book hurts me--tears me to small pieces--but somehow it sets me free. It tells me everything I am, and have been, and may be, unsparingly.' Jurgen wrestles, in its odd way, with the fundamental tragedy of human life in general and male life in particular: We are doomed to age and die; meanwhile ...