Cabell’s humour is complex and many layered, ranging from erudite jokes to evasion to broad satire to double entendresCabell’s portrayal of Hell and Heaven (which Jurgen visits in that order) is perhaps the cleverest part of the book, and caused him considerable troubleSo, despite being fakes, the Heaven and Hell of the Bible are also true, and always have been.
The two things, we are told, that are impossible for Koshchei are love and pride, and his fascination with these two realms is that they are based on these two emotions: Heaven on the love that creates ideal versions of what is very far from ideal, Hell on the pride that demands petty sins and crimes as worthy of being recognised and punished.
James Branch Cabell