The book was seen as being bad by the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice. They tried to bring a prosecution for obscenity. The case went on for two years before Cabell and his publishers won. Many of the things in the book were double entendres. They had one meaning which was bad and also had a decent meaning. It appeared that what had actually offended the prosecution most was a joke about papal infallibility. Cabell took an author's revenge. The new edition of 1926 included a 'lost' section which was not in the earlier version. In it, the hero is put on trial by the Philistines. A large dung beetle is the chief prosecutor.