The novel “To Live Forever”, later reprinted as “Clarges”, by Jack Vance was published for the first time in 1956.

Gavin Waylock has been keeping a very low profile for years waiting to be able to assert what he believes to be his rights. In Carnevalle, the only place where the inhabitants of Clarges can relax and forget for a while the very tough competition to achieve immortality, Waylock meets an Amaranth woman, The Jacynth Martin, who could ruin his plans. An apparent accident causes her death, only temporaryly because a new body with which the woman had empathized is activated.

When the Amaranth known as The Grayven Warlock is officially declared dead, Gavin Waylock can come out and declare himself his relic, a clone who has become a separate person because the original didn’t establish the empathy with him necessary to make him a replacement. However, The Jacynth Martin is investigating her own death and believes that Waylock is the culprit, complicating the man’s plans.