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Gathering Fifth Business, The Manticore, and World of Wonders together, The Deptford Trilogy has been hailed as a modern classic and is available as an eBook for the first time. Woven around a mysterious death, the novels trace the rich and varied, and fatefully linked, lives of Dunstan Ramsay, David Staunton, and Magnus Eisengrim. Davies has created a beguiling, fantastical, cunningly contrived trilogy of novels, luring the reader down labyrinthine tunnels of myth, history, and magic and providing an exhilarating antidote to a world from where ';the fear and dread and splendor of wonder have been banished.'
The Salterton Trilogy is comprised of the novels Tempest-Tost, Leaven of Malice, and A Mixture of Frailties, Robertson Davies' first forays into fiction in the 1950s. The Trilogy is available in eBook format for the first time. In the small university town of Salterton, Ontario, dreams are quietly taking shape . . . or falling apart. In Tempest-Tost, Valentine Rich, professional director of the Salterton Little Theatre Company, is tormented by the amateurish efforts of his actors. The families Vambrace and Bridgetower almost go to war over a fake notice of engagement in the local paper in Leaven of Malice. And in A Mixture of Frailties, the fortune of the late Louisa Bridgetower is lavished on an aspiring singer because there is no male heir to claim it. Tracing the lives and incidents of a small community, The Salterton Trilogy peels off the public veneer of geniality and respectability to reveal the private passions simmering beneath. ';Ingenious, erudite, entertaining . . . Davies displays all the qualities of a latter-day Trollope and shows us what modern Canada is like.' Anthony Burgess in the Observer Books of the Year
Comprising The Diary of Samuel Marchbanks, The Table Talk of Samuel Marchbanks, Samuel Marchbanks' Almanack, and The Papers of Samuel Marchbanks, this collection is available as an eBook for the first time.
Bringing together The Rebel Angels, What's Bred in the Bone, and The Lyre of Orpheus, The Cornish Trilogy is available as an eBook for the first time.Woven around the pursuits of the energetic spirits and erudite scholars of the University of St. John and the Holy Ghost, this dazzling trilogy of novels lures you into a world of mysticism, historical allusion, and gothic fantasy that could only be the invention of the inimitable Robertson Davies. ';A biting satire on the artistic muse . . . . This wonderful, witty novel should speak to a worldwide audience.'Chicago Tribune
The earliest of the Samuel Marchbanks volumes, originally published in 1947, is available in e-book form for the first time. In 1942, two years after returning to Canada from Britain, Robertson Davies took up the role of editor of the Peterborough Examiner. During his tenure as editor at the Examiner, a post he held until 1955, and later as publisher of the newspaper (195565), Davies published witty, curmudgeonly, mischievous, and fiercely individualistic editorials under the name of his alter ego, Samuel Marchbanks, ';one of the choice and master spirits of his age.' The Diary of Samuel Marchbanks is funny, delightful, and timeless in revealing one of the most entertaining periods in a Canadian literary giant's career.
The second of the Samuel Marchbanks volumes, originally published in 1949, is available in eBook form for the first time. In 1942, two years after returning to Canada from Britain, Robertson Davies took up the role of editor of the Peterborough Examiner. During his tenure as editor at the Examiner, a post he held until 1955, and later as publisher of the newspaper (195565), Davies published witty, curmudgeonly, mischievous, and fiercely individualistic editorials under the name of his alter ego, Samuel Marchbanks, ';one of the choice and master spirits of his age.' The Table Talk of Samuel Marchbanks gathers together a number of Marchbanks' columns from 1947 and 1948, presenting them as observations purportedly made by Marchbanks during a seven-course formal dinner. Funny, delightful, and timeless, The Table Talk of Samuel Marchbanks reveals one of the most entertaining periods in a Canadian literary giant's career.
The third of Robertson Davies' editions of Samuel Marchbanks' writings, and originally published by McClelland & Stewart in 1967, Samuel Marchbanks' Almanack is available here in e-book for the first time ever. In 1942, two years after returning to Canada from Britain, Robertson Davies took up the role of editor of the Peterborough Examiner, in the small city of Peterborough, Ontario, northeast of Toronto. During his tenure as editor at the Examiner, a post he held until 1955, and later as publisher of the newspaper (195565), Davies published witty, curmudgeonly, mischievous, and fiercely individualistic editorials under the name of his alter ego, Samuel Marchbanks, ';one of the choice and master spirits of his age.' Taking pen in hand, Samuel Marchbanks, philosopher, purveyor of trivia and benefactor of mankind, once again proves there is nothing so beneficial to the weary and heavy-laden of the world as a good belly laugh. As the reader proceeds through the zodiacal year from Aries to Pisces, he will find an infinity of information and rumination on matters important and unimportant, orthodox and outrageous. Who would remain unmoved by the discourse of yo-yo virtuosity of the reflections on the Modern Reader! Who will not share the righteous anger of Mr. Marchbanks toward the civil servant, Mr. Hydra, on the gross inconvenience of Daylight Savings Time! The reader will also have the opportunity of meeting other such remarkable characters as Dr. Raymond Cataplasm, the lawyer, Mordecai Mouseman, Mrs. Kedijah Scissorbill, the committee woman, and even Dick Dandiprat, the great practical joker. There can be no better tonic for flagging spirits than Marchbanks' Almanack.
The book that marked the first appearance in the United States of Robertson Davies' mischievous alter ego, Samuel Marchbanks, is now available as an eBook for the first time.In 1942, two years after returning to Canada from Britain, Robertson Davies took up the role of editor of the Peterborough Examiner. During his tenure as editor at the Examiner, a post he held until 1955, and later as publisher of the newspaper (195565), Davies published witty, curmudgeonly, mischievous, and fiercely individualistic editorials under the name of his alter ego, Samuel Marchbanks, ';one of the choice and master spirits of his age.' In this single volume, first published in 1985, the ';gentle headwaiter to Marchbanks' splendid banquet' has edited and selected from his alter ego's observations to bring together previous titles in the Marchbanks bibliography: The Diary (1947), The Table Talk (1949), and Samuel Marchbanks' Almanack (1967). Here is treasure! Marchbanks on politics, on his furnace, on theatre, on the taxman, on trains, on Christmas, on book-banners, on manners, indeed on everything under the sun! Not only this, but Davies' copious and quite delectable Notes are ';calculated to remove all Difficulties caused by the passage of Time and to offer the Wisdom, not to speak of Whimsicality, of this astonishing man to the Modern Public, in the most convenient form.' Reviewing the first edition of Papers for the New York Times in 1986, Davies' longtime friend John Kenneth Galbraith said: ';Not many journalists would wish to risk having their daily efflux dug out and published after a lapse of 40 years. . . . This writing of four decades ago is consistently incisive, insulting, funny, relevant and altogether interesting.' The Papers of Samuel Marchbanks, best savoured at leisure, and returned to time and again, ';offers a humourous and insightful picture of postwar Canadian life as seen through the eyes of a delightful eccentric who reminds . . . of a boozeless W.C. Fields.' Charles Bishop, English Dept., University of New Orleans.
The first book in Robertson Davies' celebrated Deptford Trilogy, Fifth Business stands alone as the story of a rational man who discovers that the marvelous is only another aspect of the real. Published as an eBook for the first time. Fifth Business, which one critic said was ';as masterfully executed as anything in the history of the novel,' might be described simply as the life of a schoolteacher named Dunstan Ramsay. But such a description would not even suggest the dark currents of love, ambition, vengeance, and death that flow through this powerful work, cast in the form of Ramsay's memoirs. ';An enigmatic novel, elegantly written and driven by irresistible narrative force.' The New York Times
The fruits of an eighteen-year tradition of Massey College's annual Gaudy Nights, Robertson Davies' High Spirits still delights and amuses to this day. Published as an eBook for the first time.In the Introduction to this collection of charming stories, Robertson Davies notes we all need ';ghosts as a dietary supplement . . . to stave off that most dreadful of modern ailments, the Rational Rickets.' In one tale, Mr. Davies introduces the ghost of Henrik Ibsen; in another, he brings us face to face with a bust of Charles Dickens, whose ';scarlet lips . . . parted in a terrible smile' and whose ';beard stirred in a hiccup of repletion.' Sixteen other apparitions manifest themselves, each rendered with Robertson Davies' special toucha bit of parody, a touch of true scarinessand all emanating from high spirits.
The Cunning Man is a perceptive and entertaining memoir of a doctor's life, available as an eBook for the first time. When Father Hobbes mysteriously dies at the high altar on Good Friday, Dr. Jonathan Hullahwhose holistic work has earned him the label ';Cunning Man' (for the wizard of the folk tradition)wants to know why. The physician-cum-diagnostician's search for answers compels him to look back over his own long life. He conjures vivid memories of the dazzling intellectual high jinks and compassionate philosophies of his circle, including flamboyant, mystical curate Charlie Iredale; cynical, quixotic professor Brocky Gilmartin; outrageous banker Darcy Dwyer; and jocular, muscular artist Pansy Todhunter. In compelling and hilarious scenes from the divine comedy of life, The Cunning Man reveals profound truths about being human. In Robertson Davies' last novel, he returns to those issues which concerned him throughout his writing careerthe nature of friendship, religion, faith, and artistic lifewith his famous wit and humour and his usual rich characterization.
Murther & Walking Spirits is available as an eBook for the first time. ';I was never so amazed in my life as when the Sniffer drew his concealed weapon from its case and struck me to the ground, stone dead.' So begins the unusual story of Connor ';Gil' Gilmartin when he catches his wife in flagrante with the Sniffer, his former colleague and now his murderer. Though he is struck dead in the very first line of this novel, death is only the first indignity Gil is about to suffer. For he lingers on as a ghost, and from this bleak vantagemade even less endurable by the fact that he must spend the afterlife sitting beside his killer at a film festivalhe is forced to view the exploits and failures of his ancestors, from the forerunners who sailed up the Hudson to Canada during the American Revolution right up to his university-professor parents.
At two minutes to six on December 27th 1908 the lives of three people become inextricably bound together by the trajectory of a snowball. There is ten-year old Dunstable Ramsay, intended victim of the snowball, who, fatefully, ducks; his 'lifelong friend and enemy' Percy Boyd Staunton, angered by their recent quarrel, who hurls the snowball; and Paul Dempster, prematurely born when his pregnant mother is struck by Percy's icy missile. Tracing the rich and varied lives of these three individuals, The Deptford Trilogy lures the reader down labyrinthine tunnels of myth, history and magic in one of the most beguiling, clever and cunning trilogies ever written.
In the small university town of Salterton, Ontario, dreams are quietly taking shape, or falling apart. There's the Salterton Little Theatre Company, in which professional director Valentine Rich is tormented by the amateurish efforts of his actors. The families Vambrace and Bridgetower almost go to war over a fake notice of engagement in the local paper. And a family fortune is lavished on an aspiring singer because there is no male heir to claim it. Tracing the lives and incidents of a small community in the middle of the last century, The Salterton Trilogy peels off the public veneer of geniality and respectability to reveal the private passions simmering beneath.
When Father Hobbes mysteriously dies at the high altar on Good Friday, Dr Jonathan Hullah - whose holistic ideas have earned him the soubriquet 'cunning man' - wants to know why. But it is only through looking back at his own long life that answers are forthcoming. He recalls the dazzling intellectual high jinks of his circle of friends, from the High Church homosexual Darcy Dwyer (an expert on the theory of sin) to the curious occurrence of the Coburg Social Parlour's Seventh Annual Bad Breath Contest. Compelling and hilarious, The Cunning Man is a profound exploration of what it means to be an actor in the divine comedy of life.
'I was never so amazed in my life as when the Sniffer drew his concealed weapon from its case and struck me to the ground, stone dead.' So begins the story of Connor 'Gil' Gilmartin when he catches his wife in flagrante with the Sniffer, his former colleague and now his murderer. Unfortunately, death is only the first indignity Gil is about to suffer. For he lingers on as a ghost, and from this bleak vantage - made even less endurable by the fact that he must spend the afterlife sitting beside his killer at a film festival - he is forced to view the exploits and failures of his ancestors, from the forerunners who sailed up the Hudson to Canada during the American Revolution to his university-professor parents.
The University of St John and the Holy Ghost (known affectionately as Spook) has a problem - and an opportunity. Strange, eccentric art patron and collector Francis Cornish has died and faculty members have been made executors of his complicated will. But in the realization of their duties, they find themselves drawn into Cornish's bizarre, secretive and mystical world. In this spellbinding trilogy a host of memorable characters - defrocked, mischief-making monks, half-mad professors, gypsies and musical geniuses - become entangled in a story that involves theft, perjury, scholarship, murder, love, and the squandering of plenty of cash.
Narrated by two angels acting as commentators on Francis' life, this novel is a curious blend of fable, religion, and mythology. Francis Cornish was always good at keeping secrets. From the well-hidden family secret of his childhood to his mysterious encounters with a small-town embalmer, an expert art restorer, a Bavarian countess, and various masters of espionage, the events in Francis' life were not always what they seemed. In this wonderfully ingenious portrait of an art expert and collector of international renown, Robertson Davies has created a spellbinding tale of artistic triumph and heroic deceit. It is a tale told in stylish, elegant prose and endowed with lavish portions of Davies' wit and wisdom.
"e;It's a muddle, thought Monica. A muddle and I can't get it straight. I wish I knew what I should do. I wish I even knew what I want to do...I want to go on in the life that has somehow or other found me and claimed me. And I want so terribly to be happy. Oh god, don't let me slip under the surface of all the heavy-hearted dullness that seems to claim so many people."e; A Mixture of Frailties is so much more than the story of Monica Gall's life in London and her education as a singer. It is an account of her education as a human being, and the result is an absorbing novel, comic in the true sense, vivid and frequently moving.
A goodhearted priest and scholar, a professor with a passion for the darker side of medieval psychology, a defrocked monk, and a rich young businessman who inherits some troublesome paintings are all helplessly beguiled by the same coed. The story is set in motion by the death of art collector Francis Cornish, and Robertson Davies weaves together the destinies of this remarkable cast of characters in smooth, lyrical prose, creating a wise and witty portrait of love, murder, and scholarship at a modern university.
