exploring recaptured marchbanks enthusiasms

books:

59 reviews
Robertson Davies

Viking, 1971

What took me so long?
This author was trustworthy from page one. The character he created, as small as he is, has a big voice and a story worthy of telling. I was so pleasantly surprised by this book, and so mad at myself for taking so long to read it. While the story is dated, specific to a time and a place, the themes are biblical. This is one of those books where I felt compelled to read passages aloud to whoever ...

The Rebel Angels

20 reviews
Robertson Davies

Penguin Books, 1983

The Perfect Novel?
The Rebel Angels immediately entered my personal canon of favorite works of literature. Could it be the perfect novel? It features astounding characters, well defined and memorable (especially the unforgettable John Parlabane, almost as singular a character as Liesl in Davies' Deptford Trilogy). It features a page turning plot. I was initially hoping for a literary mystery, along the lines of ...

The Papers of Samuel Marchbanks

2 reviews
Robertson Davies

Viking Adult, 1986

Robertson Davies' Alter Ego
Samuel Marchbanks is a grouchy old newspaperman who struggles with his coal furnace, garden, and neighbours in an attempt to live life as he feels is proper. He is witty, open-minded, well-read, and likes to shock his acquaintances. The Diary is a record of his day-to-day life over a year, with several amusing plot-lines running through it. The Table Talk is just that--a collection of ...

The Cornish Trilogy

16 reviews
Robertson Davies

Penguin Books Ltd, 1991

Art a la Carte with a Side of Salacious Behavior
Robertson Davies' greatest strength has always been in his ability to create a protagonist whose adventures quickly intrigue you. One can debate the virtues of each novel in this trilogy, but the simple fact remains that as parts of a trilogy the story remains incomplete without reading all three. Stories as intriguing as this do not often appear. You will travel between a thinly veiled ...

THE DIARY OF SAMUEL MARCHBANKS

1 review
Robertson Davies

Clarke Irwin, 1966

Greatest of Canadian Wit
This book is a hilarious reflection of Samuel Marchbank's everyday life and travels in Canada.. Every entry has something interesting to say even if it is forced out by his admitted lack of dramatic excitement.. Some of my favourite quotes have come from this book and others in the Marchbanks series.

The Deptford Trilogy

51 reviews
Robertson Davies

Penguin (Non-Classics), 1990

Personal truth from the 5th
Fifth Business is beautiful. The story of Dunstan is compelling and subtly craftly. The story follows his journey for personal truth and an understanding of his own personal mythology. There are gems throughout: "They were anxious to make men of us, by which they meant making us like themselves." "We all forget the things we do, especially when they do not fit into the characer we have ...

The Salterton Trilogy (King Penguin)

18 reviews
Robertson Davies

Penguin (Non-Classics), 1986

The wonder and fun starts here
This is Davies first trilogy, and, if I remember correct, his first novel was the lead-off to this, Tempest-Tost. Before writing novels, however, Davies had written several plays, so his first novel is quite accomplished. The Salterton trilogy is almost misnamed--yes, it does center around the town of Salterton, but the real center of the three books is Solomon Bridgetower. Although he is almost ...

World of Wonders

5 reviews
Robertson Davies

Penguin Books Australia Ltd, 1996

Davies' Deptford Trilogy - A must-read
The only bad thing about Robertson Davies' Deptford Trilogy (FIFTH BUSINESS, THE MANTICORE, WORLD OF WONDERS) is that it had to end! Sparklingly clever, bawdy, poignant, erudite, and laugh-out-loud funny, Davies entertains in a wonderfully rich, old-world style. A friend of mine (who recommended the books, and to whom I will be forever grateful) put it this way: "Reading Robertson Davies is ...

Across the Bridge

1 review
Mavis Gallant, Robertson Davies

New Canadian Library, 1997

You must remember this.....
My favorite of the 11 short stories in ACROSS THE BRIDGE is the euponymous tale set in Paris sometime around the mid-20th Century. One is never sure of the exact date of one of Mavis Gallant's stories as they are so timeless. In "Across the Bridge" the heroine is engaged to be married, and at the last moment persuades her parents to call off the ceremony. The picture Gallant paints of white ...

Curiosity Recaptured: Exploring Ways We Think & Move

4 reviews
Robertson Davies

Mornum Time Pr, 1997

Lively individual stories of changes
These personal stories are so interesting and varied that the book almost reads as a short story anthology. Everyone's story is different and the changes and experiences quite unique in every chapter. This Alexander Technique book is unlike others I've read which describe and explain the Technique. The reader learns through others' personal histories what one might encounter in the course ...

The Merry Heart

4 reviews
Robertson Davies

Penguin Books Ltd

My First Davies
You don't need to be familiar with Robertson Davies' work to enjoy this set of insightful talks and essays about reading, writing, and life in general. This has been my first exposure to his work (a gift from my mother-in-law), and I loved it. I'm now deeply interested in reading his other work. In fact, I bought the Deptford Trilogy, but haven't gotten to read it yet since my wife got ahold of ...

High Spirits: 2

7 reviews
Robertson Davies

Viking Adult, 1983

High spirited stories by the master of high literature
The late Robertson Davies is perhaps best known for his works of heady literature. Some of the most well-known works by him are "Fifth Business", "The Manticore", "What's Bred in the Bone" and "Murther and Walking Spirits." Most readers of Davies will know him first and foremost as an author and second as a scholar of Elizabethan theatre; "Shakespeare's Boy Actors" is but one of his more ...

Leaven of Malice

3 reviews
Robertson Davies

Blackstone Audiobooks, 1997

The perfect humorous novel.
A Mixture of Frailties tells two complete but entwined stories: one of Sully and his young wife who are burdened by the 'dead hand' of Sully's mother (they must produce a male heir or forfeit a fortune to 'little Miss Nobody, studying Japanese flower-arranging' under the terms of her malevolent will); another of a provincial Canadian girl, Monica, who benefits from the absurd trust ...

What's bred in the bone

17 reviews
Robertson Davies

MacMillan of Canada, 1985

Forged Truth
What's Bred in the Bone is the one true stand-alone novel in the Cornish Trilogy. This middle volume is a superb telling of the life of Francis Cornish, the hinge upon whom all of the trilogy is supported. Some elements of the story are clearly reminiscent (to readers of Davies) of his earlier book, Fifth Business. But this is no mere reworking of an old theme. There is a freshness to this ...

The Enthusiasms of Robertson Davies

5 reviews
Robertson Davies

Viking Adult, 1990

A Treasure Chest of Gems
Robertson Davies lives up to his reputation as Canada's distinguished man of letters of the twentieth century. In addition to establishing his abilities as a novelist and a playwright, he reveals in the showcased selections in "The Enthusiasms of Robertson Davies" how talented and perceptive a reviewer he was, covering a wide variety of writers and books. Davies' superb economy of expression ...

For Your Eye Alone

3 reviews
Robertson Davies, 2001

For Your Eyes Alone by Robertson Davies
Robertson Davies was 82 years old when he died on 12-2-1995 from a leaky heart and terminal pneumonia. He is one of Canada's most famous writers of belles lettres literature having multiple nominations for the Nobel Prize. Some of his best works are Dr. Canon's Cure, What's Bred in the Bone, Jezebel and The Merry Heart. He had 26 honorary degrees. Memorable quotations from his letters are ...

Le manticore

12 reviews
Robertson Davies

Rivages, 1999

A Jungian perspective
The story is everything with Davies books. He captured me with the tale of David Staunton, who is only a minor character in Fifth Business. As with Dunstan Ramsay, the narrator of the first book of the Deptford Trilogy, David Staunton is very much a character who needs to be brought back into balance from an extreme psyche. The book explores his eccentric character through Jungian psychology. ...

The Cunning Man

29 reviews
ROBERTSON DAVIES

Penguin Books Ltd, 1995

Great Cast of Characters
Robertson Davies' "The Cunning Man" purports to be the Diary or Case Book of a doctor--Jonathan Hullah--who moves from the wilderness of Sioux Lookout to Toronto, Canada. But it is much more than that. It turns into what the narrator, Hullah, says he wants to avoid, a Bildungsroman or Novel of Development: in this case the development of Hullah's character, but also the development of ...

Literary Lapses

3 reviews
Stephen Leacock

New Canadian Library, 2008

A wonderful mixture of comedy, nonsense and compassion
Stephen Leacock was a Canadian author who wrote his works with an optimistic yet realistic view of life. His light-hearted, bubbly diction impressed me all the way through the novel. Each short story was unique and had true-to-life situations and entertaining characters to whom readers of all ages can relate. His stories are full of good advice for everyone from the socially elite, ...

Tempest-Tost

7 reviews
Robertson Davies

Blackstone Audiobooks, 1997

An Astounding Feat
Far from fluffy. Tilting at "The Tempest" as Davies does in this early novel is brave, or foolhardy, beyond measure. Extremely acute human beings are only occasionally profoundly generous. Do NOT forego the pleasure, even if you imagine you might balk at play within play. Davies came to novels by way of his love for theatre. Everything begins here, most remarkably his unique ability to write ...

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