Robertson Davies cult

[godfry n. glad]

Anybody else in these parts a Robertson Davies fan?

godfry

[seebs]

It's not a cult if the beliefs are rational and well-informed.

Robertson Davies fans may well also like Rodney Hall, an Australian author who always reminds me of Davies. I met him a couple of times while living in China. Cool guy.

[seebs]

Am I expected to believe that no one else here reads Robertson Davies?

Get out there and buy a copy of the Deptford Trilogy. Just do.

[Goliath]

Nope, never heard of Robertson Davies.

[JoeP]

:blush3:
Have a copy of the Cornish trilogy. Started reading it and didn't get into it, but I can't remember why, could have been something trivial. Will try again.

[godfry n. glad]

:blush3:
Have a copy of the Cornish trilogy. Started reading it and didn't get into it, but I can't remember why, could have been something trivial. Will try again.

Hmmm... Davies is not for everybody.

My personal opinion is that every trilogy has one novel that is better than the others. In speaking with others, that "better" novel varies with the reader.

My favorites are:

Cornish triology: _What's Bred in the Bone_

Salterton triology: _Leaven of Malice_

Deptford triology: _Fifth Business_

He was evidently working on another trilogy at his death in 1995, of which _Murther and Walking Spirits_ is one.

Each of these can be read as a free-standing novel and the trilogies are only very loosely connected, so they can really be read in any order, but there is a chronology within each trilogy.

Also available is the curmudgeonly _The Papers of Samuel Marchbanks, Comprising the Diary, the Table Talk and a Garland of Miscellanea by Samuel Marchbanks_, a compedium of his columns written under his non de plume whilst he was editor of the Peterborough (Ontario) Examiner. I guffawed through most of this, and since they were written as newspaper columns, each piece is succinct.

Thanks, Seebs, for the Rodney Hall reference. Do you have a preferred title amongst his works?

Another friend keeps recommending another, American, author of whom Davies reminds him. I'll get that and get back to all.

godfry

[seebs]

I absolutely love the Marchbanks stuff.

Hmm. I believe the Rodney Hall novel that really caught me... Oh, dear, what a horrible and unintentional pun... was called Captivity Captive.

I'm not sure what the similarity is, but his writing is fascinating.

[godfry n. glad]

I absolutely love the Marchbanks stuff.

Hmm. I believe the Rodney Hall novel that really caught me... Oh, dear, what a horrible and unintentional pun... was called Captivity Captive.

I'm not sure what the similarity is, but his writing is fascinating.

Kewl. I've ordered it ILL. I should have in within three days. I'll let you know my impressions.

godfry

[D. Scarlatti]

Funny, I started reading What's Bred In The Bone years ago; don't remember why I stopped either. I do remember hearing Davies reading from the Marchbanks stuff ages ago on the CBC. It was hilarious and brilliant. There is some actual high culture in Canada, aside from The Guess Who and Joe Hall and The Continental Drift (another Peterborough native).

[Blake]

Oh sure. Robertson Davies is assigned reading for English-speaking schoolboys in Montreal. :) He is very good. I read the Deptford trilogy, and I think Fifth Business is my favorite too; I've read the Cornish trilogy too, I believe, since What's Bred in the Bone sounds familiar (it's been a long time) and I believe The Rebel Angels is part of that same set. I actually liked all three of that trilogy quite a lot.

Incidentally, Robertson Davies was a great aficionado of the Alexander Technique (http://www.alexandertechnique.com), of which I'm a certified teacher.

[jsinko47]

Happy Birthday, Robertson Davies. He would have been 96 today.