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Robertson Davies (1913–1995)

Autor(a) de Fifth Business

83+ Works 23,141 Membros 442 Críticas 232 Favorited

About the Author

William Robertson Davies was born in Thamesville, Ontario in 1913. He taught English at the University of Toronto and was an actor, journalist, and newspaper editor before winning acclaim as a novelist with Tempest-Tost, the first of his Salterton trilogy. His most famous trilogy, The Deptford mostrar mais Trilogy--Fifth Business, The Manticore, and World of Wonders--develops the earlier Salterton novels. The locale is a fictitious Ontario city that prizes its English tradition, including the Anglican Church and the genealogy of the old families. Robertson's novels have been translated into approximately 20 languages. His masterful story-telling encompasses such issues as evil, love, fear, tradition, and magic as he brings his characters to life with wisdom and humor. Robertson Davies died in 1995. (Bowker Author Biography) Robertson Davies (1913-1995) had three successive careers during the time he became an internationally acclaimed author: first as an actor with the Old Vic Company in England; then as publisher of "The Peterborough Ontario Examiner"; & finally as professor & first master of Massey College at the University of Toronto. With twelve novels & several volumes of essays & plays to his credit, Davies was the first Canadian to be inducted to the American Academy & Institute of Arts & Letters. His last novel, "The Cunning Man" (Viking 1995), was a national bestseller. (Publisher Provided) mostrar menos

Séries

Obras por Robertson Davies

Fifth Business (1970) 3,219 exemplares
The Deptford Trilogy (1970) 2,527 exemplares
What's Bred in the Bone (1985) 1,912 exemplares
The Rebel Angels (1981) 1,657 exemplares
The Manticore (1972) 1,568 exemplares
The Cunning Man (1994) 1,561 exemplares
The Lyre of Orpheus (1988) 1,391 exemplares
World of Wonders (1975) 1,337 exemplares
Murther and Walking Spirits (1991) 1,182 exemplares
The Salterton Trilogy (1951) 1,089 exemplares
The Cornish Trilogy (1981) 1,030 exemplares
Leaven of Malice (1954) 586 exemplares
High Spirits (1982) 579 exemplares
Tempest-Tost (1951) 531 exemplares
A Mixture of Frailties (1958) 500 exemplares
The Papers of Samuel Marchbanks (1985) 378 exemplares
One Half of Robertson Davies (1977) 204 exemplares
A Gathering of Ghost Stories (1995) 137 exemplares
Reading and Writing (1993) 51 exemplares
Samuel Marchbanks' Almanack (1967) 47 exemplares
The Diary of Samuel Marchbanks (1947) 37 exemplares
Thrice the Brinded Cat Hath Mew'd (1955) 10 exemplares
A Masque of Mr. Punch (1963) 9 exemplares
A Masque of Aesop (1952) 7 exemplares
A Christmas Carol Re-harmonized (1995) 7 exemplares
Animal U. (1995) 5 exemplares
Stephen Leacock (1970) 5 exemplares
A jig for the gypsy 4 exemplares
Hunting Stuart & Other Plays (1972) 3 exemplares
At My Heart's Core (1950) 3 exemplares
Selected plays (2008) 1 exemplar
Dickens Digested 1 exemplar

Associated Works

The Literary Ghost: Great Contemporary Ghost Stories (1991) — Contribuidor — 75 exemplares
Moonbeams from the Larger Lunacy (1915) — Introdução, algumas edições64 exemplares
Northern Suns : The New Anthology of Canadian Science Fiction (1999) — Contribuidor — 63 exemplares
Arthurian Poets: Edwin Arlington Robinson (1990) — Note, algumas edições22 exemplares
The Oxford Book of Canadian Ghost Stories (1990) — Contribuidor — 19 exemplares
Curiosity Recaptured: Exploring Ways We Think & Move (1996) — Prefácio — 15 exemplares
Cat Encounters: A Cat-Lover's Anthology (1979) — Contribuidor — 10 exemplares
Not to be Taken at Night (1981) — Contribuidor — 6 exemplares

Etiquetado

Conhecimento Comum

Nome canónico
Davies, Robertson
Nome legal
Davies, William Robertson
Outros nomes
Marchbanks, Samuel
Data de nascimento
1913-08-28
Data de falecimento
1995-12-02
Sexo
male
Nacionalidade
Canada
Local de nascimento
Thamesville, Ontario, Canada
Local de falecimento
Orangeville, Ontario, Canada
Causa da morte
Stroke
Locais de residência
Thamesville, Ontario, Canada
Kingston, Ontario, Canada
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Orangeville, Ontario, Canada
Peterborough, Ontario, Canada
Oxford, England, UK (mostrar todos 7)
Renfrew, Ontario, Canada
Educação
Upper Canada College
Queens University, Kingston, Ontario
Balliol College, Oxford (BLitt|1938)
Ocupações
founding master (Massey College ∙ University of Toronto)
professor (English ∙ Trinity College, University of Toronto)
novelist
playwright
literary critic
essayist (mostrar todos 8)
newspaper editor
librettist
Relações
Davies, William Rupert (father)
Surridge, Jennifer (daughter)
Organizações
Massey College, University of Toronto
Peterborough Examiner
Prémios e menções honrosas
Companion, Order of Canada (1973)
Order of Ontario (1988)
Fellow, Royal Society of Canada (1967)
Fellow, Royal Society of Literature (1984)
Oxford University [DLlitt 1991]
Molson Prize (1988) (mostrar todos 13)
Honorary Member, American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters (1981)
Lorne Pierce Medal (1961)
Governor-General's Literary Award (1972)
Stephen Leacock Award for Humour (1955)
Dominion Drama Festival Award for Best Canadian Play (1948)
World Fantasy Award (1984)
National Arts Club Medal of Honor for Literature (1987)

Membros

Discussions

Canadian Author Challenge — January: Robertson Davies & Kim Thúy em 75 Books Challenge for 2016 (Fevereiro 2016)
Davies - The Deptford Trilogy - discussion em Literary Centennials (Dezembro 2012)
Davies - The Toronto Trilogy - discussion em Literary Centennials (Dezembro 2012)
Davies - The Salterton Trilogy em Literary Centennials (Dezembro 2012)
Davies - The Cornish Trilogy - discussion em Literary Centennials (Dezembro 2012)

Críticas

In the second volume of the Deptford trilogy we see the Staunton family through the eyes of David, the son and hard drinking criminal lawyer. But most remarkably we see Jungian analysis at work, as the greater part of the novel is concerned with David's analysis. He has moved to Zurich to pursue this course, following his alarming outburst at Eisengrim's show in Toronto that closed [b:Fifth Business|76896|Fifth Business (The Deptford Trilogy #1)|Robertson Davies|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1368313688s/76896.jpg|603433]. He fears he is losing control of himself and seeks treatment, which exposes him to the expression of Jungian archetypes throughout his life and leaves him with the question of whether or not he can live as the Hero, exploring his true self.

The Jungian core of the novel is interesting and got me looking at Jung's [b:The Red Book: Liber Novus|6454477|The Red Book Liber Novus|C.G. Jung|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1349565532s/6454477.jpg|6644707], which quickly proved too much to handle lightly; serious dedication will be required to get through that work. It is the wellspring of Jung's system and thought, what the character Liesl is referring to when she talks to David in the book's latter, more philosophical and inspirational coda about Jung, and Freud, and Adler:
Davey, did you ever think that these three men who were so splendid at understanding others had first to understand themselves? It was from their self-knowledge that they spoke. They did not go trustingly to some doctor and follow his lead because they were too lazy or too scared to make the inward journey alone. They dared heroically. And it should never be forgotten that they made the inward journey while they were working like galley-slaves at their daily tasks, considering other people's troubles, raising families, living full lives. They were heroes, in a sense that no space-explorer can be a hero, because they went into the unknown absolutely alone.


… (mais)
 
Assinalado
lelandleslie | 32 outras críticas | Feb 24, 2024 |
In an age when all the best books fill five hundred pages with ten years of a character's life, this fresh breeze billows through seventy years in under three hundred. It's an erudite novel, full of references to psychology and mythology, with a capable hand reaching into the realm of religion, bringing out miracles and magic. Much to my surprise it also revealed the origin of Eisenheim, "The Illusionist", as Davies' Eisengrim, who would travel through Milhauser's Ellis Island before emerging under his changed name in cinema.

This first novel in the Deptford Trilogy is told by Dunstan (Dunstable) Ramsay, born in rural Canada to Scots parentage. Though becoming a history master at a private boys school in Toronto, he remains enmeshed with the lives of three people from his native village. Boy (Percy Boyd) Staunton threw a vindictive snowball at him as a child, and the two maintain a mutually beneficial friendship as Boy becomes a business tycoon, government minister, and one of the richest men in Canada. That vindictive snowball hit the head of Mary Dempster, wife of the unintelligently devout Methodist minister. Mary becomes Ramsay's fool-saint and lodestar, though held in a private psychiatric hospital. That vindictive snowball sent Mary into premature labor, and her son Paul, later Eisengrim, was born. Ramsay, surveying saints, and Paul, mastering magic, reunite first in Europe, later in Mexico, and decades hence in Toronto, with terrible consequences for Boy.

This smart and entertaining novel is said to be Davies' best; how well his two sequels continue the story down different paths, I am eager to discover.

I am an old man and my life has been spent as a soldier of Christ, and I tell you that the older I grow the less Christ's teaching says to me. I am sometimes very conscious that I am following the path of a leader who died when He was less than half as old as I am now. I know things He seems never to have known. Everybody wants a Christ for himself and those who think like him. Very well, am I at fault for wanting a Christ who will show me how to be an old man? All Christ's teaching is put forward with the dogmatism, the certainty, and the strength of youth: I need something that takes account of the accretion of experience, the sense of paradox and ambiguity that comes with years! I think after forty we should recognize Christ politely but turn for our comfort and guidance to God the Father, and to the Holy Ghost, who possesses a wisdom beyond that of the incarnated Christ.
… (mais)
 
Assinalado
lelandleslie | 86 outras críticas | Feb 24, 2024 |
Book 2 in Deptford trilogy. This went from 3 to 4 stars at the end. A character study that helped me reflect on myself. Still thinking about it.
 
Assinalado
wvlibrarydude | 32 outras críticas | Jan 14, 2024 |
Not an easy book to review. A character study that delves into how a single act will drive further actions for the central character throughout his life and others. Davies mixes myth, religion, and psychology into a wonderful first person memoir. This "story" is of course told by someone who has made his life's work the study of saints. As the first in the Deptford Trilogy, I am intrigued about the other two books.
 
Assinalado
wvlibrarydude | 86 outras críticas | Jan 14, 2024 |

Listas

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Estatísticas

Obras
83
Also by
11
Membros
23,141
Popularidade
#914
Avaliação
4.1
Críticas
442
ISBN
447
Línguas
18
Marcado como favorito
232

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