L'objet du scandale

by Robertson Davies

book data

1,590 ratings, 4.11 average rating, 171 reviews (more data...)

rating	frequency	%
5		38%
4		38%
3		18%
2		3%
1		0%

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published

January 1st 1998 by Rivages (first published 1970)

details

Mass Market Paperback, 415 pages

isbn

2743602899 (isbn13: 9782743602895)

description

Ramsay is a man twice born, a man who has returned from the hell of the battle-grave at Passchendaele in World War I decorated with the Victoria Cross…more

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Jul 03, 2007

Eleanor rated it:

(review of isbn 014004387X)

bookshelves: canadiana

Read in June, 2007

recommends it for: those who want an arts education without the expense

Robertson Davies is one of the most well-read writers I've ever read. His knowledge of the classic canon of English lit is unreal. (Having spent a stint at the Old Vic Theatre in London and a while as a journalist, editor of Saturday Night magazine, Master of Massey College at U of T, etc. I'm sure didn't hurt.) So, part of the thrill of reading his books is picking up little tidbits of knowledge that he absorbed along the way. For example, in the Psalms somewhere there is a line about how "...more

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Feb 27, 2009

Carrie rated it:

(review of isbn 0141181362)

Read in June, 2006

Because I loved, loved this book, I feel I must steal some precious seconds to write about it, before my memory of fades too much. Not that it could ever escape completely, because (as I said) I loved this book. I didn't know much about Davies, only that he was a famous Canadian author, and I bought this book used thinking that I should be exploring my Canadian heritage.* And I was totally wowed by the book. It is the story of Dunston Ramsey, or rather, a story told by Dunston Ramsey. Dunston c...more Because I loved, loved this book, I feel I must steal some precious seconds to write about it, before my memory of fades too much. Not that it could ever escape completely, because (as I said) I loved this book. I didn't know much about Davies, only that he was a famous Canadian author, and I bought this book used thinking that I should be exploring my Canadian heritage.* And I was totally wowed by the book. It is the story of Dunston Ramsey, or rather, a story told by Dunston Ramsey. Dunston comes to realize over the course of the novel that he has lived his life as a Fifth Business - a term, which derives from the opera, meaning to a supporting character , who, while he has no opposite of the other sex (being neither the hero nor heroine, villain nor rival), and is essential to the plot, for he often knows the secret of the hero's birth, or comes to the assistance of the heroine when all seems lost, or may even be the cause of someone's death. This is the role Dunston plays in his life, and the role he plays in the novel. For while Dunston is a compelling narrator, and a kind, honest and self-knowing man, his part in the story (and, perhaps, in life) is to tie together two disparate men, both of whom, like Dunston, got their start in the small town of Deptford, Ontario. One man is Percy "Boyd" Staunton, who becomes a famous business man - an almost Gatsby-esque type. The other is Paul Dempster, who runs away from home, joins the circus, and reappears as a famous magician. The two are linked through Paul's mother, a tragic figure whose life has taken on an almost religious significance for Dunston.

I don't even know if I can explain why I loved this book so much. It was a well-told story about compelling characters, and was well crafted, too (both in the way the plot worked and in the writing). Most of all, I loved it because it was one of those books that you start reading, and you just sink into it's world. I felt like I knew Deptford, and Dunston, and all the peripheral characters, too. I was so interested in the people in the book, that the plot sort of caught me by surprise at the end - as did the fact that the end was near - a real change from, say Fahrenheit 451, where I was counting down the pages. It was like reading a comfort read - but for the very first time.** And best of all, Fifth Business is the first book in a trilogy! I hope that I like the other two as much as this one. And I secretly hope to learn (as the last few sentences sort of hinted at) that at the end of his life Dunston managed to become the hero of his own story.

*Tangent time -- The whole Canada thing is sort of weird for me, in the following sense. Canada, like America, is a nation of immigrants unless you happen to be a Native American (er, Canadian)/First People/American (Canadian) Indian. My dad, and his ancestors going back are/were Canadian. In fact, I once participated in a smug little presentation about stereotypes in a college class about immigration (in the geography department) with a whole "guess which one of us is a first generation American" bit. And I think that some of my experiences are colored by that - the way I think about World War One, was, for sure, shaped by the fact that my great-grandfather was a veteran. I certainly have a fondness in my heart for the Canadian anthem, poutine and other things Canadian. However, being Canadian isn't really a heritage, like being Irish or Italian or what have you, right? I mean, I am as American as apple pie, deep down. The Fourth of July is my favorite holiday - majored in American history - would never, ever leave the country no matter how much I hated the administration and it's politics. And I can't say that my the fact that my dad was born in Quebec rather than Massachusetts has shaped me too deeply. I mean I didn't say that my experiences were coloured or anything. Hmmm. I will have to ponder on that more, probably someplace other than a poor little book blog entry on Robertson Davies.

** Not to suggest that the book is simple, or not of literary merit. It's just that there are some books that when I read them are so comforting and easy and engrossing, and this book was like that.

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Mar 10, 2010

Jerry added it (review of isbn 0141181362)

My lifelong involvement with the Fifth Business began at 5:58 o’clock pm on 1 March 2010. I still remember the strong feelings and expressions on my face as I eagerly scanned your letter, and I must say Mr Dunstan, your letter was beyond crafty and colourful – it was ingenious. It revealed the truths, the lies, and those burning thoughts you held within your mind for all these years. You took me through a truly marvellous journey.
You had me confused at first when you talked about the ...more My lifelong involvement with the Fifth Business began at 5:58 o’clock pm on 1 March 2010. I still remember the strong feelings and expressions on my face as I eagerly scanned your letter, and I must say Mr Dunstan, your letter was beyond crafty and colourful – it was ingenious. It revealed the truths, the lies, and those burning thoughts you held within your mind for all these years. You took me through a truly marvellous journey.
You had me confused at first when you talked about the Mrs Dempster incident that scarred the life of yourself as well as others. You were erratic in the letter, jumping from different events and times in your life, providing small pieces that were important but would not tell the entire story. Perhaps the most skilfully thing was your ability to arouse my interest in your life as the burning question arose, what is considered “lifelong involvement with Mrs Dempster” and why is this event so crucial in the first place? The design of the entire letter was flawless; with the first few enticing pages you provided the background of a pivotal event along with the hidden meaning of the “fifth business”. Following up with our recent farewell dinner – which I remember so dearly and I must say, you were a great teacher – and finally to the story of your entire life starting from the very beginning. And it is this emotional hook, as I travelled though your life in your eyes, in your thoughts, and in your memories, that allowed me to understand you, the great history teacher, as though our lives have entwined.
The events, thoughts, and choices throughout your life gave you the role as the “fifth business” and I feel compassion and empathy for you. If you were not sledding with Percy, if you had not ducked from the snowball, and it had not hit Mrs Dempster, your life as well as the life of many others would have a completely different fate. Mrs Dempster would not be “simple”, Paul Dempster would not have become a circus freak runaway, and Percy may not have passed away so early, likely because of the guilt he carried for all these years.
The pivotal event and object? Numerous. And unbelievably a simple snowball and a magic trick was more than enough to alter the destiny of the many characters throughout your life. And it is the exploration into themes like religion, saints, myths, choices, moral, guilt, and “fifth business” that makes your life so compelling and intriguing. In your letter, you say, “ he was accusing me of putting playing-cards – he called them the Devil’s picture-book – into the hands of his son Paul”, illustrating a crucial event that influenced Paul to run away from home and also showcasing the connections and importance of religion throughout your life.
The people were displayed through your eyes and your thoughts which was an interesting method to understand the various characters in your life. You say it with such passion, honesty, bias, and at times with humour, that it practically paints a vivid picture within my mind as though I had met everyone one in your life personally.
I usually throw aside long letters like yours, but your story was enlightening and gripping, every page I read. The secrets, the mysteries, the regret, and even the title, they held me until the last few pages of your letter that answers flew out like flying rainbows. I always knew you were a great history professor, and this story has given me a valuable opportunity of understanding you. I must commend you, Mr Dunstan, as your letter has done more than opened up your world and thoughts, with skilful and engaging diction, but it is as if you have painted a beautiful portrait, one that is practically palpable.

And that Dunstan, is all I have to tell you.
Toronto
2010
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Dec 04, 2009

Corinne rated it:

(review of isbn 0141181362)

Read in December, 2009

In Fifth Business, we meet Dunstable Ramsay when he's already an old man. His long years as a schoolmaster and historian have prepared him well to write his own story, to record his own truth. A good portion of this story takes place in the tiny Canadian town of Deptford. Here, everyone has their religion - and piousness is a virtue. For the 10 year old Ramsay, a split second decision (coupled with a stringent guilt complex), creates a situation that changes not only the the course of his life, ...more

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May 22, 2009

James rated it:

(review of isbn 0141186151)

bookshelves: canadian-lit, favorite-authors, fiction, lincolnpark

Read in May, 2009

Fifth Business is the first installment of the Deptford Trilogy by Davies and it is the story of the life of the narrator, Dunstan Ramsay. The entire story is told in the form of a letter written by Ramsay on his retirement from teaching at Colborne College, addressed to the school Headmaster. The book's title was explained by the author as a theatrical term, a character essential to the action but not a principal actor. This is made explicit in the focus of much the action on others, including ...more

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Apr 26, 2009

Shireen McQuade rated it:

(review of isbn 0141181362)

Read in March, 2007

This book is required reading at Robinson HS in 12th Grade, and rightly so. Written by the most famous of Canadian authors, in prose so beautifully crafted and infused with Davies inimitable wit, it tells the story of two boyhood friends, one wealthy, handsome, a boy who has everything, and his envious friend, the less affluent narrator. The narrator witnesses his friend, at the age of eight, throw a snow ball at a pregnant woman whose life is changed for the worse thereafter. The narrator fe...more

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Dec 24, 2008

Jeanette rated it:

(review of isbn 0141181362)

bookshelves: all-fiction, canada, classics, four-star-fiction

Read in December, 2008

This story is somewhat bizarre, and yet somehow oddly compelling. I kept telling myself I'd read just a little more, little more.......

The surface story is the autobiography of the narrator, "Dunny" Ramsay. He gets offended by a retirement piece written about him that makes him appear as a dim and dull old boarding school teacher who never had anything interesting happen to him. He writes his own story to set the record straight and tells about his upbringing, service in...more

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Feb 06, 2010

Dennison Berwick rated it:

(review of isbn 0141181362)

Read in January, 2010

Are you responsible for how your life turns out or is it decided before you’re born? That’s the intriguing, and ancient, question Canadian author Robertson Davies asks in his famous novel Fifth Business. A boy puts a stone inside a snowball and hurls it at his friend. He ducks and the lethal snowball hits a pregnant passer-by who gives birth to a premature baby boy. Of the three boys, one becomes a wealthy businessman, another a priest and university teacher, and the third a Houdini-type es...more

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Aug 10, 2009

Becky rated it:

(review of isbn 0141186151)

Read in August, 2009

Recommended to me by a very nice librarian with a wild mustache when I said I was looking for something sort of like Margaret Atwood. He also compared it to John Irving, which I think is incredibly apt.

Very very good, with an incredibly disturbing and wonderful ending (that echoes the beginning). The characters are fascinating but also have weight and don't just feel merely quirky or symbolic - it succeeds at the important double job of being artistically complex and being a good sto...more

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Jun 03, 2009

Starfish rated it:

(review of isbn 014004387X)

Read in June, 2009

recommended to Starfish by: Moxy Furious

I choose this book from EPIC on a whim and the fact that the cover was genial, and the author is name-checked in a Moxy Furious song ("Who needs a shave? It's Robertson Davies!"). Also, it was falling apart and for a book to get itself into that state, it's got to be interesting.

I loved it, for what I suspect might be all the wrong reasons. Ramsey, the narrator, has lived a life that would be narrow and deprived if it wasn't for the fact that he invests it with a mythic qua...more

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Jan 17, 2009

Paul rated it:

(review of isbn 0141181362)

Read in September, 2008

There's so much to reflect on in this relatively short book. The main character is 'fifth business', apparently a stock role in opera, a role for one who is characterized as knowing 'the secret of the hero's birth.' But it's hard to figure out who's the hero and who's the villain. Things aren't so clear, especially in a book where the devil is given a constructive, sympathetic role. The book is full of interesting suggestions about religion and myth. Finally, this book gives new meaning to the t...more

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Dec 13, 2009

Kate marked it as to-read (review of isbn 0141181362)

bookshelves: to-read

In an interview with Shelf Awareness, author Loren D. Estleman answered the question "What book are you an evangelist for?" with this title. So I was intrigued to check it out.

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Loren D. Estleman has written more than 60 novels and 200 stories in a range of genres: mystery, western and general. Next year Forge Books will commemorate the 30th anniversary of his creation of Detroit private eye Amos Walker with The Left-Handed Dollar, the 20th book in th...more

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Dec 22, 2009

Jen3n rated it:

(review of isbn 0141181362)

bookshelves: classic, favorites, literature

I suppose I could also call this a mystery, but the reader technically doesn't know that there will be a murder or a murderer until the very end of the book. The reader instead is given the motive and the means underneath a great deal of history, wonder, philosophy and the wonderful memoirs of a gentleman of scholarly pursuits from Canada.

This book is delightful and hopeful and realistic as well as fantastic and dark and gentle. It's well written and one of my favorite novels.
...more

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Oct 03, 2009

Shanda rated it:

(review of isbn 0141181362)

Read in November, 2009

I really enjoyed this first book in the Deptford Trilogy. This story follows the life of Dunstable Ramsay from his life in provincial Deptford to the trenches in WWI to his career as a schoolmaster and most importantly his interest in saints and writings about them and where that leads him. Another key part of the story is when he ducks a snowball and it hits a pregnant woman resulting in a premature birth of her baby. This experience and his resulting guilt and responsibility for Mary Demptst...more

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Apr 09, 2009

Lucy rated it:

(review of isbn 0141181362)

Read in June, 2009

I read this based on a friend's suggestion, as the book was selected as part of a Canadian literature assignment. In fact, the book was selected as a replacement for another book that had offensive material in it that my friend's daughter did not want to read. Barb's review mentioned that she didn't think the teacher really understood her objections if Fifth Business was considered better.

If that is in fact what my friend, Barb, thought (sorry Barb - I'm paraphrasing from memory. Pl...more

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Oct 20, 2008

Valerie rated it:

(review of isbn 0141181362)

bookshelves: 2008-2009-dc, contemporary-lit

Read in November, 2008

Fifth Business is perhaps an anti-bildungroman--I'm still working it out. The tale is a retrospective regionalist narrative full of colorful and sometimes monstrous characters and situations, and, true to the genre, women play key roles facilitating social intergration and downfall. But in this book, education--the whole point of the genre--occurs only in summer holidays. And the character achieves his spiritual and personal growth at the expense of social recognition in his daily milieu. In fac...more

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Sep 28, 2008

Andrew Watt rated it:

(review of isbn 0141181362)

bookshelves: fiction

Read in January, 2008

recommends it for: EVERYONE

My father recommended Robertson Davies' fourth novel, Fifth Business, to me more than two years ago, and exacted terrible oaths from me that I would return the books when I was done with them. I am heartily glad I did not simply return them unread, and I am kicking myself that I did not read this book earlier. I may have to buy him another copy of his own. This may have just become my favorite novel ever, after just one reading. It needs another perusal— not right away, but once the terrible, ...more My father recommended Robertson Davies' fourth novel, Fifth Business, to me more than two years ago, and exacted terrible oaths from me that I would return the books when I was done with them. I am heartily glad I did not simply return them unread, and I am kicking myself that I did not read this book earlier. I may have to buy him another copy of his own. This may have just become my favorite novel ever, after just one reading. It needs another perusal— not right away, but once the terrible, joyous thrill of having read a book that set my mind and heart afire in this way has cooled. I cannot help but feel it will burn again.

Part of my pleasure lay in the great uncertainty I felt at knowing what genre of novel I was reading. Carl Hiaassen writes about real estate, corruption and environment in Florida. You know that; that's why you pick up one of his books. Dick Francis novels have horses on the cover, which provides a helpful clue; so do the drops of blood. This had a snow-covered village landscape, which was not promising. Plus, the author was Canadian. It could have been literally about anything.

And yet. And yet. One of the British hostages in Beirut during the days of the Reagan administration reported that he told his captors that he was bored and wanted to read, and would they bring him a book. They brought him a bunch of books, mostly trash, and he had to pick out one published by Penguin Books, and show it to his suspicious and militant guards. "You see this penguin?" he said. "Bring me books with this picture on it. Please."

Robertson Davies's book has a penguin on it. I should not have been surprised.

The book opens with the narrator's writing to the headmaster of a school. I am familiar with this particular modality of writing, having done so much of it myself. However, I am certainly not in the habit of addressing my boss in such luridly disrespectful tones. How much more deliciously exciting to discover that the main character, the narrator, is not a punk student determined to prove how all the adults around him are phonies, but a retired teacher of more than forty years' experience, the last few under this same head of school!

Recalling the events of the last seventy years, the teacher draws the head's attention to a recent article in the alumni magazine announcing our narrator's retirement. He is furious at how little he has been understood, how little his colleagues and students have grasped his essential place in history — not simply as an educator of boys who grow into important men, nor as an occasional scribbler of the role of myth in history, but as a genuine historical force, one who helped raise up mighty men and brought them low.

From here, the novel proceeds with spare but lucid epistolary prose — Dunstable Ramsay, our teacher, explains how he has moved and shook the world in spare detail, only explaining the necessary information, imparting the vital conversations, with specific detail of who has done what. By turns, Dunstable veers from the mythically holy library of his hometown, where he initiates a boy into the secrets of magic, to the glittering circle of a great man ensorcelled by a dangerously confused prince, to the killing fields of Flanders in World War I. The Great Mother appears to him, first as a .. a.. but to say it would spoil it... but ... and then ... and finally as a... but to say too much is to tread on the feet of the next reader. My mind kept asking, is this fantasy? Is this science fiction? Is it simply a pretentious novel? Is it a thriller? What is this thing I am reading? Autobiography? Memoir? I kept reading.

I have read a lot of books. Usually the last twenty pages or so of the average sci-fi or fantasy novel is a wrap-up, or a terrible cliff-hanger. Until the last five pages of the book I had no idea what was happening, even though I understood everything that had happened. I was a historian in possession of facts and dates, but no comprehension of how they fit together. Things that had bothered me in the first pages became suddenly clear and lucid as glass — nay, as diamond — and glittering truths burned at my fingerprints as I held the book. How could I have been so blind? Why did these chance comments seem so offhand before, and now burn brightly in my memory? How was I so deceived as to the nature of things?

I dare say I wasn't a good teacher today. I was simply enthralled that I had been so duped, so utterly and charmingly bamboozled by a man who could teach Obi-Wan, Mentor and Merlin a lesson or two and that a teacher — a man acknowledged by all to be at the point farthest from the bright center of the universe — should so masterfully bring the whole grand endeavor to its lusty, lurid, ugly, joyously just and beautifully wrathful conclusion.

I am in awe.

And I have just learned, there are at least three more books in the same series.

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Aug 15, 2008

helena rated it:

(review of isbn 0141181362)

Read in August, 2008

I subscribe on my google homepage to a 'quote of the day,' which I check perhaps twice in a week at most. It has, on many occasions, led me to discover marvels of literature, entertainment, etc. of whom I would never have heard otherwise. Robertson Davies is one such discovery, and 'Fifth Business,' the first in his Deptford Triligy, is truly marvelous.

Davies seems to be more well known for his work in the Theater, which is perhaps why this book is so captivating; and yet, if you ask...more

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Apr 20, 2008

Amanda rated it:

(review of isbn 0141181362)

Read in April, 2009

This book was surprisingly good. That's not to mean that I didn't expect it to be good, but at first, I didn't realize how engrossed in the story I actually was. As I began reading the book, I thought it was ok, but then I realized that instead of just reading 1 chapter ilke I intended, I'd read one chapter, and then another, and then another, and so on and so on until I'd eventually force myself to put the book down.

It's not one of those stories that's so exciting you can't put it...more

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Mar 17, 2008

Helen rated it:

(review of isbn 0141181362)

bookshelves: read-in-2008

Read in March, 2008

I discovered Fifth Business in a pile of books at my parents house and it had an interesting cover so I picked it up. What a find! Apparently, Robertson Davies was an important Canadian writer I haven't heard of until a few days ago. If you don't know about him, you should. Put this on your list and read it. You won't be disappointed. I can't really say much about the plot or characters without giving too much away, but it follows the narrator over a span of fifty years along with some other cha...more

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