<![CDATA[The Deptford Trilogy]]>

false <![CDATA[The Deptford Trilogy]]>

74403

"Who killed Boy Staunton?" This is the question that lies at the heart of Robertson Davies's elegant trilogy comprising Fifth Business, The Manticore, and World of Wonders. Indeed, Staunton's death is the central event of each of the three novels, and Rashomon-style, each circles round to view it from a different perspective. In the first book, Fifth Business, Davies introduces us to Dunstan Ramsey and his "lifelong friend and enemy, Percy Boyd Staunton," both aged 10. It is a winter evening in the small Canadian village of Deptford, and Ramsey and Boy have quarreled. In a rage, Boy throws a snowball with a stone in it, misses his friend and hits the Baptist minister's pregnant wife by mistake. She becomes hysterical and later that night delivers her child prematurely, a baby with birth defects. Even worse, she loses her mind. The snowball, the stone, the deformed baby christened Paul Dempster--this is the secret guilt that will bind Ramsey and Staunton together through their long lives: <blockquote>I was perfectly sure, you see, that the birth of Paul Dempster, so small, so feeble, and troublesome, was my fault. If I had not been so clever, so sly, so spiteful in hopping in front of the Dempsters just as Percy Boyd Staunton threw that snowball at me from behind, Mrs. Dempster would not have been struck. Did I never think that Percy was guilty? Indeed I did.</blockquote> Boy, however, "would fight, lie, do anything rather than admit" he feels guilty, too, and so the subject remains unresolved between them right up until the night Boy's body is found in his car, in a lake, with a stone in his mouth. The second novel, The Manticore, follows Staunton's son, David, through a course of Jungian therapy in Switzerland, while World of Wonders concentrates on Magnus Eisengrim, a renowned magician and hypnotist with ties to both Ramsey and Boy Staunton. When it came to writing, three was Davies's favorite number. Before the Deptford books, he wrote The Salterton Trilogy (Tempest-Tost, Leaven of Malice, A Mixture of Frailties), and after it came The Cornish Trilogy (The Rebel Angels, What's Bred in the Bone, The Lyre of Orpheus). Excellent as these and Davies's other novels are, The Deptford Trilogy is arguably the masterpiece for which he'll best be remembered, as the combination of magic, archetype, and good, old-fashioned human frailty at work in these novels is a world of wonders unto itself, and guarantees these three books a permanent place among the great books of our time. --Alix Wilber

1352

1985

The Deptford Trilogy

total:935|5:491|4:320|3:107|2:12|1:5|

935

4085

1259

3 2 false false Wed Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Tue Jul 17 08:54:18 -0700 2007 Tue Aug 28 06:50:55 -0700 2007 ==============

This is a good book. It doesn't belong to my favorite class of artistic works, which I think of as the "Fire and Forked Lightning" variety. But it's quite good.

Roberston Davies tells his tale in a slightly detached, leisurely pace ...more...]]> 5 2 false false Wed Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 1995 Sat Apr 12 20:38:22 -0700 2008 Tue Apr 29 20:07:12 -0700 2008
If I recall correctly, the only book avai...more...]]> 5 1 false false Sat Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2005 Tue May 15 17:07:13 -0700 2007 Tue May 15 17:25:25 -0700 2007 No, I am not Canadian.

This book skirts a very fine line between the entirely possible and the gothically surreal. Told in trilogy form the story sprawls in the best possible way. The book is worth re...more...]]> 5 1 false false Mon Apr 21 19:24:05 -0700 2008 Mon Apr 21 19:35:25 -0700 2008
Anyways, somebody I barely know suggested it. I'm glad he did...it got me through a tough time. Took my mind to another place when it was in another place to begin with. ...more...]]> 5 1 false false Thu Sep 13 11:08:56 -0700 2007 Thu Sep 13 11:10:21 -0700 2007 0 0 false false Mon Dec 29 09:39:21 -0800 2008 Mon Dec 29 10:49:20 -0800 2008 more...]]> 3 0 false false Tue Jul 08 07:21:40 -0700 2008 Mon Dec 22 21:12:15 -0800 2008 Despite this, I still think "Fifth Business," the first volume, is absolutely brilliant and one of the best things I've ever read. Dunstan Ramsay struck a chord with me, and I found his narrati...more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon May 26 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sat Mar 29 13:31:53 -0700 2008 Mon May 26 18:13:15 -0700 2008 It's true that nobody talks like that anymore, if they ever did, but it's a fascinat...more...]]> 5 0 false false Sat Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2000 Sat Dec 15 07:28:33 -0800 2007 Sat Dec 15 07:35:14 -0800 2007 more...]]> 5 0 false false Wed Nov 01 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Tue Oct 30 19:10:14 -0700 2007 Tue Oct 30 19:12:45 -0700 2007 more...]]> 5 0 false false Thu Sep 10 19:02:28 -0700 2009 Thu Sep 10 19:07:19 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Thu Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Mon Dec 24 12:59:30 -0800 2007 Mon Dec 24 13:04:38 -0800 2007 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Thu May 21 07:50:08 -0700 2009 Thu May 21 07:57:39 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Sat Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sat Dec 08 09:01:51 -0800 2007 Sat May 31 17:00:32 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 1 false false Fri Jun 12 07:07:48 -0700 2009 Fri Jun 12 07:11:45 -0700 2009 5 1 false false Wed Mar 04 21:49:49 -0800 2009 Wed Mar 04 21:53:02 -0800 2009 4 0 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2002 Wed Sep 16 03:46:11 -0700 2009 Wed Sep 16 04:25:33 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Mon Sep 14 17:29:56 -0700 2009 Mon Sep 14 17:31:11 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Mon Aug 24 06:17:40 -0700 2009 Mon Aug 24 06:18:55 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Sat Mar 28 22:25:14 -0700 2009 Sat Mar 28 22:27:34 -0700 2009 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=74403