A Voice From The Attic

by Robertson Davies

Outlining the delights of reading, the author tells of what mass education has done to readers, to taste, to books and to culture. The book covers writers from various countries and old and recently-published books, both well-known and obscure. From the author of "What's Bred in the Bone".

Genres: Nonfiction, Books About Books, Canada, Essays, Literary Criticism, Canadian Literature

Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 1960

About the author

William Robertson Davies, CC, FRSC, FRSL (died in Orangeville, Ontario) was a Canadian novelist, playwright, critic, journalist, and professor. He was one of Canada's best-known and most popular authors, and one of its most distinguished "men of letters", a term Davies is sometimes said to have detested. Davies was the founding Master of Massey College, a graduate college at the University of Toronto.

Novels:

The Salterton Trilogy
• Tempest-tost (1951)
• Leaven of Malice (1954)
• A Mixture of Frailties (1958)
The Deptford Trilogy
• Fifth Business (1970)
• The Manticore (1972)
• World of Wonders (1975)
The Cornish Trilogy
• The Rebel Angels (1981)
• What's Bred in the Bone (1985)
• The Lyre of Orpheus (1988)
The Toronto Trilogy (Davies' final, incomplete, trilogy)
• Murther and Walking Spirits (1991)
• The Cunning Man (1994)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robertso...

Reviews

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is a series of essays, that are a declaration of love for reading and kind of a manifesto for the clerisy, who are: “those who read for pleasure, but not for idleness; who read for pastime but not to kill time; who love books, but do not live by books.”

Well, that would be us I guess? All of us here, on goodreads? So it is a call for us, to stand-up, see our worth, make our voice heard, and take our place in the intellectual landscape. And not the least to think by yourselves, as opposed to giving up to peer-pressure. Read books of quality, and have strength to present our own views as they are, independent, or maybe even contrary, to the fashion, peers, critics and prevailing tides.

I am sure that professor Robertson Davies does it much better than I do, so let him speak in his own words about the problem with independence:

“The clerisy is not alert, not self-conscious, and unready to make known its enthusiasm for anything which does not appear on the best-seller lists. These lists appear to dominate the attention, and perhaps also the taste, of people who ought to have independent judgements and make them known” (...) “We seem now to be content with the domination of a handful of literary supplements to the national newspapers, and a few magazines which carry book reviews of the better kind. These publications are in turn dominated, to a considerable degree, by the fashion of academic criticism. And thus, we arrive at a condition where a highbrow public reads what even higher highbrows tell it must be read, and a much larger middlebrow public reads the best-sellers and virtually nothing else.”...

Since we are all free to read what we like and express what we think, it may not be a problem, and yet going against the stream and giving a star or two to a really popular book is not always easy, not mentioning reviewing books that for some reason are controversial, so maybe we do have to work on that independence a little more?

And there is of course plenty more thoughts about what to read, and how to read it, what may no be a worth reading, what kinds of books are being written and for whom. Some of it very enjoyable, some a bit lengthy and sometimes a bit archaic, and perhaps not always politically correct. But Robertson Davis would’ve been 105 years old today, and perhaps me seeing his luck of correctness is exactly a part of the problem that he is describing.

And now, having read through the last chapter that contains the conclusions I feel a need to start from the beginning because knowing the actual “view from the attic” I feel I would enjoy the texts even more.

[verbava · Rating 4 out of 5]

робертсон девіс, звісно, сноб і заноза, але як же втішно знайти в такій заразі рідну душу.

It is, of course, very difficult to draw a portrait of a good and resolute virgin, and in evidence we may produce the dim creatures who serve as heroines in the novels of J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, and Charles Williams – three whom Mr. Fuller praises for their mastery of the demonic element in fiction. Demons these writers may understand: women, no.

[про "a body of American novelists of whom James Jones and Norman Mailer are but two"] Several of them are men of undoubted literary gifts and they are writing of "what presses most." Are they immature in intellect? If so, they call to a corresponding immaturity in a large body of readers. Their chief defect seems to be that they are desperately badly educated; potentially powerful intelligences have been given nothing to feed on, and they operate in a society where most people are as deprived as themselves.

[Simon · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's taken me rather a long time to read this and that is a fact which puzzles me because I've enjoyed every page. Davies is tremendously well-read and informed both by this breadth and depth of reading and by a life well lived (i.e. with his senses open and receptive). He's great company and draws you in even when expressing his more curious ideas about obscure books and writers. His essays have the huge authority of having been thought through by an intelligent man with a love of libraries.

There is a richness in the mix that makes reading for more than 30 minutes difficult. (The greatest English television comedian of the sixties and seventies, Eric Sykes, had a similar effect on me...I'd roar with laughter for fifteen minutes and then switch off the second half.) Davies is forthright and combative and bloody good company. I spent much of my early adulthood looking for the ideal pub and the ideal pub companion. I found a few that/who came close and worked for a while. I would have loved to have had Robertson Davies as a pub companion. The best ones are a little dogmatic (I'm naturally more of a listener than an orator in pubs and I like my interlocutor to be confident in their views). The problem with such companions is that they are invariably the sort of drinker who is not only still standing, but still apparently sober after 12 pints. By that time I'm singing Asleep in the Deep. Davies thunders on.

He's great on James and Dickens, Waugh and Maugham but, like a true taproom raconteur, he is better on the sensational, the salacious, the crude. His explorations of pornography (by which he really means Sade, Madame Bovery, Lady Chatterley and the raunchier extremes of Balzac) and self-help books are a treat. The book will rest on a nearby shelf. I shall be dipping back into it.

[Tim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Davies addresses this book to the clerisy, those who like to read books. It is not a call to action, but a call to respect for the art of reading well. Davies response is unabashedly elitist, "There is not democracy in the world of intellect, and no democracy of taste," but in the right way, demanding that readers be educated in the fine art of reading and developing their own literary judgment. He then writes on the history of self improvement and sexual advice books, on 19th century fiction and reading theatrical works, on the history of humor books and printed pornography (very broadly defined and remember this was first printed in 1960), finally ending with the longest chapter on writers, including amateurs, best-sellers and the avant-garde. The chapters all hang together loosely, but it is enjoyable to dip into it and get Davies' opinion, never hidden for long.

[Justin Howe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everyone who enjoys reading should read this book. It's less a love letter to books, as one man's love letter to some books which he broadens to encompass the act of reading in general.

In other words it's a "Fuck yeah! Books!" in as much as a nebbish and/or stodgy intellectual would raise his or her fist in the air and shout "Fuck yeah! Books!"

[Laurie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Insightful - as always- but written in the 1950s - it's now very out of date. Some truths, however, are eternal.

[Glen Engel-Cox · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although billed as a collection, this series of essays holds its own as an extended monologue. Davies, as erudite a reader and writer as you will ever discover, is not for the faint of head. In his argument here, he attempts to describe why reading--intense, concentrated reading--can be valued as art. The likely argument against this idea is that reading is not an act of creation, which art aspires to. He quickly deflates that argument with a description of reading that could apply just as well to performance art.

Although some of the writers he mentions here will likely be unknown to modern readers (they were certainly unusual to me), the points he makes are universal. We are in need of this even more today than when it was written.

[W · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a wonderful little book packed with some rather large insights.

I am appreciative of coming across many authors and their works that I had, hitherto, not heard of.

If anything is to be inculcated into the 'clerisy' it should be that reading shall remain despite its or society's mercurial nature.

[Erin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a marvelous appeal to the clerisy. I hadn’t heard of Davies before I read of this book, and I’m so grateful I found it, as it will be a part of my permanent collection. His insights are both shrewd and conspiratorial - he reminds me of the best literature professors in small liberal arts colleges. Five stars.

[Vincent Hernot · Rating 5 out of 5]

A DELIGHT
A wonderful, wonderful book, going in search of voice, of style, of what is literature what it is for, for whom, by whom...
it seems rambling but is in fact very tightly organised, and builds upon itself impressively.
It's wonderful: opinionated, argumentative, funny, loving...
I knew Davis as a great novelist, but this puts him up there as essayist.
A DELIGHT

[Dennis Nehrenheim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Context & Why I read this book
Reading more does not equal reading better, but this year I challenge myself to read 52 books in order to become a better reader. Some of the books I selected for this are on the process of reading itself. This is also the case for "A Voice from the Attic". I did not know exactly what this book would entail, but the subtitle "Essays on the Art of Reading" was catchy enough for me to include it.

What is the book about as a whole?
This book is multiple things
1. a plea for the "clerisy" to return and form a union once again.
2. a collection of book reviews and recommendations, sorted into categories like self-help, history, drama, humor, and even pornography
3. an attempt to answer several questions like what reading is, why you should read, what a good book is, how to categorize books etc.
4. An interesting and worthwhile collection of related essays on the art of reading

The book's structure
The book is divided in 8 chapters:
I. A Call to the Clerisy
II. Enjoying and Enduring
III. Ovid Is Not Their Master
IV. From the Well of the Past
V. Making the Best of Second Best
VI. The Hue and Cry after a Good Laugh
VII. In Pursuit of Pyrography
VIII. Spelunking on Parnassus

One lesson
Davies sums up all self-help books with the Latin phrase "Vol enter ducti, nolenterm trahit" meaning "success will come to those who want it most, and will avoid those who, for whatever reason, stand in their own way."

Reading Recommendation / Who should read this?
For me and my current attempt to become a better reader, this was an interesting little detour. However, even if it is a very good book in itself, I don't think this is a book for "everyone"; instead it is only intended for the clerisy (people, who "read for pleasure, but not for idleness; who read for pastime but not to kill time; who love books, but do not live by books"). Since my ratings also reflect general reading recommendations, I rate this niche-focused book here only a 6 out of 10 (⭑⭑⭑) — if you count yourself to the celerity (which if you are reading this on Goodreads you quite likely do), it could well be a 7 or even 8 for you.

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Find my other book reviews at: https://www.dennisnehrenheim.com/read

[Julie-Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

"[the clerisy are those who read] for pleasure, for emotional and intellectual expansion, for the exercise of the sensibilities"

"reading is a private, interpretive act. Let us have no printed shrieks about reading"

"We all have slumbering realms of sensibility which can be coaxed into wakefulness by books"

"the clerisy must expect to be called intellectuals, a word which has been given both a comic and sinister connotation of late years"

"the complex voodoo which is thought necessary in even the most perfunctory novel to clap two ninnies together"

"We tend to have narrow notions about our own times"

"We all find it easier to be eloquent about and amusing about what has displeasured us, though we do not all make professional capital of it"

"What is a good book, says the sophist, smiling like a wolf trap. Any book is a good book which feeds the mind something which may enlarge it, or move it to action. A book is good in relation to its reader"

"To be always in the coldly critical vein is to diminish one's own pleasure and perhaps do oneself permanent harm"

[Sandy Yang · Rating 5 out of 5]

I pre-rate it 5 stars for the prologue and the first 30 pages of the book. It's a must-read about reading for those who like to read novels. I couldn't believe I had to be a Robertson Davies fan to come across this book. If it was written in Chinese, the book would have been in the reading list for all university students in China.

[Jef]

this is a book for people who love to read books. prof. davies was a learned, well-read man, and loved to share his love of reading with others.

[Grggls · Rating 4 out of 5]

eye opening

[Jennifer Rilstone · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating look at genres of Victorian literature, though not a book about Victorian times. I can never get enough of Davies' prose.