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The Deptford Trilogy #1
Fifth Business
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 and destined to be caught in a no man's land where memory, history, and myth collide. As Ramsay tells his story, it begins to seem that from boyhood, he has exerted a perhaps mystical, perhaps pernicious, influence on those around him. His apparently innocent involvement in such innocuous events as the throwing of a snowball or the teaching of card tricks to a small boy in the end prove neither innocent nor innocuous. Fifth Business stands alone as a remarkable story told by a rational man who discovers that the marvelous is only another aspect of the real.
252 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1970
About the author
Robertson Davies
161 books849 followersWilliam 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...
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...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,393 reviews
April 13, 2024
The high school friend who managed - somehow - to hitch me with my lifelong soulmate and wife from a distance of thousands of miles away, many, many years ago, was FIFTH BUSINESS!
Whuzzat, you ask? Well, to find that out you’ll have to read the book.
But it’s some sort of really Strange Magic, as ELO sang at the time I met my wife in the Seventies...
Davies’ trilogy is Magic too.
This is the first book. All three together make up a long and intriguing journey through the magically murky labyrinths of the human mind.
Life’s not easy, as we all know! But here it’s magical - and parochial, small-town Ontario was never so strangely and savagely serendipitous BEFORE Boy Staunton threw that accursed Snowball.. .
And suddenly it’s a World of Good and Evil Wonders, as if suddenly blanketed in a new two-foot sparkling carpet of Lake Effect snow, with ironic icicles hanging by the wall!
That’s where this novel starts. You step into medias res, like in a classical epic - only, if you’re the impressionable kind I was, it seems to open up much like The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe presented Narnia - in a shimmering Ice Age of the human spirit.
And Fifth Business is a progressively more complicated, murky and allusive affair, as it morphs into the carnival of capricious capers that lurks in the two companion novels of this, the Deptford Trilogy, all set off aptly by the plodding, dourly academic main character (Davies himself?) Dunstan.
I could have met Robertson Davies back in those early days of my life, had my high school marks permitted me to attend the U of T English Faculty.
You’d see him most days of the week, they used to say, on the leafy campus - with his long white beard and long white hair, like some Old Testament prophet, decked out in a swanky beret, the nattiest tweeds and twirling an ivory cane!
But he was a highly respected teacher, and a DYNAMITE writer. And a real old-fashioned CHARACTER!
This book’s got it all: magic, mystery, and merry Bohemian and Bay Street Mayhem!
And you know, if you trust in your lucky stars, even the WORST times in your life - like Staunton’s fateful snowball toss was for some - can end up producing very good things for you.
Like the serendipitous Fifth Business that long ago introduced me to the girl that was to become my wife...
And in a FLASH, the Evil in my life was transformed into Good.
It’s like, if that unstable ‘mixture of frailties’ that is our own uneven lives HADN’T happened the exact way it did, we would never have been as happy as we turned out to be in the end - TRULY Deus Ex Machina, as they said in olden times.
Though as Socrates says in Plato’s Eurythro, we all end up paying a penalty to each other for EACH misdeed!
And if there is evil intent in an act of Fifth Business, that evil will be mitigated. And the good are saved harmless.
Read the book to find out more...
For as the old folks used to say in the good old days, back when life was simple, IT ALL COMES OUT IN THE WASH...
FIVE of the FINEST STARS for this Magnificent Read.
Whuzzat, you ask? Well, to find that out you’ll have to read the book.
But it’s some sort of really Strange Magic, as ELO sang at the time I met my wife in the Seventies...
Davies’ trilogy is Magic too.
This is the first book. All three together make up a long and intriguing journey through the magically murky labyrinths of the human mind.
Life’s not easy, as we all know! But here it’s magical - and parochial, small-town Ontario was never so strangely and savagely serendipitous BEFORE Boy Staunton threw that accursed Snowball.. .
And suddenly it’s a World of Good and Evil Wonders, as if suddenly blanketed in a new two-foot sparkling carpet of Lake Effect snow, with ironic icicles hanging by the wall!
That’s where this novel starts. You step into medias res, like in a classical epic - only, if you’re the impressionable kind I was, it seems to open up much like The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe presented Narnia - in a shimmering Ice Age of the human spirit.
And Fifth Business is a progressively more complicated, murky and allusive affair, as it morphs into the carnival of capricious capers that lurks in the two companion novels of this, the Deptford Trilogy, all set off aptly by the plodding, dourly academic main character (Davies himself?) Dunstan.
I could have met Robertson Davies back in those early days of my life, had my high school marks permitted me to attend the U of T English Faculty.
You’d see him most days of the week, they used to say, on the leafy campus - with his long white beard and long white hair, like some Old Testament prophet, decked out in a swanky beret, the nattiest tweeds and twirling an ivory cane!
But he was a highly respected teacher, and a DYNAMITE writer. And a real old-fashioned CHARACTER!
This book’s got it all: magic, mystery, and merry Bohemian and Bay Street Mayhem!
And you know, if you trust in your lucky stars, even the WORST times in your life - like Staunton’s fateful snowball toss was for some - can end up producing very good things for you.
Like the serendipitous Fifth Business that long ago introduced me to the girl that was to become my wife...
And in a FLASH, the Evil in my life was transformed into Good.
It’s like, if that unstable ‘mixture of frailties’ that is our own uneven lives HADN’T happened the exact way it did, we would never have been as happy as we turned out to be in the end - TRULY Deus Ex Machina, as they said in olden times.
Though as Socrates says in Plato’s Eurythro, we all end up paying a penalty to each other for EACH misdeed!
And if there is evil intent in an act of Fifth Business, that evil will be mitigated. And the good are saved harmless.
Read the book to find out more...
For as the old folks used to say in the good old days, back when life was simple, IT ALL COMES OUT IN THE WASH...
FIVE of the FINEST STARS for this Magnificent Read.
May 4, 2017
4.5 stars
"Those roles which, being neither those of Hero nor Heroine, Confidante nor Villain, but which were nonetheless essential to bring about the Recognition or the denouement, were called the Fifth Business in drama and opera companies organized according to the old style; the player who acted these parts was often referred to as Fifth Business."
Dunstan Ramsay was born in the small town of Deptford, Ontario. In 1908, at the age of ten, he is unknowingly cast in "the vital though never glorious role of Fifth Business" due to an untimely event that will ultimately weigh on his conscience for the rest of his life. This role of course is not a literal one – Dunstan is not an actor in a play or opera, yet he is a person who seems to have an influence on the lives of another small cast of characters in his real life drama. His feelings of guilt over this tragic occurrence will ultimately affect many of the decisions he later makes in his life in order to atone for what he considers to be his sin. His story covers nearly forty years and is told in the form of a first-person sort of memoir. We as readers have to question whether his guilt is such that he should take on so much responsibility for his actions over the course of his life.
On the surface, this book seems to be about growing up in a small-minded town, the effect of the horrors of World War I on a man’s body and psyche, the marvel of magic, and an obsession with the saints. It is about those things; but Canadian author Robertson Davies brilliantly weaves all of these elements together into something that is so much more than what we initially perceive. The narrative and the point of view used allow us to glimpse just a bit of what is really happening here a little at a time. While I enjoyed Dunstan’s story throughout, I did not realize just how cleverly this was written until I neared the end. The prose is crisp and clear and oftentimes with a bit of sarcastic wit. "Some thought that my known habit of reading a great deal had unseated my reason, and perhaps that dreadful disease ‘brain fever,’ supposed to attack students, was not far off. One or two friends suggested to my father that immediate removal from school, and a year or two of hard work on a farm, might cure me." The characters are well-drawn and memorable, all playing their ‘assigned roles’ quite perfectly in retrospect.
I am finding it difficult to provide an overview of this novel, but it is most definitely one for those that crave something literary, creative, and meaningful. Choose it at a time when you want to exercise your brain – not that it is difficult to read by any means, but in order to get the most out of it you will want to clearly focus on all that it has to offer. It certainly made me question to what extent our actions – or omissions – affect the lives of others and at what point can we say that we have paid our debt so to speak. Or is the debt ever truly repaid? This is my first Robertson Davies book; and I will be adding the next in the trilogy and seeing what else I have missed by yet another gifted author.
"This is one of the cruelties of the theatre of life; we all think of ourselves as stars and rarely recognize it when we are indeed mere supporting characters or even supernumeraries."
"Those roles which, being neither those of Hero nor Heroine, Confidante nor Villain, but which were nonetheless essential to bring about the Recognition or the denouement, were called the Fifth Business in drama and opera companies organized according to the old style; the player who acted these parts was often referred to as Fifth Business."
Dunstan Ramsay was born in the small town of Deptford, Ontario. In 1908, at the age of ten, he is unknowingly cast in "the vital though never glorious role of Fifth Business" due to an untimely event that will ultimately weigh on his conscience for the rest of his life. This role of course is not a literal one – Dunstan is not an actor in a play or opera, yet he is a person who seems to have an influence on the lives of another small cast of characters in his real life drama. His feelings of guilt over this tragic occurrence will ultimately affect many of the decisions he later makes in his life in order to atone for what he considers to be his sin. His story covers nearly forty years and is told in the form of a first-person sort of memoir. We as readers have to question whether his guilt is such that he should take on so much responsibility for his actions over the course of his life.
On the surface, this book seems to be about growing up in a small-minded town, the effect of the horrors of World War I on a man’s body and psyche, the marvel of magic, and an obsession with the saints. It is about those things; but Canadian author Robertson Davies brilliantly weaves all of these elements together into something that is so much more than what we initially perceive. The narrative and the point of view used allow us to glimpse just a bit of what is really happening here a little at a time. While I enjoyed Dunstan’s story throughout, I did not realize just how cleverly this was written until I neared the end. The prose is crisp and clear and oftentimes with a bit of sarcastic wit. "Some thought that my known habit of reading a great deal had unseated my reason, and perhaps that dreadful disease ‘brain fever,’ supposed to attack students, was not far off. One or two friends suggested to my father that immediate removal from school, and a year or two of hard work on a farm, might cure me." The characters are well-drawn and memorable, all playing their ‘assigned roles’ quite perfectly in retrospect.
I am finding it difficult to provide an overview of this novel, but it is most definitely one for those that crave something literary, creative, and meaningful. Choose it at a time when you want to exercise your brain – not that it is difficult to read by any means, but in order to get the most out of it you will want to clearly focus on all that it has to offer. It certainly made me question to what extent our actions – or omissions – affect the lives of others and at what point can we say that we have paid our debt so to speak. Or is the debt ever truly repaid? This is my first Robertson Davies book; and I will be adding the next in the trilogy and seeing what else I have missed by yet another gifted author.
"This is one of the cruelties of the theatre of life; we all think of ourselves as stars and rarely recognize it when we are indeed mere supporting characters or even supernumeraries."
June 2, 2018
Canada behind the gloss
For me Robertson Davies is Canada: its gentleness and its snobbery; its reserve and its smugness; its inherent democratic attitudes and its bourgeois provincialism; its multicultural diversity and subtle ethnic prejudices. It is the US without the fanaticism and England without inherited nobility. It is also much more than either. Davies ability to describe Canada's uniqueness is unparalleled and itself unique. Fifth Business is a sort of representative history of the country from 1910 to 1950 from the point of view of the Ontario elite, roughly the equivalent class of the New York nouveau rich at the turn of the 20th century. Davies ability to sense the peculiar mores and foibles of this now declining culture is remarkable. Few writing in the English language can beat Davies prose. He is as smooth as John Banville and as captivating as Louis Auchincloss.
For me Robertson Davies is Canada: its gentleness and its snobbery; its reserve and its smugness; its inherent democratic attitudes and its bourgeois provincialism; its multicultural diversity and subtle ethnic prejudices. It is the US without the fanaticism and England without inherited nobility. It is also much more than either. Davies ability to describe Canada's uniqueness is unparalleled and itself unique. Fifth Business is a sort of representative history of the country from 1910 to 1950 from the point of view of the Ontario elite, roughly the equivalent class of the New York nouveau rich at the turn of the 20th century. Davies ability to sense the peculiar mores and foibles of this now declining culture is remarkable. Few writing in the English language can beat Davies prose. He is as smooth as John Banville and as captivating as Louis Auchincloss.
April 10, 2017
I just could not help but feel sorry for poor candid little kalliope, the one who likes to invoke her eponymous muse, as if that were to help her in her reading and review-writing. Lately little spirally kalliope has been reading so many books that deal with saints and other holy figures that she was beginning to question her own mythological essence. There was Fra Angelico: La Virgen de la Humildad, which she enjoyed, and led by the mysteries of this book she followed the saving path sowed by Millard Meiss and continued with Painting in Florence and Siena after the Black Death: The Arts, Religion and Society in the Mid-Fourteenth Century. But that was not enough. She was obviously ensnared by the spiritual images of the spiritual beings, because she continued with the holiest of holies, and unfolded the panels of a Sienese treasure with Duccio, the Maesta.
But then, realizing that she was probably running into a self-delusion, and that following all those saints may have been the work of the devil and that what seemed a process of sanctification was probably a disguised temptation of the most abject evil, she decided to pick up a very different kind of book: a twentieth century novel written by a well-established Canadian. Just for a break.
Fifth business. No clue what that title promised. And it started well. Silly spirally kalliope felt as she had unraveled her spiral and distanced herself several universes from holy-land.
But no, she was in for a shock, for Fifth business, is not just about the fifth character in an opera who is not there really to sing but to move the plot along. This novel is also about saints.
Silly kalliope felt lost and could see that her Muse was abandoning her and that she was on her way to become Saint Kalliope of the holy Spiral and that she would be joining Saint Ursula and her thousand saints… Irretrievably.
But then there came a gasp of fresh air, and the mythological world came back. Gyges and King Candaules, by now familiar characters who live in various novels. She recently encountered this odd couple (trio) in Powell’s eleventh volume of his Dance, in Temporary Kings. But before the Candaules episode was also included in Ondatjee’s The English Patient, which mentions that the story originates in Herodotus. And Théophile Gautier also had his go at it Le Roi Candaule.
So may be the Candaules saga will help silly candid kalliope find her literary path again. For reading is all about myths, whether these are saintly or pagan.
November 6, 2022
4.5 stars
Robertson Davies is one of my literary heroes. At a time in my youth when I had been engulfed with ‘Canadian Literature’ that was, in my humble opinion at the time at least, depressing, uninteresting, and decidedly parochial, here was a man who wrote stories with verve, humour, erudition and a view to the wider world. _Fifth Business_ is the first book of Davies’ Deptford trilogy, a series of books that centre around people from the fictional small town of Deptford, Ontario. Sounds parochial already, doesn’t it? But wait, there’s more. The main character, and narrator, of this tale is Dunstan Ramsay, a man who seems to have been destined to exist on the periphery of the life he is now looking back on. Sharp-tongued and intelligent, Ramsay has let himself fall into the role of school-teacher at an all-boy’s private school, unencumbered not only by a wife and children, but also by any truly close friends. The closest he has is Percy Boyd “Boy” Staunton, the golden boy of Deptford and frenemy of his youth. Boy is everything Ramsay is not: outgoing, active, popular and rich. Boy soon makes his mark in the wider world, parlaying the small fortune of his grasping father into the foundations of a business empire that certainly does nothing to lessen Boy’s innate pride and narcissism. Aside from their origins in a small Ontario town as part of the same generation, the two boys share something else, a link to the tragedy that occurred in the life of Mrs. Mary Dempster. On a fateful winter day, when Boy’s pride is goaded on by the shrewd antagonism of Ramsay, the then-pregnant Mrs. Dempster becomes the victim of a snowball hurled by Boy and meant for Ramsay which had a stone at its heart. This blow not only precipitates the early delivery of her son Paul, but also leads to a loss of cognitive functions that makes her, in the words of the people of Deptford, “simple”.
Forever keeping the facts secret, Ramsay is wracked by guilt over this event for the rest of his life (despite the fact that his was certainly more a sin of omission when compared to Boy’s culpability). It in fact becomes the shaping catalyst for his life and in large part determines the man he is to become. Ramsay takes upon himself the care of Mrs. Dempster (officially at the urging of his mother, who helped to deliver the woman’s son, but ultimately at the prodding of his own conscience) and she becomes for him a figure of signal importance. For Ramsay is convinced that there is something special about Mary Dempster, in fact he is certain that she is a saint. This is not only the result of his guilt, but due to the fact that Ramsay is certain that he has personally witnessed three miracles performed by her (one the resurrection of his apparently dead older brother). Ramsay becomes obsessed with saints and saintliness and his life’s work, his true passion, the study of these enigmatic figures in human history. He is not a particularly religious man, but he is not incredulous of the validity of religious experience either. This is where Davies is able to bring in one of his own favourite obsessions: Jungian archetypes and the mythical significance of history. The lens through which Ramsay sees the world is coloured by this interpretation and it is a fascinating one that informs all of Davies’ other books.
Dunstan Ramsay is an excellent narrator and his voice is pitch-perfect. He seems to contain the perfect balance of incisive observation with a somewhat deprecating self-awareness…though of course we probably shouldn’t take everything he says as gospel. Through Ramsay’s eyes we view the petty concerns and grotesqueries of small town life, things that, while petty (or perhaps *because* they are petty), are more than powerful enough to destroy a human life; we share in some of the horrors of the First World War as well as the ennobling elements of life that can overcome such things; and we witness the ways in which, sometimes unbeknownst to us, our lives are intertwined with those of everyone we meet, no matter how disconnected and solitary we think we are.
_Fifth Business_ isn’t my favourite book by Davies, but it’s a very good one and is an excellent introduction to the kind of writing you’ll experience if you choose to try him out. Not only was Davies a learned man, able to convey his learning in his books without sounding like a school-teacher or a man with a mission to convert (even though he was, perhaps, both things), but he was also a very accomplished writer:
Delightful prose indeed. Davies’ novels seem to flow effortlessly, partly due to the charming and fluid voice he attains in them, and partly, I think, through his clever weaving of myth and symbol throughout what is, on the surface, a rather mundane plot. Ramsay’s life, especially in his eventually acknowledged role of “Fifth Business”, is not one that is full of monumental events or unexpected novelty, but it is a human life and one which Davies puts into the greater context not only of the lives that all of us lead, but of the mythic symbols and higher meanings that we look to in order to find greater significance in what we do and who we are.
Also posted at Shelf Inflicted
Robertson Davies is one of my literary heroes. At a time in my youth when I had been engulfed with ‘Canadian Literature’ that was, in my humble opinion at the time at least, depressing, uninteresting, and decidedly parochial, here was a man who wrote stories with verve, humour, erudition and a view to the wider world. _Fifth Business_ is the first book of Davies’ Deptford trilogy, a series of books that centre around people from the fictional small town of Deptford, Ontario. Sounds parochial already, doesn’t it? But wait, there’s more. The main character, and narrator, of this tale is Dunstan Ramsay, a man who seems to have been destined to exist on the periphery of the life he is now looking back on. Sharp-tongued and intelligent, Ramsay has let himself fall into the role of school-teacher at an all-boy’s private school, unencumbered not only by a wife and children, but also by any truly close friends. The closest he has is Percy Boyd “Boy” Staunton, the golden boy of Deptford and frenemy of his youth. Boy is everything Ramsay is not: outgoing, active, popular and rich. Boy soon makes his mark in the wider world, parlaying the small fortune of his grasping father into the foundations of a business empire that certainly does nothing to lessen Boy’s innate pride and narcissism. Aside from their origins in a small Ontario town as part of the same generation, the two boys share something else, a link to the tragedy that occurred in the life of Mrs. Mary Dempster. On a fateful winter day, when Boy’s pride is goaded on by the shrewd antagonism of Ramsay, the then-pregnant Mrs. Dempster becomes the victim of a snowball hurled by Boy and meant for Ramsay which had a stone at its heart. This blow not only precipitates the early delivery of her son Paul, but also leads to a loss of cognitive functions that makes her, in the words of the people of Deptford, “simple”.
Forever keeping the facts secret, Ramsay is wracked by guilt over this event for the rest of his life (despite the fact that his was certainly more a sin of omission when compared to Boy’s culpability). It in fact becomes the shaping catalyst for his life and in large part determines the man he is to become. Ramsay takes upon himself the care of Mrs. Dempster (officially at the urging of his mother, who helped to deliver the woman’s son, but ultimately at the prodding of his own conscience) and she becomes for him a figure of signal importance. For Ramsay is convinced that there is something special about Mary Dempster, in fact he is certain that she is a saint. This is not only the result of his guilt, but due to the fact that Ramsay is certain that he has personally witnessed three miracles performed by her (one the resurrection of his apparently dead older brother). Ramsay becomes obsessed with saints and saintliness and his life’s work, his true passion, the study of these enigmatic figures in human history. He is not a particularly religious man, but he is not incredulous of the validity of religious experience either. This is where Davies is able to bring in one of his own favourite obsessions: Jungian archetypes and the mythical significance of history. The lens through which Ramsay sees the world is coloured by this interpretation and it is a fascinating one that informs all of Davies’ other books.
Dunstan Ramsay is an excellent narrator and his voice is pitch-perfect. He seems to contain the perfect balance of incisive observation with a somewhat deprecating self-awareness…though of course we probably shouldn’t take everything he says as gospel. Through Ramsay’s eyes we view the petty concerns and grotesqueries of small town life, things that, while petty (or perhaps *because* they are petty), are more than powerful enough to destroy a human life; we share in some of the horrors of the First World War as well as the ennobling elements of life that can overcome such things; and we witness the ways in which, sometimes unbeknownst to us, our lives are intertwined with those of everyone we meet, no matter how disconnected and solitary we think we are.
_Fifth Business_ isn’t my favourite book by Davies, but it’s a very good one and is an excellent introduction to the kind of writing you’ll experience if you choose to try him out. Not only was Davies a learned man, able to convey his learning in his books without sounding like a school-teacher or a man with a mission to convert (even though he was, perhaps, both things), but he was also a very accomplished writer:
I know flattery when I hear it; but I do not often hear it. Furthermore, there is good flattery and bad; this was from the best cask. And what sort of woman was this who knew so odd a word as “hagiographer” in a language not her own? Nobody who was not a Bollandist had ever called me that before, yet it was a title I would not have exchanged to be called Lord of the Isles. Delightful prose! I must know more of this.
Delightful prose indeed. Davies’ novels seem to flow effortlessly, partly due to the charming and fluid voice he attains in them, and partly, I think, through his clever weaving of myth and symbol throughout what is, on the surface, a rather mundane plot. Ramsay’s life, especially in his eventually acknowledged role of “Fifth Business”, is not one that is full of monumental events or unexpected novelty, but it is a human life and one which Davies puts into the greater context not only of the lives that all of us lead, but of the mythic symbols and higher meanings that we look to in order to find greater significance in what we do and who we are.
Also posted at Shelf Inflicted
July 2, 2017
Ramsay was born in 1898 in Deptford, Ontario. When he was 10, while running away from his friend, a snow ball meant for him hit Mrs. Dampster instead of him. Mrs. Dampster, who was pregnant at that time, immediately went into labour and lets say she was never same again. She became what people of Deptford called "simple". This very event weighed heavily on Ramsay's conscience for the rest of his life. Whatever he did, he always returned to this very moment. In fact many of his decision were solely taken/rejected because of this incident.
This is a hard book to describe. One can say it's Ramsay's story but once you start reading it you will find that it is so much more. For example take his relationship with Mrs. Dampster and how highly he think of her. Whereas his mother think that him spending time with that "simple" lady is not good for her son. But Ramsay knows why she has became "simple" and he blames himself for it. So spending time with her and taking care of her is atonement for his sins. There was a lot of struggle for a loving mother (she was also a kind woman) to understand her son and Mrs. Dampster. Then later on it's his relationship with his friend Staunton that take precedence.
One of the thing that stand about Ramsay's is that he is not critical. He has laid bare himself in the letter. Confessing his lies, insecurities, remorse but he is never critical. He never judged. He just tells the reader how certain people are and left it for reader to put them in black, white, and gray.
It is easy to discard it as Ramsay's memoir (the whole story is told in a letter), but the author has beautifully intertwined Ramsay's life with contempt, religion, guilt, and spirituality that it gives reader a lot to ponder upon.
The book has beautiful prose. Simple yet captivating and perhaps it is what played a big part in what this book is.
Highly recommended if you like to read between the lines.
This is a hard book to describe. One can say it's Ramsay's story but once you start reading it you will find that it is so much more. For example take his relationship with Mrs. Dampster and how highly he think of her. Whereas his mother think that him spending time with that "simple" lady is not good for her son. But Ramsay knows why she has became "simple" and he blames himself for it. So spending time with her and taking care of her is atonement for his sins. There was a lot of struggle for a loving mother (she was also a kind woman) to understand her son and Mrs. Dampster. Then later on it's his relationship with his friend Staunton that take precedence.
One of the thing that stand about Ramsay's is that he is not critical. He has laid bare himself in the letter. Confessing his lies, insecurities, remorse but he is never critical. He never judged. He just tells the reader how certain people are and left it for reader to put them in black, white, and gray.
It is easy to discard it as Ramsay's memoir (the whole story is told in a letter), but the author has beautifully intertwined Ramsay's life with contempt, religion, guilt, and spirituality that it gives reader a lot to ponder upon.
The book has beautiful prose. Simple yet captivating and perhaps it is what played a big part in what this book is.
Highly recommended if you like to read between the lines.
June 27, 2021
To je jedna od surovosti pozorišta života - svi o sebi mislimo kao o glavnim ličnostima drame i rijetko smo spremni da priznamo kako smo samo sporedni likovi ili čak beznačajni statisti.
Izvanredna knjiga. Naslov može da zavara pa da neko pomisli kako je ovo roman o nekom introventom junaku koji je, eto nekim slučajem izolovan iz društvenog cirkusa. Baš naprotiv. Njegov život će se proživljavati usputno, prilagođavaće se svakoj situaciji i vrlo vješto davati drugima šansu, što mi je i bilo drago tokom čitanja. Nikoga nije previše uzdizao na pijedestal i svako je imao svoj duboki pečat postojanja tvoren duhovnim, a manje materijalnim stvarima. Toliko toga je u ovoj knjizi. Toliko različitih sudbina isprepletenih u jednu mrežu da se dobije osjećaj čitanja više knjiga unutar jedne. U svakom liku utkan je neki dar koji doprinosi punoći te mreže. Svako poglavlje nosi sa sobom strogu odgovornost, intezitet koji ne jenjava do samog kraja romana. Vrlo uigrano pripovijedanje, pisac vrlo lako obogaćuje sferu i ovladava situacijom u svakom pogledu.
Ovo je jedna životna priča ispričana iz perspektive naratora, odnosno ovdje nema glavnog junaka, on je sporedna ličnost, čime se daje na važnost ostailm likovima bez kojih priča ne bi mogla u potpunosti da se iznjedri. I svaki koji bi ispao iz igre nekako bi se dobio osjećaj praznine, doduše, oni će da ispadaju kako se roman bude bližio kraju ali ta praznina tada neće biti toliko bitna. Sve počinje od jedne grudve. Nevjerovatno je to kako je Dejvis kasnije unjeo jedan detalj u vezi te famozne grudve (koja i nekim dijelom čini okosnicu romana) i time posložio mnoge kockice. Takva jedna grudva pokrenuće cijelu mašinu u Detfordu a mnogi životi zauvijek će biti promjenjeni. Njihova psihologija potom i preobraženje dolazi do izražaja kako priča odmiče čime se otvara prostor za njihovo novo rođenje čija dijela u prošlosti trebaju da budu u potpunosti zbrisana. Mit, religija, istorija i ljubav su neke od supstanci romana koje se prepliću i poprimaju značaj u svakodnevnim događajima.
May 15, 2017
"As I have grown older my bias--the oddly recurrent themes of history, which are also the themes of myth--has asserted itself, and why not?"
- Robertson Davies, Fifth Business
Robertson Davies is one of those authors who has constantly been a peripheral artist. I've seen his books, corner of my eye, at bookstores (used and new) but never focused. Never stayed. Never picked one up. Recently I asked a couple friends to recommend some bigger books (or series) that they really liked. A friend of mine, who is an author and shares many similar tastes (Patrick O'Brian and John le Carré, etc) recommend the Deptford Trilogy by Davies. So, I picked it up.
Gobsmacked. Ach mein Gott! This book is good. It reminded me of an intellectualized version of John Irving (later I discovered Irving LOVED/LOVES Davies) mixed with a bit of John Fowles. He is a master of time, place, and character AND he is also one of those authors whose prose is full of little. quotable bon mots or philosophical epigrams. And while I readily admit that these are a bit like sugar sprinkles for me -- they work and their is a reason I adore them.
Anyway, the book carried a great deal of emotional resonance with me. Enough so that I'm jamming a copy I bought for my wife to read (she is a beast on books, so I bought her a mass-market version for her pleasure and sacrifice...she doesn't get the hardcover one I have). I am excited to spend more time with these characters in books two (The Manticore) and book three (World of Wonders). I'll return and report as I finish.
- Robertson Davies, Fifth Business
Robertson Davies is one of those authors who has constantly been a peripheral artist. I've seen his books, corner of my eye, at bookstores (used and new) but never focused. Never stayed. Never picked one up. Recently I asked a couple friends to recommend some bigger books (or series) that they really liked. A friend of mine, who is an author and shares many similar tastes (Patrick O'Brian and John le Carré, etc) recommend the Deptford Trilogy by Davies. So, I picked it up.
Gobsmacked. Ach mein Gott! This book is good. It reminded me of an intellectualized version of John Irving (later I discovered Irving LOVED/LOVES Davies) mixed with a bit of John Fowles. He is a master of time, place, and character AND he is also one of those authors whose prose is full of little. quotable bon mots or philosophical epigrams. And while I readily admit that these are a bit like sugar sprinkles for me -- they work and their is a reason I adore them.
Anyway, the book carried a great deal of emotional resonance with me. Enough so that I'm jamming a copy I bought for my wife to read (she is a beast on books, so I bought her a mass-market version for her pleasure and sacrifice...she doesn't get the hardcover one I have). I am excited to spend more time with these characters in books two (The Manticore) and book three (World of Wonders). I'll return and report as I finish.
January 16, 2022
Primera parte de la Trilogía de Deptford, del autor canadiense Robertson Davies, pero que en realidad puede leerse sola. Yo aún no estoy segura si continuaré con el resto, pero la verdad es que este libro ha sido una grata sorpresa por su originalidad. Yo me esperaba una especie de policial y es más bien una biografía, aunque sí que hay asesinato, al final, un crimen que se entiende perfectamente por todo lo que el narrador nos ha venido relatando, desde su infancia hasta el presente.
Dunstan Ramsay nos cuenta su vida, empezando por su niñez en el pequeño pueblo de Deptford a principio del siglo XX. Sabemos de su amistad con Boy Staunton y de un incidente que cambiará la vida de los implicados y cuyas consecuencias se irán desgranando a lo largo de la novela. Es una historia sobre la culpa y la responsabilidad que tenemos sobre los efectos de nuestras acciones. Dunstan es el narrador pero al mismo tiempo no es el protagonista de los sucesos principales, aunque su intervención es siempre decisiva: es 'el quinto en discordia', un personaje que no es principal pero que, a su manera, es importante.
La magia y la religión - dos caras de la misma moneda - juegan un papel especial en la obra, que también es una reflexión sobre el destino. Dunstan llega a ser profesor de Historia, pero su gran afición es investigar y escribir sobre las vidas de los santos católicos, lo que al ser protestante le acarrea algunas contradicciones. También le apasiona la magia y hay descripciones detalladas de espectáculos de la época, cuando Houdini y otros magos eran grandes estrellas populares.
¿Qué razón lleva a personas de todo el mundo y de todas las épocas a anhelar maravillas que no se puedan calificar según los hechos verificables?
Algunas partes son conmovedoras, como el relato de su experiencia en la primera guerra mundial o todo lo que se refiere a su relación con la señora Dempster, pero también hay mucho humor y ligereza. Y, sobre todo, una gran narrativa, que va enlazando historias con mucha habilidad y que nos muestra la evolución de los personajes a lo largo de una vida.
A medida que nos aproximábamos a los sesenta años, los artificios con los que habíamos cubierto nuestra esencia se iban disipando.
Buen descubrimiento de un autor que no conocía y del que quiero leer más.
Dunstan Ramsay nos cuenta su vida, empezando por su niñez en el pequeño pueblo de Deptford a principio del siglo XX. Sabemos de su amistad con Boy Staunton y de un incidente que cambiará la vida de los implicados y cuyas consecuencias se irán desgranando a lo largo de la novela. Es una historia sobre la culpa y la responsabilidad que tenemos sobre los efectos de nuestras acciones. Dunstan es el narrador pero al mismo tiempo no es el protagonista de los sucesos principales, aunque su intervención es siempre decisiva: es 'el quinto en discordia', un personaje que no es principal pero que, a su manera, es importante.
La magia y la religión - dos caras de la misma moneda - juegan un papel especial en la obra, que también es una reflexión sobre el destino. Dunstan llega a ser profesor de Historia, pero su gran afición es investigar y escribir sobre las vidas de los santos católicos, lo que al ser protestante le acarrea algunas contradicciones. También le apasiona la magia y hay descripciones detalladas de espectáculos de la época, cuando Houdini y otros magos eran grandes estrellas populares.
¿Qué razón lleva a personas de todo el mundo y de todas las épocas a anhelar maravillas que no se puedan calificar según los hechos verificables?
Algunas partes son conmovedoras, como el relato de su experiencia en la primera guerra mundial o todo lo que se refiere a su relación con la señora Dempster, pero también hay mucho humor y ligereza. Y, sobre todo, una gran narrativa, que va enlazando historias con mucha habilidad y que nos muestra la evolución de los personajes a lo largo de una vida.
A medida que nos aproximábamos a los sesenta años, los artificios con los que habíamos cubierto nuestra esencia se iban disipando.
Buen descubrimiento de un autor que no conocía y del que quiero leer más.
December 15, 2012
I can not stand this book and don't understand why people seem to rave about it.
I like the concept- that a character's life is not special, in itself, but how that character influences other character's lives gives the first character meaning, a bit like Rosencrantz and Guildenstern in Hamlet- but the book itself is just... Words on paper. I did not care at all about any of the characters. I found the main character to be boring, flat, uninteresting, and whinny. As the book is told in first person, I found "being in his head" to be as enjoyable as having teeth pulled. He seriously spends his whole life obsessing about this one incident that happens at the beginning of the book, and indeed the book ends with him talking about that incident. Honestly, let it go!
I read the whole thing back in school, because I had to and I recently picked it up again, now that I'm older, to see if I missed the point the first time around. It remains as pointless and pathetic as it did when I first read it. One read is enough.
My personal opinion and harsh criticism aside and looking at the literature itself, I still don't see why people praise this book so highly. It's mediocre at best and not worth more than an average rating. There's nothing stellar or exceptional going on here.
I like the concept- that a character's life is not special, in itself, but how that character influences other character's lives gives the first character meaning, a bit like Rosencrantz and Guildenstern in Hamlet- but the book itself is just... Words on paper. I did not care at all about any of the characters. I found the main character to be boring, flat, uninteresting, and whinny. As the book is told in first person, I found "being in his head" to be as enjoyable as having teeth pulled. He seriously spends his whole life obsessing about this one incident that happens at the beginning of the book, and indeed the book ends with him talking about that incident. Honestly, let it go!
I read the whole thing back in school, because I had to and I recently picked it up again, now that I'm older, to see if I missed the point the first time around. It remains as pointless and pathetic as it did when I first read it. One read is enough.
My personal opinion and harsh criticism aside and looking at the literature itself, I still don't see why people praise this book so highly. It's mediocre at best and not worth more than an average rating. There's nothing stellar or exceptional going on here.
January 7, 2021
Пратимо писану исповест Данстана Ремзија – историчара и хагиографа, рођеног крајем XIX века у Детфорду, безначајном месту у Канади, учесника у Првом светском рату, носиоца ордена Викторијиног крста, писца неколико значајних историјских монографија, а посебно житија светих људи.
И поред свих ових успеха, и поред тога што је поштован професор историје и што учествује у друштвеном животу, Ремзи је маргиналац, чудних интересовања, понашања нетипичног за (шире) друштво. Један догађај из детињства обележиће га за цео живот – грудва намењена њему (коју баца његов најбољи пријатељ, а коју је он вешто избегао) погађа трудну жену и оставља трајне последице. Као што грудва котрљајући се низ падину бива све већа и већа, тако ће и та грудва подстаћи низ дешавања и промена у животима становника Детфорда.
Кроз судбине и односе ликова, писац вешто обрађује теме кривице, искупљења и покајања, односа материјалног и духовног, тако да се сваки од ликова може посматрати и као (архе)тип, модел.
Роман је писан јасно, изложен хронолошки, писац сигурно влада језиком и ситуацијом. Мотиви циркуса и мађионичарске вештине, који се уводе на почетку, да би кулминирали хипнотичким, опсенарским завршетком изврсно су уклопљени и ни на који начин не одузимају на "реалистичности".
Изузетна књига!
И поред свих ових успеха, и поред тога што је поштован професор историје и што учествује у друштвеном животу, Ремзи је маргиналац, чудних интересовања, понашања нетипичног за (шире) друштво. Један догађај из детињства обележиће га за цео живот – грудва намењена њему (коју баца његов најбољи пријатељ, а коју је он вешто избегао) погађа трудну жену и оставља трајне последице. Као што грудва котрљајући се низ падину бива све већа и већа, тако ће и та грудва подстаћи низ дешавања и промена у животима становника Детфорда.
Кроз судбине и односе ликова, писац вешто обрађује теме кривице, искупљења и покајања, односа материјалног и духовног, тако да се сваки од ликова може посматрати и као (архе)тип, модел.
Роман је писан јасно, изложен хронолошки, писац сигурно влада језиком и ситуацијом. Мотиви циркуса и мађионичарске вештине, који се уводе на почетку, да би кулминирали хипнотичким, опсенарским завршетком изврсно су уклопљени и ни на који начин не одузимају на "реалистичности".
Изузетна књига!
February 20, 2014
I cannot stand this book. It may be technically interesting, and good archetype study, but its entire premise fails. Dunny's contention is that his life WAS interesting, despite indications otherwise. Too bad he told the story in the most long winded and torpor-inducing way possible. The character's life was certainly eventful, but not at all interesting. This is a mind-bogglingly boring book to read. You know Grandpa Simpson's "onion on my belt, which was the style at the time" speech? This is the literary equivalent. My eyes were so glazed you could have sold them at Tim Horton's.
The fact that it's a staple of grade 12 reading lists is a travesty. Do a bunch of teenagers care about a stodgy old well-off white dude's struggles? His guilt is uninspiring. The characters are two-dimensional and their motivations incomprehensible. "I like saints!" Nobody cares.
This book was so uninteresting to me, I could barely get through it. This from a student that devoured other literary classics. I'm now a secondary school English teacher and it is my mission in life to keep books like this OFF the reading list. Just because it's Canadian doesn't mean it's good! Every student I've ever spoken to loathed this book. It's novels like this that convince students that literature has nothing to offer them and kills the joy of reading. Pass it up, unless you're looking for a bedtime read to cure your insomnia.
The fact that it's a staple of grade 12 reading lists is a travesty. Do a bunch of teenagers care about a stodgy old well-off white dude's struggles? His guilt is uninspiring. The characters are two-dimensional and their motivations incomprehensible. "I like saints!" Nobody cares.
This book was so uninteresting to me, I could barely get through it. This from a student that devoured other literary classics. I'm now a secondary school English teacher and it is my mission in life to keep books like this OFF the reading list. Just because it's Canadian doesn't mean it's good! Every student I've ever spoken to loathed this book. It's novels like this that convince students that literature has nothing to offer them and kills the joy of reading. Pass it up, unless you're looking for a bedtime read to cure your insomnia.
June 12, 2021
Second Reading (June 2021)
Even better than I remembered.
First Reading (May, 1986)
The first (and best) novel in the famed Deptford Trilogy is as rare and wonderful as anything in literature. There are very few novels that manage to be so erudite (the number of classical and mythological references is mind boggling) and tightly-plotted. In fact the story unfolds at such a break-neck pace that Tom Clancy ought to read it to get some pointers on building suspense. And John Irving ought to give one dollar for every book he's ever sold to the estate of Robertson Davies...but that's another story.
In the winter of 1908, in the small Ontario town of Deptford, a spiteful boy throws a snowball at another boy. This impulsive act turns out to have life-altering consequences for both boys, as well as for a third boy who is still in the womb at the time of the incident. The intended target of the snowball, Dunstan Ramsay, is racked with guilt when a pregnant young lady, Mary Dempster, receives the blow meant for him. The injury induces a premature birth and forever alters the sensibilities of Mary Dempster. Out of a sense of partial responsibility Ramsey takes a personal interest in Paul, Mary's sickly small baby, and acts as a guardian and friend to the child as it grows. Later in his life, consumed by intellectual and spiritual pursuits, Ramsay settles in to the quiet life of a teacher in a private school.
The thrower of the snowball, the pampered Percy "Boy" Staunton, never shows any sign of remorse. Son of the town's elite, Staunton is sent to the best schools and soon becomes a wealthy captain of industry. A man of nearly limitless ambition, Staunton begins to pull strings in order to add respectability to his wealth.
Paul, son of the stricken Mary Dempster, is too fragile to participate in the normal rambunctious activities of boyhood, but at an early age he discovers he has an uncanny talent for magic tricks. While still a boy Paul runs away from Deptford and after many years it seems that the lives of the three men have gone off in three completely different directions. But fate draws them together again and there is a final accounting for that night decades earlier in Deptford.
That journey of the book takes the reader across continents, delving into spirituality, vengeance, magic and love along the way. It is a simply remarkable book.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 24, 2021
Fascinantno Dejvisovo književno zaveštanje. Ushićenost je veća saznanjem da su već prevedena i druga dva dela Detfordske trilogije : Mantikora i Svet čuda. Velika petica!
5/5
5/5
June 28, 2016
As I did with the Cornish Trilogy, I read the last volume of the Deptford Trilogy, World of Wonders, first - for no good reason, other than it was readily available to read. And, as with the Cornish Trilogy, I'm finding that this was a big, big mistake, so I'm reading Deptford from the beginning and will reread World of Wonders.
Robertson Davies was one of the master storytellers of the twentieth century. One of the things I enjoy about his novels is that no one is perfect. Just as in life, no one is a complete hero and no one is a complete villain.
I promise myself that when I get to the Salterton Trilogy, that I will begin at the beginning.
Robertson Davies was one of the master storytellers of the twentieth century. One of the things I enjoy about his novels is that no one is perfect. Just as in life, no one is a complete hero and no one is a complete villain.
I promise myself that when I get to the Salterton Trilogy, that I will begin at the beginning.
February 27, 2009
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.
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.
December 29, 2019
Όταν τέλειωσα τον Μάγο του Φάουλς ήμουν συγκλονισμένος. Το βιβλίο ήταν τόσο καλό, τόσο αποκαλυπτικό, πλούσιο, καλογραμμένο, περιπετειώδες - ήταν ΤΟ βιβλίο. Ήταν τέτοιο το ταρακούνημα μετά την ανάγνωσή του, που άρχισα να ψάχνω για το βιβλίο: τα νοήματά του, τα "αν" και τα "μήπως", ερμηνείες και παρερμηνείες, και γενικά πράγματα που θα με έκαναν να καταλάβω καλύτερα το μεγαλείο αυτού του μυθιστορήματος. Μέχρις όπου έφτασα στο σημείο να ψάξω βιβλία παρόμοια με τον Μάγο.
Αν ποτέ είναι δυνατόν ένα τέτοιο εξαιρετικό βιβλίο να έχει κάπου έναν χαμένο αδερφάκι, αυτό είναι το βιβλίο του Davies. Είναι μεγάλη αδικία να ξεκινάω τα λόγια μου για τούτο, θέτωντάς το υπό την σκιά ενός άλλου βιβλίου, μα το έκανα μόνον χάριν του αναγνωστικού πλαισίου. Γιατί το βιβλίο τούτο είναι μια οντότητα ξεχωριστή, ένα καταπληκτικό βιβλίο και κάθε σύνδεση με τον Μάγο σταμάτησε μετά τις πρώτες σελίδες.
Το βιβλίο έχει κάτι από εκείνη την σπάνια ποιότητα γραπτών που δεν διαβάζουμε συχνά: η φωνή του αφηγητή έχει την βραχνάδα ενός παλιού κρασιού, φινέτσα και δηκτικότητα μαζί. Είναι η ιστορία μιας ενηλικίωσης, είναι η ιστορία μιας σειράς από ανθρώπινα λάθη και ενοχές που βαρύνουν προγόνους και απογόνους. Ο Davies γράφει για την θρησκεία, για το Α΄ΠΑγκόσμιο πόλεμο, για το εκπαιδευτικό σύστημα και την ζωή στην επαρχία του Καναδά και ξέρει τι γράφει. Όπως ξέρει τι γράφει, όταν πασπαλίζει την ιστορία του με μυριάδες λεπτομέρειες, ψψυχογραφήματα ανθρώπων, εκκλησιάσματα, για την ιστορία των αγίων και για το τσίρκο με το οποίο το έσκασε από το σπίτι του ο Πολ Ντέμπστερ.
Έχω δημιουργήσει, όμως, το ερώτημα που κρέμεται πάνω απο το κεφάλι μου πια: είναι σαν τον Μάγο; Είναι αντάξιό του; Του μοιάζει; Παρότι άδικη ερώτηση για ένα τέτοιο ξεχωριστό επίτευμα θα πω πως αναγνωρίζω τις ομοιότητες: η ενηλικίωση του πρωταγωνιστή είναι ένα περιπετειώδες αφήγημα, πνιγμένη στα αινίγματα, από το μυστήριο που χάνεται όσο τα χρόνια περνούν. Ο κόσμος αλλάζει γύρω του, καθώς αλλάζει και ο ίδιος. Υπάρχουν, δε, κάποια κομβικά στοιχεία της ιστορίας που στέκουν βουβά, σαν άλυτα αινίγματα. Αντίθετα, όμως, με τον Φάουλς, ο Davies φαίνεται να παρουσιάζει ένα σκοτεινό κόσμο, ο άνθρωπος είναι έρμαιο των αδυναμιών του και θα πληρώσει για αυτό αργά ή γρήγορα.
Το βιβλίο είναι το πρώτο μέρος της τριλογίας. Οι γραμμές τούτες γράγονται υπό την ζάλη του δεύτερου βιβλίου, The Manticore.
Αν ποτέ είναι δυνατόν ένα τέτοιο εξαιρετικό βιβλίο να έχει κάπου έναν χαμένο αδερφάκι, αυτό είναι το βιβλίο του Davies. Είναι μεγάλη αδικία να ξεκινάω τα λόγια μου για τούτο, θέτωντάς το υπό την σκιά ενός άλλου βιβλίου, μα το έκανα μόνον χάριν του αναγνωστικού πλαισίου. Γιατί το βιβλίο τούτο είναι μια οντότητα ξεχωριστή, ένα καταπληκτικό βιβλίο και κάθε σύνδεση με τον Μάγο σταμάτησε μετά τις πρώτες σελίδες.
Το βιβλίο έχει κάτι από εκείνη την σπάνια ποιότητα γραπτών που δεν διαβάζουμε συχνά: η φωνή του αφηγητή έχει την βραχνάδα ενός παλιού κρασιού, φινέτσα και δηκτικότητα μαζί. Είναι η ιστορία μιας ενηλικίωσης, είναι η ιστορία μιας σειράς από ανθρώπινα λάθη και ενοχές που βαρύνουν προγόνους και απογόνους. Ο Davies γράφει για την θρησκεία, για το Α΄ΠΑγκόσμιο πόλεμο, για το εκπαιδευτικό σύστημα και την ζωή στην επαρχία του Καναδά και ξέρει τι γράφει. Όπως ξέρει τι γράφει, όταν πασπαλίζει την ιστορία του με μυριάδες λεπτομέρειες, ψψυχογραφήματα ανθρώπων, εκκλησιάσματα, για την ιστορία των αγίων και για το τσίρκο με το οποίο το έσκασε από το σπίτι του ο Πολ Ντέμπστερ.
Έχω δημιουργήσει, όμως, το ερώτημα που κρέμεται πάνω απο το κεφάλι μου πια: είναι σαν τον Μάγο; Είναι αντάξιό του; Του μοιάζει; Παρότι άδικη ερώτηση για ένα τέτοιο ξεχωριστό επίτευμα θα πω πως αναγνωρίζω τις ομοιότητες: η ενηλικίωση του πρωταγωνιστή είναι ένα περιπετειώδες αφήγημα, πνιγμένη στα αινίγματα, από το μυστήριο που χάνεται όσο τα χρόνια περνούν. Ο κόσμος αλλάζει γύρω του, καθώς αλλάζει και ο ίδιος. Υπάρχουν, δε, κάποια κομβικά στοιχεία της ιστορίας που στέκουν βουβά, σαν άλυτα αινίγματα. Αντίθετα, όμως, με τον Φάουλς, ο Davies φαίνεται να παρουσιάζει ένα σκοτεινό κόσμο, ο άνθρωπος είναι έρμαιο των αδυναμιών του και θα πληρώσει για αυτό αργά ή γρήγορα.
Το βιβλίο είναι το πρώτο μέρος της τριλογίας. Οι γραμμές τούτες γράγονται υπό την ζάλη του δεύτερου βιβλίου, The Manticore.
October 4, 2017
Fifth Business is a Really Good Book. I can't say enough about it. But on the other hand I could easily say too much. I hate to say what kind of book it is, since I didn't find that out until the end and don't want to spoil it for others. (I can say read the publisher's blurb, though, which seems to me to have little enough to do with the novel.) This is the Best Kind of Book, that's what!
I think that, among other things, it's a bildungsroman, if that encompasses the development of the main character and his discovery of wisdom across his whole lifetime. That could be what makes this book so wonderful.
A strategy of the author is to have the characters from whom the protagonist receives wisdom speak in serial soliloquies--each taking center stage in turn. And it works!
Wikipedia points out that this is also an epistolary novel, unfolding as a letter to his former boss the headmaster in protest of the dismissive and disrespectful tone of his retirement bio. But that didn't bother me; I mostly forgot about its being the contents of a (long!) letter.
This book could be considered a historical novel since the author comes of age at the time of the Great War. He's a contemporary of my grandparents, then, and for readers in middle adulthood, the age of your great grandparents. Yet the book has a very contemporary feel.
It's officially a Canadian novel, yet I felt at home with it.
A good bit of the subject matter has to do with Christianity, but there's no anti-Judaism. Why that's so would make for an interesting discussion. There is no religiosity (meaning affectation) either.
About this "fifth business" business that's supposed to mean a particular character who is not the hero, or the villain, or either of the other main roles, yet without him, nothing would happen. He's the one who activates the potential of the other characters and sets the plot in motion. That's what the author focused on. In real life, though, I guess we aren't so much limited to one role as privileged to play them all, eventually.
For those who do audiobooks, the narrator, Marc Vietor, is perfection personified.
Here's to a Great Book!
I plan to get to the other books in the trilogy, and I figured out I could get to reread the Cornish Trilogy if I do the audios. Happiness....
I think that, among other things, it's a bildungsroman, if that encompasses the development of the main character and his discovery of wisdom across his whole lifetime. That could be what makes this book so wonderful.
A strategy of the author is to have the characters from whom the protagonist receives wisdom speak in serial soliloquies--each taking center stage in turn. And it works!
Wikipedia points out that this is also an epistolary novel, unfolding as a letter to his former boss the headmaster in protest of the dismissive and disrespectful tone of his retirement bio. But that didn't bother me; I mostly forgot about its being the contents of a (long!) letter.
This book could be considered a historical novel since the author comes of age at the time of the Great War. He's a contemporary of my grandparents, then, and for readers in middle adulthood, the age of your great grandparents. Yet the book has a very contemporary feel.
It's officially a Canadian novel, yet I felt at home with it.
A good bit of the subject matter has to do with Christianity, but there's no anti-Judaism. Why that's so would make for an interesting discussion. There is no religiosity (meaning affectation) either.
About this "fifth business" business that's supposed to mean a particular character who is not the hero, or the villain, or either of the other main roles, yet without him, nothing would happen. He's the one who activates the potential of the other characters and sets the plot in motion. That's what the author focused on. In real life, though, I guess we aren't so much limited to one role as privileged to play them all, eventually.
For those who do audiobooks, the narrator, Marc Vietor, is perfection personified.
Here's to a Great Book!
I plan to get to the other books in the trilogy, and I figured out I could get to reread the Cornish Trilogy if I do the audios. Happiness....
January 12, 2022
To be sure The Fifth Business by Robertson Davies seems in many ways a rather old-fashioned book, the 1st part of the author's Deptford Trilogy, a tale involving the curiously prolonged linkage of Percy Boyd "Boy" Stanton & Dunstan Ramsay, for whom "Boy" Stanton represents a lifelong friend and a lifelong enemy. What drives the story is the fact that while the two characters are so very different in almost every way, their lives seem oddly inseparable.
When the novel begins in late December 1908, "Boy" & Dunstan seem separated by levels of wealth & social status, with the former seemingly ahead of the game of life at every turn but Dunstan somehow managing to take advantage of his boyhood rival. A tossed rock encased within a snowball by "Boy" eludes Dunstan when he ducks but strikes a woman walking nearby, unleashing a chain reaction that is sustained throughout the book.
As the boys mature, they proceed in different directions while still seemingly coupled to each other as rivals at a distance. Thus, when Dunstan Ramsay is severely wounded in France & left for dead in WWI he is eventually pieced back together (minus a leg & while remaining partly disfigured) in an English hospital by a diligent, loving nurse, he continues to nurture a relationship back home in Canada with a woman he is not all that enamored of.
However, when Dunstan returns home to a hero's welcome, his boyhood friend/enemy steals the girl who is Dunstan's only remaining link to home, his parents having been felled by the influenza & his brother having perished in the war. Meanwhile, "Boy" Stanton served in uniform but never in combat during the war, while profiting mightily via his business interests by proffering needed food & supplies to the troops. It isn't so much that the competition between the two is visceral but rather that they remain at opposite sides of a continuing chain of parallel events.
Fifth Business refers to an operatic figure who is deemed "the odd man out" & this label is posed as both a comment & a question to Dunstan regarding a character who..
That said, "Dunny" does manage to gain multiple degrees upon his return to Canada but much like St. Dunstan "was mad about learning, terribly still & stern and an absolute wizard at avoiding temptation." And yet, even when Dunstan involves himself in acts of complete charity, on behalf of the afflicted Mary Dempster for example, he appears to remain unfulfilled.
Periodically, "Boy" Stanton maintains a symbiotic relationship with Dunstan, realizing perhaps that "Dunny" has qualities that he lacks & which can be used to benefit when entertaining clients & politicians. Dunstan's pursuit of the lives of saints & perceived saintly virtue by someone who would seem oblivious to that quality fail to fully materialize, even though Dunstan does make multiple trips to Europe communing with monks & does eventually author a book of 100 Saints for Travelers. He comments:
Robertson Davies was a much-revered Canadian author of multiple novels, including several trilogies, continuing to write productively almost to the point of his death in 1995, authoring a best-selling novel, The Cunning Man just a year before he died. Additionally, the author had a career in publishing, served as an actor with the Old Vic company in the U.K. and also taught for many years at the University of Toronto.
When the novel begins in late December 1908, "Boy" & Dunstan seem separated by levels of wealth & social status, with the former seemingly ahead of the game of life at every turn but Dunstan somehow managing to take advantage of his boyhood rival. A tossed rock encased within a snowball by "Boy" eludes Dunstan when he ducks but strikes a woman walking nearby, unleashing a chain reaction that is sustained throughout the book.
As the boys mature, they proceed in different directions while still seemingly coupled to each other as rivals at a distance. Thus, when Dunstan Ramsay is severely wounded in France & left for dead in WWI he is eventually pieced back together (minus a leg & while remaining partly disfigured) in an English hospital by a diligent, loving nurse, he continues to nurture a relationship back home in Canada with a woman he is not all that enamored of.
However, when Dunstan returns home to a hero's welcome, his boyhood friend/enemy steals the girl who is Dunstan's only remaining link to home, his parents having been felled by the influenza & his brother having perished in the war. Meanwhile, "Boy" Stanton served in uniform but never in combat during the war, while profiting mightily via his business interests by proffering needed food & supplies to the troops. It isn't so much that the competition between the two is visceral but rather that they remain at opposite sides of a continuing chain of parallel events.
Fifth Business refers to an operatic figure who is deemed "the odd man out" & this label is posed as both a comment & a question to Dunstan regarding a character who..
is the one who knows the secret of the hero's birth, or comes to the assistance of the heroine when she thinks all is lost, or keeps the hermitess in her cell, or may even be the cause of somebody's death if that is part of the plot. The prima donna & the tenor, the contralto & the basso get all the best music and do all the spectacular things but you cannot manage the plot without Fifth Business! It is not spectacular but it is a good line of work and those who play it sometimes have a career that outlasts the most golden voices.The novel by Robertson Davies encapsulates the period before & after WWI, the "Flapper Era" & the crash of the stock market while relating the story of Dunstan Ramsay, someone who always manages to remain an outsider, even while teaching history for 40 years at a boys boarding school, nurturing both students, some of whom become future Canadian leaders and also a personal interest in magic and the lives of various saints, something that causes friction within his stolid Protestant community & causes him to be passed over as headmaster at the school. Dunstan never seems to settle in to a life of stability & comments that: "even the war had not matured me; I was like a piece of meat that was burned on one side & raw on the other."
That said, "Dunny" does manage to gain multiple degrees upon his return to Canada but much like St. Dunstan "was mad about learning, terribly still & stern and an absolute wizard at avoiding temptation." And yet, even when Dunstan involves himself in acts of complete charity, on behalf of the afflicted Mary Dempster for example, he appears to remain unfulfilled.
Periodically, "Boy" Stanton maintains a symbiotic relationship with Dunstan, realizing perhaps that "Dunny" has qualities that he lacks & which can be used to benefit when entertaining clients & politicians. Dunstan's pursuit of the lives of saints & perceived saintly virtue by someone who would seem oblivious to that quality fail to fully materialize, even though Dunstan does make multiple trips to Europe communing with monks & does eventually author a book of 100 Saints for Travelers. He comments:
I was trying to get at the subject without wearing either the pink spectacles of faith or the green spectacles of science. All I had managed by the time I found myself sitting in the basilica of Guadalupe was a certainty that faith was a psychological reality and that where it is not invited to fasten itself on things unseen, it invaded & raised bloody hell with things seen. Or perhaps the irrational will have its day.At this point, a quest for a delineation of faith and a keen interest in magic begin to overlap, eventually leading to an ending that might be called either fanciful or just mysterious depending on one's point of view about Dunstan Ramsay and his oddly focused quest. Fifth Business is a rather quirky novel with characters that are occasionally difficult to identify with but a book I enjoyed following to the end, with the ending being just the opening book in the Deptford Trilogy.
Robertson Davies was a much-revered Canadian author of multiple novels, including several trilogies, continuing to write productively almost to the point of his death in 1995, authoring a best-selling novel, The Cunning Man just a year before he died. Additionally, the author had a career in publishing, served as an actor with the Old Vic company in the U.K. and also taught for many years at the University of Toronto.
February 20, 2018
This isn't about a boy who, through vicious thoughtlessness, nearly destroys an entire family and denies it for the rest of his life. It's not about his poor wife. It's not about the woman he injures, who may be a saint; it's not about the son who barely survives and goes on to be the world's greatest magician, and it's certainly not about whether vengeance will ever be served. It's about Fifth Business, the "odd man out," a bystander:
Davies made the term up, but it's a time-honored tradition. Nick Carraway from The Great Gatsby is Fifth Business. Charles Ryder from Brideshead Revisited is Fifth Business. Bilbo Baggins is Fifth Business.
Fifth Business here is Dunstan Ramsey, a pedantic old schoolteacher given to traipsing around Europe looking at statues of saints. He's unreliable, possibly as a narrator of events, certainly as a judge of himself. On his retirement he's been condescendingly eulogized as "a senile, former worthy who has stumbled through forty-five years of teaching...with a bee in his bonnet about myth;" this book is a rambling letter meant as a rebuttal, but which accidentally succeeds in proving the eulogy.
There's a lot going on between the lines. Everyone remembers their lives differently. All three of the male characters change their names, and all have different ideas of who they are and who each other is. There may be magic. It's often funny, but the ending takes a viciously dark turn:
The overall effect is explosively casual; it feels as though Robertson Davies just tossed the whole thing off. It's like a collision of Victor Hugo's coincidence and Martin Amis's postmodern lunacy. Only the best writers can produce these effortless miracles. Davies was a fan of Nabokov, whom he called an enchanter. He has certainly produced magic here.
Those roles which, being neither those of Hero nor Heroine, Confidante nor Villain, but which were none the less essential to bring about the Recognition or the denouement.
Davies made the term up, but it's a time-honored tradition. Nick Carraway from The Great Gatsby is Fifth Business. Charles Ryder from Brideshead Revisited is Fifth Business. Bilbo Baggins is Fifth Business.
Fifth Business here is Dunstan Ramsey, a pedantic old schoolteacher given to traipsing around Europe looking at statues of saints. He's unreliable, possibly as a narrator of events, certainly as a judge of himself. On his retirement he's been condescendingly eulogized as "a senile, former worthy who has stumbled through forty-five years of teaching...with a bee in his bonnet about myth;" this book is a rambling letter meant as a rebuttal, but which accidentally succeeds in proving the eulogy.
There's a lot going on between the lines. Everyone remembers their lives differently. All three of the male characters change their names, and all have different ideas of who they are and who each other is. There may be magic. It's often funny, but the ending takes a viciously dark turn:
The overall effect is explosively casual; it feels as though Robertson Davies just tossed the whole thing off. It's like a collision of Victor Hugo's coincidence and Martin Amis's postmodern lunacy. Only the best writers can produce these effortless miracles. Davies was a fan of Nabokov, whom he called an enchanter. He has certainly produced magic here.
March 7, 2015
Robertson Davies is one of my favorite writers, because I feel so intellectual and learned when I read him. Fifth Business is the first novel in the Deptford trilogy. The plot is complicated and intricate, but you only realize that when you've finished because the prose is so effortless. Fifth business is a dramatic term denoting a character who is neither the hero nor the villain in the play, but the person who precipitates the events taking place by his relationship to the main characters. This tale is full of saints and sinners, starting in a small town in Canada, (Deptford) and continueing all over the world. If Robertson Davies is not the most celebrated Canadian author, he should be. You will finish this book feeling infinitely smarter than when you began, simply because you were under Davies spell for the duration.
December 25, 2017
Not sure what to say about the book, because I didn't find it spectacular but not terrible either -- oh the curse of the three-star novel!
Good but not great?
Another "classic" that probably plays well in English classes with English teachers, as it would be easy to discuss the character interplay in a literature class: the meaning of "fifth business" and how the rest of the story ultimately revolves around a central character who doesn't play the central action of the story, but whose presence drives the other characters to turn into what they do, and so on. So these plot devices are nice to notice, but as with so many books published in the '70s, I can't help but get the feeling this is one of those "important" books that you can enjoy, but actual enjoyment is secondary to appreciating the art.
Eh, it's OK....
Good but not great?
Another "classic" that probably plays well in English classes with English teachers, as it would be easy to discuss the character interplay in a literature class: the meaning of "fifth business" and how the rest of the story ultimately revolves around a central character who doesn't play the central action of the story, but whose presence drives the other characters to turn into what they do, and so on. So these plot devices are nice to notice, but as with so many books published in the '70s, I can't help but get the feeling this is one of those "important" books that you can enjoy, but actual enjoyment is secondary to appreciating the art.
Eh, it's OK....
August 11, 2021
Гениально! Купил все, что вышло по-русски, потому что талантливо написано и великолепно переведено.
Дэвис задрал планку так высоко, что теперь мне не понравится 95% книг, составляющих пыльный биом мировой литературы (до «Пятого персонажа» я бы не стал якшаться с 80% книжек). Молю только, чтобы другие его книги меня не разочаровали. И черт меня бы подрал влюбляться в творчество мертвых писателей.
Дэвис задрал планку так высоко, что теперь мне не понравится 95% книг, составляющих пыльный биом мировой литературы (до «Пятого персонажа» я бы не стал якшаться с 80% книжек). Молю только, чтобы другие его книги меня не разочаровали. И черт меня бы подрал влюбляться в творчество мертвых писателей.
February 28, 2016
Как приятно возвращаться к книгам спустя много лет и осознавать: в 17 лет ты уже могла отличить хорошую книгу от плохой, а именно эта оказалась настолько хорошей, что и через ещё десять лет вернуться к ней не помешает.
(And the audible production is really good, the narrator fits the text perfectly and treats it with due respect.)
(And the audible production is really good, the narrator fits the text perfectly and treats it with due respect.)
June 26, 2018
Effortless to read. I rarely become this engrossed in a novel. Robertson Davies is a wonderful storyteller. Reminds me of a better (and more concise) John Irving.
March 9, 2024
https://kansasbooks.blogspot.com/2024...
“- Pero todo hombre lleva dentro un demonio, y un hombre de excepcional calidad, como tú, Ramsay, lleva un demonio igualmente excepcional. Debes aprender a conocer a tu demonio personal e incluso a su padre, el viejo diablo […] ¿Por qué no estrechas la mano de tu demonio, Ramsay, y cambias esa estúpida vida tuya? ¿Por qué, por una vez, no haces algo inexplicable, irracional, a cuenta del demonio y solo porque sí? Serías un hombre distinto.”
No quiero alargarme mucho en este comentario sobre una novela que he releído, parece que últimamente se ha convertido en una costumbre releer cuando es algo que normalmente no hacía; pero es cierto que hay libros que leí mil hace años y tengo curiosidad por la impresión que me causarían ahora. En este caso concreto, reconozco que la aproximación a esta primera parte de la trilogía de Davies no tiene nada que ver con las impresiones que habían permanecido en mi recuerdo. Sobre todo tengo curiosidad por comprobar la percepción de esta novela en relación al conjunto de las tres, una vez completada la trilogía. De la primera lectura se había quedado grabada en mi memoria la bola de nieve y la fuerza que tuvo este impacto en la vida de sus personajes, una bola de nieve que es un hecho aparentemente nimio a través del cual Robertson construye una novela entera porque del principio al final está esa bola de nieve presente a través de cuatro de sus personajes convirtiendo en víctimas a Mary Webster y su hijo Paul. ¿Se podría considerar también a ésta una novela de iniciación? No lo sé, en principio tendría todas las papeletas pero realmente seguiremos la vida de Dunstan Ramsay hasta el final de sus días, así que se puede decir que "El quinto en discordia" refleja a la perfección la idea de que la vida en sí misma es una vida de formación, y de aprendizaje continuos como bien lo demuestran las memorias de Ramsay.
"¡La juventud es una época terrible! ¡Tantos sentimientos y tan pocas nociones de cómo controlarlos!"
"El quinto en discordia" es una novela contada desde el punto de vista de Dunstable Ramsay, en forma de una carta que sirve también como memoria de una vida, dirigida al director de una escuela para la que Ramsay había enseñado muchos años. Empieza narrando su vida en 1908 viviendo en la pequeña ciudad de Deptford “Nuestro pueblo era tan pequeño que se estaba en él de repente, carecía de la esa dignidad que otorgan unas afueras” y hay que decir que comienza estas memorias justo con el incidente de la bola de nieve, como si fuera realmente el momento en que empezó a vivir, a ser consciente de su vida ya con diez años, que no solo marcará su futuro, sino que atará a una mujer a la vida de Ramsay para siempre. El incidente en forma de una bola de nieve que lanza Boy Staunton a su amigo/enemigo Ramsay, es la gran piedra angular de la novela a la que Ramsay volverá una y otra vez. La bola de nieve en vez de golpear a su objetivo que era Ramsay, golpea en la nuca a Mary Webster, una mujer embarazada y que debido a este shock y golpe sufre un parto prematuro. Tanto Mary Webster como su hijo nacido prematuro, Paul, estarán a las puertas de la muerte lo que influirá para siempre a Ramsay. Boy Staunton lanza la bola de nieve y sin embargo este incidente no significará nada para él, sin embargo, para Ramsay lo significará todo. La culpa de los estragos causados por la bola de nieve perseguirán a Ramsay cuando es un niño y ya no le abandonarán, un sentimiento de culpa firmemente asentado en su educación presbiteriana...
"De modo que me quedé solo con mi sentimiento de culpa, que me torturaba. Como niño presbiteriano, estaba muy familiarizado con el concepto de la condenación. Entre los libros de mi padre había un ejemplar del Infierno de Dante, los libros de esa clase eran habituales en aquella época en las zonas rurales, y es posible que ninguno de nosotros fuera realmente consciente de que Dante era católico."
A partir de este momento seguiremos la narración de Ramsay, su juventud, sus años en la guerra, las mujeres de su vida, las relaciones que va estableciendo y su obsesión por el aprendizaje. Su sentimiento de culpa sin embargo, por el hecho de que Mary Webster quedara profundamente afectada ya para siempre por esa bola de nieve, es un hecho del que nunca pudo liberarse “Fue un mal asunto. Parecía una buena persona y luego… ¡se volvió loca! Y todo por aquella bola de nieve.” A través de una serie de hechos, Ramsay idealizará a Mary Webster y la convertirá en una especie de salvadora/santa a raíz de una serie de incidentes en su vida relacionados con la muerte; realmente su percepción estará un poco distorsionada por ese sentimiento de culpa ya que a Ramsay en ningún momento se le ocurrirá pensar que igual sin esa bola de nieve, la vida de Mary Webster hubiera sido la misma.
"Piense en el verdadero problema: ¿quién es ella? Me refiero a quién es en el mundo personal de usted. ¿Qué personaje interpreta en su mitología?"
La vida de Ramsay es una vida de aprendizaje y no solo ha viajado ha conocido mundo como soldado de la Gran Guerra y como escritor sino que también conoceremos a algunas de las mujeres de su vida, sin embargo nunca ha podido establecer compromisos, “La echaba de menos a menudo, aunque no hasta el punto de escribirle para preguntarle si podíamos retomar nuestra relación. Sabía que Diana se habría interpuesto en la vida que yo quería llevar. Sin embargo, eso no evitaba que, frecuente y dolorosamente, la deseara. Yo era un desgraciado, egoísta y amargado, ¿no le parece?”, a partir de la huida de Diana, la única mujer con la que igual podría haber establecido un compromiso de por vida, Ramsay se mantendrá alejado de cualquier relación profunda con las mujeres que se crucen en su camino, el único compromiso real que tendrá durante toda su vida será con Mary Webster, un compromiso moral y ético y que por ese sentimiento de culpa obsesivo hacia ella, se convertirá en una especie de protector y la visitará asiduamente. Sin embargo, y llegado un punto, este compromiso moral que se autoimpone se convertirá también para él en una esclavitud de por vida “era como si estuviera obligado a visitar una parte de mi propia alma condenada a vivir en el infierno.”
"¡Ah, el caballero! ¡Ah, el santo! La amabas, pero jamás le regalaste nada, ni le hiciste un cumplido, ni la invitaste a cenar, ni intentase darle lo que Faustina entiende por amor: una dulce convulsión física compartida con una persona interesante."
“Cuando el amor asalta a las personas de mediana edad que han alcanzado el éxito, conlleva un reforzamiento de la personalidad y la determinación que convierte los amores juveniles, por comparación, en tímidos y fallidos. Esas personas no se ven asaltadas por las dudas, saben lo que quieren y van a por ello.”
En esta novela me intriga especialmente el tono del narrador, Ramsay, ya que se retrata a sí mismo siempre desde una modestia, quitándose importancia cuando realmente siempre estuvo en todos los acontecimientos importantes de la gente de su entorno, siempre necesario, buscado, el paño de lágrimas, el amigo que se sacrifica, riéndose de alguna forma siempre de sí mismo, así que estas memorias no dejan de ser, a mi entender, otra cosa que una forma de autoafirmarse, de gritar a los cuatro vientos su importancia y que le reconocieran sobre todo en su relación con su amigo de toda la vida, amigo y rival eterno, Boy Staunton. Por eso, de alguna forma, estoy intrigada por la percepción que podré tener de Ramsay en los dos volúmenes siguientes de esta trilogía, porque no me termino de fiar de su narración y porque en el fondo he visto a Ramsay como un hombre egocéntrico, obsesionado por ser amado y reconocido aunque huyera continuamente de cualquier compromiso e incluso en relación a su amistad con Boy, no hay una auténtica empatía porque soterradamente persistía en él un "no mojarse" en los asuntos realmente importantes, de no ser del todo auténtico en sus relaciones con los demás primando siempre su lado intelectural sobre el emocional y afectivo.
“Nunca llegarás a ningun sitio con un nombre como el de Dumbledum Ramsay. ¿Por qué no te lo cambias a Dunstan? San Dunstan fue un hombre maravillos, muy parecido a ti: estaba loco por el aprendizaje, era terriblemente estirado, duro y severo, y resultaba un verdadero genio a la hora de resistir las tentaciones.”
La narración de Robertson Davies fluye, incidiendo directamente en lo importante casi sin esfuerzo tocando los temas recurrentes de la vida como pocas veces he visto. Davies pasa por toda una vida hablando de la ilusión, de la búsqueda continua que tiene el ser humano por la verdad, aunque realmente la mayor parte de esta vida es ilusión, expectativas y magia. Me muero de curiosidad por comprobar que me va a aportar "Manticora" en este retrato de conjunto, y también tengo curiosidad por comprobar si Robertson Davies es capaz de crear retratos femeninos menos estereotipados de los que me he encontrado en "El quinto en discordia", que es quizás una traba que pueda ponerle, pero claro, también está la duda de si estos estereotipos femeninos no vendrán realmente por la parte de su narrador, Ramsay, que las veía a todas o sumisas y medio lelas, o demasiado espabiladadas y controladoras. ¿Dónde está la mujer de verdad? ¿Era un problema de Ramsay o del mismo Robertson Davies? Espero resolverlo en “Manticora”. Ésta es una novela para disfrutar, en la que el ritmo no decae en ningún momento
“La vida en si misma es un milagro demasiado grande para causar tanto alboroto por pequeñas inversiones de lo que pomposamente tomamos por el orden natural.”
♫♫♫ Tell me why - Neil Young ♫♫♫
June 18, 2020
This is a wonderful book (thanks @Nanou) by an author I had never heard about. It's a first-person memoir of sorts (written as a letter to the Headmaster of the school where the narrator had worked all his life, but that is rather irrelevant) of a man born in a large Canadian village at the very end of the 19th century about his outwardly uneventful life (apart from a tour of duty during World War I). Religious and irreverent, deeply psychological and subversive toward any psychologizing, a book that cannot be called fast-paced but is nevertheless a page-turner, "Fifth Business" is a gem. The narrator's manner of introducing new information is astonishing (there are many twists and turns, but each of them is subtle), his Scottish shrewdness combined with his awe for hagiography creates an impossible and immensely likeable cocktail, and the denouement (which I was dreading — I did not expect a book like that could be ended in a satisfactory manner) is mind-blowing.
PS 2020. Still very good on rereading; perhaps it would make sense to offer a more substantial retelling here, but I'm sure it can be found somewhere online.
PS 2020. Still very good on rereading; perhaps it would make sense to offer a more substantial retelling here, but I'm sure it can be found somewhere online.
September 2, 2019
Last week was Robertson Davies readalong week in the blog world, which was my excuse to finally try him for the first time. Of course, Canadians have long recognized what a treasure he is, but he’s less known elsewhere. I do remember that Erica Wagner, one of my literary heroes (an American in England; former books editor of the London Times, etc.), has expressed great admiration for his work.
I started with what I had to hand: Fifth Business (1970), the first volume of The Deptford Trilogy. In the theatre world, the title phrase refers to a bit player who yet has importance to the outcome of a drama, and that’s how the narrator, Dunstan Ramsay, thinks of himself. I was reminded right away of the opening of Charles Dickens’s David Copperfield: “Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show.” In the first line Ramsay introduces himself in relation to another person: “My lifelong involvement with Mrs. Dempster began at 5.58 o’clock p.m. on 27 December 1908, at which time I was ten years and seven months old.”
Specifically, he dodged a snowball meant for him – thrown by his frenemy, Percy Boyd Staunton – and it hit Mrs. Dempster, wife of the local Baptist minister, in the back of the head, knocking her over and 1) sending her into early labor with Paul, who also plays a major role in the book; and 2) permanently compromising her mental health. Surprisingly, given his tepid Protestant upbringing, Ramsay becomes a historian of Christian saints, and comes to consider Mrs. Dempster part of his personal pantheon for a few incidents he thinks of as miracles – not least his survival during First World War service. And this is despite Mrs. Dempster being caught in a situation that seriously compromises her standing in Deptford.
The novel is presented as a long, confessional letter Ramsay writes, on the occasion of his retirement, to the headmaster of the boys’ school where he taught history for 45 years. Staunton, later known simply as “Boy,” becomes a sugar magnate and politician; Paul becomes a world-renowned illusionist known by various stage names. Both Paul and Ramsay are obsessed with the unexplained and impossible, but where Paul manipulates appearances and fictionalizes the past, Ramsay looks for miracles. The Fool, the Saint and the Devil are generic characters we’re invited to ponder; perhaps they also have incarnations in the novel?
Fifth Business ends with a mysterious death, and though there are clues that seem to point to whodunit, the fact that the story segues straight into a second volume, with a third to come, indicates that it’s all more complicated than it might seem. I was so intrigued that, thanks to my omnibus edition, I carried right on with the first chapter of The Manticore (1972), which is also in the first person but this time narrated by Staunton’s son, David, from Switzerland. Freudian versus Jungian psychology promises to be a major dichotomy in this one, and I’m sure that the themes of the complexity of human desire, the search for truth and goodness, and the difficulty of seeing oneself and others clearly will crop up once again.
This was a very rewarding reading experience. I’d recommend Davies to those who enjoy novels of ideas, such as Iris Murdoch’s. I’ll carry on with at least the second volume of the trilogy for now, and I’ve also acquired the first volume (The Rebel Angels) of another, later trilogy to try.
Some favorite lines:
“I cannot remember a time when I did not take it as understood that everybody has at least two, if not twenty-two, sides to him.”
“Forgive yourself for being a human creature, Ramezay. That is the beginning of wisdom; that is part of what is meant by the fear of God; and for you it is the only way to save your sanity.”
It’s also fascinating to see the contrast between how Ramsay sees himself, and how others do:
“it has been my luck to appear more literate than I really am, owing to a cadaverous and scowling cast of countenance, and a rather pedantic Scots voice”
vs.
“Good God, don’t you think the way you rootle in your ear with your little finger delights the boys? And the way you waggle your eyebrows … and those horrible Harris tweed suits you wear … And that disgusting trick of blowing your nose and looking into your handkerchief as if you expected to prophesy something from the mess. You look ten years older than your age.”
Originally published on my blog, Bookish Beck.
I started with what I had to hand: Fifth Business (1970), the first volume of The Deptford Trilogy. In the theatre world, the title phrase refers to a bit player who yet has importance to the outcome of a drama, and that’s how the narrator, Dunstan Ramsay, thinks of himself. I was reminded right away of the opening of Charles Dickens’s David Copperfield: “Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show.” In the first line Ramsay introduces himself in relation to another person: “My lifelong involvement with Mrs. Dempster began at 5.58 o’clock p.m. on 27 December 1908, at which time I was ten years and seven months old.”
Specifically, he dodged a snowball meant for him – thrown by his frenemy, Percy Boyd Staunton – and it hit Mrs. Dempster, wife of the local Baptist minister, in the back of the head, knocking her over and 1) sending her into early labor with Paul, who also plays a major role in the book; and 2) permanently compromising her mental health. Surprisingly, given his tepid Protestant upbringing, Ramsay becomes a historian of Christian saints, and comes to consider Mrs. Dempster part of his personal pantheon for a few incidents he thinks of as miracles – not least his survival during First World War service. And this is despite Mrs. Dempster being caught in a situation that seriously compromises her standing in Deptford.
The novel is presented as a long, confessional letter Ramsay writes, on the occasion of his retirement, to the headmaster of the boys’ school where he taught history for 45 years. Staunton, later known simply as “Boy,” becomes a sugar magnate and politician; Paul becomes a world-renowned illusionist known by various stage names. Both Paul and Ramsay are obsessed with the unexplained and impossible, but where Paul manipulates appearances and fictionalizes the past, Ramsay looks for miracles. The Fool, the Saint and the Devil are generic characters we’re invited to ponder; perhaps they also have incarnations in the novel?
Fifth Business ends with a mysterious death, and though there are clues that seem to point to whodunit, the fact that the story segues straight into a second volume, with a third to come, indicates that it’s all more complicated than it might seem. I was so intrigued that, thanks to my omnibus edition, I carried right on with the first chapter of The Manticore (1972), which is also in the first person but this time narrated by Staunton’s son, David, from Switzerland. Freudian versus Jungian psychology promises to be a major dichotomy in this one, and I’m sure that the themes of the complexity of human desire, the search for truth and goodness, and the difficulty of seeing oneself and others clearly will crop up once again.
This was a very rewarding reading experience. I’d recommend Davies to those who enjoy novels of ideas, such as Iris Murdoch’s. I’ll carry on with at least the second volume of the trilogy for now, and I’ve also acquired the first volume (The Rebel Angels) of another, later trilogy to try.
Some favorite lines:
“I cannot remember a time when I did not take it as understood that everybody has at least two, if not twenty-two, sides to him.”
“Forgive yourself for being a human creature, Ramezay. That is the beginning of wisdom; that is part of what is meant by the fear of God; and for you it is the only way to save your sanity.”
It’s also fascinating to see the contrast between how Ramsay sees himself, and how others do:
“it has been my luck to appear more literate than I really am, owing to a cadaverous and scowling cast of countenance, and a rather pedantic Scots voice”
vs.
“Good God, don’t you think the way you rootle in your ear with your little finger delights the boys? And the way you waggle your eyebrows … and those horrible Harris tweed suits you wear … And that disgusting trick of blowing your nose and looking into your handkerchief as if you expected to prophesy something from the mess. You look ten years older than your age.”
Originally published on my blog, Bookish Beck.
October 12, 2016
Robertson Davies (Canadá, 1913 — 1995) escreveu onze romances, organizados em trilogias (a última inacabada). Este é o primeiro livro da denominada de Deptford e o único traduzido para português (para grande pena minha).
Dunsten Ramsay - indignado com a notícia publicada num jornal, acerca do jantar de despedida da escola onde lecionou durante quarenta e cinco anos, na qual é retratado apenas como "um velho e típico mestre-escola" - faz uma exposição escrita, dirigida ao reitor, na qual conta a sua vida desde a infância. Uma vida fabulosa apesar de vivida, discretamente, no papel de Quinto da Discórdia*.
Com uma prosa desenvolta, ora dramática, ora humorística, Davies criou personagens e histórias de vida que me encantaram, abordando temas universais e relacionando-os de uma forma muito peculiar:
O Crime...
A Loucura e a Inocência que lhe está subjacente;
O Amor e o Desejo, que nem sempre fazem um par perfeito;
A Beleza e o Grotesco em contraponto com a Ignorância e o Conhecimento;
A Guerra e os seus horrores que geram Heróis acidentais;
A Religião e a arte do Ilusionismo - os milagres e a magia;
E o Castigo...
*Quinto da Discórdia - No teatro e na ópera é a personagem que, embora secundária, tem um papel fundamental para o desfecho do drama por conhecer os segredos dos protagonistas principais.
Dunsten Ramsay - indignado com a notícia publicada num jornal, acerca do jantar de despedida da escola onde lecionou durante quarenta e cinco anos, na qual é retratado apenas como "um velho e típico mestre-escola" - faz uma exposição escrita, dirigida ao reitor, na qual conta a sua vida desde a infância. Uma vida fabulosa apesar de vivida, discretamente, no papel de Quinto da Discórdia*.
Com uma prosa desenvolta, ora dramática, ora humorística, Davies criou personagens e histórias de vida que me encantaram, abordando temas universais e relacionando-os de uma forma muito peculiar:
O Crime...
A Loucura e a Inocência que lhe está subjacente;
O Amor e o Desejo, que nem sempre fazem um par perfeito;
A Beleza e o Grotesco em contraponto com a Ignorância e o Conhecimento;
A Guerra e os seus horrores que geram Heróis acidentais;
A Religião e a arte do Ilusionismo - os milagres e a magia;
E o Castigo...
*Quinto da Discórdia - No teatro e na ópera é a personagem que, embora secundária, tem um papel fundamental para o desfecho do drama por conhecer os segredos dos protagonistas principais.
February 6, 2021
Starting this book the only thing about it I knew was that some of my GR friends and folks I'm following loved it and considered it one of the best books ever read. That's probably a fair reason to give one quite a high expectations but somehow I managed to hold my horses.
But after some 50 pages I said, hey you horses, you can run free all you want, because I'm enjoying this a lot, I'm in fact sucked into this story and you should definitely go and enjoy your weekend off, as I'm planning to put it down only after I finish it. Horses said OK, YOLO and off they went.
I'm not going to retell the story, the blurb says enough and I can only add that it's a story about how one accident can change many lives and can make an impact through many years while nobody remembers it but one person. The narrator.
It's one of those stories with many unexpected things happening while nothing much is happening, but it's very well written, with a lot of wit, irony and sarcasm, even, as well as self mockery. A bit of unreliable narrator, some quirky characters, which is probably nothing special nowadays, because we're spoiled by quirky characters in the books or in TV series, quirkiness sells well, but this was written in 1970, let's not forget it. In this sort of bildungsroman friends were more like frenemies, unexpected plot twists occurred more than once or twice and the ending was so cinematic and so satisfying in some way that I really didn't want to read the next two volumes. On the other hand I really craved for it.
Oh, the little I knew, but it's the subject of my next review. (And now that I read them I can say that you don't really have to, if you don't feel like, my friends...)
But this one is one very satisfying read, Davies is the master of word and I'm glad I discovered this Canadian author.
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