Items related to Enthusiasms Of Robertson Davies
In a collection of articles, reviews, and impressions marked by wit and surprising opinions, the author takes a wry look at famous men and women, reviews classic and contemporary books, and displays many facets of his kaliedoscopic personality
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About the Author:
Robertson Davies was born and raised in Ontario and was educated at a variety of schools, Upper Canada College, Queen’s University, and Balliol College, Oxford. He had three successive careers: first as an actor with the Old Vic Company in England; then as publisher of the Peterborough Examiner; and most recently as a university professor and first Master of Massey College at the University of Toronto, from which he retired in 1981.
He was without doubt one of Canada’s most distinguished men of letters, with over thirty books to his credit, among them several volumes of plays, as well as collections of essays, speeches, and belles lettres. As a novelist he gained fame far beyond Canada’s borders, especially for his Deptford trilogy, Fifth Business, The Manticore, and World of Wonders, and for his last five novels, The Rebel Angels, What’s Bred in the Bone, The Lyre of Orpheus, Murther & Walking Spirit, and The Cunning Man.
His career was marked by many honours: he was, for example, the first Canadian to become an honorary Member of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. He was a Companion of the Order of Canada, and Honorary Fellow of Balliol, and received an honorary D.Litt. from Oxford.
Robertson Davies passed away in 1995.
From Publishers Weekly:
He was without doubt one of Canada’s most distinguished men of letters, with over thirty books to his credit, among them several volumes of plays, as well as collections of essays, speeches, and belles lettres. As a novelist he gained fame far beyond Canada’s borders, especially for his Deptford trilogy, Fifth Business, The Manticore, and World of Wonders, and for his last five novels, The Rebel Angels, What’s Bred in the Bone, The Lyre of Orpheus, Murther & Walking Spirit, and The Cunning Man.
His career was marked by many honours: he was, for example, the first Canadian to become an honorary Member of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. He was a Companion of the Order of Canada, and Honorary Fellow of Balliol, and received an honorary D.Litt. from Oxford.
Robertson Davies passed away in 1995.
From the early 1940s on, Canada's greatest living novelist wrote weekly newspaper and magazine articles and book reviews. Of the 93 reprinted here, 33 are about "characters," 34 about books and 26 about himself--his interests (Shakespeare), pleasures (book collecting and scrapbook keeping) and public image ("an exacerbated curmudgeon"). Each piece is entertaining and enlightening. Regardless of the subject matter--ranging from the novels of Ivy Compton-Burnett, Joyce Cary and John Cowper Powys to appreciations of Casanova, Chaucer, Freud, Jung, O'Casey, Whitman and Wodehouse, Nellie Melba, Mme. Pompadour and Lolita --Davies has something amusing and original to say. What he states about A Book of Characters by Daniel George applies equally to this one: "It does not lend itself to gobbling, greedy reading, but it is a wonderful bedside book . . . not a mere compilation; it is in the variety of people included, and the way in which their oddities are played off against one another, that the author shows his quality."
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherPenguin Canada
- Publication date1991
- ISBN 10 0143195654
- ISBN 13 9780143195658
- BindingPaperback
- Number of pages384
- Rating
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