Itemize Out Of Books The Deptford Trilogy: Fifth Business/The Manticore/World of Wonders (The Deptford Trilogy #1–3)
| Title | : | The Deptford Trilogy: Fifth Business/The Manticore/World of Wonders (The Deptford Trilogy #1–3) |
| Author | : | Robertson Davies |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | First Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 874 pages |
| Published | : | October 1st 1983 by Penguin (first published 1975) |
| Categories | : | Fiction. Fantasy. Cultural. Canada |
Robertson Davies
Paperback | Pages: 874 pages Rating: 4.32 | 7531 Users | 371 Reviews
Rendition As Books The Deptford Trilogy: Fifth Business/The Manticore/World of Wonders (The Deptford Trilogy #1–3)
How do I even begin this? I spent about two weeks reading this and that's a lot of time for people to be asking: "so what is it about?"It's usually non-readers who ask such questions because readers know better than to ask what a 800 page book is about. But I thought about it and decided that it was mostly about subjectivity of experience. Not that it made sense to anyone who asked.
It was three books and each one of them a different kind of wonderful. It all starts in a small village of Deptford, Ontario.
Fifth Business was like a better version of Prayer for Owen Meany. There were saints, magic and a lot of symbolism but not as heavy handed as in John Irving’s books. It’s the life story of Dunstan Ramsay, a man who has never played the main character. Even as a narrator he reduces himself to a catalyst needed for certain things to happen. As it is, it as much a story about Dunstan as it is a story about Boy Staunton, his best friend and his enemy. Dunstan is an honest and self-aware narrator but as every first person narrator should be approached with caution. After all, he does specialize in myths and likes to attribute more meaning to things than other people think it’s reasonable.
The Manticore looks on many events from The Fifth Business from a different perspective and through a different medium – Jung style psychoanalysis which Boy Staunton’s son is undergoing. It’s clear that Robertson Davies is a big fan of Jung and weirdly enough this was the book I have read the quickest of all three. Nothing more exciting than uncovering different layers of a person’s psyche. It made me want to embrace and explore my own Shadow, i.e. all that’s nasty about me (like that I am a judgmental bitch).
World of Wonders is when the last missing puzzle of Deptford finds its place. It’s a story about illusions and legends that we like to believe about ourselves. It really explores the theme of the first person narrator, the autobiographer – unreliable by definition. It’s also a very bizarre but beautiful love story, although Davies might be falling in his own Jung trap, because his female characters in all three books are more of Anima archetypes than characters but it’s possible he meant them to be this way as every book is written from a male point of view.
Davies writes the hell out of every sentence. There aren’t any false notes. Its perfection left me amazed and I am afraid my hackneyed review won’t do it justice. I don’t even want to use any of the adjectives the blurb writers have cheapened over decades of book marketing. This review is so vapid it makes me want to cry because all I want to do is to get everyone to read this book.
Identify Books In Favor Of The Deptford Trilogy: Fifth Business/The Manticore/World of Wonders (The Deptford Trilogy #1–3)
| Original Title: | The Deptford Trilogy |
| ISBN: | 0140118594 (ISBN13: 9780140118599) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Series: | The Deptford Trilogy #1–3 |
Rating Out Of Books The Deptford Trilogy: Fifth Business/The Manticore/World of Wonders (The Deptford Trilogy #1–3)
Ratings: 4.32 From 7531 Users | 371 ReviewsJudge Out Of Books The Deptford Trilogy: Fifth Business/The Manticore/World of Wonders (The Deptford Trilogy #1–3)
Wonderful trilogy - my favorite of Davies trilogies...------From Amazon.com"Who killed Boy Staunton?"This is the question that lies at the heart of Robertson Davies's elegant trilogy comprising Fifth Business, The Manticore, and World of Wonders. Indeed, Staunton's death is the central event of each of the three novels, and Rashomon-style, each circles round to view it from a different perspective. In the first book, Fifth Business, Davies introduces us to Dunstan Ramsey and his "lifelong friendThree volumes of the Deptford Trilogy each narrated by a different character by way of some form of memoir. Fifth Business is narrated by Dunstable (later Dunstan) Ramsay, a schoolteacher who grows up in the fictional Deptford. The novel takes the form of a letter Ramsay writes to the headmaster of the school from which he has just retired, wherein he recalls how, as a boy, he ducked a snowball wrapped around a stone intended for him. The snowball hit a pregnant woman who happened to be passing
Robertson Davies was a big fan of Jungian psychology, so if you enjoy archetypes in literature this will be a true character identification feast. How each narrator perceives the world around them plays also a big part in solving the Mysterious Death that drives the plot, so you get to play the shrink-detective.The Best: * The dialogue. Except when Magnus rambles, where it gets a bit stiff. * The female characters (except for Leola Cruikshanks and Doctor Jo) and the fact the sexiest woman in the
I am forever indebted to my friend Donna Durham (Donna, where are you now?) for introducing me to Robertson Davies and The Deptford Trilogy. Some have described these books as examples of magical realism; well, yes, sort of, as written by a Canadian. The trilogy consists of three books: Fifth Business, The Manticore, and World of Wonders. The books each tell the same story from the point of view of a different character and center around the murder of Percy "Boy" Staunton. Fifth Business, my
My now 81 yr. old father is a misanthropic pack-rat who lives a rich mental life through books while outwardly barely functioning as a decent man. His attic, like his mind, is insulated entirely by books and that is where I discovered Robertson Davies, who I was not expected to understand at age 15. I devoured the trilogy nonetheless and came to understand, if nothing else, the rigidness of sexuality in the first part of the 20th century as well as the religious underpinnings (guilt and an
I found these to be a strangely smooth, soothing reading experience. Plus, I got to learn about obscure hagiography and Jungian psychoanalysis.
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