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by: Robertson Davies  EAN: 9780140118605 ISBN: 0140118608 Label: Penguin Books Ltd Manufacturer: Penguin Books Ltd Number Of Pages: 336 Publication Date: June 29, 1989 Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd Studio: Penguin Books Ltd Related Items:
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 Rating:  - Makes you want to read the rest of the trilogyThis is a very literate book, full of a great deal of philosophy and academic intellectualism. It is also witty and well written and tells a fascinating story through the voices of two narrators: Maria Magdalena Theotoky, a graduate student, and Simon Darcourt, a university professor and Anglican priest. Darcourt and two other professors--Clem Hollier and Urquhart McVarish-- are given the task of sorting out the collection of the recently-deceased Francis Cornish, a great collector of ... Read More Rating:  - Very amusing and thoughtful.I had to give this wonderful book 5 stars even though there are some flaws in the plot that are especially evident toward the end of the novel. HOwever, it is a delightful read, full of history, and philosophy, and base instincts wrapped up as academic intellectual whimsey. The beautiful, brilliant and wealthy Maria Theotoky is a Ph.D. graduate student who becomes involved in an interesting academic power struggle for both her affections and for a discovered manuscript from the Middle ... Read More Rating: - Serendipity.I was at my favorite second hand bookstore, and picked The Rebel Angels up on a whim. I had been looking for something that I could not find. I honestly no longer remember what I was originally looking for-- nor do I know what possessed me to pick this little Davies novel from the shelf. I can only tell you that I am glad that I did. The Rebel Angels is everything I like in a novel. Academics, art, philosophy, history and romance-- all tied up in a witty and well-written package. I would ... Read More Rating: - The Perfect Novel?The Rebel Angels immediately entered my personal canon of favorite works of literature. Could it be the perfect novel? It features astounding characters, well defined and memorable (especially the unforgettable John Parlabane, almost as singular a character as Liesl in Davies' Deptford Trilogy). It features a page turning plot. I was initially hoping for a literary mystery, along the lines of Eco, when the "lost manuscript" is introduced. The plot doesn't exactly lead that way, but creates its own ... Read More Rating: - Good Characters and a Good Foundation for the TrilogyThe Rebel Angels starts off Robertson Davies's Cornish Trilogy by introducing us to a cast of characters and a mood that are the raw material of the collection of related stories. Davies is an author who utilizes a palette of archetypes, applying them again and again in successive snippets and passages. This first book of the trilogy serves as a kind of under-painting for the books that follow. It sets the stage and lays a foundation. But, like all under-painting, it is incomplete in itself. It needs ... Read More 
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