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by: Robertson Davies  List Price: $22.00 Amazon.com's Price: $14.96 You Save: $7.04 (32%)Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Binding: PaperbackDewey Decimal Number: 813.54 EAN: 9780140147551 ISBN: 0140147551 Label: Penguin (Non-Classics) Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics) Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 832 Publication Date: October 01, 1990 Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) Studio: Penguin (Non-Classics) Related Items:
Browse for similar items by category: Click to Display Editorial Review: Amazon.com Review: "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 friend and enemy, Percy Boyd Staunton," both aged 10. It is a winter evening in the small Canadian village of Deptford, and Ramsey and Boy have quarreled. In a rage, Boy throws a snowball with a stone in it, misses his friend and hits the Baptist minister's pregnant wife by mistake. She becomes hysterical and later that night delivers her child prematurely, a baby with birth defects. Even worse, she loses her mind. The snowball, the stone, the deformed baby christened Paul Dempster--this is the secret guilt that will bind Ramsey and Staunton together through their long lives: I was perfectly sure, you see, that the birth of Paul Dempster, so small, so feeble, and troublesome, was my fault. If I had not been so clever, so sly, so spiteful in hopping in front of the Dempsters just as Percy Boyd Staunton threw that snowball at me from behind, Mrs. Dempster would not have been struck. Did I never think that Percy was guilty? Indeed I did.Boy, however, "would fight, lie, do anything rather than admit" he feels guilty, too, and so the subject remains unresolved between them right up until the night Boy's body is found in his car, in a lake, with a stone in his mouth. The second novel, The Manticore, follows Staunton's son, David, through a course of Jungian therapy in Switzerland, while World of Wonders concentrates on Magnus Eisengrim, a renowned magician and hypnotist with ties to both Ramsey and Boy Staunton. When it came to writing, three was Davies's favorite number. Before the Deptford books, he wrote The Salterton Trilogy (Tempest-Tost, Leaven of Malice, A Mixture of Frailties), and after it came The Cornish Trilogy (The Rebel Angels, What's Bred in the Bone, The Lyre of Orpheus). Excellent as these and Davies's other novels are, The Deptford Trilogy is arguably the masterpiece for which he'll best be remembered, as the combination of magic, archetype, and good, old-fashioned human frailty at work in these novels is a world of wonders unto itself, and guarantees these three books a permanent place among the great books of our time. --Alix Wilber Average Rating:
 Rating:  - Personal truth from the 5thFifth Business is beautiful. The story of Dunstan is compelling and subtly craftly. The story follows his journey for personal truth and an understanding of his own personal mythology. There are gems throughout: "They were anxious to make men of us, by which they meant making us like themselves." "We all forget the things we do, especially when they do not fit into the characer we have chosen for ourselves." "...you've made a God of yourself and the insufficiency ... Read More Rating: - Must read for Robertson Davies fansAs usual Robertson Davies' narrative is absorbing and satisfying. If you've read others of his novels, the Deptford Trilogy is essential reading. If you haven't read any of his works, now is the time to indulge yourself. His English language usage is a constant pleasure and his literary references have set me to pursue other authors I have not enjoyed so far. Only complaint? At 800+ pages, it finished far too soon! Rating: - Great Book I enjoyed the book The Fifth Business very much. It is what I would call magical realism. Ramsay the main character of the book is not the most likable man in fiction but, he is very human. Davies characters are mythical while retaining their humanity. The study of saints that Ramsay involves himself in was my favorite part of the book. I would recommend this book to anyone. Rating: - The Incomparable Robertson Davies I think that is a tragedy beyond measure that Robertson Davies was not chosen as one of the 100 Best Writers of the 20thC. His writings are sui generis. And we will not see his like again. Rating:  - Read the Fifth Bussiness, but skip the restIf you ask me to rank each part of this trilogy seperately, i would give the Fifth Business a 5 Star, The Manticore a 2 star and World of Wonders simply one star. Davies' obsession with Jung makes Manticore rather pretencious and unbearably monotonous to read. For the case of World of Wonders, its creation and value, in my opinion, might only rest on the romantic idea of the completion of a triology, which is a thing that Davies loves to do but failes to do well. 
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