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by: Robertson Davies  List Price: $16.00 Price: $5.49 You Save: $10.51 (66%)Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Dewey Decimal Number: 814.54 EAN: 9780140275865 Edition: New Ed ISBN: 014027586X Label: Penguin (Non-Classics) Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics) Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 385 Publication Date: July 01, 1998 Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) Studio: Penguin (Non-Classics) Related Items:
Browse for similar items by category: Click to Display Editorial Review: Amazon.com: The great Canadian novelist Robertson Davies spent his long life in love with books. This posthumous collection of two dozen essays stands as the lively recollections of a great reader: Davies talks praises the books he's loved, damns the books he's hated, and seeks to answer the eternal question of why we read books. And while Davies writes with great authority, he's thankfully never pedantic, and his comments about books, which range from children's titles to Ulysses, are always delivered in a charmingly unpretentious manner. The individual essays are all beautifully written, and cracking this book will no doubt encourage readers to track down many of the authors and titles that Davies covered. Book Description: Readers around the world continue to mourn the 1995 death of a beloved literary icon, but this rich and varied collection of Robertson Davies's writings on the world of books and the miracle of language captures his inimitable voice and sustains his presence among us. Coming almost entirely from Davies' own files of unpublished material, these twenty-four essays and lectures range over themes from "The Novelist and Magic" to "Literature and Technology," from "Painting, Fiction, and Faking," to "Can a Doctor Be a Humanist?" and "Creativity in Old Age." For devotees of Davies and all lovers of literature and language, here is the "urbanity, wit, and high seriousness mixed by a master chef" (Cleveland Plain Dealer)--vintage delights from an exquisite literary menu. Davies himself says merely: "Lucky writers. . .like wine, die rich in fruitiness and delicious aftertaste, so that their works survive them." Viking will publish Robertson Davies' Happy Alchemy in July 1998 Many fine works by Robertson Davies are available from Penguin including The Deptford Trilogy, The Cornish Trilogy, and The Salterton Trilogy Average Rating:
 Rating:  - My First DaviesYou don't need to be familiar with Robertson Davies' work to enjoy this set of insightful talks and essays about reading, writing, and life in general. This has been my first exposure to his work (a gift from my mother-in-law), and I loved it. I'm now deeply interested in reading his other work. In fact, I bought the Deptford Trilogy, but haven't gotten to read it yet since my wife got ahold of it before I did. Rating:  - Reflections on reading, writing, and the world of booksIt is usually a pleasure to sit down to a Robertson Davies work whether it be a novel, a collection of speeches, ghost stories, essays, or newspaper articles. The Merry Heart is a felicitous adddition to the Davies canon, containing his usual eclectic selection of literary topics and sparkling ideas. Each chapter has a few introductory comments (often including excerpts from Davies' diary) by the book's editors that paint the background for each piece. Readers enjoy comparing notes about favorite ... Read More Rating: - The old man has done it again!!When I read this collection it was as if the old friend was still alive. He is most certainly alive and kicking in this book. The book gives not only his honest view of books, authors and the literary world but also includes yet another ghostly tale of mythological origin. Not only was this an informative read, as most of Davies' work is, it was also a heartfelt pleasure, and continues to be so, again and again and again. Rating: - A welcome little addition to the Davies bibliography.Two years after Robertson Davies' death, here is the unexpected gift of "The Merry Heart," a collection of essays, speeches and autobiographical reflections pulled together by his wife and daughter. They proceeded knowing Davies himself had considered such a project, and in doing so, they honor both his memory and his intentions. Page after page, "The Merry Heart" offers delight and dissertation. From the charm of the opening essay, "A Rake at Reading," to the storytelling wit of the last piece, ... Read More 
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