canadian

Robertson Davies is one of the most erudite authors you will ever read. The sheer volume of his knowledge staggers me, his use of the English language leaves me green with envy. However, unlike Umberto Eco in "Foucalt's Pendulum" Davies' erudition is used, not to bludgeon the reader into awed submission, but to enrich. Davies' books are primarily great fun, his characters live, his stories grip, his descriptions evoke and his wit lightens. He is always a treat, and is one of those people whose name, whenever I read it, makes me smile.

Buy this trilogy and you will very likely find these three stories among the best you have ever read. If you just buy "What's Bred in the Bone" you will become addicted and have to buy "The Rebel Angels" and "The Lyre of Orpheus" anyway, so save time and effort and buy this trilogy. Then buy the Salterton Trilogy and the Deptford Trilogy and everything else he ever wrote. If you have never read Robertson Davies you have a wonderful treat in store, I envy you.

While my favorite novel by Robertson Davies remains Fifth Business, a book so dazzling it leaves me almost speechless, I feel the three novels of The Cornish Trilogy--The Rebel Angels, What's Bred in the Bone and The Lyre of Orpheus--are more satisfying in the aggregate than The Deptford Trilogy. The middle novel, What's Bred in the Bone, is the lynchpin of the trilogy--the "biography" of Francis Cornish, a wealthy art collector and restorer who in time will be suspected of being an art forger, but who in reality is a great artist of high inward purpose. To remind us of Mark Twain's dictum that a man's true biography is what goes on in his own mind, the book is narrated by the two invisible spirits who served as Cornish's guardians on Earth--the only ones who will ever know the whole truth about him. What's Bred in the Bone is sandwiched in between The Rebel Angels, about mayhem and skulduggery among a group of academics when they inherit the bountiful legacy of the late Francis Cornish, and The Lyre of Orpheus, concerning the convoluted doings when a young musical genius tries to recreate an unfinished opera by E.T.A. Hoffmann. This book features a particularly rollicking gang of characters, including E.T.A. Hoffmann himself speaking from the grave. Davies' style glistens with his trademark scholarship and wit; his Jungian philosophy, deep spirituality and often profound insights into the artistic process make these novels important works of art as well as delightful semi-satiric, semi-fantasy romps. One major complaint I have about Davies is that all his characters tend to sound like erudite, well-settled, middle-aged men--fine for the Rev. Simon Darcourt, but not for Maria Theotoky Cornish, the 23-year-old, half-Gypsy beauty. Also, some of his set pieces simply go on too long, such as the contentious "Arthurian" dinner party thrown by Arthur and Maria Cornish. However, the totality of Davies' gifts is so enormous that I'm willing to forgive him his flaws.

Robertson Davies' Cornish trilogy is good, in fact a kind of work of art. Its the second book (which I have already reviewed) which is the main attraction throughout. In fact the second book should be read first of all of the three, followed by the first and third in that order. The second book is a great piece of work and without it the other two would not stand as they do. Its much like a painting and the technique of preliminary drawings of the main work. The main work being the second book and the drawings the first and third books.

Although there are characters in the other two books who are interesting in their own right they have nowhere near the life and depth of Francis Cornish of "Bred in the Bone". These two books surround the great one on either side sort of like hangers on to a great man hoping for some of the glory themselves.

The first is concerned with the academic life in a Canadian University especially concerning the life of Maria Theotoky a great student of Renaissance legend Rebalais being mentored by the brilliant but socially inept Professor Hollier who is overwhelmed by the arrival of his old friend, the obnoxious Parlabane. Although interesting especially when discussing academic life and the jealousy evident when a reputation or fame is at stake, the novel does not really come to life in the same sense as the second. There are some characters which liven things up such as Maria's mother Mamusia the gypsy half of her. To be honest its difficult to tell where the male leads end and Maria begins, there is really little differentiation. A woman's aspects, as compared to the men involved, do not really come to light. The somewhat stale atmosphere of academia is never expunged by any kind of life, even from the female heroine. Still not bad at all.

The third book details the life of another of the charcaters in the first, i.e. Professor Darcourt, a priest but now successful academic and his and other's attempt to execute the estate of Francis Cornish, especially the use of the Cornish Foundation and its attempt to support the PhD of a gifted composer Hulda Schnakenburg. Its her fascinating mentor Dahl-Soot, as well as the spirit of Hoffmann who keeps this going.

All told the books enliven each other but the second one gives the whole thing a semblance of greatness. Its Davies' inability to really produce passion and spontaneity which prevents me from singing the books praises.

Good as a whole.