It’s hard to believe, but our week has already come to an end. It’s been fantastic to see some other readers giving attention to the marvelous books of Robertson Davies. Many thanks to my fabulous guest bloggers: Calmgrove on The Deptford Trilogy Lizzie Ross on For Your Eye Alone Consumed by Ink on High Spirits […]
Today, head over to Buried in Print for a consideration of Robertson Davies’s second-to-last finished novel, Murther and Walking Spirits — one that draws on his own family history in a remarkable way. It’s not a spoiler to tell you that the main character dies (this happens in the first sentence) but beyond that we’re […]
Today, a venture into a sort of side-line of Robertson Davies’s narrative genius, the ghost stories told by him each Christmas while Master of Massey College at the University of Toronto. Naomi of Consumed by Ink tells us what makes these seemingly transient trifles still worth a look today — even though regrettably we cannot […]
As we continue to this week’s appreciation of the work of Robertson Davies, we turn to a literary form that is severely endangered in the age of e-mail and texting: the art of letter writing. Davies was a prolific and highly versatile correspondent, and recipients of his missives often treasured them for years. A selection […]
Readers of Robertson Davies’s fiction — to which we were given a brilliant introduction yesterday in Chris’s review of The Deptford Trilogy — may become curious about the motivation and inspiration behind his multifaceted talent. Fortunately, there is a good deal of material to feed this curiosity, as Davies wrote and spoke extensively about various […]
On this first day of Robertson Davies Reading Week, it seems appropriate to celebrate what is probably Davies’s most well-known work: the cycle of three novels known as The Deptford Trilogy. I’m so glad that my invitation to contribute to this event prodded Chris of Calmgrove to finally read these books, because I thought he […]
Welcome to this celebration of the works of Robertson Davies, one of my favorite authors — and one I’ve found to be sadly not much discussed in the blogosphere. I hope to change that, at least for this week … and I hope the effects will continue to reverberate in your reading life, as there’s […]
All books, in a sense, exist in order to bring forth pictures in the mind. But should those pictures be specifically embodied in a visual medium? When are illustrations helpful, and when are they distracting or disturbing? Is it better for readers to make their own images? Or can a good collaboration between author […]
Anne-Sophie Constant: Jean Vanier: Portrait of a Free Man (2019) When I was living in a community with adults with developmental disabilities, one of my colleagues told me he had been inspired to take up this work by the writings of Jean Vanier, founder of the international L’Arche movement. I was intrigued, because I had […]
The big news this month was that my books arrived! I have now a far reduced collection compared to what I had in the States, but it feels good to whittle down to essentials. In the summer sometimes I feel like reading mysteries, though, and I didn’t have much on hand. If I want to […]