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    Robertson Davies: Magician of Words
    Robertson Davies: Magician of Words
    Robertson Davies: Magician of Words
    Ebook266 pages2 hours

    Robertson Davies: Magician of Words

    By Nicholas Maes

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    Born in Thamesville, Ontario, a student at Queen’s University in Kingston in the 1930’s, and editor and later publisher of the Peterborough Examiner from the 1940s to the mid-1960s, playwright, essayist, critic, professor, and novelist Robertson Davies (1913-1995) was one of Canada’s pre-eminent literary voices for more than a half-century.

    Davies, with his generous beard and donnish manner, was the very epitome of the "man of letters," a term he abhorred. Best known for his Deptford Trilogy of novels (Fifth Business, The Manticore, World of Wonders), he also wrote two other trilogies (Salterton and Cornish) and was at work on the third volume of another trilogy (Toronto) when he died. With a life as rich in character and colour as that found in his fiction and essays, Davies had a great fondness for magic and myth, both of which are found in abundance in his work, along with a prodigious streak of wry humour.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDundurn
    Release dateMar 23, 2009
    ISBN9781770705050
    Robertson Davies: Magician of Words
    Author

    Nicholas Maes

    Nicholas Maes is a high school history teacher and teaches classics at the University of Waterloo. His previous novels for young people are Crescent Star, Locksmith, and Transmigration. Maes' first Felix Taylor Adventure was Laughing Wolf, which was nominated for the Snow Willow Award. He lives in Toronto.

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    • 3/5
      This biography is obviously the work of a fan, which is not in itself a bad thing - I'd far rather read a positive account of one of my favourite authors than a negative one.Nicholas Maes has carefully researched Davies' life, and faithfully takes us through it, year by year. I learned a good many interesting things about Davies, and as I knew very little about the course of his life beforehand that was a good start. Maes clearly relates actual events in Davies' life or in his family history, to events and characters in his books, and that too is interesting and illuminating. It is this relation of fact that pushes my rating up to 3 stars.Why, then, given the positive approach to the subject, factual information, and linking of Davies' life and fiction did I find this a disappointing biography? I'm afraid it is because of a complete lack of art in the writing. It isn't boring - it would be hard to be boring about such a fascinating man - it's just plodding. There is no shape or insight to it, no sense that Maes has looked at Davies life and work and brought them together for his readers with the extra 'something' that distinguishes great biography. Too many parts of the book consist in 'conversations' between Davies and his wife, collegues or friends. Putting in an author's note to say that these have been 'reconstructed from secondary source material' does not in any way excuse this - they are speculation, and poorly done.Even worse, he has attempted to include this 'something' by pinching the literary conceit of a conversation between the daemon Maimas and the lesser Zadkiel, angel of biography, from Davies' own book 'What's Bred in the Bone'. This is a homage too far - and he does it so badly, it's painful.This is a handy accumulation of facts about a great writer, and it helps the reader to understand the origins of some of Davies' themes and character, but it is not good biography.

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    Robertson Davies - Nicholas Maes

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