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Quotations related to The Deptford Trilogy at Wikiquote
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The Deptford Trilogy (published 1970 to 1975) is a series of inter-related novels by Canadian novelist Robertson Davies.
The trilogy consists of Fifth Business (1970), The Manticore (1972), and World of Wonders (1975). The series revolves around a precipitating event: a young boy throws a snowball at another, hitting a pregnant woman instead, who goes into premature labor. It explores the longterm effects of these events on numerous characters.
The Deptford trilogy has won praise for its narrative voice and its characterizations. The main characters originate from the same small village. Each carries a secret that crosses the lives of the others and drives the plot forward. Fifth Business is considered one of Davies' best novels. The second novel, The Manticore, won the Governor-General's Literary Award in the English-language fiction category in 1972.
The trilogy was named for its setting in the fictional village of Deptford, Ontario. This is based in part on Davies' native Thamesville. Davies takes the view of different characters in each novel, and expresses each in a different style. The tone and unconventional literary devices of metafiction have led some later critics to suggest the series was a precursor to what has been called "slipstream" fiction in the 21st century. [1]
Fifth Business is narrated by Dunstable (later Dunstan) Ramsay, who grows up in Deptford, a fictional town in southwestern Ontario, Canada. After World War I, he becomes a teacher and serves for decades at a college. The epistolary novel takes the form of a letter Ramsay writes to the headmaster of Colborne College after his retirement. He feels ill used by an article about him in the school paper. He recalls how, as a boy, he ducked a snowball intended for him. It hit a pregnant woman instead, and she gave birth prematurely. This incident and related events deeply affected Ramsay's life. He tells how he came to terms with his guilt. He also tells of his boyhood friend and enemy, Percy Boyd "Boy" Staunton, who becomes a wealthy businessman and politician.
The Manticore is the story of Boy Staunton's only son, David, who undergoes Jungian psychoanalysis in Switzerland. During his therapy, he tries to understand his father and his relationship to him. The novel is a detailed record of his therapy and his coming to understand his own life. It sheds new light on many of the characters introduced in Fifth Business, including his father's friend Dunstan Ramsay, who happens to be in Switzerland recuperating from a heart attack.
The Manticore won the Governor-General's Literary Award in the English-language fiction category in 1972.
World of Wonders tells of Paul Dempster, a boy born prematurely who is befriended by Dunstan Ramsay. He learns to conjure and, as an adult, takes the name of Magnus Eisengrim as he establishes a successful career as a noted magician. Eisengrim is to portray Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin in a television movie. During lulls in the filming, he recounts his life, including obstacles he has overcome. He elaborates on his career as an actor traveling through Canada in the early 20th century. Dunstan Ramsay also appears in this novel. More insight is provided into the characters of Fifth Business.
Dunstan Ramsay is the narrator of both Fifth Business and World of Wonders (he is not the protagonist in the last novel). He also appears as a major character in The Manticore and as a supporting character in several other novels by Davies. Ramsay is a gentle schoolmaster with surprising depths and is probably a stand-in for Davies himself. (Since Davies has said that the main business of a writer is to be an enchanter, a weaver of spells, a magician, [2] Dempster/Eisengrim may stand for Davies.) Ramsay counsels his students to write in "the plain style," as Davies does—to highlight the story rather than the writer.
Ramsay appears in Davies' novels What's Bred in the Bone and The Lyre of Orpheus, two of his Cornish trilogy, and in the later novel The Cunning Man . Ramsay is not religious but he is fascinated by the lives of the saints. He writes several well-regarded treatises on saints. In the novels he is compared with Saint Dunstan in his struggle with Satan.
Like several of the main characters in Davies' novels, Paul Dempster undergoes a series of symbolic rebirths, each of which is accompanied by a name change. Magnus Eisengrim is the final name taken on by Paul Dempster in the course of story told in the Deptford trilogy. The name is derived from 'Isengrin', a wolf in the stories of Reynard the Fox.
In "World of Wonders", the final book of the Deptford trilogy, Magnus Eisengrim, now a world famous stage magician, relates his life story to several friends and colleagues as they work to complete a film about the life of the renowned 19th century theatrical magician Robert-Houdin.
As related by Eisengrim: On December 28, 1908, Paul Dempster was born prematurely after his pregnant mother was hit in the head by a snowball thrown by Percy Boyd Staunton. As a result (it is assumed) of the mishap, she went insane.
Paul is raised by his strict and religious father, but at age 10 Paul visits the traveling 'World of Wonders' circus, where he is raped by Willard the Wizard, a performing sleight-of-hand magician with the troupe. To protect Willard, the troupe abducts and renames Paul. Traveling with the troupe under the assumed identity of Cass Fletcher, Paul endures a long period of continued psychological and physical abuse by Willard, but he also manages to learn the rudimentary skills of pick-pocketing, sleight of hand, and watch-repair. After eight hellish years, Paul escapes the World of Wonders and travels to France where, under a new assumed name, Faustus LeGrande, he becomes a traveling magician. Eventually, Willard dies. Although penniless, uneducated, and psychologically wounded, Paul, finally rid of his sodomizing tormentor, is at last able to begin shaping his own life in whatever way he wishes.
After several years later, Paul makes his way to England, where, by a stroke of great luck, he becomes the stunt double for Sir John Tresize, a famous, aging English actor. As time goes by Paul (under the new assumed name, "Fetch") begins to adopt Sir John's personality and appearance until he has almost completely taken on Sir John's persona.
Quotations related to The Deptford Trilogy at WikiquoteMagnus, meaning "Great" in Latin, was used as cognomen of Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus in the first century BC. The best-known use of the name during the Roman Empire is for the fourth-century Western Roman Emperor Magnus Maximus. The name gained wider popularity in the Middle Ages among various European peoples and their royal houses, being introduced to them upon being converted to the Latin-speaking Catholic Christianity. This was especially the case with Scandinavian royalty and nobility.
William Robertson Davies was a Canadian novelist, playwright, critic, journalist, and professor. He was one of Canada's best known and most popular authors and one of its most distinguished "men of letters", a term Davies gladly accepted for himself. Davies was the founding Master of Massey College, a graduate residential college associated with the University of Toronto.
Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin was a French watchmaker, magician and illusionist, widely recognized as the father of the modern style of conjuring. He transformed magic from a pastime for the lower classes, seen at fairs, to an entertainment for the wealthy, which he offered in a theatre opened in Paris, a legacy preserved by the tradition of modern magicians performing in tails.
Timothy Zahn is an American writer of science fiction and fantasy. He is known best for his prolific collection of Star Wars books, chiefly the Thrawn trilogy, and has published several other series of sci-fi and fantasy novels of his own original creation, in addition to many works of short fiction.
The Rebel Angels is Canadian author Robertson Davies's most noted novel, after those that form his Deptford Trilogy.
Gall according to hagiographic tradition was a disciple and one of the traditional twelve companions of Columbanus on his mission from Ireland to the continent. However, he may have originally come from the border region between Lorraine and Alemannia and only met Columbanus at the monastery of Luxeuil in the Vosges. Gall is known as a representative of the Irish monastic tradition. The Abbey of Saint Gall in the city of Saint Gallen, Switzerland was built upon his original hermitage. Deicolus was the elder brother of Gall.
The Chinese linking rings is a classic of illusion magic in which solid metal rings appear to link and unlink, pass through each other, and form chains and other complex patterns and configurations. The rings may even be handed out to audience members for examination. Sometimes an audience member is invited onto the stage to perform alongside the magician as part of a "do as I do" routine.
Fifth Business (1970) is a novel by Canadian writer Robertson Davies. First published by Macmillan of Canada in 1970, it is the first installment of Davies' best-known work, the Deptford Trilogy, and explores the life of the narrator, Dunstan Ramsay. It was the novel that brought Davies to international attention.
Raymond Elias Feist is an American fantasy fiction author who wrote The Riftwar Cycle, a series of novels and short stories. His books have been translated into multiple languages and have sold over 15 million copies.
The Manticore is the second novel in Robertson Davies' Deptford Trilogy.
World of Wonders is the third novel in Robertson Davies's Deptford Trilogy.
Coin magic is the manipulating of coins to entertain audiences. Because coins are small, most coin tricks are considered close-up magic or table magic, as the audience must be close to the performer to see the effects. Though stage conjurers generally do not use coin effects, coin magic is sometimes performed onstage using large coins. In a different type of performance setting, a close-up coin magician will use a large video projector so the audience can see the magic on a big screen. Coin magic is generally considered harder to master than other close-up techniques such as card magic, as it requires great skill and grace to perform convincingly, and this requires much practice to acquire.
Robin Jarvis (born 8 May 1963) is a British young adult fiction (YA) and children's novelist, who writes dark fantasy, suspense and supernatural thrillers. His books for young adults have featured the inhabitants of a coastal town battling a monumental malevolence with the help of its last supernatural guardian (The Witching Legacy), a diminutive race of Werglers (shape shifters) pitched against the evil might of the faerie hordes (The Hagwood Trilogy), a sinister "world-switching" dystopian future, triggered by a sinister and hypnotic book (Dancing Jax), Norse Fates, Glastonbury crow-demons and a time travelling, wise-cracking teddy bear. (The Wyrd Museum series), dark powers, a forgotten race and ancient evils on the North Yorkshire coast (The Whitby Witches trilogy), epic medieval adventure (The Oaken Throne) and science-fiction dramatising the "nefarious intrigue" within an alternate Tudor realm, peopled by personalities of the time, automata servants and animals known as Mechanicals and ruled by Queen Elizabeth I. (Deathscent).
What's Bred in the Bone is the second novel in the Canadian writer Robertson Davies' Cornish Trilogy. It is the life story of Francis or Frank Cornish, whose death and will were the starting point for the first novel, The Rebel Angels.
The Cornish Trilogy is three related novels by Canadian novelist, playwright, critic, journalist, and professor Robertson Davies.
The Cunning Man, published by McClelland and Stewart in 1994, is the last novel written by Canadian novelist Robertson Davies.
Thamesville is a community in Chatham-Kent, Ontario, Canada. It is located at the junction of former provincial Highways 2 and 21, between Chatham and London. Its name comes from the Thames River that flows nearby and the suffix -"ville". Post office established in 1832.
John Henry Anderson (1814–1874) was a Scottish professional magician. Anderson is credited with helping bring the art of magic from street performances into theatres and presenting magic performances to entertain and delight the audience.
Geek shows were an act in traveling carnivals and circuses of early America and were often part of a larger sideshow.
A Snowball in Hell (2008) completes Christopher Brookmyre's suspense trilogy featuring DI Angelique de Xavia. She and her antagonist, Simon Darcourt, were introduced in A Big Boy Did It and Ran Away (2001), while she was the central character in The Sacred Art of Stealing (2002), where she met the third main character of Snowball, the magician Zal Innez. Brookmyre himself sees Snowball as a sequel to two separate books.