Wednesday, February 19, 2020

“Fellows of the first importance”

Young Dunstable Ramsay aspires to the life of a magician:


Robertson Davies, Fifth Business (1970).

Fifth Business is the first novel of The Deptford Trilogy, one of Elaine’s favorite works of literature. The trilogy is now the stuff of the Four Seasons Reading Club, our two-person adventure in reading. Ninety-eight pages in, I can say that Fifth Business is indeed a wonderful novel, mysterious in small ways (so far, at least, they’re small), and highly Dickensian. How can you not love a novel whose second section is titled “I Am Born Again”?

[David Copperfield, Chapter One: “I Am Born.”]

comments: 2

J D Lowe said...

Thanks for all your posts about the Deptford and Cornish trilogies. They inspired me to read both over the winter, and I'm glad I did. I had started Fifth Business a couple of times in the past, but never got more than halfway through. I guess this time the time was right.

Michael Leddy said...

That’s great. I’m glad that these posts led to good reading for you, Jim.