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Fifth Business
- The Deptford Trilogy, Book 1
- Narrated by: Marc Vietor
- Length: 9 hrs and 59 mins
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The Manticore
- The Deptford Trilogy, Book 2
- Written by: Robertson Davies
- Narrated by: Marc Vietor
- Length: 9 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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The Manticore, the second book in The Deptford Trilogy after Fifth Business, follows David Staunton, a man pleased with his success but haunted by his relationship with his larger-than-life father. As he seeks help through therapy, he encounters a wonderful cast of characters who help connect him to his past and the death of his father.
Written by: Robertson Davies
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World of Wonders
- The Deptford Trilogy, Book 3
- Written by: Robertson Davies
- Narrated by: Marc Vietor
- Length: 12 hrs and 30 mins
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Hailed by the Washington Post Book World as a modern classic, Robertson Davies' acclaimed Deptford Trilogy is a glittering, fantastical, cunningly contrived series of novels, around which a mysterious death is woven. World of Wonders, the third book in the series after The Manticore, follows the story of Magnus Eisengrim - the most illustrious magician of his age - who is spirited away from his home by a member of a traveling sideshow, the Wanless World of Wonders.
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Francis Cornish was always good at keeping secrets. From the well-hidden family secret of his childhood to his mysterious encounters with a small-town embalmer, an expert art restorer, a Bavarian countess, and various masters of espionage, the events in Francis' life were not always what they seemed. This wonderfully ingenious portrait of an art expert and collector of international renown is told in stylish, elegant prose and endowed with lavish portions of Davies' wit and wisdom.
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A goodhearted priest and scholar, a professor with a passion for the darker side of medieval psychology, a defrocked monk, and a rich young businessman who inherits some troublesome paintings are all helplessly beguiled by the same coed. Davies weaves together the destinies of this remarkable cast of characters, creating a wise and witty portrait of love, murder, and scholarship at a modern university.
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unexpected, but Delightful
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A tour de force!
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The Manticore
- The Deptford Trilogy, Book 2
- Written by: Robertson Davies
- Narrated by: Marc Vietor
- Length: 9 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The Manticore, the second book in The Deptford Trilogy after Fifth Business, follows David Staunton, a man pleased with his success but haunted by his relationship with his larger-than-life father. As he seeks help through therapy, he encounters a wonderful cast of characters who help connect him to his past and the death of his father.
Written by: Robertson Davies
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World of Wonders
- The Deptford Trilogy, Book 3
- Written by: Robertson Davies
- Narrated by: Marc Vietor
- Length: 12 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Hailed by the Washington Post Book World as a modern classic, Robertson Davies' acclaimed Deptford Trilogy is a glittering, fantastical, cunningly contrived series of novels, around which a mysterious death is woven. World of Wonders, the third book in the series after The Manticore, follows the story of Magnus Eisengrim - the most illustrious magician of his age - who is spirited away from his home by a member of a traveling sideshow, the Wanless World of Wonders.
Written by: Robertson Davies
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What's Bred in the Bone
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- Narrated by: Frederick Davidson
- Length: 16 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Francis Cornish was always good at keeping secrets. From the well-hidden family secret of his childhood to his mysterious encounters with a small-town embalmer, an expert art restorer, a Bavarian countess, and various masters of espionage, the events in Francis' life were not always what they seemed. This wonderfully ingenious portrait of an art expert and collector of international renown is told in stylish, elegant prose and endowed with lavish portions of Davies' wit and wisdom.
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- Written by: Robertson Davies
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- Unabridged
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A goodhearted priest and scholar, a professor with a passion for the darker side of medieval psychology, a defrocked monk, and a rich young businessman who inherits some troublesome paintings are all helplessly beguiled by the same coed. Davies weaves together the destinies of this remarkable cast of characters, creating a wise and witty portrait of love, murder, and scholarship at a modern university.
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unexpected, but Delightful
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Wonderful story and fabulous narration
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“I have the honour to offer up to you, thanks to the good people of Audible, a selection of some of my very favourite Wodehouse. If these stories are new to you I hope it will be the beginning of a lifelong pleasure, if some or all are familiar I hope you will welcome them like old friends.” (Stephen Fry). Audible Studios presents this brand new performance by Stephen Fry of some of his favourite Jeeves stories from P.G. Wodehouse, with an exclusive introduction.
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Should I have taken the false teeth?" This is what Dr. Jonathan Hullah, a former police surgeon, thinks after he watches Father Hobbes die in front of the High Altar at Toronto's St. Aidan's on the morning of Good Friday. How did the good father die? We do not learn the answer until the very end of this "Case Book" of a man's rich and highly observant life.
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Poor quality
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Written by: Robertson Davies
Publisher's Summary
Hailed by the Washington Post Book World as "a modern classic", Robertson Davies’ acclaimed Deptford Trilogy is a glittering, fantastical, cunningly contrived series of novels, around which a mysterious death is woven.
This first novel in the trilogy introduces Ramsay, a man who returns from World War I decorated with the Victoria Cross but who is destined to be caught in a no man's land where memory, history, and myth collide. As we hear Ramsey tell his story, we begin to realize that, from childhood, he has influenced those around him in a perhaps mystical, perhaps pernicious way. Even his seemingly innocent involvement in as innocuous an event as throwing a snowball proves to be neither innocent nor innocuous in the end.
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What listeners say about Fifth Business
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Raven Mad
- 2018-05-09
Brilliant!!!
Now I have 5 Canadian authors to hold dear ... so far. But this book cannot be compared to anything I have ever read and my preferences flow from economics, archaeology, genetics and the quantum world to fantasy and sci-fi to Coelho and David Mitchell. But this book was like no other and it is a wonder. I am very satisfied at having discovered it for my self and my self's enjoyment!!
3 people found this helpful
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- J. Michael Lee
- 2020-09-13
An Intricate Masterpiece
It's been many years since I've spent time with Robertson Davies, my first exposure being the remarkable Cornish Trilogy which includes "What's Bred In The Bone". I'm old enough to have met him briefly during his time at the University of Toronto and to have heard him speak. I remember him as the sort of person I'd envision as a "man of letters": scholarly and erudite‚ and (I suspected) likely to have much more to him beneath that studied exterior.
The protagonist in this book, Dunstan Ramsay, is very close to Davies himself, both of whom grew up in small towns in Southwestern Ontario: an area I know very well. Both are scholars, both were "Masters" of a school/college and both are complex personalities. This particular book is written as a prolonged letter of confession by its protagonist Ramsay to the new headmaster of his school—although it's never completely clear why it's being written. The confession is a curious echo of Catholic practice from its Presbyterian-raised writer (Ramsay). Catholic magic is an important sub-text to this book in which a scholar with a stern Scots core is pulled by forces which are by turns exotic, tempting, repulsive, romantic, imposing or self-imposed.
I listened to this book on my evening walks and was deeply drawn into the story. It has a long narrative arc that runs over some 70 or so years and ends with a surprising event that I confess I didn't see coming. The book is Dickens-like in the remarkable characters who inhabit the story, and the well-formed minor players who come, and go—and re-emerge unexpectedly. Davies has a long fascination with the theatre and there's key elements of that here, at times didactically spelled-out like the Fifth Business nature of Ramsay In the story. The writing turns a shrewd eye to Canadian identity and history, to town and gown, and to hidden sides of the world (at least from a scholar's limited viewpoint) where Saints and Jesuits, magicians and freaks, priests and preachers, and sugar magnates are all players. It's a great ride in a world where a snowball can begin everything.
Marc Vietor does an excellent job of the narration and inhabits the core of Ramsay in convincing form. I could almost persuade myself that he was Canadian; however, a few minor mispronunciations gave it away. For instance the "Red Ensign" flag— it's "en'-sin", Marc, and the "Lieutenant Governor" is the "Leff"-tenant".
2 people found this helpful
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- Dangler
- 2019-01-29
Margaret Atwood & Stephan King both recommended this trilogy and so far they are spot on....
Awesome story with wonderful twists at the most opportune moments.....well read capturing the mood quite well!
2 people found this helpful
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- Patricia Rose
- 2018-04-13
Interesting narration of a timeless Canadian classic
The story speaks for itself and is as fascinating now as when it was first published . The performance , notably the narrators voice and accent, was jarring to me at first. I eventually accepted it, but it changed and diminished Dunstan Ramsay’s character . Never the less, a very enjoyable rendition.
2 people found this helpful
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- Alicia Downe
- 2019-10-15
My favorite book ever!
everything about this is perfect. the story and the narrator is wonderful. I love this book!
1 person found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 2019-03-25
Pretty Good!
I had to listen to it for a class. I was dreading the prospect of reading but this audio book made the process enjoyable!
1 person found this helpful
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- Noona Als
- 2019-02-12
A Gem!
I'll be honest. I had to read this for a literature class and I wasn't excited about it at all. However, when I started it, I found myself very entertained and by the end -I had chills.
Also, the performer who read the story did an amazing job in bringing it to life. I will be looking into other novels he has performed.
1 person found this helpful
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- Libellule
- 2021-12-21
Saints everywhere
A strange book as Robertson Davies writes them!
I enjoyed very much the beginning, but found the middle part with all the saints, to be very long. However the end was good enough for me to want to listen to the next book.
I wonder if the fact that English is not my first language might be a reason for my finding parts of the book too long? I think if I read it in paper, I might have abandoned it.
The reader is terrific.
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- Diana M
- 2021-08-18
heading
it must be nearly 50 years since I last read this book. I recall enjoying it very much at that time, and I enjoyed listening to it this time, too. It's maybe a little slow, definitely not a thriller, but it rolls along quite intriguingly and I thought the narrator was very good.
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- CKH Vancouver
- 2021-04-14
Deeply satisfying
The memoir of an unreliable narrator. It could be seen simply as the memoir of a man who was able to leave the shackles of his extremely parochial town, but is grievously injured in the First World War. But this character is unable to see his mystical effect on the others around him and the effects he sees are so slight as to be insubstantial.
A stunning book, narrated excellently.
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- Vinity
- 2011-12-10
Been waiting for this
This is a favorite series of mine from my college days so I was very happy to see it come up on audible. For years, when I was younger, I re-read it nearly every year. This is great storytelling but it's complex and multifaceted so beware if you are just looking for a fun light listen. It is a great tale infused with history, psychology, religion, theories on different styles of education, murder mystery, all wrapped up in a often humorous, sharp writing style. I think this is the most sedate of the 3 books but it's needed to glean insight into into the main characters. As Dunstan Ramsey says, he is Fifth Business and this book reflects it.
The reader, Marc Vietor is adequate. He is the style of reader who mostly just reads. Not a great deal of characterizations of the voices. I would have wished for a more versatile reader. Not sure about his doing Canadian voices but Simon Vance would have been an interesting choice for reader.
28 people found this helpful
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- Darwin8u
- 2017-05-20
An Under-appreciated Masterpiece
"As I have grown older my bias--the oddly recurrent themes of history, which are also the themes of myth--has asserted itself, and why not?"
- Robertson Davies, Fifth Business
Robertson Davies is one of those authors who has constantly been a peripheral artist. I've seen his books, corner of my eye, at bookstores (used and new) but never focused. Never stayed. Never picked one up. Recently I asked a couple friends to recommend some bigger books (or series) that they really liked. A friend of mine, who is an author and shares many similar tastes (Patrick O'Brian and John le Carré, etc) recommend the Deptford Trilogy by Davies. So, I picked it up.
Gobsmacked. Ach mein Gott! This book is good. It reminded me of an intellectualized version of John Irving (later I discovered Irving LOVED/LOVES Davies) mixed with a bit of John Fowles. He is a master of time, place, and character AND he is also one of those authors whose prose is full of little. quotable bon mots or philosophical epigrams. And while I readily admit that these are a bit like sugar sprinkles for me -- they work and their is a reason I adore them.
Anyway, the book carried a great deal of emotional resonance with me. Enough so that I'm jamming a copy I bought for my wife to read (she is a beast on books, so I bought her a mass-market version for her pleasure and sacrifice...she doesn't get the hardcover one I have). I am excited to spend more time with these characters in books two (The Manticore) and book three (World of Wonders). I'll return and report as I finish.
22 people found this helpful
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- connie
- 2011-12-04
Thanks, Audible, but mildly disappointing
This is another novel I've always wanted to read but wouldn't have gotten to if not brought to audio. Since it finds itself on "best novels of all time" lists, my expectations were very high; however, I enjoyed books in Davies' Cornish and Salterton trilogies more. While Fifth Business is a very worthwhile listen, it's not THE great Canadian novel, but maybe it was the great Canadian novel of the Canadian psyche of its day (1970?).
I love Davies' old fashioned, (and sometimes) poetry-infused prose. The narrator was good, but it takes someone like the late Frederick Davidson to get his tongue around those multiclaused sentences in a natural sounding way. (and to be really picky, the Brit Davidson did a better job of sounding old fashioned Canadian vowels than Vietor (who may not have even attempted that little added touch to the pre WWII Canadian English of the characters - I imagine that Davies would have delighted in that little touch-up to the vowels)
I've no formal literary background, but Davies seems to me to be the great Jungian bridge between colonial and postcolonial CanLit and culture. And for 1970, this tale was probably innovative insight into the evolution Canadian nationhood. For non Canadians, Fifth Business might explain how we got from a nation of "hewers of wood and drawers of water" to "gee, eh!" (or G20) status. And it spins a darn good tale with some wonderful word play and images along the way. I'm looking forward to books 2 and 3. (The spirit of Davies is probably laughing about an American audio company making his novels accessible to Canadians who skipped through him on their university reading lists.)
22 people found this helpful
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- Dave
- 2013-05-19
Enjoyable and complex
Would you consider the audio edition of Fifth Business to be better than the print version?
Yes, just simply from the fact that I can listen to it while doing other things, so I am not as concerned about the time spent on a large book.
What was one of the most memorable moments of Fifth Business?
It felt very rich and deep, like I was eating second and third helpings of a delicious cake without a concern of gaining anything but mental weight.
Have you listened to any of Marc Vietor’s other performances before? How does this one compare?
I very much appreciated Marc Vietor's performance and there was another reviewer who indicated she would have preferred Frederick Davidson. I personally do not agree. I very much like Marc Vietor's cleanliness of style, crispness of voice, subtleness of accent. He provided an excellent author's voice that I could only imagine Robertson Davies as a dramatist would have been quite pleased. It is nice that the performer doesn't inject too much of his own interpretation and personality and doesn't over act. That, for me, get's in the way of my own interpretation, so yes Marc Vietor is probably singly responsible for me continuing on with Robertson Davies trilogies.
If you could rename Fifth Business, what would you call it?
A traveling show of curious characters leading to murder
Any additional comments?
Ah, this was a gift of the depth of the human intellect.
Robertson Davies captures aspects of our culture and tantalizes us with the idea that we are all wealthy in some corners of our mind, certainly in imagination and understanding. We can live in books and that is often good enough. I thought everyone had at least 20 hidden talents and isn't it nice to leave the world of the easy reductions and simplistic generalizations. Robertson Davies is a man that has done Canada proud by elevating the whole of humanity.
11 people found this helpful
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- Betty
- 2012-01-26
THE DEPTFORD TRILOGY
In this trilogy, THE FIFTH BUSINESS, THE MANTICORE, WORLD OF WONDERS Davies traces the ripples in the lives of the three protagonists of one snow-wrapped stone thrown by one little boy at another little boy who dodged it. Can one ever foresee the impact of a careless act or word on the futures of oneself and others. A rock centered snow ball thrown by the fair haired son of the small town’s most prominent family thrown at and dodged by the son of a history professor. A rock-centered snow ball that is dodged by the intended target and hits the pregnant wife of a local minister who delivers a premature baby boy.
Davies traces the lives of these three boys as they separate and intertwine over their lives. He is a master story teller and draws upon his wide knowledge of history, literature, music, and even magic. He is a joy to read (listen) and also learn more than you might expect.
Why the trilogy? When I find an excellent writer, I enjoy immersion. I recommend all three books be enjoyed one after another; however, each book stands on its own.
6 people found this helpful
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- Jonelle
- 2012-06-18
Love John Irving? You'll love this!
Any additional comments?
If you love John Irving's sagas, you'll enjoy Robertson Davies.
This trilogy was recommended to me probably 30 years ago and many times since. But it was a friend's recent comment comparing the two authors that made me finally make time.
I'm glad I did. It was well written, quirky and oddly compelling. I'm looking forward to listening to the rest of the series.
5 people found this helpful
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- Robert Walters
- 2017-06-14
I took a chance, and was greatly rewarded.
This isn't my normal genre. I generally don't like books set in this time period, or books that don't have something immediately gripping in the plot. Regardless, I gave this book a chance - mostly because I liked the cover and thought it was about running a business. After the first few chapters, I became so attached to the main character that finishing this book feels a bit like losing a friend. I'm astonished. More importantly, I'm very satisfied. The reading was great, too.
3 people found this helpful
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- Golanka
- 2016-09-10
The Holy (?) Trinity
Davies writing style is incredibly engaging while still somehow sounding formal.
This is a great complex story that works on many levels. As a straight-forward memoir, as a fable, as a myth--perhaps as the story of a Saint. Or maybe Saints? Or Devils.
I laughed often while reading it--Davies delivery of humor is so dry that I generally "got" it while listening to the next sentence--so had to pause and rewind. (Therefore the book took me a bit longer than advertised to finish).
The narration was very good. Vietor's slight changes in voice for the various characters generally sufficed. Maybe he went a bit too far with his a Spanish accent.
3 people found this helpful
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- Laurie
- 2020-03-23
Unlike Any Book I’ve Ever Read
Or listened to, for that matter.
The narrator is excellent. His dry, matter-of-fact style is perfect and accentuates the droll humor and irony perfectly.
I was in love with the story from the outset because the protagonist would have been an exact contemporary of my grandfather and described his youthful emotions and experiences in a way that was very familiar to me. Davies had the characterization of a Protestant white male in a small town down to a tee. A particular character type of that era — is a more accurate description.
The way the plot slowly unwound was mesmerizing. The pace was slow and deliberate, but each separate event had its own interest and significance and still fits neatly into the total puzzle of the story. The main characters are three young men who grew up in the same small town. Each one has a remarkable life — one a famous writer and historian, another a rich executive and politician and the third a famous magician. Their lives are all tied together by events in the first few pages of the book and the woman the events touch. The story starts in 1908 and ends in 1970. On the surface it didn’t seem like the kind of novel I would like but I’d heard the author praised and I wasn’t disappointed.
Impossible to describe but this book was simultaneously entertaining and profound. It was also a marvelous piece of prose. Beautiful writing. This is a must read.
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- RareReviewer
- 2016-12-13
Now I know why it's a classic of Canadian literature
Suddenly, I have a new entry among my list of favorite books. And I'm thrilled with anticipation to know it is only the first of a trilogy, all narrated by Marc Vietor, who did an absolutely faultless job of Fifth Business. I also recommend my favorite audiobooks to my other audiobook-listening friends, and Fifth Business will join The Grapes of Wrath, Gates of Fire, and Gentlemen of the Road as my most recent favorites.
2 people found this helpful