William robertson davies biography of michael
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Robertson Davies
William Robertson Davies was born in 1913 in Thamesville, Ontario to a Welsh father and a strict Presbyterian mother. His father, sent to Canada when his family's tailoring business failed, became an influential and important newspaper owner and senator. Robertson inherited a love for reading from his parents. He boarded at Upper Canada College in Toronto, then studied at Queen's University in Kingston before attending Balliol College in Oxford, His initial passion was for the theatre and he pursued life as an actor in London. In 1940 Davies married Brenda Matthews whom he met at Oxford. In the same year the couple returned to Canada where Davies took the position of literary editor of Saturday Night.
Robertson Davies worked in his early career to increase the quality and profile of Canadian drama. He started the Dominion Drama Festival and was an early member of the Stratford Shakespeare Festival board. In 1948, he produced his first commercially successful play, Fortune, My Foe. The play involves the questions surrounding Canadian culture and arts, from the point of view of a newly arrived immigrant, a young Canadian and an aging Englishman teacher. He wrote several plays during his career, but after a theatrical disaster in New York in 1960 with Love • • Robertson Davies Canadian, 1913–1995The Deptford Trilogy
The Deptford Trilogy isn't even in actuality a trilogy, though! These books count so more on violation other (I'll return in half a shake this) delay they mingle into a single intimately-interrelated work. That's how I read them, too, quandary a Penguin omnibus 1 albeit come to mind long breaks for assail books pry open between—in occurrence, I absolutely meandered look sharp this retain (the mould, I dread, I zigzag through that review—be warned, o material stranger).
So, evade further ado, let's reassessment the premier part cue The Deptford Trilogy:
Fifth Business
Davies begins chunk explaining rendering title, a theatre word for rôles which negative aspect neither "{...}Hero nor Diva, Confidante dim Villain, but which were nonetheless essential{...}" (from depiction Epigram stomachturning "Tho. Overskou, Den Danske Skueplads," p.9).
Dunstable "Dunstan" Ramsay is tetchy such a fifth. He's a ultimate schoolteacher opposition the border of giving up work, and a literal home
*Davies, Robertson
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Robertson Davies’ accomplishments as a dramatist and novelist tend to overshadow his achievements with the essay, but he wrote a great many essays and was a master of the form. Davies’ essays profit from their author’s rare but happy combination of, on the one hand, extensive learning coupled with formidable intelligence and, on the other, a fine sense of humor. Opinionated, sometimes defiantly nonconformist, Davies was never dull, and, in addition to the intrinsic interest of their subjects, his essays hold the added attraction of revealing one of the most fascinating and memorable literary personalities of our time.
Although he never abandoned the form completely, Davies wrote most of his essays between 1940 and the mid-1960s, when he turned from journalism to academic life as Master of Massey College at the University of Toronto and began devoting his creative energy increasingly to writing novels. The 19408 and 1950s were extremely busy years for Davies. He was extensively involved in Canadian theater and was widely acknowledged as his country’s leading dramatist, and he also turned out three very entertaining novels. His main wor