New Releases by Robertson Davies

Murdered by his wife''s lover, Gil must spend his afterlife seated next to his murderer at a film festival, where he views the exploits of his ancestors from the Revolutionary era to his parents'' time

Conversations with Robertson Davies is a long overdue anthology of interviews with Canada''s most respected literary figure. Journalist, essayist, reviewer, playwright, and novelist, Robertson Davies has not only been a leading figure in Canadian literature since World War II, but, since the publication of Fifth Business in 1970, he has become known throughout the world. Conversations with Robertson Davies will be of interest both to the student of Canadian literature and culture and to the scholar examining Davies''s plays and novels as well as to the general reader who would like to know more about the awesome man behind the Salterton and Deptford trilogies, What''s Bred in the Bone, and The Lyre of Orpheus. A majority of this anthology of twenty-eight interviews has never before appeared in print. Along with these previously unpublished interviews, the reader finds a selection of the best print interviews: Tom Harpur of the Toronto Star proves Davies''s spiritual beliefs, Ann Saddlemyer looks into his dreams, and author Terence M. Green questions Davies on the supernatural.

Contents: Tempest Tost, A Mixture of Frailties, Leaven of Malice.

Comprising The diary, The table talk and A garland of miscellanea by Samuel Marchbanks, but enlarged to include a biographical introduction and copious notes calculated to remove all difficulties caused by the passing of time, and to offer the wisdom, not to speak of the whimsicality, of this astonishing man to the modern public, by his long-suffering friend.

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''s life were not always what they seemed. In this wonderfully ingenious portrait of an art expert and collector of international renown, Robertson Davies has created a spellbinding tale of artistic triumph and heroic deceit. In this second book of the Cornish Trilogy, Davies spins a tale told in stylish, elegant prose, endowed with lavish portions of his wit and wisdom. "A deliciously readable story...An altogether remarkable creation, his most accomplished novel to date." -- The New York Times

The death of eccentric art patron and collector Francis Cornish leads to a spectacle of theft, perjury, murder, scholarship, and love at a Canadian university.

Fifth business: A retiring Canadian history professor reveals the true nature of his eerie, mystical influence on those around him

If Hamlet was right, and the theatre does hold the mirror up to nature, what kind of nature did a play such as The Vampyre reflect in its glass? And what relation does it bear to the generally accepted master works of the nineteenth-century stage, the plays of Ibsen and Shaw, for example? In this book Robertson Davies explores in loving detail the world of nineteenth-century melodrama - the plays, the actors, and the theatres themselves - to find the answers to these and other questions. It is the distillation of a lifetime''s experience as audience, actor, teacher, and reader, and Davies shares with us this experience and the delights inherent in it. Explore with him the world of William the simple tailor and his black-eyed Susan; and of innumerable Millers'' Daughters, all with fatal attraction, no power of resistance, and uncommon fecundity. Discover the nature and causes of Heroine''s Disease. Watch for the Melancholy Man with his discreditable secret. And in the process learn a new or renew an old pleasure in the nineteenth-century stage.

Eighteen spooky ghost stories from the acclaimed author of "Fifth Business" are now gathered in one haunting collection. Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.

The first of three linked novels, the second being The manticore and the third, World of wonders.

Out of spite, someone puts a false engagement notice in the local newspaper causing all parties great embarrassment.

This is a collection of Davies''s popular non-fiction writing, with reviews, opinions and observations on people and books alike.

Best friends Arlo and Robby are almost identical in what they wear, what they like, and even where they have teeth missing, but when Robby insists on betting on who is going to lose the next tooth their friendship is endangered.

The enthusiasm of Robertson Davies for the spirit of Mr Punch has taken witty form in this entertainment which Dr Davies wrote for the Preparatory School boys of Upper Canada College, Toronto. The incidents associated with the traditional Punch Show are all here, but they are witnessed and criticized by uncomprehending spokesmen for the modern theatre - newspaper critics, television producers, one playwright representing the school of "American Southern Decadence" and a member of the Board of Directors of the Stratford Festival. Mr Punch is not at all confounded by their cherished believes, even when each spokesman tries to bring him up to date in his own way. But Mr Punch will not be changed, and he emerges triumphant at the end, having been told of a whole new world to conquer.