Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780141186153
ISBN: 0141186151
Label: Penguin Classics
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 272
Publication Date: January 01, 2001
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Release Date: January 02, 2001
Sales Rank: 49466
Studio: Penguin Classics

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Editorial Review:

Product Description:
Ramsay is a man twice born, a man who has returned from the hell of the battle-grave at Passchendaele in World War I decorated with the Victoria Cross and destined to be caught in a no man's land where memory, history, and myth collide. As Ramsay tells his story, it begins to seem that from boyhood, he has exerted a perhaps mystical, perhaps pernicious, influence on those around him. His apparently innocent involvement in such innocuous events as the throwing of a snowball or the teaching of card tricks to a small boy in the end prove neither innocent nor innocuous.

Fifth Business stands alone as a remarkable story told by a rational man who discovers that the marvelous is only another aspect of the real.




Rating: - A Parable of the Shadow (or Unlived Life)
I've read this novel twice, first years ago, before I'd had any real understanding of Jungian depth psychology, and then years later, after doing a lot of intensive self-directed reading into Jung (take a look at one of my listmanias if you're thinking of becoming an analysand); and I've also lived a lot more since that first reading. These two things--life experience and exposure to the personal and collective unconscious--have greatly deepened my appreciation of this novel. D. wrote Fifth Business ... Read More

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Rating: - What took me so long?
This author was trustworthy from page one. The character he created, as small as he is, has a big voice and a story worthy of telling. I was so pleasantly surprised by this book, and so mad at myself for taking so long to read it. While the story is dated, specific to a time and a place, the themes are biblical. This is one of those books where I felt compelled to read passages aloud to whoever was in the room. Bravo, a lot belatedly Mr. Davies.

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Rating: - An excellent read!
I found "Fifth Business" on Amazon through one of the "if you like that, then you might like this" links and was impressed by the overwhelmingly favorable reviews from other Amazon customers. I had never heard of Robertson Davies before but on the strength of the positive reviews, thought that I would give his work a try. I purchased only the first volume in the trilogy ("Fifth Business") on the logic that if the first book wasn't good, I would not bother with the other two. About 1/3 of the way into ... Read More

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Rating: - I really really really liked this book.
I read this book in about a week. I really really really liked it. I don't know why most people have never heard of this author, but I am making it my personal quest in life to tell everybody about him. Read this book. It will suck you in.

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Rating: - Alone on a Desert Island
If I was to live alone on a desert island and could take the works of one author, it would be Robertson Davies. He writes literature that captures human nature - we can soar like angels and crawl, sadistic murderers - Davies knows and shows us humanity at it's best and worst and often, everyman, muddling through mediocrity.
His books are literary page turners written with a unique dry humor that will make you laugh out loud often, gasp in awe or surprise and feel broken hearted at others. ... Read More

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