High Spirits

by Robertson Davies

This collection of "spooky" stories was written for and read at the annual gaudy night each year at Massey College, where the author was master for many years. The ghost stories parody, in an affectionate manner, the usual high-flown gothic language in which most ghost stories are told.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Horror, Canada, Humor, Ghost Stories, Fantasy

198 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1982

About the author

William Robertson Davies, CC, FRSC, FRSL (died in Orangeville, Ontario) was a Canadian novelist, playwright, critic, journalist, and professor. He was one of Canada's best-known and most popular authors, and one of its most distinguished "men of letters", a term Davies is sometimes said to have detested. Davies was the founding Master of Massey College, a graduate college at the University of Toronto.

Novels:

The Salterton Trilogy
• Tempest-tost (1951)
• Leaven of Malice (1954)
• A Mixture of Frailties (1958)
The Deptford Trilogy
• Fifth Business (1970)
• The Manticore (1972)
• World of Wonders (1975)
The Cornish Trilogy
• The Rebel Angels (1981)
• What's Bred in the Bone (1985)
• The Lyre of Orpheus (1988)
The Toronto Trilogy (Davies' final, incomplete, trilogy)
• Murther and Walking Spirits (1991)
• The Cunning Man (1994)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robertso...

Reviews

[Oscar · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quien desee encontrar el terror en estos relatos, no lo va a encontrar. Estos cuentos están escritos desde una óptica humorística, en donde los protagonistas son fantasmas, pero que no dan miedo en absoluto. ‘Espíritu festivo’, del canadiense Robertson Davies, es una colección de relatos publicada en 1981, tras la jubilación del autor como decano del Massey College. La idea surgió en 1963, cuando a Robertson Davies se le ocurrió contar en voz alta una historia de fantasmas en época navideña, algo que se convirtió en una tradición que duró dieciocho años, lo que dio lugar a los dieciocho cuentos del libro:

-Revelación de una chimenea asfixiante.
-El fantasma que desapareció a fuerza de títulos.
-La reina se divierte.
-La noche de los tres reyes.
-El banquete de Charlottetown.
-Cuando Satán vuelve a casa por Navidad.
-Refugio para santos denostados.
-La asimilación de Dickens.
-El beso de Jruschov.
-El gato que fue a Trinity.
-El feo espectro del sexismo.
-La cantera de donde fuisteis arrancados.
-Los peligros del signo doble.
-Conversaciones con la mesita.
-Al rey lo que es del rey.
-La fotocopiadora de la habitación perdida.
-Einstein y el pequeño lord.
-Ofrecimiento de inmortalidad.

El protagonista de todos los relatos es el propio Davies, que cada año se ha de enfrentar a fantasmas de toda clase y condición, en las situaciones más hilarantes y esperpénticas. De este modo, tenemos espectros de antiguos decanos, santos que acuden en ayuda tras haber sido olvidados, antiguos estudiantes que buscan una nueva oportunidad de defender su tesis, espectros de escritores canadienses, el propio Satán, o un fantasma que ha poseído una mesita. Mis favoritos, ‘Conversaciones con una mesita’ y ‘La fotocopiadora de la habitación perdida’. La calidad de las narraciones está asegurada, ya que Davies es un gran escritor, con una fina ironía y unos diálogos brillantes. Me esperaba un libro de cuentos de fantasmas al estilo del maestro M.R. James, y quizás por esto ha sido un libro que no me ha entusiasmado tanto. Pero aun así, se trata de una colección de relatos con la que pasar un buen rato.

[Sub_zero · Rating 4 out of 5]

4/5

¿Os acordáis de El club de medianoche, donde un grupo de intrépidos adolescentes se reunían alrededor de una hoguera en mitad del bosque, arrojaban extraños polvos al fuego y después se contaban historias de miedo? Pues bien, bastante parecida a la emblemática serie de los 90 es la génesis de este Espíritu festivo, una entretenida y variopinta colección de relatos que Robertson Davies escribió a lo largo de dieciocho años como respuesta a las peticiones de sus compañeros universitarios. Dieciocho relatos (entre los que para mi gusto destacan 'La reina se divierte', 'Cuando Satán vuelva a casa por Navidad' y 'El feo espectro del sexismo') narrados con maestría y cierta inocencia impostada por los que campan a sus anchas diversas celebridades de ultratumba. Fantasmas, presencias, espectros y otras entidades ectoplasmáticas desfilan entre las páginas de Espíritu festivo, no con el ánimo de agitar sábanas, arrastrar cadenas ni provocar terroríficas angustias existenciales a la manera de Dickens (bueno... o sí), sino para requerir asistencia técnica en un mundo que, por suerte o por desgracia, no se atiene a las mismas reglas que el nuestro. Sofisticadas, ingeniosas, elegantes, (realistas, por mucho que la temática del libro no se preste a ello) y siempre sorprendentes, las historias breves de Robertson Davies aquí reunidas componen un magnífico muestrario de su elocuente prosa y nos permiten disfrutar con varios meses de antelación de una atmósfera terriblemente acogedora y navideña al calor de una chimenea.

[Azumi · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Es maravilloso que hayan transcurrido cinco mil años desde la creación del mundo y todavía no se sepa con certeza si ha habido o no algún caso de aparición del espíritu de una persona difunta. Todos los argumentos están en contra, pero todas las creencias están a favor"
James Boswell

Gran libro de relatos. Exquisitamente escrito.

Evidentemente como en todo libro de este tipo, hay algún que otro relato más flojillo, pero en general me han gustado bastante.

Son un conjunto de 18 relatos de fantasmas ambientados en el Massey College de la Universidad de Toronto . Son fantasmas simpáticos, con mucho humor y que básicamente buscan ayuda humana en sus apariciones o bien solo que se les escuche.

A destacar: “La reina se divierte”, “la noche de los tres reyes”, “cuando Satán vuelva a casa por Navidad”, “ el gato que fue a Trinity” y el último relato “ofrecimiento de inmortalidad” que tiene un final con mucha mala leche :DD

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

(3.5) Davies was a Master of Massey College at the University of Toronto. These 18 stories, one for each year of his tenure, were his contribution to the annual Christmas party entertainment. They are short and slightly campy tales told in the first person by an intellectual who definitely doesn’t believe in ghosts – until one is encountered. The spirits are historic royals, politicians, writers or figures from legend. In a pastiche of the classic ghost story à la M.R. James, the pompous speaker is often a scholar of some esoteric field and gives elaborate descriptions. “When Satan Goes Home for Christmas” and “Dickens Digested” are particularly amusing. The stories got a bit samey after a while, but were a good bridge between Halloween and Christmas.

[Vanessa Wu · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of my big regrets in life is that I haven't read enough of Robertson Davies's novels.

He is one of the writers I discovered for myself in my lonely journey towards literacy and, not knowing anything about him or the literary tradition to which he belonged, I found it very hard to prioritise his novels in my many long lists of books that I wanted and needed to read.

I discovered later that it's because he's Canadian. Ah, you see, we didn't have Goodreads when I began my long literary journey, and the English influences that I encountered were very parochial.

I should have had more confidence in my own judgement and relied less on English academic literary criticism. A lesson all students of literature should take to heart.

Luckily I can console myself for this neglect by picking up this slim volume of ghost stories and read one a year, which is how they were written.

They are hilarious. Hilarity is the best antidote for lugubrious literary self-chastisement. The stories are also intensely literate and being able to understand the humour makes me feel unusually well-read.

[Margaret · Rating 4 out of 5]

Robertson Davies originally wrote these eighteen stories to be read at his college's Christmas party, so of course they all feature ghosts in the college setting and of various literary and historical origins, from Queen Victoria to Henrik Ibsen. They're all entertaining, with only a touch of scariness, and full of Davies' signature erudite wit; I particularly liked the tale of the "ghost who vanished by degrees", who needs to take his Ph.D. examination in order to pass on to the other side, the one about a scholar possessed by Dickens, and the parody of Frankenstein about a monster cat.

[Nomadman · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love Robertson Davies's work. I love his erudition, his humor, his wisdom, his sense of fun. This is the first collection of short stories I've read of him, a sort of MR Jamesian tribute to the scholarly tradition of a ghost story at Christmas. Unlike James, however, these stories aren't meant to scare so much as amuse and enlighten, which they do time and again.

Davies was the founding master at Massey College, a position which he held for eighteen years. For each of those eighteen years he composed and read aloud a new story each Christmas, stories which initially centered around the ghosts of certain famous figures, but which later branched out into supernatural stories of broader description. The pieces vary in quality, several seemingly written just because they had to be to fulfil the yearly quota, but the very best are crammed full of of the trademark Davies style, rich and palatable like a fine dessert wine. The worst can merely be called a pleasant waste of time. A couple are derivative of earlier stories, but this is generally the nature of a collection composed over eighteen years.

One slight disappointment: Knowing nothing of the college in which these stories are set, I initially imagined a venerable old institution, dripping with history and lore, but a quick google search reveals a thoroughly modern construction more in keeping with a polytechnic than a college. A bit naive of me perhaps; Canada is still a relatively new country after all. Still, Davies's style is enough to evoke an older era and one in which life seems to have been savored with so much more gusto and panache.

[Saige · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars
Robertson Davies has a lovely sense of humour and wit. All of his characters, and his narration, are immensely funny but also so charming. You can't help but love Davies as a professor and the variety of ghosts, ghouls, and other supernatural entities that he encounters. I liked how he related everything back to the college. I also enjoyed all the political humor that he wove into the ghost stories. Satirical, sassy, and altogether a delight to read. My one criticism is that the set-up of each story being a different year got tiring. I know it was set up that way because he did literally tell one a year, but reading all the "introductions" at the beginning of each story back to back fell into repetition that I wasn't a fan of.

[Juan Richards · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ocurre que en Chile, un libro de esta editorial es caro. Especialmente caro. Entonces leerlo es una inversión, digamos, mayor. Lo compré sin conocer al autor y sin muchas expectativas, pero con ganas de leer historias de fantasmas. Al ojear el índice creí que encontraría varias de ellas. Pero la verdad es que el libro recurre a la misma estructura para los 18 cuentos que conforman el volumen y que lamentablemente todos están centrados en un mismo personaje principal, bastante insoportable: el autor. Machista, ególatra, intransigente, amante de la tradición, ultra-conservador, poco dado a que lo incomoden (y menos a que le lleven la contra), Davies se personifica a él mismo como el decano de la facultad de letras de una universidad canadiense que año a año se encuentra con un fantasma. Por supuesto que todos los fantasmas son hombres, heterosexuales, blancos, con poder o pertenecientes a la aristocracia, grandes autores canónicos, científicos de renombre, políticos o reyes. Es decir: espejos del propio Davies. Los diálogos que el autor tiene con estos "espectros" tienden a tratar temas filosóficos, religiosos y morales en los que -por supuesto- termina primando la razón por sobre la emoción y que no son nada más que una excusa para que el personaje principal haga gala de sus vastos conocimientos.
Quizás lo más interesante del volumen es su introducción donde Davies elabora (casi sin querer) algunas líneas interesantes sobre la figura de lo fantasmagórico y donde explica que cada final de año académico cumplía con la tradición de leerle al cuerpo de profesores y estudiantes los relatos que conforman el volumen. Lo único que me reconforta es imaginar la cara de espanto de sus pobres oyentes cuando llegaba diciembre y sabían que tendrían que escuchar a Davies leer una y otra vez un mismo (nada aterrador) relato sobre él mismo.

[cafejuntoalibros · Rating 4 out of 5]

Este es un libro bastante peculiar, conserva una de las tradiciones más antiguas como la de contar cuentos de fantasmas en Navidad.

Consta de 18 relatos, recogidos a lo largo de 18 años, aquí el autor integra magistralmente tintes de parodia en espeluznantes historias de terror (en realidad me sacaron más de una sonrisa). Uno de los relatos que más me gustaron fue el fantasma de Dickens, el de Einstein, conversaciones con la mesita y el top El gato que fue a Trinity que es nada más y nada menos que una parodia de Frankenstein.

Totalmente recomendado.

[Laura Bazalgette Freeman · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very funny collection of ghost stories in the style of M R James, based at the severely haunted Massey College. Well worth a read.

[Don · Rating 3 out of 5]

I went into this book expecting something completely different - well written, insightful and amazing ghost stories. As for well written - Davies is a master of the language. But, this book isn’t what you would classify as a collection of traditional ghost stories. These are satirical commentaries about teaching and academics using Massey College at the University of Toronto as the setting - basically using Davies, as narrator, having interactions with historical and fictional ghosts as storylines to poke fun at professors, administrators and general life within academia.

Not really my cup of tea - yes, the stories were clever but I found the book difficult to finish, not spooky at all and probably should have abandoned it. 3 stars.

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

This audiobook defined my childhood!!! My family still quotes it!!! “A stamp...lick it!” Christopher Plummer does a gorgeous reading of these charming, witty stories.

There’s just one problem: the six cassette tape version seems to no longer exist on planet Earth. I have contacted every library that worldcat thinks owns it, and none of them had it (including one in New Zealand). I am desperately nostalgic to listen to these stories again!!! If anyone, ANYONE has a copy of this audiobook, please let me pay to have it converted to MP3!!!!!!

The good news is that I was able to track down a copy of the 2 cassette version (6 stories) and had them converted to MP3, so if anyone wants to listen to this, just send me your email and I will Dropbox them to you. Be warned: they are addicting and then you too will be hunting the 6 cassette version across the globe.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

A series of ghost stories that Davies related at his university's Christmas dinners. There are some similarities to M R James' stories but these are slightly more twee and never really meant to be scary. A knowledge of 20th Century Canadian politics would help with some of the jokes but the stories work reasonably well even if the jokes pass you by.

Worth a read but shouldn't go to the top of your TBR pile.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

—is there something about me that attracts such manifestation? There are men who attract dogs. There are men of a very different kind who attract women. Can it be that I attract ghosts?
— ‘The Ugly Spectre of Sexism’.

Between 1963 and 1981 Robertson Davies, as Master of the newly-founded Massey College at the University of Toronto, made it his business to tell a Christmas ghost story to academics and their guests at the college’s Gaudy Nights. In this role he cited the example of penning spooky anecdotes set by writers such as Henry James, M R James and Sheridan LeFanu.

Naturally the best way to establish authenticity in such an account is to place oneself at the centre of a first-person narrative so as to assure listeners and readers that the events described are true, and this indeed is what Davies does in these eighteen tales.

However, to achieve the illusion that – in what’s supposed to be a thrilling but chilling report – any seeming humour which emerges is accidental, the tone of voice must remain serious throughout, without any mugging, nudges or winks, otherwise the spell will be completely shattered. Does this collection of ghost stories maintain the illusion – if illusion it is?

Founded as a graduate school in 1963, Massey College aimed to combine 20th-century architecture (“a skillful and humane interpretation of Arts and Crafts sensibilities in a modernist idiom”) with a traditional ambience drawn from Oxbridge models of governance, formal dress and customs. It was thus in keeping with this cultural partnership that Davies set his annual entertainments about ivory tower spooks in the college, reflecting his taste for scholarly Victorian and Edwardian supernatural tales while also alluding to contemporary developments such as Women’s Lib, rock music and photocopiers.

Maybe it’s the semblance of the medieval cloister with a soupçon of the Gothick that convinced Davies that, far from himself attracting ghosts as certain men attract dogs, it is the college itself that “is troubled with ghosts, much as lesser fabrics are troubled with mice” (‘Conversations with the Little Table’), meaning it’s afflicted with “what our university sociologists call ‘spectral density'” (‘The Xerox in the Lost Room’) where certain ghosts come for what may be termed a ‘Witches Sabbatical’. But it remains odd that it’s mainly the spirits of personages in the upper echelons of society – monarchs, prime ministers, Nobel-winning scientists and Norwegian dramatists, for example, and even fictional protagonists – who deign to haunt the college’s corridors and quad in the run-up to gaudy nights.

Thus did this self-proclaimed ‘student of literature with a psychological bias’ entertain his academic audience with parodies of the customary seasonal ghost story, teasing colleagues and celebrating appropriate anniversaries with accounts with soberly titles such as ‘The Ghost Who Vanished by Degrees’, ‘Dickens Digested’ or ‘When Satan Goes Home for Christmas’. Does he advert to his true intentions when he chooses to call an academic called Jesus by the name “Josh”? Does he rely on the satisfaction of good food and drink combined with flickering candlelight to instil expectations for spines well tingled?

However, if you’re hoping for spectral hounds, be warned – our po-faced narrator instead delivers, admittedly in superior fashion, shaggy dog stories.

[C.A. Simonsen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A triple helping of Canadiana and a comical approach to the ghost stories genre.

In High Spirits, Robertson Davies gives us a collection of tales set in the University of Toronto. I believe Davies read the tales annually to entertain the teaching staff as part of Christmas festivities. Most of the stories pertain to ghosts of persons celebrating a centennial of birth or death.

Robertson Davies is sometimes referred to as a polymath. Hearing these stories read (with remarkable talent) by Christopher Plummer, there's little doubt as to why. The guy knew his history, his theatre, his Latin. His descriptions of foods are more entertaining than most authors' plots.

"Revelation From A Smoky Fire" was my favourite. 5 stars for writing; 3.5 stars for storylines.

[andrej_reads7878 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Strong stories from this collection:

The Ghost Who Vanished by Degrees
The Great Queen is Amused
The Night of the Three Kings
When Satan Goes Home for Christmas
Refuge of Insulted Saints
The Kiss of Khrushchev
The Cat That Went to Trinity
The Ugly Spectre of Sexism
Conversations with the Little Table
The King Enjoys His Own Again
The Xerox in the Lost Room <- standout story
Einstein and the Little Lord

[Monica San Miguel · Rating 4 out of 5]

No suelo leer historias de fantasmas, pero esta me ha gustado y mucho, desde luego Robertson Davies le ha dado la impronta tan característica de sus novelas haciéndola diferente y divertida

[Jluis leon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Muy divertido, una delicia .

[Jenny · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did not read all of the stories. They were not quite what I was expecting. Davies is witty like always but the spirits were in no way spooky or frightening, just mildly entertaining visitors from a spiritual plane.

[Иван Величков · Rating 4 out of 5]

Една доста нетипична книга за автора(което ме и привлече в нея). През осемнадесетте години като декан на Масай колежа към университета в Торонто (от 63 до 81) Дейвис разказва по една призрачна история на всяко коледно парти. Това е сборник събрал тези истории. Не са плашещи или стряскащи, точно напротив - забавни, свежи и показващи високата ерудиция на автора, който като преподавател и по готическа литература има какво да каже по въпроса. Щедри дози хумор, сарказъм и самоирония; исторически персонажи, появяващи се като духове в новият колеж; богат език, изпълнен с архаизми за атмосфера, но без да става бутафорен; обилни исторически познания за периодите от които идват привиденията; свежи хрумвания и разкошни намигания към класически автори...
Книгата има какво да даде на всеки интелигентен читател.
На мен ми беше доста трудна за четене, незапознат с канадската история и със слаб английски, за разлика от автора, но пак ми достави огромно удоволствие.
Препоръчвам на всеки зажаднял за нещо по-различно, интелигентно и забавно и все пак дълбоко обвързано с жанра, макар и по един по-различен начин.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

Roberston Davies and ghost stories? Say no more! I don't know why I expected something absolutely bone chilling considering his normal fare but what I got was better. Eighteen ghost stories he told to U of T students - one of my alma maters - and all of them are quirky and funny and erudite just as much as the rest of his work. I had a great time reading them and had to giggle and smirk a bit as his very Canadian references. As per usual I cannot praise Davies enough, he is one of my favourite writers and I think he needs far more exposure than just to Canadians.

If you like the idea of a haunted university with mostly benign ghosts. Famous leaders, academics, and others abound and all are very funny. It would have been great to hear these in person. I wonder if a recording exists anywhere...

[Jillian · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found _High Spirits_ after hearing an amazing audio version of "The Cat That Went to Trinity" (and with a little help from the Goodreads "What's the Name of that Book" Group). The book is a collection of light-hearted ghost stories that Davies delivered yearly as Master of Massey College in Toronto. The tales are largely a vehicle for Davies to play around with literary and historical figures and to be witty, charming, and self-effacing. I enjoyed his skewering of various aspects of literary studies and university life, and I'm sure the stories would have been even more entertaining had I much familiarity with Canadian history and culture.

[Joan]

Every story in this book is a joy. Davies spoofs himself, as, in his persona as Master of Massey College of the University of Toronto, he narrates them. It seems that there is something about Massey College that is attractive to ghosts, famous, infamous and not famous at all. "Every part of our great University strives for distinction of one kind or another, but it is everywhere admitted that in the regularity and variety of our ghostly visitations Massey College stands alone." Even Little Lord Fauntleroy puts in an appearance! Splendid stuff.

[Mary Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

In High Spirits, Robertson Davies' intelligence and love of story shines. I am sure that he completely captivated his dinner audience as he does the reader of the 18 stories. The stories all purport to be 'true' and the reader is in on the joke; the stories are delightful and charming. Davies' sense of fun is infectious. High Spirits is a lovely antidote to the stresses of life and the misery of politics.

[Leslie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful ghost stories that are not scary in the least.

[Carolina · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have this on audio (cassette), read by a very dry Christopher Plummer. I listen to it every Christmas instead of watching It's a Wonderful Life.

[HalfEmpty · Rating 4 out of 5]

After finishing the Cornish Trilogy, I decided to check out some of the ancillary works that proliferate the sidelines of Davies's bibliography. High Spirits is a collection of satirical ghost stories that Davies wrote and recited as an annual tradition for the holiday festivities at Massey College in Toronto, where Davies was Master for 18 years between 1963-1981. It will never be mistaken for a major work in the Davies canon but I surprisingly found it to be one of his funniest and most purely enjoyable books. It may be a collection of short stories but it genuinely reads more like a novel because the stories build upon each other chronologically and Davies casts himself as the protagonist in every one. The stories often reference previous stories, and even the repetitions between stories start to make a kind of thematic sense. I don't think it's a stretch to say that High Spirits offers a more coherent and satisfying narrative than The Lyre of Orpheus.

The stories are dominated by Davies's formidable sense of humor and provide frequent rays of insight into his personality, usually self-effacing in nature. At the same time, Davies is fabricating, over the course of these 18 stories, a literary persona every bit as compelling as those in his novels. You get a sense of a man whose experience of the present is always enriched, and sometimes threatened, by a profound awareness of the past. Not his own past, per se, but an awareness of his role in the great cyclical patterns of history. I didn't expect this collection of frivolous stories to so cleanly elucidate the relationship between Davies and his literary alter-egos, but they truly did. The stories also offer a neat incubator for the themes that would prevail in the author's more storied trilogies. As the late 60s approach, Davies's fascination with saints comes to the fore, and there's much (mostly frivolous) discussion about archetypes as well as the nature of Good and Evil and where they each get us in the end. The last story in the book, An Offer of Immortality, is a true highlight of the collection, and practically lays the groundwork for The Rebel Angels, with its interest in alchemy and the unseen forces that lay beneath our consciousness and control us more than we control them.

Honestly, I approached this book as a curio but I can see myself returning to it again, and perhaps again.

[Antoni · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF (pàgina 147)

Sens dubte, aquest llibre el devia comprar fa un grapat d'anys, quan tenia fal·lera pel tsundoku, i atret per aquest subtítol de «Cuentos de fantasmas» que prometia una immersió en el gènere del terror. Malauradament, molts anys després, he descobert que aquest llibre no és per mi.

Robertson Davies, famosíssim autor canadenc, va ser també degà del Massey College de la Universitat de Toronto. Aquesta relació amb els estaments universitaris va propiciar que cada any, pels voltants de Nadal, Davies ideés un conte de fantasmes per a explicar als seus col·legues ; Espíritu festivo recull el conjunt d'aquests relats. Precisament part de la culpa que no m'hagi agradat el té aquest ambient de College: paios —homes quasi sempre— estirats, amb un llenguatge pedant i una supremacia intel·lectual bastant repulsiva; tampoc parlaré ara del masclisme inherent i el paper de les dones en les històries. Els contes destil·len tots aquesta ferum literària, no en va els va pensar per un auditori molt concret.

Davies agafa referents clàssics d'històries de fantasmes i els dona el seu punt de vista. Jo pensava que hi trobaria un to de narració victoriana, amb un cert control de la tensió, tampoc esperava res excepcional. El problema, però, és que l'autor se'ls emporta al terreny personal del Massey College, fent bromes sobre col·legues que un servidor —i entenc que molts altres lectors tampoc— no ha copsat. També se m'han escapat les referències a altres autors canadencs. El resultat, doncs, és un conjunt de relats que se m'ha fet carregós, tots idèntics pel que fa al tarannà. Si bé contenen idees i fets originals, la sorpresa inicial dura només fins que el tedi de la narració fa acte de presència. Suposo que hi haurà qui gaudirà de tota aquesta literatura elitista i altisonant, però jo ja fa anys que he perdut la paciència i no m'estic per collonades: si un llibre no m'agrada, el deixo a mitges, i malgrat que a Espíritu festivo li he concedit més crèdit que altres títols —he llegit més relats dels que hauria volgut—, no ha pogut evitar el destí fatal del DNF.

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

You’d *think* I'd have wanted to rush this review to get it posted during spooky season, but much to my surprise, there’s more of Dickens than of Devils about it, being a series of stories about Christmas hauntings, so I’ll consider this perfect timing.

Davies was the Master of Massey College in Toronto from 1963 to 1981, during which time he gave a ghost story at each year’s “Gaudy night” (Christmas party). This book is the collection of each ghost story as told. Being told on a high-spirited night, these are not scary ghosts, but humorous tales that poke a lot of fun at academia, Massey College personalities, and Canadian celebrities (both of the time and in history). In each story, Davies himself is the main character, and he maintains that they were all really true stories.

Towards the latter half of the book, he is rather self-aware about this pledge for only true stories, being rather concerned about the probability of coming across another ghost before the annual Gaudy Night -- and the reputation of the college for having so many ghosts. But this is all tongue-in-cheek. Each year, sometimes at the 12th hour, he stumbles across one ghost, (or a few, or many), and helps them on their way. Sometimes these ghosts are graduate students, who hadn’t quite defended their thesis before it was their time, and other times of Queen Victoria. In one case, it was a Frankenstines-monster-cat, and another, an antique table possessed by the ghost of former prime minister Mackenzie King.

If you don’t know your Canadians, this probably isn’t the book for you. But not having ever gone to a university, let alone U of T, I’m happy to say I still found the stories hilarious (in one scene, ghosts of Canadian authors are clamoring to be reborn. When asked why, Davies speculates “perhaps they hope that this time they might be born American authors”). These aren’t your regular ghost tales, but worth a read if you like your rather obscure canadian lit.