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The Salterton Trilogy #1-3
Salterton Trilogy Omnibus
Available in one volume, all three books of the award-winning Salterton Tempest-Tost, Leaven of Malice, and A Mixture of Frailties.
Visit the quaint town of Salterton, Ontario, and the enigmatic lives of those who inhabit it . . .
Tempest-Tost . An amateur production of The Tempest provides a colorful backdrop for a hilarious look at unrequited love. Mathematics teacher Hector Mackilwraith, stirred and troubled by Shakespeare's play, falls in love with the beautiful heiress Griselda Webster. When Griselda shows she has plans of her own, Hector despairs on the play's opening night.
Leaven of Malice . Winner of the Leacock Medal, awarded for the best in Canadian literary humor. A malicious false engagement notice between locals Solly Bridgetower and Pearl Vambrace leads to permanent changes, for good or ill, in the lives of many citizens of Salterton.
A Mixture of Frailties . Louisa Bridgetower, the imposing Salterton matron, has died. The substantial income from her estate is to be used to send an unmarried young woman to Europe to pursue an education in the arts. Monica Gall, an almost entirely unschooled singer soon finds herself in England, as she gradually blossoms from a Canadian rube to a cosmopolitan soprano with a unique--and tragicomic--career.
Praise for the Salterton Trilogy
"Full of zest, wit and urbanity."--The New York Times
"High comedy with a spice of satire to give it savor."--Montreal Gazette
"An exercise in puckish persiflage."--Toronto Star
"Hilarious, satirical, witty and clever."--Edmonton Journal
Visit the quaint town of Salterton, Ontario, and the enigmatic lives of those who inhabit it . . .
Tempest-Tost . An amateur production of The Tempest provides a colorful backdrop for a hilarious look at unrequited love. Mathematics teacher Hector Mackilwraith, stirred and troubled by Shakespeare's play, falls in love with the beautiful heiress Griselda Webster. When Griselda shows she has plans of her own, Hector despairs on the play's opening night.
Leaven of Malice . Winner of the Leacock Medal, awarded for the best in Canadian literary humor. A malicious false engagement notice between locals Solly Bridgetower and Pearl Vambrace leads to permanent changes, for good or ill, in the lives of many citizens of Salterton.
A Mixture of Frailties . Louisa Bridgetower, the imposing Salterton matron, has died. The substantial income from her estate is to be used to send an unmarried young woman to Europe to pursue an education in the arts. Monica Gall, an almost entirely unschooled singer soon finds herself in England, as she gradually blossoms from a Canadian rube to a cosmopolitan soprano with a unique--and tragicomic--career.
Praise for the Salterton Trilogy
"Full of zest, wit and urbanity."--The New York Times
"High comedy with a spice of satire to give it savor."--Montreal Gazette
"An exercise in puckish persiflage."--Toronto Star
"Hilarious, satirical, witty and clever."--Edmonton Journal
1022 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1986
61 people are currently reading
944 people want to read
About the author
Robertson Davies
111 books921 followersWilliam 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...
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...
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 93 reviews
May 29, 2019
In the Seventies and Eighties, most Americans who developed a fondness for the novels of the late Robertson Davies started out with the three novels hitched together as the DEPTFORD TRILOGY, which chronicled the life of Canada in the first two-thirds of the twentieth century through the eyes of three not-quite-friends from the same village of Deptford, Ontario. Many of those readers eagerly snapped up the three interlinked novels Davies wrote in the Eighties, set in a small academic community, really a college-within-a-university in Toronto, which came to be known as the CORNISH TRILOGY. But it would be a shame if fans, or newcomers to Davies writings, overlooked the three novels Davies wrote back in the Fifties, known together as The Salterton Trilogy: Tempest-Tost; Leaven of Malice; A Mixture of Frailties .
Salterton is a fictional large town/small city in Southern Ontario, the locale and some of the trilogy's characters based on Davies' own editorship at a newspaper in the conservative (Tory) stronghold known as Kingston. Located about halfway between Toronto and Montreal, Kingston -- that is, Salterton -- was small enough in the Fifties to be provincial and so close-knit that if townsfolk associated with one group or another (such as the arts and theater, these novels' common concern), they will know each other soon enough, and be thrown together often enough, to get in each other's way well enough to provoke an ongoing comedy of manners and mores. The novels have to do with non-earthshaking events: in TEMPEST-TOST, the mounting of a Shakespeare play; in LEAVEN OF MALICE, the social mischief and near-tragedy that occurs when a false engagement notice is maliciously run in the town paper; and in A MIXTURE OF FRAILTIES, the grooming of a local girl of modest means who turns out to have the talent (and, from well-wishing townsfolk), more than enough impetus to become an internationally famed singer, thus mirroring Ontario's step into a larger world following World War II.
These books have a largely overlapping cast, and are social comedies yeasty enough to be interesting, yet not relentlessly satiric. Under Davies benevolent, almost avuncular stewardship, "all the world's a stage" is the dominant conceit, whether in local theater, local journalism, or the London musical scene. Are the books as wide-ranging as the novels set in Deptford and greater Canada (DEPTFORD TRILOGY), or as intellectual as those set later on, in Toronto in his CORNISH TRILOGY? No, but they don't bore and never become routine, even if at times Davies has to stretch his characters into near-eccentrism to keep them lively (at the very beginning of TEMPEST-TOST we're introduced to an adolescent girl, who for no apparent reason wants to become a major vintner). During the whole triology, real amusement is to be had, and the largely overlapping cast of characters lets the featured Saltertonians grow and develop as characters might in a large Russian novel. I may be asking too much that the newcomer to Davies immediately plunk down the money for this oversized volume full of the three Salterton novels, but if you're willing to commit my advice is jump in; you're not likely to be disappointed. In particular, Americans who remember their non-big-city roots will note with a mixture of fondness and irritation that smallish municipalities on either side of the border resemble or resembled each other greatly, even if down here the Tory establishment went by other names.
Which is the best of the three? I think they're all excellent, but I will note that the middle novel, Leaven of Malice, won Canada's coveted Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour in 1955.
Salterton is a fictional large town/small city in Southern Ontario, the locale and some of the trilogy's characters based on Davies' own editorship at a newspaper in the conservative (Tory) stronghold known as Kingston. Located about halfway between Toronto and Montreal, Kingston -- that is, Salterton -- was small enough in the Fifties to be provincial and so close-knit that if townsfolk associated with one group or another (such as the arts and theater, these novels' common concern), they will know each other soon enough, and be thrown together often enough, to get in each other's way well enough to provoke an ongoing comedy of manners and mores. The novels have to do with non-earthshaking events: in TEMPEST-TOST, the mounting of a Shakespeare play; in LEAVEN OF MALICE, the social mischief and near-tragedy that occurs when a false engagement notice is maliciously run in the town paper; and in A MIXTURE OF FRAILTIES, the grooming of a local girl of modest means who turns out to have the talent (and, from well-wishing townsfolk), more than enough impetus to become an internationally famed singer, thus mirroring Ontario's step into a larger world following World War II.
These books have a largely overlapping cast, and are social comedies yeasty enough to be interesting, yet not relentlessly satiric. Under Davies benevolent, almost avuncular stewardship, "all the world's a stage" is the dominant conceit, whether in local theater, local journalism, or the London musical scene. Are the books as wide-ranging as the novels set in Deptford and greater Canada (DEPTFORD TRILOGY), or as intellectual as those set later on, in Toronto in his CORNISH TRILOGY? No, but they don't bore and never become routine, even if at times Davies has to stretch his characters into near-eccentrism to keep them lively (at the very beginning of TEMPEST-TOST we're introduced to an adolescent girl, who for no apparent reason wants to become a major vintner). During the whole triology, real amusement is to be had, and the largely overlapping cast of characters lets the featured Saltertonians grow and develop as characters might in a large Russian novel. I may be asking too much that the newcomer to Davies immediately plunk down the money for this oversized volume full of the three Salterton novels, but if you're willing to commit my advice is jump in; you're not likely to be disappointed. In particular, Americans who remember their non-big-city roots will note with a mixture of fondness and irritation that smallish municipalities on either side of the border resemble or resembled each other greatly, even if down here the Tory establishment went by other names.
Which is the best of the three? I think they're all excellent, but I will note that the middle novel, Leaven of Malice, won Canada's coveted Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour in 1955.
October 6, 2007
Clever, witty and always erudite, the Salterton Trilogy invites the reader to settle down in a typical yet extraordinary provincial Canadian town. As always, the satire is seen through the prism of art, each book dealing respectively with the theatre, local journalism and finally patronage, all of it warped by the quirky context. The characters are memorable, and as they reappear from book to book, they gain depth and of course zaniness.
August 27, 2022
'People who do not know Salterton repeat a number of half-truths about it. They call it dreamy and old-world; they say that it is at anchor in the stream of time. [...] And, sooner or later, they speak of it as "quaint".' — Tempest-TostSet largely in a small town in Ontario around the 1950s, Robertson Davies's Salterton Trilogy included his earliest novels, but far from being in any way gauche they seem to spring fully-formed and masterly from his imagination.
Along with his experience of the theatre, academic life, newspapers and literature he brought to his fiction a sharp insight into human nature and of life, whether provincial or metropolitan, and garnished his narratives with both caustic wit and compassion.
'Readers who think that they can identify the creations of the author's fancy among their own acquaintance are paying the author an extravagant compliment, which he acknowledges with gratitude.' — Epigraph to Tempest-Tost
Tempest-Tost is based around an amateur open-air performance of Shakespeare's The Tempest in summer, and was itself originally conceived as a stage comedy before being novelised. Leaven of Malice features many of the same characters but its action is precipitated by a fake marriage announcement in a Salterton paper at Halloween. Key events in A Mixture of Frailties is focused on the adventures of a young Salterton singer in Europe following the death of a Salterton matriarch around Christmas, and on the terms of the deceased woman's spiteful will.
The first two novels are naturally quite theatrical, especially with regard to dialogue and interactions and potential stage business, while the last instalment, much the longest of the trio, is less stagey but equally anchored to performance – in this case punctuted by recitals, choral concerts and operatic presentations.
There is so much to enjoy in this small-town triptych, and much to distinguish it from the more wide-ranging Deptford Trilogy. Thank goodness I've still the Cornish Trilogy to read, plus a couple of novels which had yet to reach trilogy status before Davies died – I would miss my annual fill of fiction from this Canadian man of letters.
June 20, 2015
Tempest-Tost
Entirely character-driven. Robertson Davies’ characters are interesting and charismatic. This is one of Davies’ wittier works and a real enjoyment to read.
In this first part of The Salteron Trilogy, the characters develop and mature, without much happening as to plot, while the themes of “manners” and “morals” and “decorum” weave throughout the story. The times are changing and the rift between the middle-aged and the young is emphasized.
Leaven of Malice
An amusing look a the "ripple effect" brought about by a practical joke published in the newspaper of a small town. The article affects many people and the many different ripple effects spread until they meet. Robertson Davies is quite humerous in how he looks at people and their personalities and foibles.
A Mixture of Frailties
Interesting turn of events and a great ending to the Salterton Trilogy.
This book is different in "feel" and more serious in content than the other two parts of the trilogy; although Davies' humour always shines through in witty comments and situations.
Monica Gall becomes the recipient of the funds of Mrs. Bridgetower's Will, through a Trust, and is sent to London to train as a Singer. Being a sheltered, young and inexperienced girl, Monica faces many challenges as she learns her trade and learns about herself and the World in general.
This book could be read as a stand-alone. The story is removed enough from the rest of the trilogy to stand alone, but the trilogy, read as a whole, is a sweeping, full-circle tale of Life, people, their loyalties and their dreams.
Entirely character-driven. Robertson Davies’ characters are interesting and charismatic. This is one of Davies’ wittier works and a real enjoyment to read.
In this first part of The Salteron Trilogy, the characters develop and mature, without much happening as to plot, while the themes of “manners” and “morals” and “decorum” weave throughout the story. The times are changing and the rift between the middle-aged and the young is emphasized.
Leaven of Malice
An amusing look a the "ripple effect" brought about by a practical joke published in the newspaper of a small town. The article affects many people and the many different ripple effects spread until they meet. Robertson Davies is quite humerous in how he looks at people and their personalities and foibles.
A Mixture of Frailties
Interesting turn of events and a great ending to the Salterton Trilogy.
This book is different in "feel" and more serious in content than the other two parts of the trilogy; although Davies' humour always shines through in witty comments and situations.
Monica Gall becomes the recipient of the funds of Mrs. Bridgetower's Will, through a Trust, and is sent to London to train as a Singer. Being a sheltered, young and inexperienced girl, Monica faces many challenges as she learns her trade and learns about herself and the World in general.
This book could be read as a stand-alone. The story is removed enough from the rest of the trilogy to stand alone, but the trilogy, read as a whole, is a sweeping, full-circle tale of Life, people, their loyalties and their dreams.
June 23, 2017
Oh, this was wonderful vacation reading (though I got some odd glances on the airplane when I started giggling helplessly several times). The three books (which I have in an omnibus) are set in the Canadian city of Salterton, home of two cathedrals, one university, and many fascinating people. As they share a setting and some characters, the books comprising the trilogy (Tempest-Tost, Leaven of Malice, A Mixture of Frailties) are interconnected to a large extent; they could certainly be read independently, but I prefer to have read them together to follow larger developments in the lives of the characters. All three books are very funny and warm, with a style reminiscent of Trollope; the third book is perhaps the best, with the most developed plotline, though I also really liked the behind-the-scenes comedy of the first book.
March 17, 2008
This is some solid fiction right here. Not as good as The Deptford or Cornish Trilogies, but all the elements of RD that you would expect. Old school bawdy humor, the hypocrisy of institutions (exposed!), the importance and progression of the artist, obtuse university profs that get their come-uppins, crazy old coots that unexpectedly have a hand in fostering young love, and much much more. You may need to have a mind like a dirty old man to enjoy this, but there are many, many good life lessons to be learned.
January 29, 2021
This book was better when it was the only thing at my house to read. A slog, truly.
September 28, 2012
The Salterton Trilogy includes Tempest-Tost (1951), Leaven of Malice (1954), and A Mixture of Frailties (1958). This was Davies' first set of novels. The stories all begin in the Canadian city of Salterton and two young people, Solly Bridgetower and Pearl Veronica Vambrace, provide a connecting thread of sorts between the books. Tempest-Tost focuses on a community theater troupe, Leaven of Malice on a newspaper, and A Mixture of Frailties on a young singer, but really they are all three about how people live their lives and what compells them to make the choices they do. They are also full of odd bits of social commentary.
"He had allowed his daughters to use his library without restraint, and nothing is more fatal to maidenly delicacy of speech than the run of a good library." (p. 33)
Davies' novels are beautifully structured, moving seamlessly among the households (and thoughts) of Salterton's various residents. His observations on people's behavior are both spot-on and often very funny.
"Well allow me to introduce myself to you as an advocate of Ornamental Knowledge. You like the mind to be a neat machine, equipped to work efficiently, if narrowly, and with no extra bits or useless parts. I like the mind to be a dustbin of scraps of brilliant fabric, odd gems, worthless but fascinating curiosities, tinsel, quaint bits of carving, and a reasonable amount of healthy dirt. Shake the machine and it goes out of order; shake the dustbin and it adjusts itself beautifully to its new position." (p. 158)
This is the third of the Davies' trilogies I have read and it was as good as the others. I wish there were more to read. If you haven't read these novels yet you are in for a treat.
"He had allowed his daughters to use his library without restraint, and nothing is more fatal to maidenly delicacy of speech than the run of a good library." (p. 33)
Davies' novels are beautifully structured, moving seamlessly among the households (and thoughts) of Salterton's various residents. His observations on people's behavior are both spot-on and often very funny.
"Well allow me to introduce myself to you as an advocate of Ornamental Knowledge. You like the mind to be a neat machine, equipped to work efficiently, if narrowly, and with no extra bits or useless parts. I like the mind to be a dustbin of scraps of brilliant fabric, odd gems, worthless but fascinating curiosities, tinsel, quaint bits of carving, and a reasonable amount of healthy dirt. Shake the machine and it goes out of order; shake the dustbin and it adjusts itself beautifully to its new position." (p. 158)
This is the third of the Davies' trilogies I have read and it was as good as the others. I wish there were more to read. If you haven't read these novels yet you are in for a treat.
December 2, 2009
bleak, uplifting, impossible, wonderful, smart, nasty, like Iris Murdoch dipped in whiskey and self-conscious, self-deprecating Canadianism, plus a side of Presbyterian rigor. Sigh.
Read
February 25, 2017I read straight through these, and they were fantastic, particularly the first one. Better than the other Davies trilogy I've read.
February 20, 2021
Satirical, witty and urbane - 'Tempest-Tost' and 'A Mixture of Frailties' are just brilliant - my kind of novels.
January 10, 2021
Excellent listening on the audio book. I imagine that Kingston was just like this in the early post WW2 timeframe. Good fun.
Read
May 13, 2015It's one of the best 7RM I've ever spent. I love it when I found a book just like this, by chance, not looking for it and finding out that it's a great read. Not that I had really doubt it. The first Robertson Davies trilogy read was just brilliant so I know that I'd be in a good hand. And although it couldn't beat Deptford it's still a riot.
I think my favorite will be the first part, Tempest Tost. It's so light, so funny, but you have some sentences that just punch you in the stomach.
I was rather wary about Leaven of Malice. There's that character, Bevill Higgin that's just too comical, too conveniently malicious that he became cartoonish. I know that it's not only about him. The whole mess was made possible by the combination of all these characters coming together. But everybody can smell Higgin from miles away. He stood out too much amongst all the other fleshed out people. I didn't like this part so much also because it tried rather too hard to be serious and heavier. Why couldn't it be as light as Tempest but still knock me out from time to time?
Third part, A Mixture of Frailties was the one I like the least. It's pity, I love the title & the epigraph. I was expecting so much from it. But there's this bedevilment of Mrs. Bridgetower and I hate that. I suppose there are really people with that kind of "hatred" who would act this way towards their son. And her portrayal on previous parts are along that line. But her will and the act of spirit vanquishing at the end was too much. I suppose I did enjoy reading about Monica although she took me too far away from Salterton. She's the kind of girl who did things I can imagine myself doing. Because of it, just like I sometime feels I want to bash myself for being stupid, sometimes I wanted to do the same thing to her too. Anyway, everything was more or else fine by the end, which I rather suspected would be from beginning.
It really can't catch up with Deptford trilogy... a pity.. Now the book itself will continue its journey separately. I just love second hand book. It's nice to meet them when they've already have bruises from life. Which goes the same way with the kind of people I like to meet.
Was thinking 4 stars but maybe nearer to 3.5
PS. Could it be that Alan Bradley's Flavia de Luce family was somehow inspired by Webster's family? Further and differently developed but I was reminded so strongly of Flavia while reading it.
I think my favorite will be the first part, Tempest Tost. It's so light, so funny, but you have some sentences that just punch you in the stomach.
I was rather wary about Leaven of Malice. There's that character, Bevill Higgin that's just too comical, too conveniently malicious that he became cartoonish. I know that it's not only about him. The whole mess was made possible by the combination of all these characters coming together. But everybody can smell Higgin from miles away. He stood out too much amongst all the other fleshed out people. I didn't like this part so much also because it tried rather too hard to be serious and heavier. Why couldn't it be as light as Tempest but still knock me out from time to time?
Third part, A Mixture of Frailties was the one I like the least. It's pity, I love the title & the epigraph. I was expecting so much from it. But there's this bedevilment of Mrs. Bridgetower and I hate that. I suppose there are really people with that kind of "hatred" who would act this way towards their son. And her portrayal on previous parts are along that line. But her will and the act of spirit vanquishing at the end was too much. I suppose I did enjoy reading about Monica although she took me too far away from Salterton. She's the kind of girl who did things I can imagine myself doing. Because of it, just like I sometime feels I want to bash myself for being stupid, sometimes I wanted to do the same thing to her too. Anyway, everything was more or else fine by the end, which I rather suspected would be from beginning.
It really can't catch up with Deptford trilogy... a pity.. Now the book itself will continue its journey separately. I just love second hand book. It's nice to meet them when they've already have bruises from life. Which goes the same way with the kind of people I like to meet.
Was thinking 4 stars but maybe nearer to 3.5
PS. Could it be that Alan Bradley's Flavia de Luce family was somehow inspired by Webster's family? Further and differently developed but I was reminded so strongly of Flavia while reading it.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 29, 2017
I've reviewed each of the books in this series separately, but as I did with the Deptford trilogy, I want to review the series as a whole as well.
Though I didn't much love the first book, Tempest-Tost, I enjoyed it and found parts of it really funny. I liked the group of characters and the town that Davies presented, and the much lighter tone was kind of a refreshing change from the heavy atmosphere of the Deptford trilogy. But it didn't draw me in like Fifth Business did, and so it took me quite awhile to get around to reading the second book, Leaven of Malice. Once I finally did though, the series really took off for me, and I absolutely loved the second and third books--loved them! In fact, A Mixture of Frailties officially became my new favorite Robertson Davies book (well, so far, that is--I still have five more of his to read at this point).
Anyway, Robertson Davies is my hero. Seriously, I just can't gush about this guy enough.
Though I didn't much love the first book, Tempest-Tost, I enjoyed it and found parts of it really funny. I liked the group of characters and the town that Davies presented, and the much lighter tone was kind of a refreshing change from the heavy atmosphere of the Deptford trilogy. But it didn't draw me in like Fifth Business did, and so it took me quite awhile to get around to reading the second book, Leaven of Malice. Once I finally did though, the series really took off for me, and I absolutely loved the second and third books--loved them! In fact, A Mixture of Frailties officially became my new favorite Robertson Davies book (well, so far, that is--I still have five more of his to read at this point).
Anyway, Robertson Davies is my hero. Seriously, I just can't gush about this guy enough.
May 26, 2020
Robertson Davies has become one of my favorite writers. The way he writes his novels captivates me. He touches heavy subjects with the gentleness of a feather. All three books, although a comedy, pull out so much in regards to society, love, relationships, business, the arts and so much more. I can’t get over how no communal vein is left untouched.
Tempest Tost:
This book is the one that knocked it down a star for me. Although humorous in regards to how infatuation can lead humans to do some dumb shit, the book felt hollow. Davies always pulls out one character that is followed throughout. Part of me hoped it would be Freddy as the opening of the book gave her great character but to my horror it landed on Hector. I love how Davies goes to length to give every character their life, even side characters, but I was sad that Freddy was not given more presence. In regards to Hector: his character did not make much sense to me. Obvious mid life crisis but in all honesty the man could’ve easily became a serial killer, murdering prostitutes in his spare time. That how I felt about his character and the way he was described. None the less I’ve noticed a theme of attempted suicide in Davies books (The Lyre if Orpheus comes to mind). The push to the edge by the heavy hand of fate. In the end it felt unsatisfying and unfinished. I felt so awkward for Griselda being pushed into that conversation with hector. I’m happy she “took off” in the next book. The clash of classes in this book was interesting to me. Davies has a great way of showing the interesting way military folk rub with the wealthy class or how the amateur game of theater is different from the big leagues. He makes the blurry lines seem so clear.
Leaven of Malice:
This book was a step up from Tempest Tost. I appreciate Davies having more of a focus on the “business” aspect of society and how these different social areas mix together to make a community. I also greatly loved the light on relationships. The relationship between mother and son or father and daughter. How grotesque they can be but real and consuming. The way the two children (Solly and Pearl) connect on that understanding. That .... acknowledgment of reality was meaningful to me. It was clear they both felt so isolated. A dependent controlling (sometimes emotionally abusive) parent has a way of doing that to a child. In the previous book Solly was scorned because this was made fun of by someone he loved but when Pearl understood and opened up about her own life, it was elating. He wasn’t alone! Someone else understands too! I clearly enjoyed that development. Ridley was interesting in his his character developed. He’s introduced as such a strong independent man who is focused on career yet he immediately shows himself to be a push over that avoids responsibility. The whole fiasco of dealing with a man like Vambrance, who is solely guided on acting based on his emotion (which is always negative) pushes him to be decisive and confident. I appreciated the development and the situation that lead it. The conversation between Ridley and Elspeth where she basically talks sense into him is one of my favorites. Vambrance turned out to be quite surprising. In Tempest Tost he seemed to have a large ego but was reserved. How interesting the mental break that occurs in him at the idea of his daughter marrying. I like how Davies goes about portraying the psychological issues humanity deals with.
A Mixture of Frailties
This book deserves all 5 stars. I loved this book. I can not get over the humanity of Monica but first: the mother son Relationship played out in a most interesting way. The book touched well on it. Was it spite or was she urging her child to grow some spunk? It was probably both. The way Davies describes hardship and mental struggle. I seriously felt sympathy for Solly but mostly for Veronica. The scene of her dressing the dead body, throwing a funeral and just hoping that it’s being done right. Wow.
Monica though was such an interesting development of character. Internally strong but externally a door mat to those around her. The struggle this girl goes through after living such a sheltered life. Given a gift but thrown to the wolves of the world. She is in the moment. She is experiencing her life as it is happening. “So this is rape.”
This scene had me floored. Here is a young woman, sheltered religious past, entering a world bigger than she’s over known having to be the calm and collected adult around 50 year old men. How does Davies capture that. Her demeanor wasn’t even panic but just react, react, react. Wow.
Moving to the self sacrifice of love. This is what it is. You just give and give. The way Davies writes her character to be her own, refined and learned but still exhibit learned dependencies picked up from childhood. Her revelation to these subconscious acts. Her attempts to break the cycle of it.
I found Giles to be an on point portrayal of a very insecure man. Fulfilling his role of pushing and pulling, manipulating and using. I’m a little surprised he didn’t have a heroine problem. Im glad that Davies wrote about his suicide being one that was meant to manipulate Monica. Granted we’ll never know since it happened as if happened but in my heart I feel he purposefully set it up so she’d find him, feel guilt and run back to him. It was all a ploy.
Davies does a great job on how he depicts mental illness. In the book the characters are so human. So natural. I’m simply reading and enthralled in their life that I almost didn’t recognize the symptoms they depict. Monica “picking up” voices. At first this seemed light hearted in the way it’s given but after I read it I had to think a moment. After her experience of moving, isolation, deep depression, losing her mother, taking on family responsibility, the Giles situation I can only imagine how she truly coped. She constantly states she can’t believe the situations people would put her in and inwardly she raving but outwardly she’s stoic. I’m so impressed.
The family tension in regards to her situation. So on point.
Other things I love about Davies: dropping in the book name with explanations. Even other books. I don’t know why but I love it. Like an “aha!” type of thing to me.
I could go on forever, but I won’t. Read the books. They’re great.
Tempest Tost:
This book is the one that knocked it down a star for me. Although humorous in regards to how infatuation can lead humans to do some dumb shit, the book felt hollow. Davies always pulls out one character that is followed throughout. Part of me hoped it would be Freddy as the opening of the book gave her great character but to my horror it landed on Hector. I love how Davies goes to length to give every character their life, even side characters, but I was sad that Freddy was not given more presence. In regards to Hector: his character did not make much sense to me. Obvious mid life crisis but in all honesty the man could’ve easily became a serial killer, murdering prostitutes in his spare time. That how I felt about his character and the way he was described. None the less I’ve noticed a theme of attempted suicide in Davies books (The Lyre if Orpheus comes to mind). The push to the edge by the heavy hand of fate. In the end it felt unsatisfying and unfinished. I felt so awkward for Griselda being pushed into that conversation with hector. I’m happy she “took off” in the next book. The clash of classes in this book was interesting to me. Davies has a great way of showing the interesting way military folk rub with the wealthy class or how the amateur game of theater is different from the big leagues. He makes the blurry lines seem so clear.
Leaven of Malice:
This book was a step up from Tempest Tost. I appreciate Davies having more of a focus on the “business” aspect of society and how these different social areas mix together to make a community. I also greatly loved the light on relationships. The relationship between mother and son or father and daughter. How grotesque they can be but real and consuming. The way the two children (Solly and Pearl) connect on that understanding. That .... acknowledgment of reality was meaningful to me. It was clear they both felt so isolated. A dependent controlling (sometimes emotionally abusive) parent has a way of doing that to a child. In the previous book Solly was scorned because this was made fun of by someone he loved but when Pearl understood and opened up about her own life, it was elating. He wasn’t alone! Someone else understands too! I clearly enjoyed that development. Ridley was interesting in his his character developed. He’s introduced as such a strong independent man who is focused on career yet he immediately shows himself to be a push over that avoids responsibility. The whole fiasco of dealing with a man like Vambrance, who is solely guided on acting based on his emotion (which is always negative) pushes him to be decisive and confident. I appreciated the development and the situation that lead it. The conversation between Ridley and Elspeth where she basically talks sense into him is one of my favorites. Vambrance turned out to be quite surprising. In Tempest Tost he seemed to have a large ego but was reserved. How interesting the mental break that occurs in him at the idea of his daughter marrying. I like how Davies goes about portraying the psychological issues humanity deals with.
A Mixture of Frailties
This book deserves all 5 stars. I loved this book. I can not get over the humanity of Monica but first: the mother son Relationship played out in a most interesting way. The book touched well on it. Was it spite or was she urging her child to grow some spunk? It was probably both. The way Davies describes hardship and mental struggle. I seriously felt sympathy for Solly but mostly for Veronica. The scene of her dressing the dead body, throwing a funeral and just hoping that it’s being done right. Wow.
Monica though was such an interesting development of character. Internally strong but externally a door mat to those around her. The struggle this girl goes through after living such a sheltered life. Given a gift but thrown to the wolves of the world. She is in the moment. She is experiencing her life as it is happening. “So this is rape.”
This scene had me floored. Here is a young woman, sheltered religious past, entering a world bigger than she’s over known having to be the calm and collected adult around 50 year old men. How does Davies capture that. Her demeanor wasn’t even panic but just react, react, react. Wow.
Moving to the self sacrifice of love. This is what it is. You just give and give. The way Davies writes her character to be her own, refined and learned but still exhibit learned dependencies picked up from childhood. Her revelation to these subconscious acts. Her attempts to break the cycle of it.
I found Giles to be an on point portrayal of a very insecure man. Fulfilling his role of pushing and pulling, manipulating and using. I’m a little surprised he didn’t have a heroine problem. Im glad that Davies wrote about his suicide being one that was meant to manipulate Monica. Granted we’ll never know since it happened as if happened but in my heart I feel he purposefully set it up so she’d find him, feel guilt and run back to him. It was all a ploy.
Davies does a great job on how he depicts mental illness. In the book the characters are so human. So natural. I’m simply reading and enthralled in their life that I almost didn’t recognize the symptoms they depict. Monica “picking up” voices. At first this seemed light hearted in the way it’s given but after I read it I had to think a moment. After her experience of moving, isolation, deep depression, losing her mother, taking on family responsibility, the Giles situation I can only imagine how she truly coped. She constantly states she can’t believe the situations people would put her in and inwardly she raving but outwardly she’s stoic. I’m so impressed.
The family tension in regards to her situation. So on point.
Other things I love about Davies: dropping in the book name with explanations. Even other books. I don’t know why but I love it. Like an “aha!” type of thing to me.
I could go on forever, but I won’t. Read the books. They’re great.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 8, 2013
Salterton is my favourite of all of Robertson Davies' books. My own copy is worn out as it's been on long business trips, short trips to the cottage and to the hospital with me twice when we had the girls (I can see that I might have made an uneducated decision to take it with the first trip to the hospital but why I did it again a second time?) I've been thinking of reading it aloud to one of our kids lately as she is interested in journalism and the role of an editor. A few days ago I met a woman on the VIA train and we were talking about the Stratford Festival and how grateful we both are that years ago a group of people brought quality Shakespeare to that little town. It made me remember Robertson Davies and his dedication to the theatre.
March 29, 2015
A "Wind in the Willows" of characterisation, Dickensian in descriptive detail, and an uncanny knowledge of the realities of a great variety of human pursuits, particularly academia, artistic and professional. A thoroughly enjoyable read with the well constructed plots dovetailing well through the Trilogy. "Takes all types to make a world" in essence, just a pity the book petered out in the end when handling "death" situations and rushing to conclusions of hanging threads.
December 12, 2010
This trilogy - "Tempest-Tost; Leaven of Malice; A Mixture of Frailties" - is what I imagine a Canadian version of the Barchester Chronicles might be. Brilliant characterisation and a wonderfully woven story that looks at the human condition in all its guises.
March 28, 2015
I love all Robertson Davies books. This trilogy keeps popping into my thoughts.
July 25, 2021
Robertson Davies’ works blew me away when I first came across them in 1979 or so. I was in awe of such piercing analysis of character and such an objective, humorous way of looking at people’s morality. It is strange indeed to read them again now: when I have been dumbed down to such an extent by second-rate therapy and the easy pinning of labels. Political correctness has done us all a HUGE disservice. So I note and am disturbed by Davies’ dismissive attitude to an attempted rape, but I am ALSO, at the exact same time, convinced by his description of the victim’s reaction to the attempt at rape! She is calm, in control, and everything about her way of dealing with sex, teachers and the world around her, shows you that she is not afraid or overwhelmed, but manages to crack her singing teacher smartly on the skull with her fan mounted on heavy sticks -- and he stops trying to mount her. She had indeed discovered that chastity means having your body in your soul’s keeping.
You see, we have been so cowed by outrage at the very word ‘rape’ and the fact that the word triggers terror (understandably so) in some people, that we guard our thoughts, not only our tongues, but our very thoughts, about touchy subjects such as this. Indeed, I am hesitant right now to promote this most brilliant of author’s books in spite of his clarity of thought. Let me quote from one scene here, (I’ve had to use ellipses to shorten it, unfortunately) and see what you guys think. The two in this scene are Norm and Professor Vambrace. Norm Yarrow is a young PhD who does not appear to belong to any special school of psychology, but who “frankly admitted he relied upon his own common sense, rather than theory, to guide him in dealing with people who seemed to need psychological assistance.” Professor Vambrace teaches in the classics department of the same university.
Norm (uninvited) barges into the professor’s rooms and starts to speak to him about his relationship with his daughter: “Professor, let’s get down to brass tacks. I’m only here because I want to help. I want you to understand right now that my job is simply to understand, not to accuse. Now, you’re an intelligent man, so I don’t have to beat about the bush with you. We can take the gloves off right at the start. I take it you’ve heard of the Oedipus Complex?”
“I am familiar with all forms of the Oedipus legend.”
“Yes, but have you understood it? I mean, as we moderns understand it? Have you got the psychological slant on it?” … [more in this vein] Oedipus is a kind of symbol of a particular kind of love, you see, and –”
[Professor Vambrace interrupts] “Oedipus may be taken as a symbol for many things. In accordance with the prophecy, he slew his father, Laius, and married Epikaste, the widow of Laius, to discover later that she was his mother. A strange love, certainly. But my dear mother died when I was a child of two, Mr Yarrow, and I have no recollection of her. I fail to see the resemblance between Oedipus and myself.”
“Perhaps you don’t know yourself as thoroughly as you should. Not that I blame you, of course. It takes training to know yourself in the way I am talking about. But if you turn the Oedipus legend around, you get a daughter who kills her mother and is in love with her father. Do you follow me?”
“Inverted legends are no novelty to a classicist my dear sir. Let me help you out: it is your idea that my daughter loves me to excess and in order to correct this I beat her publicly with a stick. Is that it?” … “Now, Professor, let’s not get extreme. When I was talking about Oedipus I was talking symbolically, you understand.”
I do not profess to understand psychological symbolism, Mr Yarrow, but it does not require much training to realize that Oedipus is a symbol for incest. Is that what you imply?”
“Oh, just a minute. That’s pretty rough talk. Not incest, of course. Just a kind of mental incest, maybe. Nothing really serious.”
“Fool!” said the professor, who had been growing very hot, and was now at the boil. “Do you imply the sins of the mind are trivial and the sins of the flesh important? What kind of an idiot are you?”
“Now, Professor, let’s keep this objective. You must understand that I am talking on the guidance level, not personally at all. I just want to help you to self-understanding. If you understand yourself, you can meet your problem, you see, and I’m here, in all friendliness, to try to help you to understand yourself, and to help Pearlie, and so forth, do you see?”
“But you have not yet told me what all this has to do with Oedipus.”
Norm by this time was sick of the name of Oedipus. A horrible suspicion was rising in his mind that the Oedipus Complex, which he had for some time used as a convenient and limitless bin into which he dumped any problem involving possessive parents and dependent children, was a somewhat more restricted term than he had imagined.
I’ll stop there, but I think this piece is quite important as you hear all sorts of terms and labels being bandied about these days: think ‘narcissist’ and ‘OCD’ .
You see, we have been so cowed by outrage at the very word ‘rape’ and the fact that the word triggers terror (understandably so) in some people, that we guard our thoughts, not only our tongues, but our very thoughts, about touchy subjects such as this. Indeed, I am hesitant right now to promote this most brilliant of author’s books in spite of his clarity of thought. Let me quote from one scene here, (I’ve had to use ellipses to shorten it, unfortunately) and see what you guys think. The two in this scene are Norm and Professor Vambrace. Norm Yarrow is a young PhD who does not appear to belong to any special school of psychology, but who “frankly admitted he relied upon his own common sense, rather than theory, to guide him in dealing with people who seemed to need psychological assistance.” Professor Vambrace teaches in the classics department of the same university.
Norm (uninvited) barges into the professor’s rooms and starts to speak to him about his relationship with his daughter: “Professor, let’s get down to brass tacks. I’m only here because I want to help. I want you to understand right now that my job is simply to understand, not to accuse. Now, you’re an intelligent man, so I don’t have to beat about the bush with you. We can take the gloves off right at the start. I take it you’ve heard of the Oedipus Complex?”
“I am familiar with all forms of the Oedipus legend.”
“Yes, but have you understood it? I mean, as we moderns understand it? Have you got the psychological slant on it?” … [more in this vein] Oedipus is a kind of symbol of a particular kind of love, you see, and –”
[Professor Vambrace interrupts] “Oedipus may be taken as a symbol for many things. In accordance with the prophecy, he slew his father, Laius, and married Epikaste, the widow of Laius, to discover later that she was his mother. A strange love, certainly. But my dear mother died when I was a child of two, Mr Yarrow, and I have no recollection of her. I fail to see the resemblance between Oedipus and myself.”
“Perhaps you don’t know yourself as thoroughly as you should. Not that I blame you, of course. It takes training to know yourself in the way I am talking about. But if you turn the Oedipus legend around, you get a daughter who kills her mother and is in love with her father. Do you follow me?”
“Inverted legends are no novelty to a classicist my dear sir. Let me help you out: it is your idea that my daughter loves me to excess and in order to correct this I beat her publicly with a stick. Is that it?” … “Now, Professor, let’s not get extreme. When I was talking about Oedipus I was talking symbolically, you understand.”
I do not profess to understand psychological symbolism, Mr Yarrow, but it does not require much training to realize that Oedipus is a symbol for incest. Is that what you imply?”
“Oh, just a minute. That’s pretty rough talk. Not incest, of course. Just a kind of mental incest, maybe. Nothing really serious.”
“Fool!” said the professor, who had been growing very hot, and was now at the boil. “Do you imply the sins of the mind are trivial and the sins of the flesh important? What kind of an idiot are you?”
“Now, Professor, let’s keep this objective. You must understand that I am talking on the guidance level, not personally at all. I just want to help you to self-understanding. If you understand yourself, you can meet your problem, you see, and I’m here, in all friendliness, to try to help you to understand yourself, and to help Pearlie, and so forth, do you see?”
“But you have not yet told me what all this has to do with Oedipus.”
Norm by this time was sick of the name of Oedipus. A horrible suspicion was rising in his mind that the Oedipus Complex, which he had for some time used as a convenient and limitless bin into which he dumped any problem involving possessive parents and dependent children, was a somewhat more restricted term than he had imagined.
I’ll stop there, but I think this piece is quite important as you hear all sorts of terms and labels being bandied about these days: think ‘narcissist’ and ‘OCD’ .
August 11, 2022
The Salterton Trilogy is an omnibus edition collecting Davies first three novels. The novels are all set in the fictional Canadian town of Salterton, a place populated mostly by retired liberal arts professors and Anglican clergymen. The storytelling is a bit reminiscent of Garrison Keillor's Lake Wobegon as they feature ensemble casts and dry humor based on character interaction more than plot. Davies' style is witty and urbane, but can take sudden turns into darker territory.
Tempest-Tost follows the cast of a community theater group as they prepare to stage an amateur production of the Tempest. Multiple characters fall in love with the young woman playing Ariel, although she has no interest in any of them. Among them are Solly Bridgetower, a young man whose social life is being ruined by his domineering mother, and Hector Mackilwraith, a math teacher who, in a quest for efficiency, has drained all the joy out of his life. When Griselda, the Ariel actress, shows him a tiny bit of kindness, he descends into a fantasy in which they will marry and life happily ever after.
In Leaven of Malice, a hoax newspaper announcement of an upcoming wedding serves as a catalyst for multiple long simmering grudges to boil over. Professor Vambrace, a pompous and self-important character from the previous novel, believes the false announcement of an engagement between his daughter Pearl and Solly Bridgetower, the son of his late academic rival, is a plot to personally humiliate him. Others attempt to take advantage of the scandal for petty vendettas against the local newspaper and the church.
Unlike the first two novels, A Mixture of Frailties has a clear main character. Monica Gall is a young woman from a very religious working class family who becomes the unexpected beneficiary of a convoluted trust that sends her to Europe to study music. She studies under multiple mentors, becomes involved in romantic entanglements, and gradually develops her singing talent. Davies takes advantage of his mentor characters to dispense a lot of advice regarding art and culture to a female blank slate who is happy to receive it all and follow instructions.
Davies writing is clever and amusing, if occasionally old fashioned. His large casts and deemphasis of plot sometimes makes the stories seem meandering, with some chapters almost feeling like inserted short stories. As a reader, I prefer a strong plot, but I enjoy Davies for his wit and dialogue.
Tempest-Tost follows the cast of a community theater group as they prepare to stage an amateur production of the Tempest. Multiple characters fall in love with the young woman playing Ariel, although she has no interest in any of them. Among them are Solly Bridgetower, a young man whose social life is being ruined by his domineering mother, and Hector Mackilwraith, a math teacher who, in a quest for efficiency, has drained all the joy out of his life. When Griselda, the Ariel actress, shows him a tiny bit of kindness, he descends into a fantasy in which they will marry and life happily ever after.
In Leaven of Malice, a hoax newspaper announcement of an upcoming wedding serves as a catalyst for multiple long simmering grudges to boil over. Professor Vambrace, a pompous and self-important character from the previous novel, believes the false announcement of an engagement between his daughter Pearl and Solly Bridgetower, the son of his late academic rival, is a plot to personally humiliate him. Others attempt to take advantage of the scandal for petty vendettas against the local newspaper and the church.
Unlike the first two novels, A Mixture of Frailties has a clear main character. Monica Gall is a young woman from a very religious working class family who becomes the unexpected beneficiary of a convoluted trust that sends her to Europe to study music. She studies under multiple mentors, becomes involved in romantic entanglements, and gradually develops her singing talent. Davies takes advantage of his mentor characters to dispense a lot of advice regarding art and culture to a female blank slate who is happy to receive it all and follow instructions.
Davies writing is clever and amusing, if occasionally old fashioned. His large casts and deemphasis of plot sometimes makes the stories seem meandering, with some chapters almost feeling like inserted short stories. As a reader, I prefer a strong plot, but I enjoy Davies for his wit and dialogue.
April 27, 2025
These were the first three novels by Davies, a Canadian writer who wrote these throughout the 1950s. I think I picked up this book because a blurb on the back suggests he accomplished for Canada what Trollope had achieved for Barsetshire. I don't know that these are as perfectly conceived as the Barsetshire novels I've read so far, but they are mostly highly entertaining.
Tempest Tost is about a group of amateur theater players taking on the task of doing an outdoor production of Shakespeare's The Tempest. It introduces a whole melange of characters, some of whom show up in the other two books here. I think Davies captures the nuances of each individual very well in this book, probably with keener insight than he does in the other two, which require the characters to grow and change. The sketches of these actors, some of whom fall in love with each other, or think they do, are comic and tragic often at the same time.
Leaven of Malice, novel number two set in the small Canadian city of Salterton, is pretty much all comedy. It's built on a single act, the placing of a wedding announcement in the local newspaper between two young people who aren't actually engaged, and whose families consider it an affront to consider that they even could be. Lawyers get involved, and a lot of big, broad discussions and events ensue. I laughed a lot at this one. There is also a lot about the ways newspapers functioned, especially in smaller cities where only one existed at the time, which is very nostalgic now though it was merely accurate reporting at the time.
A Mixture of Frailties finished off Davies' interest in Salterton - in fact, save for a grand total of a half dozen short chapters, the book leaves Canada and the people we know from previous novels behind roughly a third of the way into it. It becomes a look at the education of an artist, specifically a young singer of talent who learns very much about how to improve her skills. Her three teachers are entertaining characters, albeit somewhat sad in different ways. Monica, the singer in question, is not as interesting to me as the people around her, but I never wanted to stop finding out how she would pursue her career and love life.
Davies does know how to tell stories and draw out character through conversation and description. I may seek out more of his stuff some day.
Tempest Tost is about a group of amateur theater players taking on the task of doing an outdoor production of Shakespeare's The Tempest. It introduces a whole melange of characters, some of whom show up in the other two books here. I think Davies captures the nuances of each individual very well in this book, probably with keener insight than he does in the other two, which require the characters to grow and change. The sketches of these actors, some of whom fall in love with each other, or think they do, are comic and tragic often at the same time.
Leaven of Malice, novel number two set in the small Canadian city of Salterton, is pretty much all comedy. It's built on a single act, the placing of a wedding announcement in the local newspaper between two young people who aren't actually engaged, and whose families consider it an affront to consider that they even could be. Lawyers get involved, and a lot of big, broad discussions and events ensue. I laughed a lot at this one. There is also a lot about the ways newspapers functioned, especially in smaller cities where only one existed at the time, which is very nostalgic now though it was merely accurate reporting at the time.
A Mixture of Frailties finished off Davies' interest in Salterton - in fact, save for a grand total of a half dozen short chapters, the book leaves Canada and the people we know from previous novels behind roughly a third of the way into it. It becomes a look at the education of an artist, specifically a young singer of talent who learns very much about how to improve her skills. Her three teachers are entertaining characters, albeit somewhat sad in different ways. Monica, the singer in question, is not as interesting to me as the people around her, but I never wanted to stop finding out how she would pursue her career and love life.
Davies does know how to tell stories and draw out character through conversation and description. I may seek out more of his stuff some day.
February 1, 2022
Published in the 1950s, tThe Salterton Trilogy provides a humorous Canadian perspective on the world. While some of the outlook is a bit dated and definitely not politically correct today, Robertson Davies had a wonderful time skewering pretensions of any sort. Many characters bear Dickensian names to show us their true nature. Culture, community theater, architecture, journalism, law, academia, music are all fair game for his pen. Witness this description of an Anglican clergyman:
Dean Knapp attracted...bullying, for he had his share of personal vanity, and it was his desire to be considered urbane. Although he lived in Canada, in the middle of the twentieth century, his clerical ideals were those nineteenth-century clergymen in England who were witty men of the world, as well as men of God. His aptitude for this sort of masquerading was not great, but he tried hard, and often committed innocent follies in pursuit o his urbane goal. He made little literary jokes which people did not understand; he sometimes suggested that certain minor sins were unimportant and rather funny, instead of ignoring them completely as a really tactful
Canadian clergyman should...and when it was necessary to raise money for good causes he did not show that wholehearted reverence for money which is so reassuring to a flock composed predominantly of business people...
He also deals with Canada's awkward sense of being a forgotten child in its relationship, while still a colony, to Great Britain and Great Britain's assumed superiority in return.
Why do countries have to have literature? Why does a country like Canada, so late upon the international scene, feel that it must rapidly acquire the trappings of older countries - music of its own, pictures of its own, books of its own- and why does it fuss and stew, and storm the heavens with its outcries when it does not have them?
While every page contains amusing witticisms, the series lags a bit in the final installment, A Mixture of Frailties . This is the most serious of the three books, with its themes of overcoming controlling elders and taking personal responsibility.
All-in-all, witty social criticism make The Salterton Trilogy an enjoyable read.
Dean Knapp attracted...bullying, for he had his share of personal vanity, and it was his desire to be considered urbane. Although he lived in Canada, in the middle of the twentieth century, his clerical ideals were those nineteenth-century clergymen in England who were witty men of the world, as well as men of God. His aptitude for this sort of masquerading was not great, but he tried hard, and often committed innocent follies in pursuit o his urbane goal. He made little literary jokes which people did not understand; he sometimes suggested that certain minor sins were unimportant and rather funny, instead of ignoring them completely as a really tactful
Canadian clergyman should...and when it was necessary to raise money for good causes he did not show that wholehearted reverence for money which is so reassuring to a flock composed predominantly of business people...
He also deals with Canada's awkward sense of being a forgotten child in its relationship, while still a colony, to Great Britain and Great Britain's assumed superiority in return.
Why do countries have to have literature? Why does a country like Canada, so late upon the international scene, feel that it must rapidly acquire the trappings of older countries - music of its own, pictures of its own, books of its own- and why does it fuss and stew, and storm the heavens with its outcries when it does not have them?
While every page contains amusing witticisms, the series lags a bit in the final installment, A Mixture of Frailties . This is the most serious of the three books, with its themes of overcoming controlling elders and taking personal responsibility.
All-in-all, witty social criticism make The Salterton Trilogy an enjoyable read.
December 6, 2021
Slightly pre-empting the completion of this book which I think will be later tonight. When I decided mid last year that I was going to re-read Robertson Davies I was very surprised to find that somehow or other I had never read the Salterton trilogy, or of I had read it, I remembered nothing of it. So I am assuming that I am starting from ground zero on it anyway and overall It has been petty enjoyable - book 1 and 2 in particular are superb comic novels and gret fun to read. Then we get to A Mixture of Frailties which has presented me with a whole new dilemma- it has taken weeks to get through it and I was seriously planning to abandon the book ( on page 689!), because it was becoming a little tedious. I have persisted and gradually now that Monic has returned to Salterton its begun to be much more to my liking. As a trilogy I have enjoyed it but it is definitely the lesser of the 3 completed trilogies. Still excellent but Deptford and Cornish do surpass it for me.
September 27, 2022
These were the books that made Robertson Davies name. Leaven of Malice was taught in high school when I was a kid.
It's interesting to re-read books in old age, I last read in my teens and twenties. A couple of things leap off the page at me: the casual WASP racism, references to Jews in particular. He's also essentially sexist although he wrote the protagonist as a young woman in A Mixture of Frailties. Moreover, there is an underlying cattiness to both Tempest Toss't and Leaven - it struck me as not so much satire, as a kind of sour envy.
However he was also a man of his era, and probably needs to be cut some slack for that. And he was a good writer and easy to read.
So... over to you and your sensibilities.
It's interesting to re-read books in old age, I last read in my teens and twenties. A couple of things leap off the page at me: the casual WASP racism, references to Jews in particular. He's also essentially sexist although he wrote the protagonist as a young woman in A Mixture of Frailties. Moreover, there is an underlying cattiness to both Tempest Toss't and Leaven - it struck me as not so much satire, as a kind of sour envy.
However he was also a man of his era, and probably needs to be cut some slack for that. And he was a good writer and easy to read.
So... over to you and your sensibilities.
July 14, 2020
This is an earlier work by Davies, less dramatic than the Deptford Trilogy but richer in characterization. The plots of the novels are very much driven by the characters that are developed in Davies's delicious prose. I enjoyed the detail describing the daily lives and occupations of these characters. I learned a great deal about little theatre, newspaper operations and operatic voice training from this trilogy. Every few years, I pull out my old copies of the three novels and re-read them.
February 26, 2022
Three books. The first "Tempest Tost" is quite humorous with echoes of PG Wodehouse and a slight touch of JB Priestley's style. Worth reading but not brilliant.
The second of the three 'Leaven of Malice" was, for me, the best of the lot. The similarity to Priestley's work was more marked in this, and I do like JBP's oeuvre.
The third "A Mixture of Frailties" I could not finish.
All three are dated in style being written in the 1950s.
The second of the three 'Leaven of Malice" was, for me, the best of the lot. The similarity to Priestley's work was more marked in this, and I do like JBP's oeuvre.
The third "A Mixture of Frailties" I could not finish.
All three are dated in style being written in the 1950s.
February 26, 2022
This collection of three books appeared in a "free books" shelf at my local library. Picked it up, as there rarely are is English literature available, without knowing anything about it.
After slugging through this trilogy, I almost wish I hadn't read it. The back cover calls this a hilarious trilogy, but I fail to see most of the humor. The text is sometimes witty, yes, but overall this was not a very engaging reading experience for me.
After slugging through this trilogy, I almost wish I hadn't read it. The back cover calls this a hilarious trilogy, but I fail to see most of the humor. The text is sometimes witty, yes, but overall this was not a very engaging reading experience for me.
January 31, 2023
it’s a great book, but I hate it
Everything that I loved about the first two books is missing here. There is no delightful language, no wonderful characters, nothing to hang onto. It’s a terrible story from beginning to end, and what a place to end! It’s so depressing I had to take a break before I could finish it. Yes, it’s great literature, but it’s a dreadful story and I’m glad to be done with it, sadly.
Everything that I loved about the first two books is missing here. There is no delightful language, no wonderful characters, nothing to hang onto. It’s a terrible story from beginning to end, and what a place to end! It’s so depressing I had to take a break before I could finish it. Yes, it’s great literature, but it’s a dreadful story and I’m glad to be done with it, sadly.
October 7, 2024
The first two novels were excellent. Wish I knew to stop after two because the final novel in this Omnibus left such a sour taste in my mouth. Talk about missing the mark, I'm not sure what he was thinking by including this in this series, the main character could have been from anywhere and it would have made no difference, the only part that the town played was to look shabby as the main character came to visit after she's been educated and has become much more sophisticated.
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