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Summary: A boy throws a snowball, and the world changes.
Review: "...and you must have 'Fifth Business,' because he is the one who knows the secret of the hero's birth, or comes to the assistance of the heroine when she thinks all is lost, or keeps the hermitess in her cell, or may even be the cause of somebody's death if that is part of the plot. The hero, the heroine, the hermitess and the villian do all the spectacular things but you cannot manage the plot without 'Fifth Business.' Are you 'Fifth Business?' You had better find out."
Unlike today's "fiction lite," "Fifth Business" is the kind of book you wish you could read for the first time all over again. Fiction aficionados rightly regard it as Davies' masterpiece. One day a boy throws a snowball, and the world changes. This is "Fifth Business." Haven't read it yet? I envy you
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Summary: Mysticism and magic
Review: "Fifth Business" wonderfully chronicles a man's life from his boyhood through to his elderly years. The first-person narrator, Dunstan Ramsay, is extremely likeable. His delivery of his life story is done with wit, style, and subtlety. His story is unusual and interesting, wrought with mysticism and magic. Perhaps there is as much magic in all of our lives, if only we were as adept as seeing it! Robertson Davies is a master of plot and characterization. This book is highly recommended.
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Summary: One of the first English-class books that I enjoyed.
Review: ...all right, it may have something to do with my fabulous teacher Ms. Biggs, but whatever. A fantastic example of literary theory, in the interweaving of themes and the complex but clear symbolism. ("He was killed by the usual cabal...") I was quite disappointed by the other two books in this trilogy, but I greatly enjoyed this one. Thank you, Ms. Biggs; thank you, Mr. Davies.
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Summary: Honest eccentricity!
Review: A youth's discovery of stage magic, combined his Scots-Ontario upbringing of prudery, hypocrisy and prejudice make for a fascinating life-path. The characters are internally consistent and sharply defined. These eccentrics cannot abide each others' quirks. As the expression goes, "Something's gotta give," and that something is disclosed from the beginning.
Like a fine Persian rug, it is complex and well executed. *Everything* ties in to a perfect ending, just at the right time.
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Summary: Definition ...
Review: Don't be turned off by the title. As quoted at the beginning of the book:"Fifth Business ... Definition Those roles which, being neither those of Hero nor Heroine, Confidante nor Villain, but which were nonetheless essential to bring about the Recognition of the denouement, were called the Fifth Business in drama and opera companies organized according to the old style; the player who acted these parts was often referred to as Fifth Business. --- Tho. Overskou, Den Danske Skueplads"
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Summary: Wonderful novel!
Review: Fifth Business by Robertson Davies Penguin Books 1970 This is the first novel in the "Deptford trilogy" and the first Davies novel for me. Dunstan Ramsey, on reading the biography published about him on his retirement as a History Master from a private school writes to the Headmaster of the school to set the record straight. What follows is a detailed autobiography that shows Dunstan to be a remarkable man of letters and a patient and persevering friend of several childhood acquaintances - a young women who took a snowball destined for him and gave birth, prematurely, to a son, the boy/man who threw the snowball and the girl/women he loved but lost to the boy/man. Dunstan's character is extremely well developed as are the principle characters -the boy/man Boy Staunton, his wife Leola Staunton, Mrs. Dempster (the snowballed woman) and her son and the rambunctious and frisky Fr Blazon sj. Dunstan is a product of strict Presbyterian parents and a small Ontario community. He never manages to completely overcomes these early handicaps but his self awareness and kindness to himself as he struggles to understand how to balance the mythical and spiritual strains in his life finds him at the end a reluctant observer of life. Dunstan is a good man and his struggles are our struggles as we seek to understand this world in which we live and love. I enjoyed the book thoroughly and look forward to finishing the Deptford trilogy.
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Summary: Highly recommended!
Review: Fifth Business is a truly amazing novel. The first in Robertson Davies' "Deptford Trilogy", I like it best of what I've read of the trilogy so far. It has amazing characters, all of which are deeper than you first think, and intricate sub-plots which keep you reading. It is a significant piece of Canadian literature, and the only way to describe it is as a masterpiece. I am a fourteen year old girl, which proves anyone can really enjoy this novel. I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a book that is wonderful on so many levels.
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Summary: It is a story of Dunstan Ramsay and his search for self.
Review: Fifth business is rather a story with a confusing plot. Its not a very enjoyable book.While reading it I really felt like sleeping. To better understand it a person needs to focus on the depth of the plot. A person cannot really relax and read it. Tehseen
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Summary: Good book for teenagers and adults!
Review: Fifth Business, one of school books that I got to read in my high school. From the cover of looking, I thought it is a boring book because it looks boring. When I start this book, it seemed to me it's boring. I did not like it part of because English is not my first language. Later, after I tried to put myself harder in this book.... Hmm.... I love it!! I love it a lot is not because my teacher forced me to read, i like it it's because things happened in this book can affect our life, too. I will toward to enjoy this book and re-read again when I have free time. It is impossible for me to forget this book after I grow older because I will try to use some examples from this book to my future children and let my friends interested this book, too!! Hope who are reading in this book can enjoy it!! ^_^
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Summary: The best book I had never heard of
Review: Fifth Business, the first installment of the Robertson Davies' Deptford Trilogy, is without doubt the best novel that I had never heard of. Davies prose and narrative voice rival Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited in elegance, humor, and style. And his characters and plot development, so rich, absorbing, and at once triumphant and tragic, put this fine novel in the same class as Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. The term 'Fifth Business', as Davies describes, refers to the role in an opera, usually played by a man, which has no opposite of the other sex. While only a supporting character, he is essential to the plot, for he often knows the secret of the hero's birth, or comes to the assistance of the heroine when all seems lost, or may even be the cause of someone's death. In this novel, Dunstan Ramsay plays this role, and he is in maginificent form. Though he narrates the novel, and is intimately entwined in the lives of all its characters, he somehow manages to remain slightly in the background as a passive observer of others. It is through his eyes that we witness the rise of Boy Staunton, his childhood friend from the small Canadian town of Deptford. While Dunny goes off to the war where he is seriously wounded, and later becomes a boarding school master and expert on the history of saints, Boy makes his fortune in the sugar business and eventually pursues a career in politics. Dunny, whose soft-spoken charm, honesty, and self-reflection become clear through his narration, serves as an admirable foil to Boy, whose drive and ambition are unrestrained by a sense of morality, duty, or altruism. But the novel is far more complex than a simple study of two contrasting characters. Davies' cast is rich and diverse, and their lives intertwine fluidly, though often in surprising ways. There is Mrs. Dempster, who in the opening pages is struck by a snowball thrown by Boy and intended for Dunny, and is rendered "simple" after the subsequent premature birth of her son Paul. Paul runs away from home at a young age, but reappears later in the novel in a key role. And Liesl, the magician's manager, a strong-willed and sexually aggressive woman, hardened by life but wise in the ways of the world, proves to be an admirable rival for Dunny as astute observer of others. Narrated in the form of a letter to Dunny's headmaster, the novel maintains a strong sense of plain honesty throughout. It is a remarkable novel, and a shock that Davies has remained relatively obscure in this country.
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