Rating: 
Summary: A box of treasures, and an asylum of carricatures
Review: About a quarter of way into the reading, I was reminded of Canada's other famous funny man, Saul Bellow, especially Humboldt's Gift. As I delved deeper, I saw a definitive difference: Bellow was more exuberant, and Davies wiser, more a deadpan. Just an aside, not meant as a comparative analysis. As I read, I was swept off the floor by Davies's erudition and insight. While I understood that the disciplines described in the book were his own field of academic study, and I should not feel too badly for myself if I didn't know much about Mediavel culture, Rabelais, and Gypsy lores, however, the way Mr. Davies pulled them together is nothing short of magic. Regardless of your knowledge and scholarship, to make medieval stuff fun and funny is no small talent. Even for those who do not share Davies's sense of humor will not come out empty-handed, as the tidbits of knowledge and myth can sure serve one well in cocktail conversations. This is the positive, treasure box side. Now the complaint. Despite the acclaim that the novel is a ground-breaking depiction of the ivory tower of academic pursuit, Mr. Davies failed to give a true, or truly inspired account in this regard. The characters are, by and large, two-dimensional caricatures, and in the case of female protagonists (Maria/Mamusia), not even fully a one-dimensional line. While Mr. Davies was unquestionably talented in seeing and playing off Academic Man's eccentricities and neurocism, he was not as good in injecting him with the proper counter dose of humanity, to make him truly three dimensional. Simon Darcourt is the best of the ilk, but even he does not compare in vivacity and believability to similar characters (e.g. Humboldt of the aforementioned Bellow). I find the carricaturization a severe flaw. However, an author who can give us characters (carricatured as they are) as unforgettable as John Parlabane deserves his kudos, to say nothing of the many cultural gems and masterful command of language to serve as a model of good writing.
Rating:
Summary: Warm and endearing characters
Review: Book 1 of a triliogy since dubbed "The Cornish Trilogy". When I read it, I didn't know this -- which made picking up the next book so delightful, because some of Davies's warmest and most endearing characters grace the pages of this book. Although you have the feeling of the plot driving forward, and share the viewpoints of three different characters, when you stop to think about it, nothing much really happens. Lots of dialogue, another Davies trademark -- once a playwright, always a playwright.
Rating: 
Summary: A book rich in fascinating detial and compelling characters.
Review: Having been assured that the Deptford Trilogy was Davies "best" work, I steered away from reading anything else until someone recommended "The Rebel Angels". What an utter delight! Once again I was drawn in by Davies exquisite use of language, obvious expertise in a thousand obscure subjects, and meticulous attention to detail. I meandered along for several chapters, satisfied, until I came upon the one chapter that knocked me on my heels! It is that way with Davies. You wander along through a perfectly good story and then he interjects a chapter of such brilliance and sweet surprise that from then on you can barely put the book down. How did a gypsy girl get into this thick story of the intimacies of University pedants? The Rebel Angels is another Davies triumph of surprising coincidences, exotic characters and lyrical writing. It is every bit worth the time it takes to discover it's secrets
Rating:
Summary: A book rich in fascinating detial and compelling characters.
Review: Having been assured that the Deptford Trilogy was Davies "best" work, I steered away from reading anything else until someone recommended "The Rebel Angels". What an utter delight! Once again I was drawn in by Davies exquisite use of language, obvious expertise in a thousand obscure subjects, and meticulous attention to detail. I meandered along for several chapters, satisfied, until I came upon the one chapter that knocked me on my heels! It is that way with Davies. You wander along through a perfectly good story and then he interjects a chapter of such brilliance and sweet surprise that from then on you can barely put the book down. How did a gypsy girl get into this thick story of the intimacies of University pedants? The Rebel Angels is another Davies triumph of surprising coincidences, exotic characters and lyrical writing. It is every bit worth the time it takes to discover it's secrets
Rating:
Summary: A fascinating, delightful yarn
Review: I can't decide which I think is the best of Davies' novels: FIFTH BUSINESS or REBEL ANGELS. I was delighted by both stories and the wonderful wandering asides Davies takes into such unusual subjects. In the REBEL ANGELS, he tells his story through two characters - a beautiful young lady whose academic interests focus on Rabelais, Paracelsus, and other medieval writers, yet whose background is gypsy; and Professor the Reverend Simon Darcourt, a plump, middle aged priest turned college professor. Davies' shows the pertinence of the scatalogical element in our lives and his discussions are both tasteful and humorous. There is plenty of mystery and intrigue in the story to keep the reader's curiosity alert and the characters are most colorfully entertaining. Excellent reading.
Rating:
Summary: wonderful erudition
Review: I've resisted this writer for years out of a silly bias against academic novels. This one has converted me (to Davies, if not the genre). The exaggerated eloquence of his characters goes down smooth, and the breadth of his erudition is breathtaking--from Gypsy violin repair practices to Gnostic gospels to human scatology to Rabelais. Further, the characters are truly memorable and likeable, beyond their lofty ideas. I find myself thinking often of Maria and Simon Darcourt and even the dreaded Parlabane. There are excesses--Urqhart's after hours activities are a bit much, and the bit about publishers and Parlabane strains credulity, but overall a wonderul, engrossing, edifying story. Excuse me, I have to go look up that Sophia person...
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant story of academic folk
Review: If you have never read Robertson Davies don't worry, it's not too late. He is one of the wittiest, intelligent, erudite authors I know. Don't let the word "erudite" worry you into thinking that this is some impenetrable work written by some dusty sage for other academic literati. This, like all of his books, is a wonderful, wild ride through the weird world of academia, peopled by characters we would love to meet, set against a backdrop bejewelled with sparkling prose. I like to read Dick Francis and usually consume one of his novels in one sitting, I adore to read Robertson Davies and recently reread this whole trilogy during a single trans-world flight without sleeping. This story is a tale of lust, envy, deceit & hate scattered with gems of humour and highlighting again Davies' astonishing breadth of knowledge. A breathtakingly brilliant book, and fortunately, the first in a Trilogy. Do yourself a favour, buy the trilogy. Save time & money.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant story of academic folk
Review: If you have never read Robertson Davies don't worry, it's not too late. He is one of the wittiest, intelligent, erudite authors I know. Don't let the word "erudite" worry you into thinking that this is some impenetrable work written by some dusty sage for other academic literati. This, like all of his books, is a wonderful, wild ride through the weird world of academia, peopled by characters we would love to meet, set against a backdrop bejewelled with sparkling prose. I like to read Dick Francis and usually consume one of his novels in one sitting, I adore to read Robertson Davies and recently reread this whole trilogy during a single trans-world flight without sleeping. This story is a tale of lust, envy, deceit & hate scattered with gems of humour and highlighting again Davies' astonishing breadth of knowledge. A breathtakingly brilliant book, and fortunately, the first in a Trilogy. Do yourself a favour, buy the trilogy. Save time & money.
Rating:
Summary: Deep erudition and fun: a rare cocktail for the mind
Review: In a tranquil Canadian University a voice spreads: Parlabane is back! Cave!Cave!, Molesworth would say. Cerebral and celebrate scholars, fascinating student girls, modern-style mecenates and unconventional researchers will soon find their lives upset by the most Rebel of the Rebel Angels. A disgraced teacher,Parlabane is philosophically contradictory, insolent, taking everyone for a ride in his absolutely anarchic world, and is the pivotal personnage of this wonderful novel. His ex-colleagues are also involved in the inventory of an inherited literary and artistic treasure, from which an important Rabelais' manuscript is missing.A literary puzzle that will be solved in a very bizarre manner.
All is wonderful in this novel: the irony, the depiction of the
academic world, the charachters beautifully detailed like Beerbohm caricatures, the great arcane erudition of Robertson Davies, and a marvelous story whose unpredictable end is absolutely unique. A gem of a book, whit an exquisitely arcane flavor
Rating:
Summary: Davies draws eccentric circles!
Review: It took me a couple pages to catch on to the way Davies constructed this novel. It's written in six sets of chapter couplets, which made for a really unique storyline. Two narrators take their turn in describing the current thread of the story... one is the beautiful and brilliant student of Comparative Literature, Maria Theotoky. The other is Professor Simon Darcourt who teaches New Testament Greek. He is not the only professor of the University who acknowledges that Maria is among the "scholarly elect"... Darcourt becomes enamored of her, but she has already become the special pet of Professor Hollier. His impetuous seduction of her leaves her a bit bewildered, for rather than the continued intimacy she desires from this man she greatly admires, he becomes distant. When his eccentric longtime friend John Parlabane returns for a visit (which never ends) the relationship between Maria and Hollier becomes even more confined to that of professor - research assistant. Meanwhile, a wealthy art collecter (Arthur Cornish) passes away and leaves his estate to be settled by three executors, all of them being professors at the University. They are Hollier, Darcourt, and a true nut by the name of McVarish. As they go through the mountain of Cornish's priceless items, Hollier becomes obsessed with the recovery of a manuscript of Rabelais which he is convinced McVarish once purloined and never returned. McVarish denies ever having borrowed the papers from Cornish, but Hollier will not give up. His obsession is motivated and fueled by the fact that the authentic document would greatly advance Maria in her own doctoral work on Rabelais, and he longs to do something tangible that will atone for his earlier seduction of her. Without ruining some of the comic turns in this story for those who haven't read it, I will hint that it is ingenious how Davies knits the eccentricity of Parlabane and the extra-curricular nightime perversions of McVarish together in a way that becomes the ONLY way the above dilemna (of the missing manuscript) could be solved. And not before Hollier himself has degenerated into a superstitious nut in his own right. Being a bit of a nut myself made this book all the more enjoyable!
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