Ramsay is a man twice born, a man who has returned from the hell of the battle-grave at Passchendaele in World War I decorated with the Victoria Cross and destined to be caught in a no man's land where memory, history, and myth collide. As Ramsay tells his story, it begins to seem that from boyhood, he has exerted a perhaps mystical, perhaps pernicious, influence on those around him. His apparently innocent involvement in such innocuous events as the throwing of a snowball or the teaching of card tricks to a small boy in the end prove neither innocent nor innocuous. Fifth Business stands alone as a remarkable story told by a rational man who discovers that the marvelous is only another aspect of the real.
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The first book of Robertson Davies's Deptford Trilogy tells the story of three men destined to be crucial players in each others' lives. The story is, in fact, the memoir of Dunstan Ramsay, a long-time boarding-school teacher, set to retire. Written to the headmaster of the school, the memoir intends to disprove the common belief that Ramsay is nothing more than a senile old professor, "doddering into retirement with tears in his eyes and a drop hanging from his nose." The story includes two other main characters, the outcast and eventual circus performer Paul Dempster and socialite Boy Staunton, with his "too glossy perfection."
The story of Ramsay's life begins when he is 10 years old, living in a small Canadian town called Deptford. A snowball thrown by Boy Staunton, intended for Ramsay, hits the pregnant mother of Paul Dempster, forcing her into labour early. She gives birth to a premature and deformed Paul. Ramsay feels responsible for this, and thus begins his guilty friendship with Paul, as well as his grudging friendship with Boy. Eventually, Dunstan Ramsay goes off to fight in the First World War, where he earns a Victoria Cross. He later travels throughout Europe and Mexico to pursue his interest in saints and write several books about them. He even attempts to prove that Paul's mother, whom he had taken a liking to over the years, is in fact a saint. Paul and Boy keep crossing paths with Dunstan, for good and ill, for the rest of his life. This fascinating, absorbing classic of Canadian literature is punctuated with elements of the comic, the supernatural, and the magical (even touching on the occult), while the writing itself is always elegant and at times exquisite. --Mark Frutkin --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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One of the splendid literary enterprises of this decade. -- Peter Prescott, Newsweek
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
By Bruggadung
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
As fresh today as it was when I first read it in high school some 34 years ago and, more importantly, it still speaks to those students to whom I teach it in the 21st Century classroom, not least because it is unashamedly Canadian in focus and it is a great introduction to Jungian psychology. It remains my favourite novel because, as with anyone's favourite piece of literature, it affects me most personally.
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
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.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is considered one of the greatest books in Canadian literature. I think it is the best. The striking thing about this book is it is both traditional and modern. The main character Dunstan Ramsay is a biographer of saints and a believer in miracles. Mythology, psychology, chance and the modern world interplay for this classic tale which seeks to unravel many of life's questions. I would recommend reading the entire Deptford Trilogy including The Manticore and World of Wonders as it will flush out many of the unanswered questions from Fifth Business.
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4.5 out of 5 stars
Most recent customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
What a Great Journey, What a Great Read
Fifth Business is a great installment in the genre of magic realism with a twist of comedy and paradox. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Joe Public
3.0 out of 5 stars
It was heavy reading for me as a young adult
I might LOVE the book now - though I doubt I'll return to it. But I read this book in the mid-90s when I was a young man in my 20s and I found the book to be rather long, slow. Read more
Published 16 months ago by David Sabine
4.0 out of 5 stars
The tale of Dunstan
Robertson Davies' Deptford Trilogy is a strange, slightly magical trio of fictional biographies, all of which originate in the small Canadian town of Deptford. Read more
Published on April 30 2011 by E. A Solinas
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Best Trilogy I've Ever Read
It has been a few years since I have read Fifth Business along with the Manticore and World of Wonders and it remains the best trilogy I have ever read. Read more
Published on Jun 29 2010 by Steven Arsenault
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fifth Business
Just a short correction...title is 'Fifth Business', not 'The Fifth Business', and author is Robertson Davies, not M.G. Vassanji as Amazon has it on their best book site. Read more
Published on Jan 5 2008 by dfra
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best Canadian author, hands down.
As others have already mentioned, this novel is top notch. I read it as part of my high-school courseware, and it's the only novel I re-read regularly.
Published on Aug 1 2007 by SuzieC
5.0 out of 5 stars
Phenomenal
Fifth Business is one of the finest books in Canadian literature that I have had the pleasure of reading. Read more
Published on Aug 17 2005 by fiona
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Finest
I first read Fifth Business as a course requirement in college 25 years ago. To this day, that very same copy sits on my bookshelf, dog-eared and well worn. Read more
Published on Feb 14 2004
5.0 out of 5 stars
undeservedly unknown
Merciful heavens, what a novel!! The implications of a thrown stone-loaded snowball is the basis of this book, and indeed an entire trilogy. Read more
Published on Jun 29 2003 by wellred
2.0 out of 5 stars
A disappointment
The story has a very intriguing and promising start, but goes downhill after that. It is barely readable in the end.
Mr. Read more
Published on Dec 6 2002 by Mao PIng-pong
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