Folio Society Published Works Number 1628
Davies, Robertson - The Deptford Trilogy: Fifth Business; The Manticore; World of Wonders
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Davies, Robertson - The Deptford Trilogy: Fifth Business; The Manticore; World of Wonders (Published in by The Folio Society in 2007. The three novels in this volume were first published in 1970, 1972 and 1975 consecutively. This edition follows the text of the first one volume Deptford Trilogy which was published by Penguin Books in 1983. 8vo. Pp. 701. Coloured frontispiece and twelve coloured illustrations. Original red cloth with elaborate illustrations blocked in black and decorated in gilt and silver on spine and upper cover, spine lettered in black. Deptford is a fictional, small town in rural Canada, based on Davies's own childhood home of Thamesville, Ontario. Narrow-minded attitudes and religious hypocrisy mingle with a kindness which never lets a neighbour go hungry or suffer illness alone. At the centre of this tight-knit community are three boys: Dunstan Ramsay, his 'lifelong friend and enemy' Boy Staunton and Paul Dempster. Their three lives are entwined from the moment Boy throws a stone hidden in a snowball at Dunstan who ducked, causing it to hit Mrs Dempster and so bringing about the premature birth of Paul. The three books tantalisingly play with the idea of chance, unfolding the consequences of a fleeting moment, drawing on the interplay between magic, destiny and fate. Each book is told from a different perspective and Davies's narrative skill is to interweave these radically diverse characters and strange events to create a story that leads into the heart of myth, Jungian psychoanalysis and illusion. Such a complex, multi-layered work requires something exceptional in the way of illustrations, and in Peter Suart's inventive and subtle artworks, it has found them. Deeply immersed in the books, Suart has referenced both the imagery and stories in fascinating ways, structuring each illustration around the Tarot arcana. Each one is a pleasure to examine, filled with allusions the reader delights in spotting. Bound in buckram, blocked with a design by Peter Suart. Set in Ehrhardt. Frontispiece and 12 full-page colour illustrations by Peter Suart. 10" x 7", 704 pages. )
