The Merry Heart: Reflections on Reading, Writing, and the World of Books

A splendid gallimaufry of the eminent Canadian’s talks and essays, mostly about literature and the creative life … a thought-filled and amusing book. –The Washington Post For devotees of Davies and all lovers of literature and language, here is the urbanity, wit, and high seriousness mixed by a master chef, vintage delights from an exquisite literary menu (Cleveland Plain Dealer).

Robertson Davies’s rich and varied collection of writings on the world of books and the miracle of language captures his inimitable voice and sustains his presence among us. Coming almost entirely from Davies’s own files of unpublished material, these twenty-four essays and lectures range over themes from The Novelist and Magic to Literature and Technology, from Painting, Fiction, and Faking, to Can a Doctor Be a Humanist? and Creativity in Old Age. Davies himself says merely: Lucky writers … like wine, die rich in fruitiness and delicious aftertaste, so that their works survive them.

Splendid–wise, witty, wide-ranging. –The New York Times Book Review

Some of Davies’s ideas are iconoclastic, and will delight those who share them while stimulating those who do not. All his judgments are interesting, steeped in humanism, and most elegantly put. –The Atlantic Monthly

The inimitable novelist gives an exuberant posthumous performance in this eclectic collection of (mostly) previously unpublished addresses, talks, and incidental pieces … Davies diffuses his opinions entertainingly, if occasionally superficially, but never loses his audience. –Kirkus Reviews