The Salterton Trilogy: Tempest-Tost; Leaven of Malice; A Mixture of Frailties

Robertson Davies is known for his deep, detailed look at communities and strange happenings. "The Salterton Trilogy" is no exception: a well-written, often funny and sometimes poignant look at the odd occupants of Salterton, the deceptively quaint Canadian city with two cathedrals and one university. "Tempest-Tost" opens with the organization of an amateur production of Shakespeare's "The Tempest." A motley crew of actors join it, including an exuberent professor, his quiet daughter, a quiet mama's boy, a beautiful rich girl, a womanizing soldier, and an infatuated schoolteacher. Love, ambition, jealousy and infatuation rapidly tangle together, climaxing in an unusually dramatic opening night. In contrast, "Leaven of Malice" is half satire and half mystery. The Salterton Bellman announces that Solly Bridgetower and Pearl Vambrace are engaged -- the only problem is that it isn't true. Professor Vambrace sees it as a personal affront, and sues the paper. Pearl and Solly are haunted by false rumors, reports, and claims about who faked the announcement. All they can do is try to find out themselves. "Mixture of Frailties" opens with the death of Solly's domineering mother. Her will leaves money to Solly's family only if he produces a male heir with his wife Veronica (previously known as Pearl); until then, her money is to be used in a trust for a young female artistic hopeful, who will go to Europe for a few years to study whatever she is good at. And finding the right girl is only the start of Solly's problems. The tone of the Salterton Trilogy is lighter and less introspective than Davies' other books. Sometimes it's outright hilarious (there's a girl called The Torso, for crying out loud!). The first book is perhaps the funniest and most real-seeming, but it's also rather unfocused because there is no real plot. The second and third books are tighter, but a little more rarified in humor and a little more surreal in tone. Solly Bridgetower is the unacknowledged center of the trilogy. He barely registers in "Tempest-Tost," but becomes the central figure of the second and third books. He's not a strong person, but he is a likable one. Pearl is only a little more prominent at first, but it's great to see her break out of her shell and become her own person. And without a doubt, Humphrey Cobbler is Davies' best character -- a vivid, devil-may-care artistic genius who winks and nudges in every book. The Salterton Trilogy is often eclipsed by Davies' better-known Deptford Trilogy, but that doesn't mean it's bad. By no means. It's a pleasant and warmly amusing trio of interconnected stories, and ones you won't forget in a hurry. Highly recommended.

This is Davies first trilogy, and, if I remember correct, his first novel was the lead-off to this, Tempest-Tost. Before writing novels, however, Davies had written several plays, so his first novel is quite accomplished. The Salterton trilogy is almost misnamed--yes, it does center around the town of Salterton, but the real center of the three books is Solomon Bridgetower. Although he is almost a minor character in the first book, he and his family are front stage in books two and three.Tempest-Tost is about an amateur production of Shakespeare's The Tempest. The Salterton players assume they can have the use of the garden of their most famous citizen, and it is this assumption of community use that leads them into trouble. While no characters in the book undergo a sea-change, several characters do awaken from passive slumber to new lives, sometimes with mixed results. For anyone who has ever been involved in amateur theater, this is an extremely amusing tale. Others might find it belabored.Not so with the second novel, which is about class and prejudice, but told in a Wodehousian manner. Winner of the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour (a Canadian award for best humor novel--I wish I could find a list of past award winners), Leaven of Malice concerns an engagement announcement in the local paper that was placed by neither bride nor groom. The resulting conflict between the two families brings up old academic rivalry, the worst of the new goody-two-shoe couple in town, and an escalation of lawyers. In some ways it is a mystery, too, as the two "lovers" attempt to find who had the malice to link their names in the public eye.The concluding volume, A Mixture of Frailties, is about a trust established by Solomon's mother, and how it must be awarded to a specific individual. But finding the individual is only the start of Solomon's trouble, and the story follows two separate lines: one regarding Solomon and his need for a heir to rid himself of his mother's legacy, and one regarding the lucky trust recipient, and her entry into the world of opera.There were certain things near to Davies' experience, it seems: theater, academic life, and trusts. Trusts can be found in both A Mixture of Frailties and the second and third books of the Cornish trilogy, academic life is featured in Leaven of Malice and The Rebel Angels, and theater productions in Tempest-Tost and The Lyre of Orpheus. I can easily see myself rereading Davies in ten years, and rediscovering all of this once again.

It is not often that I get to give my opinion on a book, let alone to write one. I, however, felt a great need for writing this and sharing it with whomever wants to read it.I came across Davies's writings by mere accident. Sometime in the early 1990's I was on a train going from London to Edinburgh. I was to attend there an astronomical meeting at which I was going to present some of my original research and, since I am not a native English speaker I was worrying about the way my presentation would go. Suddenly I noticed that the passenger sitting in front of me was reading a book, which by its title; Murther and Walking Spirits, attracted my attention. Firstly, because I thought there was a mispelling, later I decided that either murther meant something different from murder, or it was an ancient way of spelling the word. At my arrival in Edinburgh I consulted a dictionary and was very pleased to realise that murther meant indeed murder and that my second guess had been correct.I went immediately to the first book shop I could find and acquired the book, which I read voraciously, finding it one of the best books I had read in my life. This little book had whetted my apetite and I was determined to read more by this Davies fellow whom I had never before encountered, in spite of being quite a fan of reading books in EnglishI read High Spirits, then Fifth Business. Having found these books extraordinary, I bought The Deptford Trilogy, The Cornish Trilogy, The Salterton Trilogy and read them all finding every time magnificent stories, written with a pleasant and most delicate style. Something which was very worthwhile, not only because of what it said, but because of the way it was said. Sometime later I saw there was a new book The Cunning Man, and having read it my opinion of Davies grew more and more with every word read. I undertook a long quietus, hoping to see more books by Davies appear, I did not know he had died in December 1995. Early this year I came across Happy Alchemy. This book contains a series of most delightful essays. Reading it brought back to me the exquisite memories I have about the other books by him that I have read.Robertson Davies is, in my opinion, one of the greatest English writers of the 20th century.

I grew up in the town that Davies used as his model for Salterton. The Davies were a leading family in Kingston Ontario Canada. They were the publishers of the local newspaper which was a highly regarded journal in Canada.Davies showed his ability to capture and describe character in these novels since they exactly describe the Kingston that I remember from my childhood in the 1950s. Kingston was a university and government town with only a modest industrial base. The local establishment was bifurcated with one group centred on the university and another group comprised of local merchants and professionals. As one might expect in a small Ontario town in the 1950s, these groups were insular and provincial with a strong faith in their own virtue and legitimacy to rule. Davies captures this beautifully in is descriptions of the personalities and petty politics of the community. He captures this in their mutual genteel but discreet contempt fot the working class population of Kingston based in the 'North End' that Davies describes.However, Davies captures the personalities beyond the expected prejudices that one could expect in a provincial 1950 Canadian town. The characters themselves are accurately drawn. I recognise some of them even though they were a generation ahead of me and despite the fact that I grew up in the North End which was kept separate from the richer parts of the town. One of the characters is undoubtedly my high school music teacher who was a remarkable man. Daives describes hem only briefly in 'Tempest Tost' but he captures the personality of this wonderful man accurately and sympathetically. The same can be said for all of Davies' characters.These are remarkable books that find the universal that lies behind all of us. They are well worth reading

What Robertson Davies had achieved by the time he wrote the final word in the Cornish Trilogy was foretold from the first word of the Salterton Trilogy. His ability to tell a story out did itself with each successive novel and my enjoyment from reading them increased in commensurate measure. The most appealling aspect in all of Davies' work was that I often felt that I, myself, could have been one of his characters because none of them were ever larger than life, but his way of describing them always revealed an essence in theirs that I had overlooked in mine. I know a good deal more about the human condition now than I ever did before I began to read Robertson Davies.