The Merry Heart: Selections 1980–1995 by Robertson Davies (review)

318 LETTERS IN CANADA 1996 Kemp's role in what Denham calls a 'romantic comedy' bears scrutiny. In the process of accommodation to societal norms attendant upon the resolution of all comic forms, something happens to Kemp somewhere between her song of innocence in volume 1 and experience in volume 2. If Frye as 'infant prodigy' is father of the cultural hero, Kemp as 'brown mouse' is mother of the faculty wife. At the zenith of her success as college don, art educator/ consultant, and editor, she acknowledges having literally gained voice, butsimultaneously seems lulled into an either/ or choice between helpmate and independent professional identity. Whatever the economies within and outside the early partnership of Frye and Kemp that lent support to or militated against their aspirations, singly and together, the complexities of their lived relationship remain beyond our judgment. What can be addressed is how forces of race, class, and gender within their social and cultural container worked to structure Frye's private life and ultimately enable a critical system. The unexpurgated r~chness of this collection fascinates but also makes us sometimes cringe at inclusions and exclusions operative within its verbal universe. By inviting both a closer and broader reading of the mythical Frye, these pages prompt further inquiry into his own ideological conditioning and its part in the later theories. It is to Denham's labour of love that we owe such possibilities. (DEANNE BOGDAN) Robertson Davies. The MernJ Heart: Selections 1980-1995 McClelland and Stewart. xii, 388. $32.5° When Robertson Davies died suddenly in December 1995, his admirers were not only saddened by the news but shocked at the realization that they could expect no more ofhis witty and provocative writings. This last fear, however, was happily unfounded. Plans were already afoot to publish a selection of his recent speeches, book reviews, articles, and occasional pieces, and since then, as Douglas Gibson informs us in his warm and graceful introduction, material has been located sufficient to fill two books rather than one. The present volume is devoted to more general topics relating to the world of books; another is in preparation that will contain hitherto uncollected writings devoted to the performing arts (not only theatre but opera and music). The Merry Heart (Davies's own title, though not intended for this particular book) contains twenty-four items. Two of the lectures have already been published in the United States as Reading and Writing (reviewed in 'Letters in Canada' for 1993), and a number of other pieces have appeared in various widely scattered books and periodicals. Several, HUMANITIES 319 however, are printed here for the first time, and in any case for most readers the majority of the contents will be new. New, but not altogether unfamiliar. Davies, like most popular writers and lecturers, was inevitably a master of the art of recycling, and, since concentrated publication was not anticipated at the time of writing, readers of this book will encounter frequent examples of repeated anecdotes, quotations, arguments, and sentiments. Moreover, some of these carryover from earlier, similar collections like A Voicefrom the Attic (1960) and One HalfofRobertson Davies (1978). But this should come as no surprise, and should certainly not be construed as a barrier to enjoyment. Once the fact is acknowledged and accepted, readers can settle down to enjoy a fresh selection of wit, wisdom, out-of-the-way learning, and genial iffervent satiric comment. Admirers will welcome his reactionary good sense on such subjects as the pressing need for intellectual elites, the dubiousness ofcreative writing courses, the iniquity of speed-reading, the dangers of excessive dependence on computers, the absur'dities of contemporary educational theory, and many more. This, then, is not a book for advocates of political correctness (though it might well prove efficacious as compulsory reading). As might be expected, these writings are entertaining and instructive for their own sake. In addition, those who seek illumination of Davies's novels will find much to interest them. Thus 'Painting, Fiction, and Fakery' provides valuable background for the almost contemporary What's Bred in the Bone, 'Can a Doctor be a Humanist?' contains information later developed in fictional form in The Cunning...