The Manticore cover art

The Manticore

The Deptford Trilogy, Book 2

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The Manticore

By: Robertson Davies
Narrated by: Marc Vietor
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About this listen

Hailed by the Washington Post Book World as "a modern classic", Robertson Davies' acclaimed Deptford Trilogy is a glittering, fantastical, cunningly contrived series of novels, around which a mysterious death is woven.

The Manticore, the second book in the series after Fifth Business, follows David Staunton, a man pleased with his success but haunted by his relationship with his larger-than-life father. As he seeks help through therapy, he encounters a wonderful cast of characters who help connect him to his past and the death of his father.

©1972 Robertson Davies (P)2011 Audible, Inc. Classics Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Psychological Fiction

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Critic reviews

"One of the splendid literary enterprises of this decade." ( Newsweek)
"Robertson Davies is one of the great modern novelists." (Malcolm Bradbury, The Sunday Times, London)
"Robertson Davies is a novelist whose books are thick and rich with humor, character and incident. They are plotted with skill and much flamboyance." ( The Observer)
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I Listened to this audible book following an interview with the author of a prayer for Owen Meany (my favourite book) I can see the inspiration and similarities very clearly and loved listening to this as a comparison I am now looking forward to the final part of the trilogy

A long but interesting follow on

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This is the second part of the Deptford trilogy and as with the other books by Robertson Davies this is well written and entertaining at a range of levels. The narration though is strange not only because of the weird mid-Atlantic accent but the way that in this reading, it is even more variable than the other two books. Dr Von Halle varies from "zee clorious cherman psychoserapist" to mid Atlantic with a bit of French sounding here and there. Ben Cruickshank, Loella' father, swoops from Scotland across to Belfast in a single sentence. In some parts of the book, the narration includes whether it is Dunstable or Von Halle speaking because they are indistinguishable.
It's hard to ignore all this but if you can the story swings it with Davies' quality writing.

Great story but strange performance

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