18 February, 2002: The Lyre of Orpheus
Robertson Davies wrote melodramatic novels, usually featuring sprawling family dramas and lots of rich curmudgeons arguing about philosophical, literary, and religious ideas. I run hot and cold on Davies; there are times when his oh-so-mannered novels make me want scream "Show! Don't tell!" and "Your characters are nonsensical!" and bury them in the backyard. Right now I'm in a period where this sort of novel is what I've ben wanting to read. The Lyre of Orpheus is the conclusion of the trilogy begun in The Rebel Angels and What's Bred in the Bone, concerning the very wealthy Arthur Cornish and the Cornish Foundation (established in Book 1 and funded with the legacy of Francis Cornish, the star of book 2), devoted to promoting Canadian art. Arthur is newly married to Maria, a grad-school dropout of Gypsy ancestry, and with the Cornish Foundation funding a production of the unfinished E.T.A. Hoffman opera Arthur of Britain, or the Magnimonious Cuckold, you can bet money that the marriage will be tested. There lengthy discussions of God, Art, and Love; some lucky characters find their one true love, others don't; there are horrible philistines to scorn; and the ghost of Hoffman (the composer and author of Kater Murr, among other works, best remembered today for his influence on Poe and his authorship of the story Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker is based on) hovers over it all, desperately hoping that the young grant recipient will do Arthur of Britain justice. That's about the standard order of things in a Davies book. I read it in a weekend, and it was just what I needed.