Book Summary and Reviews of Fifth Business (Deptford Trilogy) by Robertson Davies

Book Summary

Ramsay is a man twice born, a man who has returned from the hell of the battle-grave at Passchendaele in World War I decorated with the Victoria Cross and destined to be caught in a no man's land where memory, history, and myth collide.

As Ramsay tells his story, it begins to seem that from boyhood, he has exerted a perhaps mystical, perhaps pernicious, influence on those around him. His apparently innocent involvement in such innocuous events as the throwing of a snowball or the teaching of card tricks to a small boy in the end prove neither innocent nor innocuous. Fifth Business stands alone as a remarkable story told by a rational man who discovers that the marvelous is only another aspect of the real.

Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!

1. When Percy Boyd Staunton denies his share of responsibility for the snowball that hit Mrs. Dempster and caused her premature labor, Dunstable Ramsay feels the full weight of guilt on his shoulders. Even years later, when he seeks out Mrs. Dempster again, he is highly sensitive to the magistrate's charge: "Guilt ... somebody bears it to this day!" Why does he feel this guilt so keenly? To what extent is he responsible for Paul's fate? For Staunton's?
2. Many of the characters in Fifth Business change their names. Dunstable Ramsay becomes Dunstan, Percy Boyd Staunton becomes Boy Staunton, Paul Dempster becomes Faustus Legrand and later Magnus Eisengrim. What happens when each of them is "born again"? Which aspects of their characters...