Murther and Walking Spirits

Murther and Walking Spirits, published in 1991, is a novel by Canadian novelist Robertson Davies.

Related Topics:
1991 - Canadian - Novelist - Robertson Davies

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Murther and Walking Spirits is, in a way, another ghost story, a genre Davies visited in his short story collection High Spirits. In the very first sentence of the novel, "Gil" Gilmartin, the protaganist and narrator, is murdered. He then attends a strange film festival, where he sees "films" retracing the history of his ancestors. The films, dealing as they do with more and more recent subjects, bring the novel to its modern-day conclusion.

Related Topics:
Ghost story - Genre - Short story - High Spirits

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Davies used his own ancestry—Welsh and United Empire Loyalist—as inspiration for the "films" presented.

Related Topics:
Welsh - United Empire Loyalist

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The novel is prefaced with a quote from Samuel Butler: "But where Murthers and Walking Spirits meet, there is no other Narrative can come near it." (The word "murther" is an archaic spelling variation of "murder".)

Related Topics:
Samuel Butler - Murder

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Murther and Walking Spirits was not well received by the critics, and sales of the book were disappointing, compared to Davies' previous works.

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Unlike Davies' previous novels, Murther and Walking Spirits was not part of a trilogy. There is some supposition, however, that had Davies lived long enough this novel and his next novel, The Cunning Man, might have constituted another trilogy. In fact, in his introduction to The Merry Heart, a collection of Davies' writings published posthumously, Davies' publisher, Douglas M. Gibson, tells how Davies had been researching and preparing the novel which would have followed The Cunning Man and would have been the third in the series. Gibson calls this unfinished trilogy the "Toronto Trilogy".

Related Topics:
The Cunning Man - The Merry Heart - Douglas M. Gibson - Toronto

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