Available in one volume, all three books of the darkly witty Cornish Trilogy: The Rebel Angels, What’s Bred in the Bone, and The Lyre of Orpheus.
The fate of the Cornish family unfolds in this trio of novels by acclaimed Canadian writer Robertson Davies . . .
The Rebel Angels. Set in motion by the death of eccentric art patron and collector Francis Cornish, a goodhearted priest and scholar, a professor with a passion for the darker side of medieval psychology, a defrocked monk, and a rich young businessman who inherits some troublesome paintings are all helplessly beguiled by the same coed.
What’s Bred in the Bone. This worthy follow-up goes back to Cornish’s humble beginnings in a spellbinding tale of artistic triumph and heroic deceit. It is a tale told in stylish, elegant prose, endowed with lavish portions of Davies’ wit and wisdom.
The Lyre of Orpheus. The Cornish Foundation is thriving under the directorship of Arthur Cornish when Arthur and his beguiling wife decide to undertake a project worthy of Francis Cornish. Hulda Schnakenburg is commissioned to complete E.T.A. Hoffmann’s unfinished opera Arthur of Britain, or The Magnanimous Cuckold; and the scholarly priest Simon Darcourt finds himself charged with writing the libretto.
“Invention has always been Robertson Davies’s strength. He tells terrific stories that twist around and double back on themselves in surprising ways and, characteristically, combines them with intriguing, arcane information.”—The New York Times
“Davies’ fiction is animated by his scorn for the ironclad systems that claim to explain the whole of life. Messy, magical, high-spirited life bubbles up between the cracks.”—South Florida Sun-Sentinel
