Cornish Trilogy

The first book in the acclaimed Cornish Trilogy. Davies weaves together the destinies of this remarkable cast of characters, creating a wise and witty portrait of love, murder, and scholarship at a modern university in this first book of The Cornish Trilogy. 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. The story is set in motion by the death of eccentric art patron and collector Francis Cornish. Hollier, McVarish, and Darcourt are the executors of Cornish's complicated will, which includes material that Hollier wants for his studies. The deceased's nephew, Arthur Cornish, stands to inherit the fortune.

Second in the Cornish Trilogy following The Rebel Angels. Francis Cornish was always good at keeping secrets. From the well-hidden family secret of his childhood to his mysterious encounters with a small-town embalmer, an expert art restorer, a Bavarian countess, and various masters of espionage, the events in Francis' life were not always what they seemed. Rounding out the story started by the death of eccentric art patron and collector Francis Cornish in The Rebel Angels, this worthy follow-up, What's Bred in the Bone, takes you 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.

There is an important decision to be made. The Cornish Foundation is thriving under the directorship of Arthur Cornish when Arthur and his beguiling wife, Maria Theotoky, decide to undertake a project worthy of Francis Cornish-connoisseur, collector, and notable eccentric-whose vast fortune endows the Foundation. The grumpy, grimy, extraordinarily talented music student 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. Complications both practical and emotional arise: the passion in Maria's blood rises with a vengeance; Darcourt stoops to petty crime; and various others indulge in perjury, blackmail, and other unsavory pursuits. Hoffmann's dictum, "the lyre of Orpheus opens the door of the underworld," seems to be all too true-especially when the long-hidden secrets of Francis Cornish himself are finally revealed.

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.