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Murther and Walking Spirits (1991)

by Robertson Davies

Other authors: See the other authors section.

Series: Unfinished Trilogy (1)

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingConversations / Mentions
1,2031817,558 (3.68)1 / 60
Connor Gilmartin's inauspicious, but much beloved, mortal life comes to an untimely end when he discovers his wife in bed with one of his more ludicrous associates, Randall Allard Going. Death becomes a bit complicated when Gilmartin's out-of-body experience stays an out-of-body experience. Enraged at being so unceremoniously cut down, he avenges himself against his now panic-stricken murderer.… (more)
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» See also 60 mentions

English (17)  Spanish (1)  All languages (18)
Showing 1-5 of 17 (next | show all)
Fantastical great! ( )
  busterrll | Sep 10, 2020 |
a murdered man's soul learns self acceptance by viewing "films" of his ancestors.
  ritaer | Aug 26, 2020 |
The novel begins with the death of its narrator, Connor Gilmartin, who walks in on his wife and her lover, and gets coshed with a weighted walking stick for his indiscretion. Adding insult to injury, the lover was a newspaper colleague Gil contemptuously referred to as "the Sniffer", a man seemingly possessed of no personal magnetism or uncommon sexual appeal whatsoever. Furthermore, as the murder is officially attributed to an unidentified intruder, the Sniffer gets away with it. Gil finds himself in an odd sort of limbo in which he must accompany his murderer to a film festival for several days, viewing a rather different sort of cinema than the classics being shown to the Sniffer and everyone else. As generations of family history unfold on the screen, both Gil and the reader learn a great deal about American and Canadian history that aren't well-covered in the textbooks. He finds himself to be descended from Loyalists who fled the colonies of North America to settle in Canada at the time of the American Revolution. This works well as straight historical fiction, and if Davies had left out the frame he still would have had a fine novel. But naturally, the point of all this is for Gil to come to a fuller understanding of who he was, and what meaning his life may have had. At one point, Gil observes "It is merciful of Whatever or Whoever is directing my existence at this moment to show the past as a work of art, for it was as a work of art that I tried to understand life, while I had life, and much of my indignation at the manner of my death is its want of artistic form, dimension, emotional weight, dignity." ( )
  laytonwoman3rd | Jan 31, 2017 |
"I was never so amazed in my life as when the Sniffer drew his concealed weapon from its case and struck me to the ground, stone dead."


Gil Gilmartin walked in on his wife and her lover who whacked Gilmartin with a weapon concealed in his walking stick, killing him instantly. Gilmartin immediately realizes he is dead yet able to watch, unseen, as his wife and the lover, Allard Going, nicknamed the Sniffer, try to cover up the murder. Then, after this excellent opening, the story goes in a different direction. Gilmartin, like Going, is a newspaper film critic and follows Going to a film festival only to find his viewing is different from any other. His films detail his ancestors from the American Revolution to modern times. It is an examination of how Gilmartin - or Davies, as the film is said to have closely followed Davies' own origins - came to be the person he is - or was, in this case.

As a perusal of personal history, it must have been fascinating for Davies, but while I found some parts quite interesting, other sections were less so. Reading slowed, interest lagged. However, the ending was perfect. The lineage continues and the pretentious Sniffer receives fitting justice. Entertaining, but this turned out to be my least favourite from Davies. ( )
  VivienneR | May 30, 2016 |
I'm glad I'd read most of Robertson Davies' earlier work before reading this one, his next to last, not only because it isn't up to them but also because my familiarity with Davies allowed me to recognize some familiar topics and themes that wouldn't be obvious to someone who read this as his or her first Davies. Briefly, and this is no spoiler because it takes place on the first page, Connor Gilmartin is killed by "the Sniffer," aka Randal Allard Going, when he, Gilmartin, finds Allard Going (as he insists on being called) in bed with his wife Esme. His reaction, "My God, Esme, not the Sniffer," seems to be what spurs the Sniffer to pull the cosh out of his walking stick and hit Gilmartin with it, killing him. But, despite being dead, Gilmartin lives on as, presumably, his ghost.

After delightful scenes when the police arrive and at Gilmartin's funeral, the novel changes its focus from the delicious conceit of the ghost observing the man who killed him. As the ghost is determined to follow Going and make his life miserable, he follows him to a film festival that Going, as the film critic for the local newspaper (Gilmartin had been the entertainment editor) is attending. But instead of seeing the obscure and art movies that are being shown, the ghost of Gilmartin sees "films" that he gradually realizes portray the lives of his ancestors, from a plucky Dutch woman fleeing post-revolutionary New York by canoe to a Wesleyan preacher in Wales to struggling Welsh tailors who come to Canada to seek their fortunes, one as a builder, others in other fields, right up to his own father, a literature professor. Many of them experience bankruptcy or alcoholism; others are rigid and religion-bound, repress their sexuality, and can't express their love; others are deceptive in various ways. All this is eye-opening for Gilmartin (if ghosts have eyes to open); he quotes his friend McWearie, the newspaper's religion reporter, as saying "one's family is made up of supporting players in one's personal drama. One never supposes that they starred in some possibly gaudy and certainly deeply felt show of their own." Later he notes:

"How many children are doomed before they make their entrance into this world to live with fear that lies so deep that they do not recognize it for what it is, having never known anything else? Ghosts cannot weep, or I would weep at what I know now when knowledge comes too late." p. 205

When the film festival ends, so does the ghost of Gilmartin's personal film festival, and the ghost sees, after the familiar "The End," an additional sign that says "Nothing is finished until all is finished." There then remain some scenes with Esme, the Sniffer, McWearie, and various other characters.

The film-told story of Gilmartin's ancestors' lives allows Davies to play with many of his familiar themes -- history, theater, psychology, metaphysics, literature and poetry, journalism, art, deception -- and to use his skills as a story-teller and a satirist with a keen eye for our human foibles and pretensions. All of this made the book worth reading. But, for me, it seemed a little disjointed: it didn't quite hang together as a novel, and there were parts of it that bordered on the tedious. Despite this disappointment, I will eventually get around to reading Davies' last novel, The Cunning Man.
2 vote rebeccanyc | Aug 17, 2013 |
Showing 1-5 of 17 (next | show all)
En près de quatre cents pages, Robertson Davies traverse deux siècles d'une Histoire mouvementée, qui prend parfois des allures de western. Le romancier américain John Irving espère qu'on décernera le prix Nobel à ce fringant octogénaire, encore trop méconnu en France.
added by Ariane65 | editLire, Pascale Frey (Nov 1, 1995)
 
"Mr. Davies is a tremendously enticing storyteller, whether his characters are cajoling in Welsh brogue or portaging a canoe through the northern wilderness ..."
added by GYKM | editNew York Times, Anthony Bailey (Nov 17, 1991)
 

» Add other authors (3 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Robertson Daviesprimary authorall editionscalculated
BascoveCover artistsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Guidall, GeorgeNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed

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Les imprimeurs savent d'expérience qu'un meurtre vaut deux monstres et au moins trois esprits errants. Car le meurtre condiuit à la pendaison dont la populace est merveilleusement friande. Mais nul récit n'égalera jamais celui qui réunit meurtres et esprits errants.

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I was never so amazed in my life as when the Sniffer drew his concealed weapon from its case and struck me to the ground, stone dead.
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She did not strongly want a husband and children, but she very strongly wanted not to be an Old Maid.
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Coleridge was perhaps the most celebrated of all drinkers of laudanum, and splendid studies have been written of its influence on his Muse. Nobody seems to have paid attention to its influence on his bowels, for laudanum was a rare constipator. How much of The Ancient Mariner was the result of intestinal stasis?
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Connor Gilmartin's inauspicious, but much beloved, mortal life comes to an untimely end when he discovers his wife in bed with one of his more ludicrous associates, Randall Allard Going. Death becomes a bit complicated when Gilmartin's out-of-body experience stays an out-of-body experience. Enraged at being so unceremoniously cut down, he avenges himself against his now panic-stricken murderer.

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