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High Spirits: A Collection of Ghost Stories

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The late Robertson Davies is perhaps best known for his works of heady literature. Some of the most well-known works by him are "Fifth Business", "The Manticore", "What's Bred in the Bone" and "Murther and Walking Spirits." Most readers of Davies will know him first and foremost as an author and second as a scholar of Elizabethan theatre; "Shakespeare's Boy Actors" is but one of his more academic works on the subject.

However, most Americans do not know of the years that Davies was the Master of Massey College at the University of Toronto in Canada. While there, it became his habit to tell a ghost story every year for the college's Christmas staff party. Thirteen of these ghostly (yet often quite hysterical stories) are contained here. Beginning with the first, "Revelation from a Smoky Fire", in which Davies is visited by an apparition who seems to be from the college's FUTURE, and moving on through "The Ugly Spectre of Sexism" and "The Pit Whence Ye Are Digged", these ghost tales are far less horrific and spooky than they are highly amusing. For example, when dealing with the sudden appearance of what is most likely a ghost that has appeared in his own office and, furthermore, assumes that Davies has come down the chimney, he writes, "I grasped immediately the sort of man I was dealing with. This was a madman! It is one of my cardinal rules to always humor madmen. It comes second nature to me. I do it several times each day."

These stories, like much of Davies's work, is highly scholarly, with a turn of phrase and vocabulary that often verges on that seen in Victorian English novels. People who have read a great deal, or who have gone to graduate school in the fine arts or for literature, will catch the subtle barbs and digs that Davies directs at the ivory tower nature of academia and even himself as Master of the college. The stories were first intended to be read aloud for an academic audience of professors, so they are meant more to amuse and tickle the wit than to accompany the more traditional Halloween stories or his other novels or scholarly works.

Potential readers should note that there was at one time an audio version of this book published with an introduction by the author with the reading performed by Christopher Plummer. As I understand it, this audio version is currently out of print. This is a dreadful shame because Mr. Plummer gives an exceptional performance of Mr. Davies's work. Also, as mentioned, these stories were intended to be read aloud for a gathering of people on an evening, and what could be better than HEARING these ghostly tales?? If anyone finds themselves enjoying these stories, they would be well advised to track down the audio version!

Canada lost a fine writer, critic, playwright and journalist in 1996 when Mr. Davies passed away. His books are still enjoyed today as much as ever, and for those who are seeking out a less heavy, light and amusing work by him, one simply cannot go wrong with "High Spirits." Highly recommended- by this Davies fan!!

These are definitely not typical ghost stories. They aren't scary but humorous. While he was master of Massey College at the University of Toronto, Davies wrote and read a new ghost story each year at the college Christmas party. They are quite entertaining and jolly good fun. They are among the more entertaining things Davies wrote in a lifetime of interesting writing.

What a fun book this is! These pieces, originally written for the amusement of his colleagues from the early 60s to the late 70s, work just fine as cozies for an educated general audience. The stories are literate, if somewhat samey, and very droll, in that understated Canadian way reminiscent of Stephen Leacock. It would indeed be great to have an audiotape of this, as many of the passages beg to be read aloud. Some fair use excerpts:

"Women always think that if they tell a man not to be pompous that will shut him up, but I am an old hand at that game. I know that if a man bides his time his moment will come."

"I am a democrat. All of my family have been persons of peasant origin, who have wrung a meagre sufficiency from a harsh world by the labour of their hands. I acknowledge no one my superior merely on grounds of a more fortunate destiny, a favoured birth. I did what any such man would do when confronted with Queen Victoria; I fell immediately to my knees."

"The devil gave me a look which made me profoundly uneasy. 'Just because I am enjoying your sympathy, don't imagine that I cannot read you like a book,' he said. 'You think you are cleverer than I; it is a very common academic delusion.'"

I'm unfamiliar with Davies' "serious" works, but any major writer who isn't afraid to show his readers a good time is all right with me.

By "High" Spirits in the title, Davies' is referring to the fact that the ghosts in these stories are most often of lofty earthly lineage. They are "highly" extracted. In these 18 stories we meet the ghosts of King George the V and VI of Great Britain, Queen Victoria, Sir John A. MacDonald, Saint George of Cappadocia, William Lyon Mackenzie King, and John Strachan (founder of Massey College) to name but a few. These are no ordinary run-of-the-mill random ghosts, and these are not "scary" ghost stories. They are moreso HUMOROUS and were meant originally to entertain guests at the annual Gaudy Nights held at Massey College when Davies was Master there.

While these stories are very well-done (original and highly inventive) and no doubt caused quite a stir in their time, to read them now seems quite dated. The inferences and specific allusions to college life are lost on the modern reader who may not have a conversational grasp of Canadian political history, or a knowledge of the finer points of Massey College's quadrangles and inner sanctums. All in all, these stories are best TOLD to their original hearers... a few times I had the sense that I would have liked to have been in attendence as Davies' recited these to his guests. But to sit and read them nowadays?... I don't know, at the end of each story I sort of felt like... "so what?" I am a big fan of Davies' writing, but this is not a book I would highly recommend to anyone getting to know his work.

This wonderful collection of ghost stories gives a new view of the macabre and of Davies' view of it. This book combines his scholarly mind with his subtle humour and understanding of human nature. A glorious asset to any lover of ghostly tales.

These are not your grandfather's ghosts. These entities generally don't moan or present themselves in elusive wisps. No, these manifestations tend to be in-your-face, sassy, snappy, and loquacious - with verbal rather than literal axes to grind.

The short stories here are written versions of the annual supernatural tales that Davies says he told at Christmastime to his fellows at Massey College in Toronto. The school is a relatively new one, with few of the kinds of nooks and crannies that usually appeal to ghosts. But for the purposes of these stories, it, or the author himself, become magnets for ghosts wanting to plead their cases.

These entities are like the shades of old in one respect. They all have some unfinished business on earth. They are all seeking something - justification, vindication, or a last chance for some self-assertion.

Beyond that however, the ghosts are thoroughly modern in their approach, even though many of them are historical figures. They issue barbs about the current state of affairs. Like ventriloquists' dummies, it seems they might be conjured in order to sometimes allow Davies to voice his own disapproval. One genie is the occasion for comment that we don't believe in astrology now. "Now we have Guidance Counseling..." This "diabolic" genie also reports that Hell isn't fire and brimstone; it's "committee meetings."

As far as the actual Devil goes - Davies labels him the unfortunate product of a broken home - a lost soul who can't go home for Christmas because of the rift with his Father. However the Devil declares he's got his own back on Holiday celebrations by having made Christmas gifts and cards mandatory.

Most of the entities are ghosts of important personages: Einstein; King George V and his son Bertie; John MacDonald (founder of the Canadian Federation); the Saints who were divested of Sainthood by Pope Paul, including "St. Christopher of the Parking Lot." There is however, one ghost without note - a ghost of a "poor relation" to someone who was, naturally, a "rich relation."

A couple of times, the book's tone is marred a bit by misogyny. For example, in trying to find College lodgings for all the ghosts of demoted Saints, Davies suggests that St. Ursula's virginal retinue should be consigned to the kitchen scullery, where presumably dull-looking woman belong.

However, this is generally good writing, good fun, and a chance to learn something about Canadian history. Be warned though - beyond perhaps the first story, which has an element of the eerie, these stories probably won't scare you. The entities here are all more sportive spectacles than specters.

Every story in this book is a joy. Davies spoofs himself, as, in his persona as Master of Massey College of the University of Toronto, he narrates them. It seems that there is something about Massey College that is attractive to ghosts, famous, infamous and not famous at all. "Every part of our great University strives for distinction of one kind or another, but it is everywhere admitted that in the regularity and variety of our ghostly visitations Massey College stands alone." Even Little Lord Fauntleroy puts in an appearance! Splendid stuff.

The prospect of Davies penning ghost stories delighted me, so I purchased High Spirits for my annual October spooky reading. These stories are fun, but there's no getting around the fact that I was hugely disappointed. They are comic, not scary or even groteque. They were written to entertain his colleagues and students, and they are kind of dull for the general public...especially as the premise is basically the set-up for all 18 stories. Nevertheless, even without enjoying the tales themselves, Davies never fails to be an engaging writer, and his first person narration is often clever and amusing in his own unique style. Worth the read, but for Davies fan's only.

The subtitle of this book is "A collection of ghost stories", a rather misleading description. The stories do have ghosts -- or some supernatural creatures or events -- in them, but that's the only ghostly thing about them. Perhaps "tall tales" is a more accurate designation (q.v., McBroom's Ghost by Sid Fleischman, a children's book).

These very short stories were intended as spoken entertainments for the annual Christmas gathering of Davies fellow professors at his college and their guests. They are full of sly literary and historic references, gentle satires on academic customs and personalities, and general literate wackiness.

Some knowledge of Davies other writings and of 19th century English literature should allow the reader of this inspired nonsense to smile through every sentence and to laugh aloud at frequent intervals. If I haven't convinced you, do read the other reviews dated previous to mine: they all give an excellent idea of what you can expect.

Robertson Davies is an excellent writer. Original, highly imaginative, and possessed of an engaging style. "High Spirits: A Collection of Ghost Stories" is penultimate evidence of that. Christopher Plummer, who reads the stories, is an actor of long standing excellence. Quite simply, no one could match his work in reading these stories. Nuanced, varied, and unfailingly engaging, Plummer's work is not simply reading. He creates characters, atmosphere, and a sense of time and place which is unequalled by anyone who practices the craft of narrating stories. He does not simply narrate. Nor does he merely excellently act the parts he reads. He tells the story with the authority and feeling of one who is creating the story as he tells it. An excellent read by itself, "High Spirits: A Collection of Ghost Stories" is a vacation to listen to. One to which I have returned many times to marvel and enjoy the unparalleled work of two artists.