The "stunning verbal energy and intelligence" (The New York Times Book Review) of a beloved literary icon shine on in a new collection

"Long may he continue to divert us", said The New York Times Book Review on its front page of Robertson Davies's national bestseller The Cunning Man. And even Davies's mourned death soon afterward, could not thwart that wish. For here, on the heels of his acclaimed posthumous work, The Merry Heart come another thirty-three pieces -- most of them previously unpublished -- that resonate with his vast erudition, warm wisdom, and rascally wit.

In prose that evokes his own prescription for poetry -- "every speech...as fully flavored as a nut or an apple" -he roves from Greek drama and eighteenth-century farce to contemporary set design, from the trouble with Hamlet as opera to the sheer delight of Lewis Carroll and "Dickens and Music". Davies disciples, theater buffs, and music lovers alike will find, in Happy Alchemy, a rare treat.