Quotes from book
A Voice from the Attic

A Voice from the Attic
Robertson Davies

A Voice from the Attic is a collection of Robertson Davies' essays about reading aimed at intelligent and thoughtful readers, whom he calls the "clerisy". Initially published by McClelland and Stewart in 1960, A Voice from the Attic was republished during the early 1990s.

“A few years ago I had to answer some searching questions to a Customs official about a book which I had with me, printed in Latin, and which the official suspected to be Russian; it was a jestbook, as a matter of fact, and I was so foolish as to say so, forgetting that a Latin joke is as strange to the modern imagination as a unicorn or an amphisbaena.”

Robertson Davies book A Voice from the Attic

A Voice from the Attic (1960)

“It was suggested by the late Alfred Knopf that books should be graded like eggs, and that publishing houses should not offer as First Class what they well know to be Fifth. But of course publishers cannot agree about standards for grading, and even if they could, writers would shriek like mandrakes uprooted if their work were sent into the world marked anything less than Strictly Fresh.”

Robertson Davies book A Voice from the Attic

A Voice from the Attic (1960)

“The critic must be reconciled to his necessary, ambiguous role, and however much he may caper, joke, and posture for us in his writings, we are unlikely to forget that he is a man who may, at any moment, tread heavily upon our dreams — unworthy dreams, foolish dreams, stupid dreams, sometimes — but still dreams.”

Robertson Davies book A Voice from the Attic

A Voice from the Attic (1960)

“Any enjoyment or profit we get from life, we get Now; to kill Now is to abridge our own lives.”

Robertson Davies book A Voice from the Attic

A Voice from the Attic (1960)

“Perhaps the most striking difference between Malory's Morte d'Arthur and Tennyson's Idylls of the King is that Malory's women are all human beings, and that Tennyson's are, in greater or less degree, prizes for good conduct.”

Robertson Davies book A Voice from the Attic

A Voice from the Attic (1960)

“Thought and reason, unless matched by feelings, are empty, delusive things.”

Robertson Davies book A Voice from the Attic

A Voice from the Attic (1960)

“Books of the avant-garde either establish themselves as books of lasting value, or they slip from the rear guard into the discard, and I believe the writers I mentioned have not proven trivial.”

Robertson Davies book A Voice from the Attic

A Voice from the Attic (1960)

“When a man has become a great figure in society as a physician, we must not be surprised if he regards the laws of society as the laws of Nature — but we need not respect him for it.”

Robertson Davies book A Voice from the Attic

A Voice from the Attic (1960)

“That is all there is to it. No doubts, no discussion of earlier affairs, no to-ing and fro-ing, no physical experiment beyond a kiss, none of the complex voodoo which is thought necessary in even the most perfunctory modern novel to clap two ninnies together.”

Robertson Davies book A Voice from the Attic

A Voice from the Attic (1960)

“The reader cannot create; that has been done for him by the author. The reader can only interpret, giving the author a fair chance to make his impression.”

Robertson Davies book A Voice from the Attic

A Voice from the Attic (1960)

“It is not my intention to denounce modern education. If it is bad, it may be said that all education is bad which is not self-education, and quite a lot of self-education is going on today — some of it in our schools, under the very noses of the teachers!”

Robertson Davies book A Voice from the Attic

A Voice from the Attic (1960)

“The clerisy are those who read for pleasure, but not for idleness; who read for pastime but not to kill time; who love books, but do not live by books.”

Robertson Davies book A Voice from the Attic

A Voice from the Attic (1960)

“Art lies in understanding some part of the dark forces and bringing them under the direction of reason.”

Robertson Davies book A Voice from the Attic

A Voice from the Attic (1960)

“But the temptation to wallow and disport myself in the purple prose of the doting collector is strong, and it will need all my vigilance to resist it.”

Robertson Davies book A Voice from the Attic

A Voice from the Attic (1960)

“Quaint though this attitude seems now, it was unquestionably the prevalent one in the nineteenth century, and it would be over-bold to say that it will never return to favour, for the range of human folly is infinite.”

Robertson Davies book A Voice from the Attic

A Voice from the Attic (1960)

“The novels and poems which proceed from writers in the grip of this barren pessimism are of the kind which make narrow moralists fume, and use words like "decadence"; the writers rejoice, because making narrow moralists (who are usually frightened people) hop with rage is a sign that they have hit a mark, and they do not understand how poor and easy a mark it is.”

Robertson Davies book A Voice from the Attic

A Voice from the Attic (1960)

“Not all readers are prepared, at all times, to make independent judgments. But the failure of modern education to equip them to do so even when they have the inclination creates a serious gap in modern culture.”

Robertson Davies book A Voice from the Attic

A Voice from the Attic (1960)

“Sometimes for us in Canada it seems as though the United States and the United Kingdom were cup and saucer, and Canada the spoon, for we are in and out of both with the greatest freedom, and we are given most recognition when we are most a nuisance.”

Robertson Davies book A Voice from the Attic

A Voice from the Attic (1960)

“In an age where public health has never been better provided for, and medical men enjoy a respect formerly reserved for the aristocracy and the clergy, millions of people are unwell, or merely feel unwell, or are in dread lest at some future time they may become unwell.”

Robertson Davies book A Voice from the Attic

A Voice from the Attic (1960)

“The search for the sense of humour is as fruitless and as enduring as the hunt for the unicorn; the really wise man knows that the unicorn, being no reality but a life-enhancing myth, must never be hunted, and may only be glimpsed by the well-disposed and the lucky; it cannot be captured, and it is encountered only by indirection.”

Robertson Davies book A Voice from the Attic

A Voice from the Attic (1960)

Similar authors

Robertson Davies photo
Robertson Davies282
Canadian journalist, playwright, professor, critic, and nov… 1913–1995
John Galsworthy photo
John Galsworthy48
English novelist and playwright None
Sinclair Lewis photo
Sinclair Lewis136
American novelist, short-story writer, and playwright None
Marcel Proust photo
Marcel Proust41
French novelist, critic, and essayist None
Marcel Pagnol photo
Marcel Pagnol9
novelist, playwright and filmmaker from France None
Christopher Morley photo
Christopher Morley30
American journalist, novelist, essayist and poet None
Amos Oz photo
Amos Oz12
Israeli writer, novelist, journalist and intellectual None
Stefan Zweig photo
Stefan Zweig106
Austrian writer None
Olavo de Carvalho photo
Olavo de Carvalho6
Brazilian journalist, essayist and professor of philosophy None
Samuel Beckett photo
Samuel Beckett122
Irish novelist, playwright, and poet None