The Cornish Trilogy

Nov 6, 2025 11:33 PM

Author:Robertson Davies

The Cornish Trilogy

The University of St John and the Holy Ghost (known affectionately as Spook) has a problem - and an opportunity. Strange, eccentric art patron and collector Francis Cornish has died and faculty members have been made executors of his complicated will. But in the realization of their duties, they find themselves drawn into Cornish's bizarre, secretive and mystical world. In this spellbinding trilogy a host of memorable characters - defrocked, mischief-making monks, half-mad professors, gypsies and musical geniuses - become entangled in a story that involves theft, perjury, scholarship, murder, love, and the squandering of plenty of cash.

Reviews

Deliciously readable

—— New York Times

One of the most remarkable achievements of contemporary fiction

—— Sunday Times

Nourishes the brain while it beguiles the senses

—— Time

A first-rate storyteller and a real moralist with a crackling sense of humour

—— Newsweek

Davies combines elements of the fantastic with details of everyday life to show us a world in which the miraculous coexists with the mundane

—— New York Times

There's a real Turn of the Screw feel to this absorbing ghost tale, a genuine Gothic spinechiller and beautifully told

—— Fiona Noble , The Bookseller

Chilling, creepy and utterly compelling . . . Fine creates a wonderful sense of place and the devilish captain Severin will haunt your psyche

—— Vanessa Lewis , The Bookseller

A journey of true grit and determination for one so young in years. The story alone is superb; add in Enaiatollah's engaging prose and this books sings on the page. Highly recommended

—— Bookbag

A dissection of the emotional fissures that tear families apart

—— Mail on Sunday

The novel...is thoughtful and beautifully written, examining lost lives, chances and choices

—— Daily Mail

A sort of historical treatise follows, one that is devoid of the kind of colourful details which abound in stereotypical lottery daydreams, but which nevertheless endears the reader to Andy and his cause, and sets up an enticing conclusion'

—— Sunday Business Post

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