High Spirits (short story collection)
1982 collection of short stories by Robertson Davies
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
High Spirits is a collection of short stories by Canadian novelist, playwright, and journalist Robertson Davies, first published by Penguin Canada in 1982.
| |
| Author | Robertson Davies |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Fantasy, anthology |
| Published | 1982 |
| Publisher | Penguin Canada |
| Pages | 198 |
| ISBN | 9780140065053 |
| OCLC | 806312433 |
Davies was Master of Massey College at the University of Toronto in Toronto, Ontario from 1963 until 1981. Shortly after founding the College, he began to tell a ghost story at the College's annual Christmas party — its Gaudy Night — as an entertainment. The ghost story became a tradition, and for eighteen years Davies wrote a new story to read aloud at the Gaudy Night celebration.
After Davies' retirement from Massey College, the eighteen stories were collected and published as High Spirits.
Contents
- "How the High Spirits Came About, A Chapter of Autobiography"
- "Revelation from a Smoky Fire"
- "The Ghost Who Vanished by Degrees"
- "The Great Queen is Amused"
- "The Night of the Three Kings"
- "The Charlottetown Banquet"
- "When Satan Comes Home for Christmas"
- "Refuge of Insulted Saints"
- "Dickens Digested"
- "The Kiss of Krushchev"
- "The Cat that Went to Trinity"
- "The Ugly Spectre of Sexism"
- "The Pit Whence Ye Are Digged"
- "The Perils of the Double Sign"
- "Conversations with the Little Table"
- "The King Enjoys His Own Again"
- "The Xerox in the Lost Room"
- "Einstein and the Little Lord"
- "Offer of Immortality"
Reception
Dave Langford reviewed High Spirits for White Dwarf #52, and stated that "It's the best collection since M. R. James in this narrow genre of donnish, tongue-in-cheek ghost stories."[1]
