What's Bred in the Bone

By: Robertson Davies

Narrated by: Frederick Davidson

Francis Cornish was always good at keeping secrets. From the well-hidden family secret of his childhood to his mysterious encounters with a small-town embalmer, an expert art restorer, a Bavarian countess, and various masters of espionage, the events in Francis' life were not always what they seemed.

This wonderfully ingenious portrait of an art expert and collector of international renown is told in stylish, elegant prose and endowed with lavish portions of Davies' wit and wisdom.

Robertson Davies (1913 - 1995) was an internationally acclaimed author, actor, publisher, and, finally, professor at the University of Toronto. The author of 12 novels and several volumes of essays and plays, he was the first Canadian to be inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

©1985 by Robertson Davies (P)1996 by Blackstone Audiobooks

Critic reviews

"Extraordinary.... A gripping story of artistic triumph and heroic deceit, told with deep insight into the worlds of art and international espionage. This work is tailor-made for the eloquence of narrator Frederick Davidson." ( Library Journal)
"Davidson's carefully modulated, vocalized reading brings to life the gallery of players in Cornish's world, working together with Davies's rich prose to peel back layer after layer of deceit." ( Kliatt)

Classic Can Lit

Recently I had the opportunity to listen to dozens of novels as I convalesced. This was one of my favorites as both novel and listening experience, undertaken just after a marathon of George Eliot,Trollope, & Galsworthy. Although Frederick Davidson is one of my favorite narrators, I was at first disappointed that a Brit was reading Can Lit, but he turned out to be almost perfect. His "almost British accent" while narrating suited perfectly a novel set in a time when Canada was emerging slowly from its colonialist ties to England. Some of Davidson's "Canadian" voices sounded a little "south of the border" to my ears, and I cringed when he at first anglicized the pronunciation of "Prime Minister Laurier," but overall, the narration was delightful, and the accents no more artificial than when a North American takes a stab at British dialects, I suppose.

Bred in the Bone is both a traditional novel and contemporary - A tale told traditionally but by an author with contemporary social and psychological insight and delightful wit. I wish Audible featured more of Davies' novels! And more classic Can Lit!

If you're looking for a clever read but without too much postmodern angst, this may be for you.

Fascinating

Amazingly well told. Beautiful prose and intriguing plot. The narrator is perfectly paired with the writing!

Twists and Turns

If you could sum up What's Bred in the Bone in three words, what would they be?

Twisted, Intriguing, Layered

Who was your favorite character and why?

The House Servants that care for the unfortunate sibling.

Have you listened to any of Frederick Davidson’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

I would have enjoyed listening to it all in one sitting. There was never a good point to lay it down as there were characters introduced or another event unfolding that I wanted to discover.

Literate, witty and totally human

I love Davies but this book is particularly wonderful, speaking of everything from music to war. His books would be with me on that desert island.

wonderful book and the perfect narrator for it.

I was so very sad to reach the end of this book, it was the sort you hope will go one forever. I've always been a Robertson Davies fan, and had the privilege of attending a reading by him which just increased my admiration ten fold. What made this book so exceptional was the narrator who perfectly captured the brilliant dialog but also the subtly of the emotions behind the words. I cried at the end because I felt like I had lost a friend.

Great work read admirably

A classic novel by Davies read engagingly by one of the best of narrators. A good introduction to one our greatest modern writers

Living with the past

This is a novel of man who learns to live with who he is. He has the kind of haunted, rarified, occasionally brutal life that many Davies' characters endure, and enjoy from time to time. It is a tale worth telling.
Davies has a profound gift for characterization. Frank Cornish is as fully realized as any figure from biography. Davies is always sympathetic with his characters, and this sympathy lets us understand them in depth. Some of them turn out to be scoundrels, but he does not gloat over their downfalls, or rail at their triumphs. They are who they are, and his business is to reveal them.
Davies' prose as always is as clean and graceful as fine music. The story is darker than his "Rebel Angels" or the comic "Tempest Tost" and lacks the high drama of the Deptford Trilogy, but still a thoroughly rewarding read.

Elevated Language and Great Writing

Robertson Davies is one of the most talented contemporary writers in the English language. He is high brow without being highbrow. Here he takes the often drippy and tedious story of the wealthy, old-monied family and kicks it up a notch with unusual characters and unexpected twists. I was sad the book ended, and am going right on to escape with another of his books. The art of conversation is not dead with Professor Davies at the pen!

More Fabulous Robertson Daview

I loved this book (including the reader) and only wish it would go on and on. Less humerous and a bit darker than some of Robertson Davies' others (Salterton Tril, for example) but equally as entertaining. With Davies' superb subtlety and attention to detail and his extraordinary characters and their surroundings, the story of Francis Cornish takes us through the first half of the 20th century and two world wars almost as an aside. The Francis, the story and the words are the thing, well read and exquisitely crafted. A really brilliant, thought provoking work.

Quirky enough for anyone.

I read this several months ago, and remember it as a pseudo anglophilic saga of Francis Cornish overwatched by his personal gods, muses or recorders and has lots of interesting twists.