The Table Talk of Samuel Marchbanks

The Table Talk of Samuel Marchbanks, published by Clarke Irwin in 1949, is the second of the Samuel Marchbanks books by Canadian novelist and journalist Robertson Davies. The other two books in this series are The Diary of Samuel Marchbanks (1947) and Samuel Marchbanks' Almanack (1967).

Davies created the Samuel Marchbanks character whilst editor of the Peterborough Examiner newspaper in the small city of Peterborough, Ontario, northeast of Toronto. He wrote the first column under the Marchbanks pseudonym in 1944.

The Table Talk of Samuel Marchbanks presents a number of Marchbanks' columns from 1947 and 1948, presenting them as observations purportedly made by Marchbanks during a seven-course formal dinner.

Davies' writings as Samuel Marchbanks were also collected in a one-volume edition, The Papers of Samuel Marchbanks in 1985.

Works by Robertson Davies
Novels
  • The Salterton Trilogy
    • Tempest-Tost
    • Leaven of Malice
    • A Mixture of Frailties
  • The Deptford Trilogy
    • Fifth Business
    • The Manticore
    • World of Wonders
  • The Cornish Trilogy
    • The Rebel Angels
    • What's Bred in the Bone
    • The Lyre of Orpheus
  • The "Toronto Trilogy"
    • Murther and Walking Spirits
    • The Cunning Man
Fictional essays
  • The Diary of Samuel Marchbanks
  • The Table Talk of Samuel Marchbanks
  • Samuel Marchbanks' Almanack
  • The Papers of Samuel Marchbanks
Critical essays
  • A Voice from the Attic
  • The Enthusiasms of Robertson Davies
  • The Well-Tempered Critic
  • The Merry Heart
  • Happy Alchemy
Miscellaneous
  • Samuel Marchbanks
  • High Spirits
  • For Your Eye Alone
  • Discoveries

Famous quotes containing the words table and/or talk:

    Remember thee?
    Ay, thou poor ghost, whiles memory holds a seat
    In this distracted globe. Remember thee?
    Yea, from the table of my memory
    I’ll wipe away all trivial fond records,
    All saws of books, all forms, all pressures past
    That youth and observation copied there,
    And thy commandment all alone shall live
    Within the book and volume of my brain,
    William Shakespeare (1564–1616)

    Let those talk of poverty and hard times who will in the towns and cities; cannot the emigrant who can pay his fare to New York or Boston pay five dollars more to get here ... and be as rich as he pleases, where land virtually costs nothing, and houses only the labor of building, and he may begin life as Adam did? If he will still remember the distinction of poor and rich, let him bespeak him a narrower house forthwith.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)