Fifth Business Summary
Robertson Davies

Fifth Business Summary

Fifth Business is a memoir-style novel, written by a fictional narrator, Dunstan Ramsay. Ramsay has recently retired after forty-plus years of teaching history at the Colborne College for Boys. Now he finds himself indignant at the condescending way in which he has been portrayed in the school's newspaper; an article about his retirement implies that he is a doddering old man who has never had anything relevant to teach his pupils. Dunstan takes exception to this attitude, and sets out to convince his former boss, the school's Headmaster, of the value that Dunstan has brought to Colborne College.

Dunstan begins his memoir with an account of his childhood in the darkly disturbing village of Deptford. The central events of his life begin with a childish snowball fight. His snowball-throwing friend and enemy, Percy Boyd Staunton, chases Dunstan, then named Dunstable, home. Dunstan ducks a snowball by dodging behind a young... View more of the Fifth Business Summary