In the main, the heroes and heroines of Robertson Davies' novels, the characters through whom he chooses to tell his stories, are scholars. They are also pedants. They have many opinions, whereas scholars in the strict sense have only a few, closely related to their disciplines. In the course of their conversations and meditations. Davies' heroes and heroines express their opinions expansively and with wide-ranging references to history and literature. Furthermore, since the habit of forming opinions extends most easily into matters of human behavior (politics and propriety), Davies' opinionated scholars are inclined to priggishness. They editorialize extensively and gratuitously on hygiene, university budgets, women's lib, wisdom, contemporary music, and a thousand other subjects.

It's hard to deny a writer his turf, and pedants and prigs are certainly fit subjects for fiction. However, a pedant who remains a pedant can't very easily be a hero and a convincing...