Novel: Leaven of Malice

Overview
Robertson Davies' Leaven of Malice is a brisk comic novel set in the provincial world of Salterton, a small Ontario city alive with self-importance, cultural aspiration and brittle social codes. The plot is propelled by a single, seemingly trivial incident , the mysterious theft of a baby carriage , and Davies uses that spark to set off a chain reaction of gossip, suspicion and melodrama that exposes the town's vanities and petty resentments.
Davies' prose delights in precise, ironic observation. The novel balances a kindly intelligence with a satirical edge, allowing characters to appear both ridiculous and recognizably human as their private anxieties and public personas collide.

Plot
The theft of the pram becomes an accommodator of every latent rumor and grievance in Salterton. Ordinary neighbors read deep motives into the act, moral crusaders and busybodies concoct tales to fit their prejudices, and the rumor mill transforms coincidence into conspiracy. Misunderstandings multiply, alliances shift and accusations crystallize with comic speed.
A series of social institutions , private homes, the local press, the municipal courtroom and literary salons , become stages for escalating farce. As the narrative unfolds, the truth emerges through a mix of inadvertence and deliberate intervention, and the resolution highlights both the absurdity of the town's panic and Davies' faith in clarity, decency and wit to restore balance.

Characters
The ensemble comprises a range of provincial figures: the gossips who trade confidence like currency, ambitious minor officials who see scandal as leverage, literati eager to perform moral sensitivity, and quieter, more thoughtful people who try to resist the contagion of rumor. None are reduced to caricature; instead, Davies sketches them with affectionate skepticism, showing how individual weaknesses feed communal hysteria.
Dialogue and social ritual reveal character as much as action. Conversations at hotels, drawing rooms and committee meetings are staging grounds where masks slip and motives are revealed, and Davies' ear for speech makes each voice distinct and revealing.

Themes and Tone
Leaven of Malice interrogates the mechanics of rumor, the hunger for narrative that turns coincidence into meaning, and the social theatrics that sustain a small city's status hierarchies. The book satirizes pretensions , literary, legal and moral , by exposing how easily high talk masks pettiness and how institutions supposed to uphold truth can become complicit in deception.
The tone is comic but not merely amused; it contains moral intelligence. Laughter here functions as criticism and consolation. Davies suggests that while people are capable of folly, they are also capable of remorse, repair and the modest wisdom that comes from being seen clearly.

Legacy and Reading
As the second of Davies' Salterton novels, Leaven of Malice refines the author's blend of social comedy and humane judgment that would mark his later work. It rewards readers who enjoy close psychological observation wrapped in farce and who appreciate a novelist comfortable with both moral scrutiny and affectionate satire.
The novel remains a keen study of how communities create stories about themselves and how truth, when finally disentangled from invention, can tone down scandal without excusing the motives that gave it life. It is a compact, entertaining example of Davies' talent for turning the small-town parochial into material for comic, compassionate insight.