The Merry Heart, first published by McClelland and Stewart in 1996, is a collection of writings by Canadian novelist Robertson Davies. It consists of reminiscences, speeches, book reviews, parodies and essays written over a period from 1980 to 1995, the year of Davies' death. Davies had planned the volume before his death.
The Merry Heart touches on themes that were near to Davies' heart, and that ran through his work: reading, literature, magic, Canada and Canadian literature, and ghost stories.
The book opens with a quotation from the Book of Proverbs: "A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones." (Proverbs 17:22).
The Merry Heart was followed in 1997 by a companion volume, Happy Alchemy.