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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'This new work of fiction by one of Australia’s most highly regarded authors focuses on the importance of trust, and the possibility of betrayal, in storytelling as in life. It tests the relationship established between author and reader, and on occasions of intimacy, between child and parent, boyfriend and girlfriend, husband and wife. Murnane’s fiction is woven from images, and the feelings associated with them, and the images that flit through A Million Windows like butterflies – the reflections of the setting sun like spots of golden oil, the houses of two or perhaps three storeys, the procession of dark-haired females, the clearing in the forest, the colours indigo and silver-grey, the death of a young woman who had leaped into a well – build to an emotional crescendo that is all the more powerful for the intricacy of their patterning.' (Publication summary)
Notes
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Epigraph: The house of fiction has in short not one window, but a million... –Henry James
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Also large print.
Works about this Work
-
Landscape within Landscape : The Intertwining of the Visible and the Invisible in Gerald Murnane and Henry James
2020
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Gerald Murnane : Another World in This One 2020; (p. 109-126) 'At the 2017 “Another World in This One” symposium – held at Gerald Murnane’s beloved Goroke Golf Club – I could not pass up the opportunity of asking this Australian writer about Henry James, especially as his book A Million Windows (2014) pays homage to the preface of The Portrait of a Lady. ¹ I was keen to know what Murnane thought about such an influential Victorian novelist. To my surprise, he said that James’ novels “have no landscape”. This comment, presumably meant as a criticism, seemed logical at the time, uttered as it was in the rural context where Murnane was most at home. My immediate response was to agree, since Murnane’s writing contemplates sweeping vistas that contrast sharply with James’ crowded metropolitan spheres. But the more I thought about this comment the more I came to the conclusion that James’ novels do have landscape – just not the kind of terrain that Murnane prefers.' (Introduction) -
y
Grounded Visionary : The Mystic Fictions of Gerald Murnane
Oxford
:
Peter Lang
,
2019
22038132
2019
multi chapter work
criticism
'Grounded Visionary: The Mystic Fictions of Gerald Murnane is a reading of Australian writer Gerald Murnane’s fiction in the light of what is known as the Perennial Philosophy, a philosophical tradition that positions itself as the mystical foundation of all the world’s religions and spiritual systems. The essential tenet of that philosophy is that at a fundamental level all of life is a unity―consciousness and world are the same thing―and that it is possible, if extremely difficult, for the discriminating individual mind to experience this wholeness. Murnane’s work can be seen not to take its lead from writings in this philosophical tradition but rather to resonate with many of them through Murnane’s unique artistic expression of his experience of the world. The crux of the argument is that beneath their yearnings for landscapes and love, Murnane’s narrators and chief characters are all in search of the essential unity that the Perennial Philosophy postulates.
'Taking its cue from Murnane’s self-description as a "technical writer," this book examines each of the author’s works in detail to reveal how structures and themes are seamlessly woven together to create artworks that shimmer with mystery while at the same time remaining thoroughly grounded in the actual.
'Grounded Visionary is the first full-length study of Gerald Murnane’s work to tackle head-on his underlying mystical sensibility and is also the first to deal comprehensively with the author’s complete fictional output from Tamarisk Row to Border Districts. This book will be of interest to all lovers of modern literature and will be of special interest to students of Australian literature and those concerned with the interface between art and spirituality.'
Source: Publisher's blurb.
-
What I’m Reading
2018
single work
column
— Appears in: Meanjin Online 2018; -
The Neighbors Are Real Characters
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: The New York Times Book Review , 19 June 2016; (p. 17)
— Review of A Million Windows 2014 single work novel -
Melbourne, City of Literature
2016
single work
essay
— Appears in: World Literature Today , March vol. 90 no. 2 2016; (p. 5)
-
Nothing is Quite What it Seems
Singular View on Fiction's Truths
2014
single work
review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 14 June (p. 22) The Sydney Morning Herald , 14-15 June 2014; (p. 32-33) The Age , 14-15 June 2014; (p. 32-33)
— Review of A Million Windows 2014 single work novel -
Markers of Lifetime Memory
2014
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 19-20 July 2014; (p. 19)
— Review of A Million Windows 2014 single work novel -
Well Read
2014
single work
review
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 9 August 2014; (p. 25)
— Review of A Million Windows 2014 single work novel ; Hergesheimer in the Present Tense 2014 selected work short story -
Veiled Epiphanies
2014
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , August no. 363 2014; (p. 40-41)
— Review of A Million Windows 2014 single work novel -
Remote Viewing
2014
single work
review
— Appears in: Sydney Review of Books , September 2014;
— Review of A Million Windows 2014 single work novel -
Silence and Sound in the Sentences of Gerald Murnane’s A Million Windows
2015
single work
criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 15 no. 1 2015; 'This article develops a reading of Gerald Murnane's 2014 novel A Million Windows, focusing on the manner in which the novel interrogates the nature of meaning making in fiction. It looks at the paired ideas of sound and silence: the former producing sense through sentences proper to the sense they need to convey; the latter impressing itself as what needs to be understood.' (Publication abstract) -
Melbourne, City of Literature
2016
single work
essay
— Appears in: World Literature Today , March vol. 90 no. 2 2016; (p. 5) -
Landscape within Landscape : The Intertwining of the Visible and the Invisible in Gerald Murnane and Henry James
2020
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Gerald Murnane : Another World in This One 2020; (p. 109-126) 'At the 2017 “Another World in This One” symposium – held at Gerald Murnane’s beloved Goroke Golf Club – I could not pass up the opportunity of asking this Australian writer about Henry James, especially as his book A Million Windows (2014) pays homage to the preface of The Portrait of a Lady. ¹ I was keen to know what Murnane thought about such an influential Victorian novelist. To my surprise, he said that James’ novels “have no landscape”. This comment, presumably meant as a criticism, seemed logical at the time, uttered as it was in the rural context where Murnane was most at home. My immediate response was to agree, since Murnane’s writing contemplates sweeping vistas that contrast sharply with James’ crowded metropolitan spheres. But the more I thought about this comment the more I came to the conclusion that James’ novels do have landscape – just not the kind of terrain that Murnane prefers.' (Introduction) -
What I’m Reading
2018
single work
column
— Appears in: Meanjin Online 2018; -
y
Grounded Visionary : The Mystic Fictions of Gerald Murnane
Oxford
:
Peter Lang
,
2019
22038132
2019
multi chapter work
criticism
'Grounded Visionary: The Mystic Fictions of Gerald Murnane is a reading of Australian writer Gerald Murnane’s fiction in the light of what is known as the Perennial Philosophy, a philosophical tradition that positions itself as the mystical foundation of all the world’s religions and spiritual systems. The essential tenet of that philosophy is that at a fundamental level all of life is a unity―consciousness and world are the same thing―and that it is possible, if extremely difficult, for the discriminating individual mind to experience this wholeness. Murnane’s work can be seen not to take its lead from writings in this philosophical tradition but rather to resonate with many of them through Murnane’s unique artistic expression of his experience of the world. The crux of the argument is that beneath their yearnings for landscapes and love, Murnane’s narrators and chief characters are all in search of the essential unity that the Perennial Philosophy postulates.
'Taking its cue from Murnane’s self-description as a "technical writer," this book examines each of the author’s works in detail to reveal how structures and themes are seamlessly woven together to create artworks that shimmer with mystery while at the same time remaining thoroughly grounded in the actual.
'Grounded Visionary is the first full-length study of Gerald Murnane’s work to tackle head-on his underlying mystical sensibility and is also the first to deal comprehensively with the author’s complete fictional output from Tamarisk Row to Border Districts. This book will be of interest to all lovers of modern literature and will be of special interest to students of Australian literature and those concerned with the interface between art and spirituality.'
Source: Publisher's blurb.
Awards
- 2016 shortlisted Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature — Award for Fiction
- 2015 shortlisted Voss Literary Prize
- 2015 shortlisted New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards — Christina Stead Prize for Fiction
