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y separately published work icon The Boys in the Island single work   novel  
Issue Details: First known date: 1958... 1958 The Boys in the Island
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'Francis Cullen, growing up in the island of Tasmania, is outwardly a very ordinary boy. But his inner life is dominated by dreams of a place he calls the Otherland: a transfigured world beyond the real one. In childhood, he glimpses it in the landscapes of his native island; and when he falls in love with a country girl, the dream is central to his feelings for her. After Heather is lost to him, Francis comes more and more under the influence of Lewie Matthews - a youth whose ambition is to become a criminal. Now the Otherland's location is seen as the mainland of Australia, where a mythical life of wildness and crime beckons. Francis, Lewie and their friends pursue this life in Melbourne - until a climax of destruction shatters the dream.'

Source: Publisher's blurb (HarperCollins 2013 ed.)

Adaptations

form y separately published work icon The Boys in the Island Tony Morphett , ( dir. Geoff Bennett ) Australia : Great Scott Productions , 1989 Z1221172 1989 single work film/TV Set in Tasmania in the 1950s and based on C. J. Koch's semi-autobiographical novel, The Boys in the Island explores the relationships of a group of young people whose chief ambition in life is to get to the Australian mainland where things are livelier. Once they get there, however, they find that things are very much livelier than they had expected, and they are soon in over their heads.

Notes

  • Epigraph from 'The Fall of Hyperion' by John Keats.
  • Study guides also available.
  • Details of the two revisions of the novel, in 1974 and 1987, can be found in the Author's Notes to these editions. The note in the 2nd. revised edition describes the effects of the revisions on the novel as 'considerable' and continues 'The shape of The Boys in the Island should now be finally clear; and this edition is the only one I wish to survive, or to be read.'
  • Dedication: For Irene

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,      :       Hamish Hamilton ,       1958 .
      image of person or book cover 3202621167201335323.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 250p.
    • Sydney, New South Wales,: Angus and Robertson , 1974 .
      image of person or book cover 5197682223438610548.png
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 151p.
      Edition info: 1st Rev. Ed.
      Reprinted: 1979
      ISBN: 0207142092, 0207130884
Notes:
Introduced by Adrian Mitchell.
    • North Ryde, Ryde - Gladesville - Hunters Hill area, Northwest Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales,: Sirius Books , 1987 .
      image of person or book cover 6249300002727205605.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: xviii, 198p.p.
      Edition info: 2nd. rev.ed.
      Written as: C. J. Koch.
      ISBN: 0207153922 pbk.
    • Sydney, New South Wales,: Angus and Robertson , 1990 .
      image of person or book cover 465480574308892761.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 198p.
      Edition info: 2nd. rev. ed.
      ISBN: 0207166153
    • Milsons Point, North Sydney - Lane Cove area, Sydney Northern Suburbs, Sydney, New South Wales,: Vintage Australia , 2000 .
      image of person or book cover 7695010737034701005.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: xvi, 198p.p.
      Edition info: 2nd. rev. ed.
      ISBN: 1740510062
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Other Formats

  • Sound recording.
  • Braille.
  • Large print.
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Related Works

VIEW ALL RELATED WORKS (2)

Works about this Work

Christopher Koch : Crossing Sea Walls Chad Habel , 2009 single work criticism
— Appears in: Something Rich and Strange : Sea Changes, Beaches and the Littoral in the Antipodes 2009; (p. 224-231) Discusses some of Koch's novels with focus on the notion of crossing boundaries and entering new spaces, where transformation of identities is possible. Using sea travel and the sea wall as a boundary which serves to prevent a crossing, the novels focus on liminal spaces, but the transformative potential of such liminal spaces is rarely fulfilled. The notion of 'crossing over' 'serves to help understand Koch's fiction as a unified body of work' (231), representing a coherent vision despite shifts in focus and emphasis.
y separately published work icon Water from the Moon : Illusion and Reality in the Works of Australian Novelist Christopher Koch Jean-François Vernay , Youngstown : Cambria Press , 2007 Z1337091 2007 multi chapter work criticism

'Author of six novels, Christopher John Koch (born in 1932) is one of Australia’s leading novelists who enjoys worldwide recognition. Koch’s writing has its finger on the pulse of today’s changing society. Not only does his work fall within a universal stream but it also stands out as a production of its own, built like a puzzle with distinct pieces. Through fiction, Koch explores other genres – the fairy tale, drama, poetry – to the point of producing multi-faceted works which challenge classification. In spite of the constant renewal of his settings for action, one notices the presence of a main thread which runs through Koch’s fiction: the antipodean and ambiguous relationship between illusion and reality.

'This theoretically informed monograph provides a book-by-book analysis of the novelist’s œuvre and gives a full picture of his Weltanschauung. It is valuable reference for scholars in Australian Studies, as well as those researching postcolonial, psychoanalytic and literary theories.

'This book is winner of the Excellence Award 2009 by the THESE-PAC jury (le prix THESE-PAC, Prix Jean-Pierre Piérard) in the South Pacific-Australasia category.'

(Publication summary)
Recolonisation and Disinheritance : The Case of Tasmania Peter Pierce , 2006 single work criticism
— Appears in: Critics and Writers Speak : Revisioning Post-Colonial Studies 2006; (p. 106-114) 'The essay discusses the appropriations of the history and landscape of Tasmania, in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and particularly by outsiders to the state, whether they are European or from the Australian mainland' (106). Pierce draws on the texts cited above, and on critical responses to these texts to demonstrate the conflicted experiences of departure from Tasmania and, in some cases, an equally unsettling return.
Les 'Bildungsromane' de Christopher Koch : de la formation a la transformation Jean-François Vernay , 2002 single work criticism
— Appears in: Correspondances Oceaniennes , October vol. 1 no. 2 2002; (p. 26-29) Investigates some of Koch's novels and characters in terms of the genre 'Bildungsroman'.
C.J. Koch's Feminine Perspective F. A. Inamdar , 1993 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Literature Today 1993; (p. 98-104)
Sour Visions of Life Revisited Veronica Sen , 1990 single work review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 10 June 1990; (p. 18)
— Review of High Valley Charmian Clift , George Johnston , 1949 single work novel ; The Boys in the Island Christopher Koch , 1958 single work novel ; Across the Sea Wall Christopher Koch , 1965 single work novel ; Play with Knives Jennifer Maiden , 1990 single work novel
[Review] To the Islands Grahame Johnston , 1959 single work review
— Appears in: Quadrant , Spring vol. 3 no. 4 1959; (p. 87,89)
— Review of To the Islands Randolph Stow , 1958 single work novel ; The Boys in the Island Christopher Koch , 1958 single work novel
A Lust for Honesty Charles Higham , 1959 single work review
— Appears in: Southerly , vol. 20 no. 2 1959; (p. 111-112)
— Review of The Boys in the Island Christopher Koch , 1958 single work novel
A New Novelist 1959 single work review
— Appears in: The Bulletin , 18 February vol. 80 no. 4123 1959; (p. 2,58)
— Review of The Boys in the Island Christopher Koch , 1958 single work novel
A Striking First Novel Alan Davies , 1959 single work review
— Appears in: Nation , 25 April 1959; (p. 20-21)
— Review of The Boys in the Island Christopher Koch , 1958 single work novel
Les 'Bildungsromane' de Christopher Koch : de la formation a la transformation Jean-François Vernay , 2002 single work criticism
— Appears in: Correspondances Oceaniennes , October vol. 1 no. 2 2002; (p. 26-29) Investigates some of Koch's novels and characters in terms of the genre 'Bildungsroman'.
y separately published work icon Water from the Moon : Illusion and Reality in the Works of Australian Novelist Christopher Koch Jean-François Vernay , Youngstown : Cambria Press , 2007 Z1337091 2007 multi chapter work criticism

'Author of six novels, Christopher John Koch (born in 1932) is one of Australia’s leading novelists who enjoys worldwide recognition. Koch’s writing has its finger on the pulse of today’s changing society. Not only does his work fall within a universal stream but it also stands out as a production of its own, built like a puzzle with distinct pieces. Through fiction, Koch explores other genres – the fairy tale, drama, poetry – to the point of producing multi-faceted works which challenge classification. In spite of the constant renewal of his settings for action, one notices the presence of a main thread which runs through Koch’s fiction: the antipodean and ambiguous relationship between illusion and reality.

'This theoretically informed monograph provides a book-by-book analysis of the novelist’s œuvre and gives a full picture of his Weltanschauung. It is valuable reference for scholars in Australian Studies, as well as those researching postcolonial, psychoanalytic and literary theories.

'This book is winner of the Excellence Award 2009 by the THESE-PAC jury (le prix THESE-PAC, Prix Jean-Pierre Piérard) in the South Pacific-Australasia category.'

(Publication summary)
Recolonisation and Disinheritance : The Case of Tasmania Peter Pierce , 2006 single work criticism
— Appears in: Critics and Writers Speak : Revisioning Post-Colonial Studies 2006; (p. 106-114) 'The essay discusses the appropriations of the history and landscape of Tasmania, in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and particularly by outsiders to the state, whether they are European or from the Australian mainland' (106). Pierce draws on the texts cited above, and on critical responses to these texts to demonstrate the conflicted experiences of departure from Tasmania and, in some cases, an equally unsettling return.
Re-Mapping the Australian Psyche : The Asian Novels of C.J. Koch John Thieme , 1987 single work criticism
— Appears in: Southerly , December vol. 47 no. 4 1987; (p. 451-461)
Christopher Koch : Crossing Sea Walls Chad Habel , 2009 single work criticism
— Appears in: Something Rich and Strange : Sea Changes, Beaches and the Littoral in the Antipodes 2009; (p. 224-231) Discusses some of Koch's novels with focus on the notion of crossing boundaries and entering new spaces, where transformation of identities is possible. Using sea travel and the sea wall as a boundary which serves to prevent a crossing, the novels focus on liminal spaces, but the transformative potential of such liminal spaces is rarely fulfilled. The notion of 'crossing over' 'serves to help understand Koch's fiction as a unified body of work' (231), representing a coherent vision despite shifts in focus and emphasis.
VIEW ALL WORKS ABOUT (39)
Last amended 24 Jul 2020 07:29:09
Subjects:
  • Tasmania,
Settings:
  • Tasmania,
  • Melbourne, Victoria,
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