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'The Professor is married to Hazel, a diligent and generous (but rather plain) woman. She is so close to her twin, Chloe, that both women live under one roof with the Professor.
'Back from an overseas trip come their daughters — triplets — ready to celebrate their twenty-first birthday. Family life in the otherwise peaceful house swells to a chaotic crescendo on the evening of the party, as the Professor feels the tender sting of his wife's accommodating ways.'
Source: Publisher's blurb (Modern Classics ed.).
Notes
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Epigraphs: Blame no one. Blame, if you must, the human situation. (W. H. Auden); The unexamined life is not worth living (Socrates)
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Author's note: An earlier version of the text pp. 38-79 was first published as 'An Intellectual Father' in the New Yorker 29 July 1996.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Braille and sound recording.
- Large print.
Works about this Work
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Elizabeth Jolley's Late Work
2009
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Australian Literary Studies , vol. 24 no. 1 2009; (p. 121-133)The article looks at the last four novels by Jolley which were 'somewhat neglected by scholars'. Taken as a body of 'late work' with some evidence of 'late style' (Edward Said), 'might give them a more acknowledged place in a critical history of Jolley's writing' (122).
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Acts of Noticing : A Consideration of Some Recent Australian Fiction
2000
single work
review
— Appears in: Westerly , November vol. 45 no. 2000; (p. 23-36)
— Review of The Red Heart 1999 selected work essay autobiography ; Untold Tales 1999 selected work short story ; Dream Stuff 2000 selected work short story ; Blue : A Novel 1999 single work novel ; Freedom Highway 1999 single work novel ; The Chelsea Manifesto : A Novel 1999 single work novel ; Painted Words 1999 anthology short story poetry ; Liv : A Novel 2000 single work novel ; Hidden from View 1999 single work novel ; Benang : From the Heart 1999 single work novel ; Drylands : A Book for the World's Last Reader 1999 single work novel ; An Accommodating Spouse 1999 single work novel ; Neap Tide 1999 single work novel ; Isobel on the Way to the Corner Shop 1999 single work novel ; Poe's Cat 1999 single work novel ; Playing Madame Mao 2000 single work novel ; The Hunter 1999 single work novel ; The Australian Fiance 2000 single work novel -
Untitled
1999
single work
review
— Appears in: Redoubt , no. 28 1999; (p. 142-143)
— Review of An Accommodating Spouse 1999 single work novel -
Life's Anvil
1999
single work
review
— Appears in: The Australian's Review of Books , October vol. 4 no. 9 1999; (p. 18-19)
— Review of An Accommodating Spouse 1999 single work novel -
Lust and Marriage
1999
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 16-17 October 1999; (p. 15)
— Review of An Accommodating Spouse 1999 single work novel
-
If He Were a Carpenter...a Sneaky Sort of Hit
1999
single work
review
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 25 September 1999; (p. 7)
— Review of An Accommodating Spouse 1999 single work novel -
An Unorthodox Coupling
1999
single work
review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 2 October 1999; (p. 23)
— Review of An Accommodating Spouse 1999 single work novel -
Double-Dipping Doppelgangers
1999
single work
review
— Appears in: The Bulletin , 12 October vol. 117 no. 6195 1999; (p. 110)
— Review of An Accommodating Spouse 1999 single work novel -
Exhilarating Romp
1999
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , October no. 215 1999; (p. 29-30)
— Review of An Accommodating Spouse 1999 single work novel -
A Gaze Fixed Within
1999
single work
review
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 9 October 1999; (p. 19)
— Review of An Accommodating Spouse 1999 single work novel -
Elizabeth Jolley's Late Work
2009
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Australian Literary Studies , vol. 24 no. 1 2009; (p. 121-133)The article looks at the last four novels by Jolley which were 'somewhat neglected by scholars'. Taken as a body of 'late work' with some evidence of 'late style' (Edward Said), 'might give them a more acknowledged place in a critical history of Jolley's writing' (122).