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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'This is a tale of corruption stretching from street corner SP bookmaking to the most influential men in the land - and the terrible personal cost of the power such corruption brings. John West rose from a Melbourne slum to dominate Australian politics with bribery, brutality and fear. His attractive wife and their children turned away from him in horror. Friends dropped away. At the peak of his power, surrounded by bootlickers, West faced a hate-filled nation - and the terrible loneliness of his life. Was John West a real figure? For months during the post-war years, an Australian court heard evidence in a sensational libel action brought by businessman John Wren's wife. After a national uproar which rocked the very foundations of the Commonwealth, Frank Hardy was acquitted. This is the novel which provoked such intense uproar and debate across the nation. The questions it poses remain unanswered…' (Publication summary)
Adaptations
-
form
y
Power Without Glory
ABC Television
(publisher),
( dir. John Gauci
et. al. )agent
Australia
:
Paradine Productions
ABC Television
,
1976
Z1690132
1976
series - publisher
film/TV
Spanning the 1890s to the 1950s, Power Without Glory is the story of a man determined to make something of his life. Raised in a Melbourne slum area, John West later gains wealth and power, his influence extending into his business, his political ambitions, and his family life. The events of his life unfold against a backdrop of major historical events, including World War One and the beginnings of the Australian Labour Party.
Notes
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Adapted for the 1976 television mini-series Power Without Glory directed by John Gauci. Screenplay by Sonia Borg and Cliff Green
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Subtitle varies.
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Dedication: Let fiction meant to please be very near to truth. - Horace.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Braille.
- Sound recording.
Works about this Work
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Sedition as Realism : Frank Hardy's Power without Glory Parts the Iron Curtain
2016
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Australian Literature in the German Democratic Republic : Reading through the Iron Curtain 2016; (p. 93-116) -
The Trials of Robert Close
2011
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Script and Print , vol. 35 no. 4 2011; (p. 197-218) 'In October 1951, the Argus noted that Australia's censorship had "On occasion, when the more modern statutes [were] felt to be inadequate," called "antiquated laws ... into life such as the 'obscene libel' law invoked in the case of Robert Close's novel, Love Me Sailor, and the 'malicious libel' law used ... against Frank Hardy, author, of Power Without Glory'..." At the time Australia's censorship laws were regarded as being among the most narrow minded and repressive imposed by a democratic government anywhere...(Author's introduction)
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The Silver Age of Fiction
2011
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Meanjin , Summer vol. 70 no. 4 2011; (p. 110-115)‘In human reckoning, Golden Ages are always already in the past. The Greek poet Hesiod, in Works and Days, posited Five Ages of Mankind: Golden, Silver, Bronze, Heroic and Iron (Ovid made do with four). Writing in the Romantic period, Thomas Love Peacock (author of such now almost forgotten novels as Nightmare Abbey, 1818) defined The Four Ages of Poetry (1820) in which their order was Iron, Gold, Silver and Bronze. To the Golden Age, in their archaic greatness, belonged Homer and Aeschylus. The Silver Age, following it, was less original, but nevertheless 'the age of civilised life'. The main issue of Peacock's thesis was the famous response that he elicited from his friend Shelley - Defence of Poetry (1821).’ (Publication abstract)
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Staying True to Type
2011
single work
column
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 30 March 2011; (p. 13) James Cockington reports on the discovery of two slightly different 'first' editions of Frank Hardy's Power Without Glory. Both are published by The Realist Printing and Publishing Company and are dated April 1950. Publisher Rob Blackmore, who published Hardy's Who Shot George Kirkland, told Cockington that the mystery of which of the two versions came first may never be solved.
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Wren-Hardy Stoush Exposes Sectarian Bigotry
2010
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Eureka Street , 13 August vol. 20 no. 15 2010;
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Novel About Corruption More Topical than Ever
1992
single work
review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 22 February 1992; (p. C8)
— Review of The Hard Way : The Story Behind Power Without Glory 1961 single work autobiography ; Power Without Glory : A Novel in Three Parts 1950 single work novel -
Bastardry, Bastardry, Bastardry
1950
single work
review
— Appears in: Meanjin , Spring vol. 9 no. 3 1950; (p. 222-225)
— Review of Power Without Glory : A Novel in Three Parts 1950 single work novel -
Novels of Politics
1950
single work
review
— Appears in: The Bulletin , 27 September vol. 71 no. 3685 1950; (p. 2,35)
— Review of Power Without Glory : A Novel in Three Parts 1950 single work novel -
Untitled
1968
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Left Review , no. 5 1968; (p. 77-79)
— Review of Power Without Glory : A Novel in Three Parts 1950 single work novel -
Would You Believe?
1976
single work
review
— Appears in: Quadrant , December vol. 20 no. 12 1976; (p. 31-33)
— Review of Power Without Glory : A Novel in Three Parts 1950 single work novel - y Marxism and Literary History Oxford : Blackwell , 1986 Z998650 1986 single work criticism Focusing on Marxist literary theory and literary history in general, the book includes readings of texts by various international authors, among them Australian author Frank Hardy.
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Frank Hardy and Communist Cultural Institutions
2003
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Frank Hardy and the Literature of Commitment 2003; (p. 35-52) -
'These Girls Are on the Right Track' : Hardy, Devanny and Hewett
2003
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Frank Hardy and the Literature of Commitment 2003; (p. 71-87) 'Frank Hardy, Jean Devanny and Dorothy Hewett were all significantly influenced as writers by their membership of the Communist Party, and the views of art and culture dominant in or debated around the Party; expectations in particular of what the 'social realist' novel should or might be impacted upon the work of all three. This essay addresses some issues of politics, committed writing and sexual politics, with particular reference to how these were played out for writers who were communists in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s.' (p.71) - y John Wren : A Life Reconsidered Carlton North : Scribe , 2004 Z1101494 2004 single work biography James Griffin argues that John Wren was not Australia's Al Capone as portrayed in Frank Hardy's novel Power Without Glory, but the victim of Australia's culture wars. Griffin contends that Frank Hardy's research was flawed and 'fuelled by political objectives and personal ambition.'
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A Gangster Redeemed
2004
single work
criticism
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 6-7 March 2004; (p. 6-7)