AustLit
Latest Issues
Includes
- y Joe Wilson's Mates: 56 Stories from the Prose Works of Henry Lawson. Hawthorn : Lloyd O'Neil , 1970 Z1216508 1970 selected work short story Hawthorn : Lloyd O'Neil , 1970
- y Joe Wilson's Mates: 56 Stories from the Prose Works of Henry Lawson. Hawthorn : Lloyd O'Neil , 1970 Z1216508 1970 selected work short story Windsor : Budget Books , 1979
- y Alan Marshall : His Best Stories Windsor : Lloyd O'Neil , 1980 Z836200 1980 selected work short story Windsor : Lloyd O'Neil , 1980
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y
Such Is Life : Being Certain Extracts from the Diary of Tom Collins
1897
8613167
1897
single work
novel
(taught in 2 units)
Such is Life: Being Certain Extracts from the Diary of Tom Collins. Joseph Furphy's title gives an indication of the complexity of the narrative that will unravel before a persistent reader. In chapter one, the narrator, Tom Collins, joins a group of bullockies to camp for the night a few miles from Runnymede Station. Their conversations reveal many of the issues that arise throughout the rest of the novel: the ownership of, or control of access to, pasture; ideas of providence, fate and superstition; and a concern for federation that flows into descriptions of the coming Australian in later chapters. Each of the characters provides a portrait of bush types that Furphy uses to measure the qualities of squatters and others against popular ideas of the 'gentleman'. Furphy's choice of a narrative structure to create a 'loosely federated' series of yarns is itself a critique of popular narratives populated by stock characters who are driven by action that leads to predictable and uncomplicated conclusions. Tom Collins, the unreliable narrator, adds further complications by claiming to 'read men like signboards' while all the time being unknowingly contradicted by circumstances that become obvious to the reader.
In each subsequent chapter Tom Collins leads the reader through a series of experiences chosen from his diaries. In chapter two, Collins meets the boundary rider Rory O'Halloran and his daughter, Mary, a symbol of the coming Australian whose devotion to her father will have tragic consequences in chapter five. There are many links between chapters like this one that remain invisible to Collins, despite his attempts to understand the 'controlling alternatives' that affect our lives. In chapter three Tom loses his clothes crossing the Murray River and spends the night wandering naked until he is able to steal a pair of pants after diverting attention by setting fire to a haystack. In chapter four Collins helps an ailing Warrigal Alf by deceiving several boundary riders who have impounded Alf's bullocks. In chapter five, among other yarns of lost children, Thompson completes the tragic tale of Mary O'Halloran, connecting with the events of chapter two. Chapters six and seven take Tom Collins back to Runnymede Station where he attempts to avoid an unwelcome union with Maud Beaudesart. He also meets the disfigured boundary rider, Nosey Alf, whose life story Furphy has threaded throughout the narrative, signs not perceived by Tom Collins. When Collins returns to Runnymede at the end of the novel, Furphy ties up more loose narrative threads, but Tom Collins, the narrator, remains oblivious to the end.
In short, Such Is Life 'reflects the preoccupations of [the 1890s]: contemporary capitalism, ardent Australian nationalism, the difficulties of pioneering pastoralism, and speculation about a future Australian civilization. It was instantly seen as a major example of the "radical nationalism" of the time and praised for its realistic representation of life on the frontier in the 1880s. But it was forty years before many readers realized that the novel was also a subtle comment on fiction itself and that within it were hidden stories that revealed a world of "romance" within its "realist" representation of life. Such Is Life can be read as the first experimental novel in Australian literature and the first Australian literary expression of a twentieth-century sensibility of the provisionality of life and reality.' (Julian Croft, 'Joseph Furphy.' in Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 230.)
South Yarra : Currey O'Neil , 1981 - y The Poetical Works of Henry Kendall South Yarra : Currey O'Neil , 1981 Z1186410 1981 selected work poetry South Yarra : Currey O'Neil , 1981
- y The Recollections of Geoffry Hamlyn Cambridge : Macmillan , 1859 Z840443 1859 single work novel South Yarra : Currey O'Neil , 1981
- y The Confessions of a Beachcomber : Scenes and Incidents in the Career of an Unprofessional Beachcomber in Tropical Queensland London : T. Fisher Unwin , 1908 Z197219 1908 selected work essay South Yarra : Currey O'Neil , 1981
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y
Robbery Under Arms : A Story of Life and Adventure in the Bush and in the Goldfields of Australia
1882-1883
Z1039336
1882
single work
novel
Dick Marston narrates the events of his and his brother Jim's association with notorious bushranger Captain Starlight.
South Yarra : Currey O'Neil , 1981 - y Vision Splendid London : Cassell , 1954 Z388096 1954 single work novel historical fiction South Yarra : Currey O'Neil , 1981
- y Ralph Rashleigh, or, The Life of an Exile London : Jonathan Cape , 1929 Z869379 1929 single work novel South Yarra : Currey O'Neil , 1981
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y
Alien Son
Sydney
:
Angus and Robertson
,
1952
Z53291
1952
selected work
short story
autobiography
(taught in 2 units)
'Alien Son, in simple yet rich language, is the story of a Russian family settling in Australia in the years before the first World War. Waten tells of life in his home, among the family's Jewish friends, among his new Australian playmates, on his father's bottle-o rounds - of their hopes, despairs, the comedies and tragedies - all told with the warmth, understanding, and sometimes lack of understanding, that is felt by a child finding himself between the two worlds. His attempts to reconcile the demands of these two worlds rarely meet with success; often they end in situations that are at once poignantly sad and humorous.'
Source: Publisher's blurb (Australian Classics ed.).
South Yarra : Currey O'Neil , 1981 - y How M'Dougall Topped the Score and Other Verses and Sketches Sydney : N.S.W. Bookstall Company , 1906 Z292314 1906 selected work poetry short story humour South Yarra : Currey O'Neil , 1981
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y
We Were the Rats
Sydney
:
Angus and Robertson
,
1944
Z207775
1944
single work
novel
war literature
'A novel recounting the lives of some of the troops who ended up caught in Tobruk, surrounded by the German army for some 242 days, from the time before they enlisted through to the eventual departure of the ones who survived. This is not a book on military history at all, but rather a story about soldiers' lives.' (Publication summary)
South Yarra : Currey O'Neil , 1982 - y Alan Marshall : His Best Stories Windsor : Lloyd O'Neil , 1980 Z836200 1980 selected work short story South Yarra : Lloyd O'Neil , 1982
- y Moleskin Midas London : Cassell , 1956 Z388198 1956 single work novel historical fiction South Yarra : Currey O'Neil , 1982
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y
The Mystery of a Hansom Cab
Melbourne
:
Kemp and Boyce
,
1886
Z156928
1886
single work
novel
(taught in 8 units)
'Set in the charming and deadly streets of Melbourne, this vivid and brilliantly plotted murder thriller tells the story of a crime committed by an unknown assassin. With its panoramic depiction of a bustling yet uneasy city, Hansom Cab has a central place in Australian literary history and, more importantly, it remains highly readable. ' (Publication summary)
South Yarra : Currey O'Neil , 1982 - y Green Mountains Brisbane : W. R. Smith and Paterson , 1940 Z157711 1940 single work autobiography South Yarra : Currey O'Neil , 1983
-
y
Such Is Life : Being Certain Extracts from the Diary of Tom Collins
1897
8613167
1897
single work
novel
(taught in 2 units)
Such is Life: Being Certain Extracts from the Diary of Tom Collins. Joseph Furphy's title gives an indication of the complexity of the narrative that will unravel before a persistent reader. In chapter one, the narrator, Tom Collins, joins a group of bullockies to camp for the night a few miles from Runnymede Station. Their conversations reveal many of the issues that arise throughout the rest of the novel: the ownership of, or control of access to, pasture; ideas of providence, fate and superstition; and a concern for federation that flows into descriptions of the coming Australian in later chapters. Each of the characters provides a portrait of bush types that Furphy uses to measure the qualities of squatters and others against popular ideas of the 'gentleman'. Furphy's choice of a narrative structure to create a 'loosely federated' series of yarns is itself a critique of popular narratives populated by stock characters who are driven by action that leads to predictable and uncomplicated conclusions. Tom Collins, the unreliable narrator, adds further complications by claiming to 'read men like signboards' while all the time being unknowingly contradicted by circumstances that become obvious to the reader.
In each subsequent chapter Tom Collins leads the reader through a series of experiences chosen from his diaries. In chapter two, Collins meets the boundary rider Rory O'Halloran and his daughter, Mary, a symbol of the coming Australian whose devotion to her father will have tragic consequences in chapter five. There are many links between chapters like this one that remain invisible to Collins, despite his attempts to understand the 'controlling alternatives' that affect our lives. In chapter three Tom loses his clothes crossing the Murray River and spends the night wandering naked until he is able to steal a pair of pants after diverting attention by setting fire to a haystack. In chapter four Collins helps an ailing Warrigal Alf by deceiving several boundary riders who have impounded Alf's bullocks. In chapter five, among other yarns of lost children, Thompson completes the tragic tale of Mary O'Halloran, connecting with the events of chapter two. Chapters six and seven take Tom Collins back to Runnymede Station where he attempts to avoid an unwelcome union with Maud Beaudesart. He also meets the disfigured boundary rider, Nosey Alf, whose life story Furphy has threaded throughout the narrative, signs not perceived by Tom Collins. When Collins returns to Runnymede at the end of the novel, Furphy ties up more loose narrative threads, but Tom Collins, the narrator, remains oblivious to the end.
In short, Such Is Life 'reflects the preoccupations of [the 1890s]: contemporary capitalism, ardent Australian nationalism, the difficulties of pioneering pastoralism, and speculation about a future Australian civilization. It was instantly seen as a major example of the "radical nationalism" of the time and praised for its realistic representation of life on the frontier in the 1880s. But it was forty years before many readers realized that the novel was also a subtle comment on fiction itself and that within it were hidden stories that revealed a world of "romance" within its "realist" representation of life. Such Is Life can be read as the first experimental novel in Australian literature and the first Australian literary expression of a twentieth-century sensibility of the provisionality of life and reality.' (Julian Croft, 'Joseph Furphy.' in Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 230.)
South Yarra : Currey O'Neil , 1984