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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'Upon a remote Pacific island, deserted and bombed, a nun and a soldier, derelicts of the war, live an uneasy primitive life. Realising that there is little chance of rescue, this incongruous pair face up to the exigencies of their position; Allison, a man of little or no religious belief, gradually losing the awe with which he has been invested by Sister Angela's sacred habit and by the transcendent faith which for a time obscures her feminine desirability.
At first living is reasonably simple: but the landing of a Japanese garrison obliges them to take to fox-holes, from which emerging only at night they subsist on roots and fish. This powerful first novel tells a moving, realistic story with sympathy and insight and advances logically to a dramatic conclusion.' (Publisher's blurb on front cover).
Adaptations
-
form
y
Heaven Knows, Mr Allison
( dir. John Huston
)
United States of America (USA)
:
20th Century Fox
,
1957
6734765
1957
single work
film/TV
war literature
Adaptation of Charles Shaw's novel about a marine and a nun trapped on a Japanese-occupied Pacific island during World War II.
Notes
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Epigraph: With an anvil-ding And with fire in him forge thy will Or rather, rather then, stealing as Spring Through him, melt him but master him still: -The Wreck of the Deutschland, Part 1. Gerard Manley Hopkins.
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The Consolidated Press, all other Australian and twenty London publishers had previously rejected the novel. In 1950 the literary agent, Paul Reynolds, visited Australia and read it. He wrote:'The writing was not distinguished, the characterization was skin-deep, but the novel was based on an original idea and possessed the pace and movement that kept one reading.' Reynolds convinced Frank Packer to publish it. Packer took a 20% interest in world rights including American rights, translation rights and motion picture rights. This provided Packer with a profit of over $US9,000 on his 20% and another $2,000 for the local Australian publication. (Paul R. Reynolds The Middle Man: The Adventures of a Literary Agent (1971):155-156).
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
-
Untitled
1953
single work
review
— Appears in: Meanjin , Spring vol. 12 no. 3 1953; (p. 343-346)
— Review of Heaven Knows, Mister Allison : A Novel 1952 single work novel ; Betrayed Spring : A Novel of the British Way 1953 single work novel ; God's Own Country 1953 single work novel ; Flow River, Blow Wind 1953 single work novel ; Tossed and Blown : The Story of a Rolling Stone 1953 single work novel ; The Desert in the Heart 1952 single work novel -
Island Story
1952
single work
review
— Appears in: The Bulletin , 14 May vol. 73 no. 3770 1952; (p. 2)
— Review of Heaven Knows, Mister Allison : A Novel 1952 single work novel
-
Untitled
1953
single work
review
— Appears in: Meanjin , Spring vol. 12 no. 3 1953; (p. 343-346)
— Review of Heaven Knows, Mister Allison : A Novel 1952 single work novel ; Betrayed Spring : A Novel of the British Way 1953 single work novel ; God's Own Country 1953 single work novel ; Flow River, Blow Wind 1953 single work novel ; Tossed and Blown : The Story of a Rolling Stone 1953 single work novel ; The Desert in the Heart 1952 single work novel -
Island Story
1952
single work
review
— Appears in: The Bulletin , 14 May vol. 73 no. 3770 1952; (p. 2)
— Review of Heaven Knows, Mister Allison : A Novel 1952 single work novel
