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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'Behind the respectable facade of turn-of-the-century Melbourne lies another, darker city—one of obsession, derangement, dissipation and crime. This is the world that has driven Albert Walters to the brink of madness, that haunts his abused wife Anna and infects the lives of their children, Paul and Ondine. Led astray by a mysterious charlatan, Paul's artistic ambition conflicts not only with society but with a sister who finds her reflection distorted in the decadence that surrounds her. Spurred on by a shocking murder and fuelled by the absurdities of war and nationhood, Paul is drawn into the darkness that inspires him, while Ondine takes dubious refuge in the light'. Source: bookseller's website.
Notes
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Dedication: For Rosa
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Epigraph: The white body of the evening/Is torn into scarlet,/Slashed and gouged and seared/Into crimson,/And hung ironically/With garlands of mist. - From 'Sunsets' by Richard Aldington (1892-1962)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Also sound recording and e-book.
Works about this Work
-
Shirley Hazzard’s Australia : Belated Reading and Cultural Mobility
2010
single work
criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , Special Issue 2010; This essay examines Shirley Hazzard’s representation of and reception in Australia by returning to her 1984 Boyer Lectures, arguing that from the perspective of twenty-five years hindsight, they provide a useful contribution to recent conversations about the critical location of Australian literary culture in international contexts, including in particular, the cosmopolitan. In attending to the operations of time and space in Hazzard’s account of her contemporary world, this ‘delayed’ reading of the lectures provides for a more complex understanding of her significance in the contemporary field of Australian literary studies, arguing that in its striking presentation of Cold War locations and events, Hazzard’s work stages a decided move away from the specifically colonial frames that organise Australian cosmopolitanism, and that in this, her work generates a distinctive form of cosmopolitan cultural mobility, and as a consequence a distinctive perspective on Australia. (Author's abstract) -
Subtopia or Sunnyside?
2006
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Meanjin , vol. 65 no. 2 2006; (p. 174-180) Editor's note: Rodney Wetherell considers the treatment of Melbourne and its suburbs in some recent novels. -
Interview With Dr Andrew McCann
Masaya Shimokusu
(interviewer),
2005
single work
interview
— Appears in: Multiculturalized 21st-Century Cities and Ethnicity: A Comparative Study of Cities in Australia and Japan-Sydney, Melbourne and Hamamatsu 2005; (p. 47-63) The interview explores the author's purpose in depicting the relationship of psychological and psycho-sexual drives within institiutions of middle-class German and Austrian society in a context of early twentieth century Australia. -
Cosmopolitan Australians and Colonial Modernity : Alex Miller's Conditions of Faith, Gail Jones's Black Mirror and A.L. McCann's The White Body of Evening
2004
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Westerly , November vol. 49 no. 2004; (p. 122-137) Robert Dixon says 'In this paper I want to test the proposition that there is a new generation of "cosmopolitan Australians"'. -
Gothic Melbourne : The White Body of Evening
2002
single work
essay
— Appears in: Arts Alumni News , December 2002; (p. 4)
-
Darker Side of Bleak City
2002
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 27-28 July 2002; (p. 6)
— Review of The White Body of Evening 2002 single work novel -
Two Debut on the Dark Side
2002
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sunday Age , 25 August 2002; (p. 98)
— Review of The White Body of Evening 2002 single work novel ; Borrowed Eyes 2002 single work novel -
Art Roughly Recorded
2002
single work
review
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 3 August 2002; (p. 5)
— Review of The White Body of Evening 2002 single work novel -
Paperbacks
2002
single work
review
— Appears in: Canberra Sunday Times , 8 September 2002; (p. 22)
— Review of Jazz Tango 2002 single work novel ; The White Body of Evening 2002 single work novel ; Attempts to Draw Jesus 2002 single work novel -
Malodorous Melbourne
2002
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , November no. 246 2002; (p. 57)
— Review of The White Body of Evening 2002 single work novel -
Gothic Melbourne : The White Body of Evening
2002
single work
essay
— Appears in: Arts Alumni News , December 2002; (p. 4) -
Cosmopolitan Australians and Colonial Modernity : Alex Miller's Conditions of Faith, Gail Jones's Black Mirror and A.L. McCann's The White Body of Evening
2004
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Westerly , November vol. 49 no. 2004; (p. 122-137) Robert Dixon says 'In this paper I want to test the proposition that there is a new generation of "cosmopolitan Australians"'. -
Interview With Dr Andrew McCann
Masaya Shimokusu
(interviewer),
2005
single work
interview
— Appears in: Multiculturalized 21st-Century Cities and Ethnicity: A Comparative Study of Cities in Australia and Japan-Sydney, Melbourne and Hamamatsu 2005; (p. 47-63) The interview explores the author's purpose in depicting the relationship of psychological and psycho-sexual drives within institiutions of middle-class German and Austrian society in a context of early twentieth century Australia. -
Subtopia or Sunnyside?
2006
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Meanjin , vol. 65 no. 2 2006; (p. 174-180) Editor's note: Rodney Wetherell considers the treatment of Melbourne and its suburbs in some recent novels. -
Shirley Hazzard’s Australia : Belated Reading and Cultural Mobility
2010
single work
criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , Special Issue 2010; This essay examines Shirley Hazzard’s representation of and reception in Australia by returning to her 1984 Boyer Lectures, arguing that from the perspective of twenty-five years hindsight, they provide a useful contribution to recent conversations about the critical location of Australian literary culture in international contexts, including in particular, the cosmopolitan. In attending to the operations of time and space in Hazzard’s account of her contemporary world, this ‘delayed’ reading of the lectures provides for a more complex understanding of her significance in the contemporary field of Australian literary studies, arguing that in its striking presentation of Cold War locations and events, Hazzard’s work stages a decided move away from the specifically colonial frames that organise Australian cosmopolitanism, and that in this, her work generates a distinctive form of cosmopolitan cultural mobility, and as a consequence a distinctive perspective on Australia. (Author's abstract)
Awards
- 2002 winner Aurealis Awards for Excellence in Australian Speculative Fiction — Horror Division — Best Novel
Last amended 4 Sep 2015 11:28:25
Settings:
- Melbourne, Victoria,
- Europe,
- ca. 1890-1920
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