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Adaptations
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Fly Away Peter
2015
single work
musical theatre
opera
'David Malouf’s novel Fly Away Peter is a contemporary classic. Elliott Gyger is an Australian composer at the height of his powers. They return to World War One in this centenary year to create a profound new contribution to Australian opera, with a libretto by SCO’s Pierce Wilcox.
'Jim Saddler is a visionary young birdwatcher thrust into the nightmare of the Western Front. Fly Away Peter travels from a land of life to a panorama of horror through Jim’s voice of delicate insight.
'This is a story of the Australian spirit that begins at peace, builds into tragedy, and ends in transcendence.' (Production summary)
Notes
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Fly Away Peter was first published in 1981 as The Bread of Time to Come, with another novella, Child's Play.The title was later changed.
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Study guides available (including video recordings).
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Adapted for the 1998 ballet 1914 presented by the Australian Ballet. Choreography by Stephen Baynes.
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Dedication: For Elizabeth Riddell.
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Epigraphs:
Man is an exception, whatever else he is. If it is not true that a divine creature fell, then we can only say that one of the animals went entirely off its head. (G. K. Chesterton)
Here is the bread of time to come,/ Here is the actual stone. The bread/ Will be out [sic] bread, the stone will be/ Our bed and we shall sleep by night./ We shall forget by day, except/ The moment when we choose to play/ The imagined pine, the imagined jay. (Wallace Stevens)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Braille.
- Sound recording. (2008, 2019)
- Large print.
Works about this Work
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A Unique and Necessary Form
2018
single work
essay
— Appears in: Westerly , November vol. 63 no. 2 2018; (p. 10-15)'Story-telling, the pleasure of sitting in close company and listening to a story, allowing oneself to float free in the moment and enter, both in the senses and in imagination, into the story's events so that the story becomes our own, must be one of the oldest and earliest of our pleasures - a function of that uniquely human faculty in us, the capacity to step beyond the actual into the possible.' (Introduction)
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'The Whole Landscape Dazzling and Shrilling' : Soundscapes of War and Peace in David Malouf's Fly Away Peter
2016
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Southerly , vol. 75 no. 3 2016; (p. 155-168) -
Levels of Life : Modernity and Modernism in David Malouf's Fly Away Peter
2016
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Queensland Review , vol. 23 no. 2 2016; (p. 258-269) 'David Malouf's novel Fly Away Peter (1982) uses modernist techniques to describe the impact of modernity on the emergent Australian nation. At its centre is the country lad Jim Saddler, who dies in the industrialised battlefield in France. His fate is entwined with that of his friend Ashley Crowther, who inherits his family's property, and whose embrace of modernity includes a determination to preserve the land and its wildlife. Ashley recognises the value of Jim's instinctive connection with the natural world, and his knowledge of, and fascination with, birds. This fascination aligns Jim with the photographer Imogen Harcourt. Miss Harcourt is a modern woman, using the new technologies of representation to record the natural world, its movement and change. At the novella's end, it is Imogen who turns her lens towards a new future, as her grief for Jim is transfigured through an epiphanic vision of a surfer riding the waves to the beach.' (Publication abstract) -
A Tale Takes Wing
2015
single work
essay
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 4-5 April 2015; (p. 12-13) -
David Malouf and the Poetics of Possibility
2014
single work
criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 14 no. 2 2014;'The essay addresses the poetic dimension of David Malouf's novels, suggesting that a poetics of possibility can be found in all his work. The poetics of possibility is a function both of Malouf’s thematic interest in the future and of his use of poetic language to draw the reader to imagine various kinds of ways of experiencing and knowing the world. The essay draws upon the philosophy of Ernst Bloch to illuminate the utopian dimension of Malouf’s work, whether in seeing the radiance of possibility in simple objects, the silent ‘presence’ at the centre of language, or the possibility of a different kind of future that Australian society might have experienced.' (Publication abstract)
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Zhan zheng zhong Sheng ming De Jiazhi - Ping Maluofu zhu, Ouyang Yu Yi De Fei qu ba, Bi de
1995
single work
review
— Appears in: Otherland , no. 1 1995; (p. 184-189)
— Review of Fly Away Peter 1982 single work novella -
Of Birds, War - and Terrorism
1982
single work
review
— Appears in: The Bulletin , 19 October vol. 102 no. 5336 1982; (p. 98-99)
— Review of Child's Play 1981 single work novella ; Fly Away Peter 1982 single work novella -
A Living Landscape
1983
single work
review
— Appears in: The CRNLE Reviews Journal , July no. 1 1983; (p. 54-58)
— Review of Child's Play 1981 single work novella ; Fly Away Peter 1982 single work novella -
Poets and Their Novels
1983
single work
review
— Appears in: Southerly , March vol. 43 no. 1 1983; (p. 113-118)
— Review of Child's Play 1981 single work novella ; Just Relations 1982 single work novel ; Slipstream 1982 single work novel ; The Birthday Gift : A Novel 1982 single work novel ; The Terms 1982 single work novel ; Fly Away Peter 1982 single work novella -
A New Insight into the Novella
1982
single work
review
— Appears in: The National Times , 12-18 September 1982; (p. 23)
— Review of Fly Away Peter 1982 single work novella -
'The Country We Might Have Been' : The Experience of War in Canadian and Australian Literature
2002
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Crabtracks : Progress and Process in Teaching the New Literatures in English : Essays in Honour of Dieter Riemenschneider 2002; (p. 283-304) -
Queensland Literature : Is It Different?
1987
single work
criticism
— Appears in: LiNQ , vol. 15 no. 3 1987; (p. 45-51) -
Vola Gigino? Translating David Malouf's Novels into Italian
2003
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Southerly , vol. 63 no. 1 2003; (p. 73-78) -
Zhan zheng zhong Sheng ming De Jiazhi - Ping Maluofu zhu, Ouyang Yu Yi De Fei qu ba, Bi de
1995
single work
review
— Appears in: Otherland , no. 1 1995; (p. 184-189)
— Review of Fly Away Peter 1982 single work novella - y David Malouf's Fly Away Peter Mentone : Insight Publications , 1998 Z1185804 1998 single work criticism young adult
Awards
- 1983 joint winner ASAL Awards — ALS Gold Medal
- 1982 winner The Age Book of the Year Award — Book of the Year
- 1982 winner The Age Book of the Year Award — Imaginative Writing Prize
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cFrance,cWestern Europe, Europe,
- Queensland,
- 1910s