AustLit
Texts
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y Robbery Under Arms 1890 Paddington St Lucia : Currency Press Australasian Drama Studies , 1985 Z549990 1890 single work drama (taught in 3 units)
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y A Woman's Friendship 1889 single work novel satire (taught in 1 units) 'The grand Melbourne Exhibition of 1888 is a most agreeable place for Margaret Clive, a journalist’s wife, and Patty Kinnaird, married to a squatter, to pursue their ‘purely intellectual friendship’ with handsome, widowed and wealthy Seaton Macdonald ... The triangular relationship changes, however, when the women are house guests at Yattock, Macdonald’s magnificent country property - and unadmitted attractions begin to surface.
'In this gentle satire of class and sexuality, Ada Cambridge opens a window on Melbourne society of the 1880s and illuminates some important issues of the day - reform of dress and diet, the ‘marriage question’, socialism and women’s suffrage.' (Publication summary)
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y My Brilliant Career [and] My Career Goes Bung North Ryde : Angus and Robertson , 1990 Z407359 1990 selected work novel (taught in 7 units)
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y His Natural Life For the Term of His Natural Life 1870-1872 Z1032375 1870-1872 single work novel (taught in 15 units)
'Scarcely out of print since the early 1870s, For the Term of His Natural Life has provided successive generations with a vivid account of a brutal phase of colonial life. The main focus of this great convict novel is the complex interaction between those in power and those who suffer, made meaningful because of its hero's struggle against his wrongful imprisonment. Elements of romance, incidents of family life and passages of scenic description both relieve and give emphasis to the tragedy that forms its heart.' (Publication summary : Penguin Books 2009)
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y My Brilliant Career Edinburgh London : William Blackwood , 1901 Z161522 1901 single work novel (taught in 56 units)
'My Brilliant Career was written by Stella Franklin (1879-1954) when she was just nineteen years old. The novel struggled to find an Australian publisher, but was published in London and Edinburgh in 1901 after receiving an endorsement from Henry Lawson. Although Franklin wrote under the pseudonym 'Miles Franklin', Lawson’s preface makes it clear that Franklin is, as Lawson puts it 'a girl.'
'The novel relates the story of Sybylla Melvyn, a strong-willed young woman of the 1890s growing up in the Goulburn area of New South Wales and longing to be a writer.' (Publication summary)