AustLit

In England during the early 1800s, Oscar, a young but good-hearted misfit, believes that God has given him a sign to leave his father and his faith and join the Church of England while Lucinda, a teenaged Australian heiress, has a strong desire to liberate her sex from the confines of male-dominated culture. She buys a glass factory, and dreams of building a church made almost entirely of glass and then transporting it to the Australian outback. Oscar and Lucinda meet on a ship going to Australia; once there, they are each ostracised from society for different reasons, and join forces. Since both are passionate gamblers, Lucinda bets Oscar her entire inheritance that he cannot transport the glass church to the outback safely. Oscar accepts her wager, and this leads to the events that change both their lives forever.

Adapted from the play Uncle Vanya by Anton Chekhov, Country Life is set in Australia ca. 1919. Alexander Voysey, who has been living abroad for twenty-two years, returns with his new and much younger wife Deborah to the estate in the country where his daughter Sally and brother-in-law Uncle Jack live. Another character is Dr Max Askey. A free-thinker and something of a playboy, his ideas clash with the conservative town folks. Deborah's popularity with the local men quickly becomes apparent. Although she and Max develop a passion for each other nothing eventuates. Sally, meanwhile secretly desires the older doctor, but her feelings are unrequited. Alexander eventually decides to sell the estate but is foiled by Jack, who by then realises that his brother-in-law is a fake. Alexander and his wife are subsequently forced to leave in search of greener pastures.

Country Life draws parallels between its Russian model and the Australian setting, with most of Chekhov's original story intact.