AustLit
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Contents
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The Georges' Wife,
single work
novel
'Vera and Mr George have made a new life together but Vera's thoughts return again and again to loves and lovers, meetings and partings - the voices that echo in the mind like music. What has she learned from the well-bred peace of the Georges' household; the decadence and disorder of her friendship with Noel and Felicity: the fun and vulgarity shared with her 'widow' on the long voyage to Australia? Must we always repeat the past?'
Source: Publisher's blurb.
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Cabin Fever,
single work
novel
'Vera has cabin fever. Confined with her thoughts in the concrete tower of a New York hotel, she is haunted by her mother's reminders of what she should have been, and the desperate choices she faced as an unprotected single mother.'
Source: Publisher's blurb (Modern Classics ed.).
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My Father's Moon,
single work
novel
'Vera is young, awkward and naive. As a schoolgirl, she has her sheltered idealism, her Quaker boarding-school education, and the warm, enveloping sense of security of her parents. As a student nurse during the war, her transition into womanhood is rapid, painful and disastrous. And as an unmarried mother she flees from the nagging tension of her home and the hospital gossip to Fairfields, a place of poetry, music and of people with interesting lives and ideas. Quickly she learns it is otherwise. Yet, for Vera, there is always the moon — her companion, comforter, and the unbreakable link with her father...' (Publisher's blurb, 2008 Penguin publication.)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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Writing Secrets : Vera'a Violin Case
2012
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Hecate , vol. 38 no. 1 & 2 2012; (p. 194-206) 'This essay is about Elizabeth Jolley's Vera trilogy : the novels My Father's Moon, Cabin Fever, and The Georges' Wife. These novels, seen as the most autobiographical of Jolley's works, were published in 1989, 1990, and 1993 respectively, but they were written, at least in part in early draft, much earlier. Jolley's unusual publishing trajectory means that her work did not appear in the order of its writing, and there remains a lack of clarity as to what that order actually is. Further, she drafted and re-drafted her writing, with phrases, scenes, motifs, images, events, and characters or character-types appearing and re-appearing across various works, of different forms and genres...' (From author's introduction, 194) -
Untitled
2010
single work
review
— Appears in: Library Journal , 1 February vol. 135 no. 2 2010; (p. 57)
— Review of The Vera Wright Trilogy 2010 selected work novel -
Elizabeth Jolley : A Cross-Cultural Life in Writing
2010
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Australian Studies , vol. 2 no. 2010;'Elizabeth Jolley is one of Australia's most significant writers: she published some two dozen books of fiction, essays and radio dramas, won every major Australian literary award, received four honorary doctorates, was awarded the Order of Australia for service to Australian Literature in 1988, and was named an Australian 'National Living Treasure' in 1997.
Her career has its roots in the UK, the place of her birth, schooling and early marriage. In 1959 she travelled with her three children and her husband to Perth, Western Australia, where Leonard Jolley took up a position as foundation Librarian of the University of Western Australia. She brought with her a trunk full of unpublished/rejected manuscripts which provided the initial materials from which she developed her published fictions and essays in Australia.
This article explores the institutional frameworks in Australia which enabled Jolley - a constant writer from childhood - to develop, in David Carter's phrase, 'a career in writing' from the mid-1970s onwards. It argues that Jolley rewrote her foundation manuscripts (written in another country) both to imagine Australian lives and to conform to Australian publishers' requirements. In doing so, it traces how the fiction and essays translate the experience of migration/exile, often thematised through the recurrent image of being 'on the edge,' into the particular and powerful ethic of love that informs Jolley's writing.' (Author's abstract)
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The Englishness Problem: Two Anecdotes and A Review
2002
single work
essay
— Appears in: Timepieces 2002; (p. 147-158) -
Elizabeth Jolley's Trilogy `My Father's Moon', `Cabin Fever', `The Georges Wife' : The Fiction of Pain
1994
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Bio-Fictions : Brian Matthews, Drusilla Modjeska and Elizabeth Jolley 1994; (p. 36-54)
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Untitled
2010
single work
review
— Appears in: Library Journal , 1 February vol. 135 no. 2 2010; (p. 57)
— Review of The Vera Wright Trilogy 2010 selected work novel -
Elizabeth Jolley : A Cross-Cultural Life in Writing
2010
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Australian Studies , vol. 2 no. 2010;'Elizabeth Jolley is one of Australia's most significant writers: she published some two dozen books of fiction, essays and radio dramas, won every major Australian literary award, received four honorary doctorates, was awarded the Order of Australia for service to Australian Literature in 1988, and was named an Australian 'National Living Treasure' in 1997.
Her career has its roots in the UK, the place of her birth, schooling and early marriage. In 1959 she travelled with her three children and her husband to Perth, Western Australia, where Leonard Jolley took up a position as foundation Librarian of the University of Western Australia. She brought with her a trunk full of unpublished/rejected manuscripts which provided the initial materials from which she developed her published fictions and essays in Australia.
This article explores the institutional frameworks in Australia which enabled Jolley - a constant writer from childhood - to develop, in David Carter's phrase, 'a career in writing' from the mid-1970s onwards. It argues that Jolley rewrote her foundation manuscripts (written in another country) both to imagine Australian lives and to conform to Australian publishers' requirements. In doing so, it traces how the fiction and essays translate the experience of migration/exile, often thematised through the recurrent image of being 'on the edge,' into the particular and powerful ethic of love that informs Jolley's writing.' (Author's abstract)
-
Elizabeth Jolley's Trilogy `My Father's Moon', `Cabin Fever', `The Georges Wife' : The Fiction of Pain
1994
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Bio-Fictions : Brian Matthews, Drusilla Modjeska and Elizabeth Jolley 1994; (p. 36-54) -
The Englishness Problem: Two Anecdotes and A Review
2002
single work
essay
— Appears in: Timepieces 2002; (p. 147-158) -
Writing Secrets : Vera'a Violin Case
2012
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Hecate , vol. 38 no. 1 & 2 2012; (p. 194-206) 'This essay is about Elizabeth Jolley's Vera trilogy : the novels My Father's Moon, Cabin Fever, and The Georges' Wife. These novels, seen as the most autobiographical of Jolley's works, were published in 1989, 1990, and 1993 respectively, but they were written, at least in part in early draft, much earlier. Jolley's unusual publishing trajectory means that her work did not appear in the order of its writing, and there remains a lack of clarity as to what that order actually is. Further, she drafted and re-drafted her writing, with phrases, scenes, motifs, images, events, and characters or character-types appearing and re-appearing across various works, of different forms and genres...' (From author's introduction, 194)
