AustLit
Latest Issues
Notes
-
Rigby's Romance and The Buln Buln and the Brolga are each based on a single chapter from the original draft of Such is Life.
Contents
-
The Buln-Buln and the Brolga,
single work
novella
The Buln-buln and the Brolga is a long story that is a revised and expanded version of the second chapter of the original Such is Life. The action takes place in the township of Echuca where the narrator, Tom Collins, is waiting to meet a representative of the firm for which he works. While waiting for his associate to arrive, Collins meets a childhood friend, Fred Falkland-Pritchard, the titular buln-buln or lyrebird, so-called because of his reputation for lying. Tom also meets Barefooted Bob, the titular brolga. The three spend an evening together with Fred's wife, and the two swap yarns. Fred's yarns get taller and taller, but Bob accepts them as the truth, as Fred's wife has done throughout their marriage. Bob tells stories of violent encounters with Aboriginal people on the frontier, delivered with a bluntness that intrigues Mrs Falkland-Pritchard. The story can stand on its own as a study of an individual's perception of reality, specifically the fiction of reality or the reality of fiction. But it retains intriguing links to its original version in the typescript, made even more so by Furphy's methods of transferring sections of text during revision.
- Rigby and the Authoress, extract novella (p. 106-124)
- Dad's Artillery, single work short story (p. 127-129)
- High Art, single work short story humour (p. 130-138)
- The Jeweller's Shop, single work short story (p. 139-146)
- The Haunted Tunnel, single work short story (p. 147-152)
- A Spec that Failed, single work short story (p. 153-158)
- Providence and a Cattle Pup, single work short story (p. 159-160)
- My Uncle's Treasure My Uncle's Fortune : A Tale of Loot, single work short story humour (p. 163-173)
- James Thorpe, Junior, single work short story (p. 174-178)
- A Vignette of Port Phillip, single work short story (p. 179-191)
- Worse than a Crime, single work short story (p. 192-196)
- The Discovery of Christmas Reef, single work short story (p. 197-218)
- Four Half-Crowns, single work short story (p. 219-225)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
-
New Issues, Old Issues : The Australian Tradition Revisited
2003
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Overland , Autumn no. 170 2003; (p. 49-56)McLaren discusses a number of Australian novels (all recently re-issued) which have been central to developing the way in which Australians and foreigners think about white society in this continent. He distinguishes several trends and traditions in describing and characterising Australia's social and political system. Whereas Clarke and Richardson present Australia as a prison, Palmer and Waten present it as a land offering the promise of freedom. Furphy, on the other hand, is seen as a writer 'who shows us a country seeming to offer plentitude but finally withholding its promise' (54).
McLaren concludes that the 'past expressed in these fictions variously produced values of solidarity, egalitarianism, harmony with the land, but their values remain circumscribed by fear of the powerless and the dispossessed, by the arrogance of the powerful, and by distrust of the outsider. Our future will be secure only as we accept continuity with the past, enter into dialogue with the differences of the present, and accept a common responsibility towards the land that supports us' (56).
-
Time Honoured
2002
single work
review
— Appears in: The Bulletin , 7 May vol. 120 no. 6323 2002; (p. 73)
— Review of The Buln-Buln and the Brolga and Other Stories 1971 selected work novella short story ; Joseph Furphy : The Legend of a Man and His Book 1944 single work criticism -
Disquisitional Joe
2002
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , April no. 240 2002; (p. 45-47)
— Review of Joseph Furphy : The Legend of a Man and His Book 1944 single work criticism ; The Buln-Buln and the Brolga and Other Stories 1971 selected work novella short story -
The Buln-Buln and the Brolga
2002
single work
review
— Appears in: The Age , 16 February 2002; (p. 8)
— Review of The Buln-Buln and the Brolga and Other Stories 1971 selected work novella short story -
y
'Touches of Nature that Make the Whole World Kin' : Furphy, Race and Anxiety
Z845816
2000
single work
criticism
'What appealed to generations of readers in Furphy can trouble a late twentieth-century reader: its call to nationhood, to one (white and assimilationist) nation; its lack of self-consciousness about what that meant in terms of dispossession of the pre-existing indigenous cultures; its heroicising of the bushman and worker, and its excoriation of the (absentee) capitalist landlord and squatter. This caricature of the rich texture of the novels, in fact, says more about the uses to which Such is Life in particular has been put by nationalist critics than about the novel itself which has retained its canonical status notwithstanding generations of critical misreadings (see Hadgraft) and neglect even by professional readers in Australian literature. This paper analyses one of these areas of contention: Furphy's stand on race, where the narratives locate themselves in the race debates (in particular monogenism and polygenism) and the realities of late nineteenth-century Aboriginal/European relations in Victoria.' (Opening paragraph)
-
Furphy Again
1949
single work
review
— Appears in: The Bulletin , 26 January vol. 70 no. 3598 1949; (p. 2)
— Review of The Buln-Buln and the Brolga and Other Stories 1971 selected work novella short story -
Toxophilia
1950
single work
review
— Appears in: Southerly , vol. 11 no. 1 1950; (p. 44-45)
— Review of The Buln-Buln and the Brolga and Other Stories 1971 selected work novella short story -
The Buln-Buln and the Brolga
2002
single work
review
— Appears in: The Age , 16 February 2002; (p. 8)
— Review of The Buln-Buln and the Brolga and Other Stories 1971 selected work novella short story -
Disquisitional Joe
2002
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , April no. 240 2002; (p. 45-47)
— Review of Joseph Furphy : The Legend of a Man and His Book 1944 single work criticism ; The Buln-Buln and the Brolga and Other Stories 1971 selected work novella short story -
Time Honoured
2002
single work
review
— Appears in: The Bulletin , 7 May vol. 120 no. 6323 2002; (p. 73)
— Review of The Buln-Buln and the Brolga and Other Stories 1971 selected work novella short story ; Joseph Furphy : The Legend of a Man and His Book 1944 single work criticism -
New Issues, Old Issues : The Australian Tradition Revisited
2003
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Overland , Autumn no. 170 2003; (p. 49-56)McLaren discusses a number of Australian novels (all recently re-issued) which have been central to developing the way in which Australians and foreigners think about white society in this continent. He distinguishes several trends and traditions in describing and characterising Australia's social and political system. Whereas Clarke and Richardson present Australia as a prison, Palmer and Waten present it as a land offering the promise of freedom. Furphy, on the other hand, is seen as a writer 'who shows us a country seeming to offer plentitude but finally withholding its promise' (54).
McLaren concludes that the 'past expressed in these fictions variously produced values of solidarity, egalitarianism, harmony with the land, but their values remain circumscribed by fear of the powerless and the dispossessed, by the arrogance of the powerful, and by distrust of the outsider. Our future will be secure only as we accept continuity with the past, enter into dialogue with the differences of the present, and accept a common responsibility towards the land that supports us' (56).
-
The Buln-Buln and the Brolga, the Stories, the Poems
1991
single work
criticism
— Appears in: The Life and Opinions of Tom Collins : A Study of the Works of Joseph Furphy 1991; (p. 246-271) -
"Who Is She?" : The Image of Woman in the Novels of Joseph Furphy
1983
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Who Is She? 1983; (p. 1-11) Croft acknowledges two levels of narration in Such is Life: realism and romance. The sexual hypocrisies of the realistic strand are counterpointed by the romantic strand, especially in the story of Molly Cooper. Croft sees Molly Cooper as the hero of Such is Life. While Tom Collins presents the realistic mode, the ideal world in which Molly Cooper is able to be loved despite her disfigurement offers a synthesis witheld from others. -
Joseph Furphy, Jacobean
1966
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Australian Literary Studies , December vol. 2 no. 4 1966; (p. 266-277) -
Human Magnetism
1955
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Southerly , vol. 16 no. 3 1955; (p. 179)
- Echuca, Echuca area, Goulburn - Campaspe area, Northern Victoria, Victoria,