AustLit
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y
The Fortunes of Richard Mahony : Comprising Australia Felix, The Way Home, Ultima Thule
London
:
Heinemann
,
1930
Z472111
1930
selected work
novel
historical fiction
The Fortunes of Richard Mahony was 'first published as a sequence. Australia Felix, the first volume, which covers twelve years of Richard Mahony’s life from the early 1850s, was published in 1917; The Way Home, which deals with his subsequent eight years, appeared in 1925; and Ultima Thule, the final volume covering his last four years, in 1929. The novel was first published as a trilogy in 1930.'
Australia Felix 'begins the story of Richard Mahony, a 28-year-old medical graduate of Edinburgh University and now the keeper of a general store in Ballarat'. Part one of the novel 'follows Mahony’s career until his marriage; the second part deals with the Eureka Stockade, the growth of the varied society of Ballarat and legal hearing in Melbourne'. It 'concludes with Mahony’s decision to start a practice in Ballarat instead of returning to England'. In parts three and four, 'Richardson extends her panoramic picture of a dynamic colonial society in which individuals are subject to great reversals or advances of fortune'.
The Way Home begins with Mahony’s 'arrival in England and concludes with his final, second return to Australia, as a ruined man. In the intervening years he grows disillusioned with English society, returns to Australia to find his investments have made him suddenly rich, attempts to settle into the wealthy community of Melbourne and becomes the father of three children'. His sojourn in England leads to the discovery that he is uncomfortable with the ‘offensive and cramping’ English social hierarchy.
Ultima Thule picks up the story with Mahony’s 'return to Australia, his attempts to establish himself as a medical practitioner, first in Melbourne and then at Barambogie, a small town in northern Victoria'. When Mahony’s skills as a doctor as increasingly questioned, the family moves to the coast and later to Gymgurra where Mahony’s wife, Mary, 'secures a position as postmistress'. Mahony is moved to a private nursing home, then to a government asylum and finally returns home. He is 'devotedly cared by Mary, until paralysis incapacitates his body. After his death he is buried in the local cemetery, within sound of the sea'.
Source: The Oxford Companion to Australian Literature. 2nd. ed. Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1994: 294-295.
Ringwood : Penguin , 1982 -
y
Riders in the Chariot
New York (City)
:
Viking
,
1961
Z470801
1961
single work
novel
(taught in 10 units)
'Through the crumbling ruins of the once splendid Xanadu, Miss Hare wanders, half-mad. In the wilderness she stumbles upon an Aboriginal artist and a Jewish refugee. They place themselves in the care of a local washerwoman. In a world of pervasive evil, all four have been independently damaged and discarded. Now in one shared vision they find themselves bound together, understanding the possibility of redemption.'
Source: Publisher's blurb (Vintage ed.).
Ringwood : Penguin , 1993 - y The Solid Mandala London : Eyre and Spottiswoode , 1966 Z479719 1966 single work novel (taught in 5 units) Melbourne : Penguin , 1994
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y
The Harp in the South
1947
Z1326724
1947
single work
novel
(taught in 2 units)
— Appears in: The Harp in the South Trilogy 1987;
— Appears in: Great Australian Writers : Miles Franklin, Henry Handel Richardson, Mrs Aeneas Gunn, Ruth Park 1987; (p. 513-698)'Amid the brothels, grog shops and run-down boarding houses of inner-city Surry Hills, money is scarce and life is not easy. Crammed together within the thin walls of Twelve-and-a-Half Plymouth Street are the Darcy family: Mumma, loving and softhearted; Hughie, her drunken husband; pipe-smoking Grandma; Roie, suffering torments over her bitter-sweet first love; while her younger sister Dolour learns about life the hard way.' (Book description from publisher's website.)
London : Penguin , 2001 -
y
The Shiralee
London
Sydney
:
Angus and Robertson
,
1955
Z248011
1955
single work
novel
— Appears in: Reader's Digest Condensed Books 1973; 'Probably no swagman, in life or in fiction, ever had such a strange companion on his wanderings as has Macauley, the central character in D'Arcy Niland's first novel, who tramps through the back towns of New South Wales accompanied by his daughter Buster. Buster, four-year-old bundle of loyalty and fortitude, combines these more adult qualities with a natural childishness...Buster is no joy to Macauley, and he treats her with an uncompromising firmness: she must go on walking when she is nearly exhausted, must stop chattering when he wants to be quiet, must not complain. But Macauley has, too, a certain grudging affection for her, and this affection develops until it is so threatened by circumstances that it must at last be openly admitted.' (Source: dustjacket, 1955 Angus and Robertson edition) London : Penguin Books , 2001 -
y
The Fortunes of Richard Mahony : Comprising Australia Felix, The Way Home, Ultima Thule
London
:
Heinemann
,
1930
Z472111
1930
selected work
novel
historical fiction
The Fortunes of Richard Mahony was 'first published as a sequence. Australia Felix, the first volume, which covers twelve years of Richard Mahony’s life from the early 1850s, was published in 1917; The Way Home, which deals with his subsequent eight years, appeared in 1925; and Ultima Thule, the final volume covering his last four years, in 1929. The novel was first published as a trilogy in 1930.'
Australia Felix 'begins the story of Richard Mahony, a 28-year-old medical graduate of Edinburgh University and now the keeper of a general store in Ballarat'. Part one of the novel 'follows Mahony’s career until his marriage; the second part deals with the Eureka Stockade, the growth of the varied society of Ballarat and legal hearing in Melbourne'. It 'concludes with Mahony’s decision to start a practice in Ballarat instead of returning to England'. In parts three and four, 'Richardson extends her panoramic picture of a dynamic colonial society in which individuals are subject to great reversals or advances of fortune'.
The Way Home begins with Mahony’s 'arrival in England and concludes with his final, second return to Australia, as a ruined man. In the intervening years he grows disillusioned with English society, returns to Australia to find his investments have made him suddenly rich, attempts to settle into the wealthy community of Melbourne and becomes the father of three children'. His sojourn in England leads to the discovery that he is uncomfortable with the ‘offensive and cramping’ English social hierarchy.
Ultima Thule picks up the story with Mahony’s 'return to Australia, his attempts to establish himself as a medical practitioner, first in Melbourne and then at Barambogie, a small town in northern Victoria'. When Mahony’s skills as a doctor as increasingly questioned, the family moves to the coast and later to Gymgurra where Mahony’s wife, Mary, 'secures a position as postmistress'. Mahony is moved to a private nursing home, then to a government asylum and finally returns home. He is 'devotedly cared by Mary, until paralysis incapacitates his body. After his death he is buried in the local cemetery, within sound of the sea'.
Source: The Oxford Companion to Australian Literature. 2nd. ed. Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1994: 294-295.
Camberwell : Penguin , 2008 -
y
Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus
(International)
assertion
London
:
Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Maver & Jones
,
1818
Z856175
1818
single work
novel
horror
'Victor Frankenstein, a Swiss scientist, has a great ambition: to create intelligent life. But when his creature first stirs, he realizes he has made a monster. A monster which, abandoned by his master and shunned by everyone who sees it, sets out to destroy Dr Frankenstein with murder and horrors to the very ends of the earth.' (Source: Penguin)
Camberwell : Penguin , 2009 -
y
Picnic at Hanging Rock
Melbourne
:
Cheshire
,
1967
Z305085
1967
single work
novel
historical fiction
mystery
(taught in 2 units)
'It was a cloudless summer day in the year 1900. Everyone at Appleyard College for Young Ladies agreed it was just right for a picnic at Hanging Rock. After lunch, a group of three girls climbed into the blaze of the afternoon sun, pressing on through the scrub into the shadows of the secluded volcanic outcropping. Farther, higher, until at last they disappeared. They never returned. ...'
Source: Publisher's blurb (Penguin Random House, 2014).
Camberwell : Penguin , 2013 -
y
A Prince of Swindlers
The Viceroy's Protege
Stockholm
:
Geber
,
1897
Z1703079
1897
single work
novel
mystery
'One of literature's first, greatest, and most dastardly gentleman rogues rise again
'The British Viceroy first meets Simon Carne while traveling in the Indian countryside. Charmed, he invites the reclusive hunchbacked scholar to London for a season of high society, little suspecting that his guest is actually an adventurer and master of disguise. Carne – aided by his loyal butler, Belton – embarks on a crime spree, stealing from London's richest citizens and then making fools of them by posing as a detective investigating the thefts.'
Source: Publisher's blurb (Penguin Classics).
United States of America (USA) : Penguin , 2015