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'Artist Elizabeth Gould spent her life capturing the sublime beauty of birds the world had never seen before. But her legacy was eclipsed by the fame of her husband, John Gould. The Birdman’s Wife at last gives voice to a passionate and adventurous spirit who was so much more than the woman behind the man.
'Elizabeth was a woman ahead of her time, juggling the demands of her artistic life with her roles as wife, lover, helpmate, and mother to an ever-growing brood of children. In a golden age of discovery, her artistry breathed wondrous life into countless exotic new species, including Charles Darwin’s Galapagos finches.
'In The Birdman’s Wife a naïve young girl who falls in love with an ambitious genius comes into her own as a woman, an artist and a bold adventurer who defies convention by embarking on a trailblazing expedition to the colonies to discover Australia’s ‘curious’ birdlife.
'An indelible portrait of an extraordinary woman overlooked by history - until now.'
Source: Publisher's blurb.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Large print.
- Sound recording.
Works about this Work
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Biography and Biofiction : Seeking Women’s Voices from Nineteenth-century Australia
2022
single work
criticism
— Appears in: TEXT Special Issue , no. 66 2022; 'From the mid twentieth century, second-wave feminism prompted interest from both historians and novelists in recovering the voices of women from the past. Where only sparse archival records were extant, a revised practice of biography was necessary, but differences arising from disciplinary approaches have led to debate on how this is best achieved. This essay analyses two contemporary publications that draw attention to lesser-known women’s experiences in colonial Australia: Melissa Ashley’s The Birdman’s Wife (2016) and Kiera Lindsey’s The Convict’s Daughter (2016). Marketed as fiction and biography respectively, these two texts nonetheless use similar techniques to recover the voices of these women from the archives and to share their stories with broad audiences: Immersive research; imaginative interpretation of documented records; character development through dialogue, emotions, thoughts and sensory details; use of literary techniques of imagery and dramatisation as signposts of fictionality. Through these techniques, and despite their generic differences, Ashley and Lindsey’s works evoke a powerful sense of their female subjects’ experiences and inner lives.'(Publication abstract)
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Romantic Discovery
2019
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Women's Book Review , vol. 28 no. 1 2019; (p. 13-15) 'POET, fellow bird enthusiast, and academic, Melissa Ashley has a skillset that greatly animates the language, passion, and research of her debut novel, The Birdman’s Wife. Written from the perspective of the wife of celebrated ornithologist, John Gould, The Birdman’s Wife reveals a long-forgotten contributor to ornithology, Elizabeth Gould, and depicts her journey through art and science. From the moment Elizabeth meets her husband and begins her artistic career that continued right up until her death, Ashley follows Elizabeth’s progression and fills in the gaps that history has missed.' (Introduction) -
What I’m Reading – Kate Mildenhall
2017
single work
column
— Appears in: Meanjin Online 2017; -
[Review Essay] The Birdman's Wife
2017
single work
review
essay
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , January-February no. 388 2017; (p. 63)'The Birdman’s Wife is about passion, obsession, and ambition. Narrated by Elizabeth (Eliza) Gould, the novel relates her marriage to, and creative partnership with, zoologist John Gould. Opening with their meeting at the Zoological Society of London in 1828, Eliza’s narrative charts the years of her collaboration with Gould – including the time spent in the Australian colonies classifying and illustrating the native birdlife – as a result of which she came to be celebrated ‘not just [as] a wife and mother’, but as a zoological illustrator in her own right.'
(Introduction)
-
Elizabeth Gould and Hobarton
2016
single work
essay
— Appears in: Communion Literary Magazine , December no. 6 2016;
-
Accomplished Women with an Avian Fascination
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 12-13 November 2016; (p. 29)
— Review of The Birdman's Wife 2016 single work novel -
Review : The Birdman's Wife by Melissa Ashley and The Atomic Weight of Love by Elizabeth J. Church
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: Brisbane Times , 4 November 2016;
— Review of The Birdman's Wife 2016 single work novel 'The first point I noted about The Birdman's Wife is that Elizabeth Gould, not her husband John, the famous ornithologist, painted the pictures of birds I knew and loved as a child. While Elizabeth was credited by her initials, alongside John's, for creating over 650 hand-coloured lithographs for a number of publications, including The Birds of Australia, very little is known about the artist; she was overshadowed by her larger-than-life husband. Melissa Ashley's task, as she says in an author's note, is to bring to life, through fiction, what the factual accounts have overlooked. ...' -
Melissa Ashley : The Birdman’s Wife
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: The Newtown Review of Books , November 2016;
— Review of The Birdman's Wife 2016 single work novel -
Melissa Ashley
Caroline Baum
(interviewer),
2016
single work
interview
— Appears in: The Saturday Age , 15-16 October 2016; (p. 18) The Sydney Morning Herald , 15-16 October 2016; (p. 28) -
[Review Essay] The Birdman's Wife
2017
single work
review
essay
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , January-February no. 388 2017; (p. 63)'The Birdman’s Wife is about passion, obsession, and ambition. Narrated by Elizabeth (Eliza) Gould, the novel relates her marriage to, and creative partnership with, zoologist John Gould. Opening with their meeting at the Zoological Society of London in 1828, Eliza’s narrative charts the years of her collaboration with Gould – including the time spent in the Australian colonies classifying and illustrating the native birdlife – as a result of which she came to be celebrated ‘not just [as] a wife and mother’, but as a zoological illustrator in her own right.'
(Introduction)
-
Romantic Discovery
2019
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Women's Book Review , vol. 28 no. 1 2019; (p. 13-15) 'POET, fellow bird enthusiast, and academic, Melissa Ashley has a skillset that greatly animates the language, passion, and research of her debut novel, The Birdman’s Wife. Written from the perspective of the wife of celebrated ornithologist, John Gould, The Birdman’s Wife reveals a long-forgotten contributor to ornithology, Elizabeth Gould, and depicts her journey through art and science. From the moment Elizabeth meets her husband and begins her artistic career that continued right up until her death, Ashley follows Elizabeth’s progression and fills in the gaps that history has missed.' (Introduction) -
Elizabeth Gould and Hobarton
2016
single work
essay
— Appears in: Communion Literary Magazine , December no. 6 2016; -
What I’m Reading – Kate Mildenhall
2017
single work
column
— Appears in: Meanjin Online 2017;
Awards
- 2017 winner Australian Booksellers Association Awards — BookPeople Book of the Year
- 2017 winner Queensland Literary Awards — Fiction Book Award
- 2017 finalist Queensland Literary Awards — The Courier-Mail People's Choice Queensland Book of the Year
- 2017 longlisted Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIA) — Australian General Fiction Book of the Year
- 2017 shortlisted Indie Awards — Debut Fiction
