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y separately published work icon The Great World single work   novel   historical fiction  
  • Author:agent David Malouf http://www.poetrylibrary.edu.au/poets/malouf-david
Issue Details: First known date: 1990... 1990 The Great World
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'Every city, town and village has its memorial to war. Nowhere are these more eloquent than in Australia, generations of whose young men have enlisted to fight other people's battles - from Gallipoli and the Somme to Malaya and Vietnam. In THE GREAT WORLD, his finest novel yet, David Malouf gives a voice to that experience. But THE GREAT WORLD is more than a novel of war. Ranging over seventy years of Australian life, from Sydney's teeming King's Cross to the tranquil backwaters of the Hawkesbury River, it is a remarkable novel of self-knowledge and lost innocence, of survival and witness.'

Source: Publisher's blurb (Vintage reprint).

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,      :       Chatto and Windus ,       1990 .
      image of person or book cover 5276369580152110132.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online
      Extent: 332p.
      ISBN: 0701134151
    • New York (City), New York (State),
      c
      United States of America (USA),
      c
      Americas,      :       Pantheon Books ,       1990 .
      image of person or book cover 2588674407187837833.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 330p.
      Edition info: 1st American ed.
      ISBN: 0679401768
    • Sydney, New South Wales,: Picador , 1991 .
      image of person or book cover 3173136681176314020.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 332p.
      ISBN: 0330272209
    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,      :       Pan ,       1991 .
      image of person or book cover 5536179433804849676.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 332p.
      ISBN: 0330317865
    • New York (City), New York (State),
      c
      United States of America (USA),
      c
      Americas,      :       Vintage ,       1993 .
      image of person or book cover 9081450538568840956.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 330p.
      Edition info: 1st Vintage International ed.
      ISBN: 0679748369
      Series: y separately published work icon Vintage International New York (City) : Vintage , 1993- 19532994 1993 series - publisher novel

      'William Faulkner, Philip Roth, Alice Munro, Thomas Mann, Doris Lessing, Albert Camus, V.S. Naipaul, Gabriel García Márquez, Salman Rushdie, Joan Didion, and Cormac McCarthy, among many others: Vintage International is devoted to publishing the best writing of the past century from the world over. Offering both classic and modern fiction and literary nonfiction in elegant editions, Vintage International aims to provide readers with world-class writing that has stood the test of time and essential works by the preeminent authors of today.'

      Source: Vintage.
    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,      :       Chatto and Windus ,       1993 .
      Extent: 330p.
      Edition info: Collected ed.
      ISBN: 0701161221
    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,      :       Vintage ,       1999 .
      image of person or book cover 8442539912141097334.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 332p.
      ISBN: 0099273861
Form: audiobook
VIEW PUBLICATION DETAILS FOR ALL VERSIONS ()

Other Formats

  • Also braille
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Related Works

[Untitled] (from The Great World) David Malouf , 1990 extract novel historical fiction (The Great World)
— Appears in: Antipodes , Spring vol. 4 no. 1 1990; (p. 9-12)
The Great World David Malouf , 1995 extract novel (The Great World)
— Appears in: An Anthology of Australian Literature 1995; (p. 170-175)
VIEW ALL RELATED WORKS (2)

Works about this Work

'The Whole Landscape Dazzling and Shrilling' : Soundscapes of War and Peace in David Malouf's Fly Away Peter Fiona Richards , 2016 single work criticism
— Appears in: Southerly , vol. 75 no. 3 2016; (p. 155-168)
The Horizon of the Future Bill Ashcroft , 2014 single work criticism
— Appears in: Southerly , vol. 74 no. 1 2014; (p. 12-35)
History As ‘Precarious Gift’ : Harland’s Half-Acre and The Great World As Malouf’s Not-So-Historical Novels Nicholas Birns , 2014 single work criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 14 no. 2 2014; 'Harland’s Half-Acre (1985) and The Great World (1991) were composed at a time of increasing worldwide interest in the historical novel, and both works do have potentially historical settings, yet Malouf is more interested in a lyrical treatment of history, which will underscore the risks, the precariousness, of the past rather than just honoring or revering it. These novels, in their affirmation of lived provisionality, are finally not-so-historical.' (Publication abstract)
David Malouf and the Poetics of Possibility Bill Ashcroft , 2014 single work criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 14 no. 2 2014;

'The essay addresses the poetic dimension of David Malouf's novels, suggesting that a poetics of possibility can be found in all his work. The poetics of possibility is a function both of Malouf’s thematic interest in the future and of his use of poetic language to draw the reader to imagine various kinds of ways of experiencing and knowing the world. The essay draws upon the philosophy of Ernst Bloch to illuminate the utopian dimension of Malouf’s work, whether in seeing the radiance of possibility in simple objects, the silent ‘presence’ at the centre of language, or the possibility of a different kind of future that Australian society might have experienced.' (Publication abstract)
What I’m Reading Patrick Allington , 2013 single work
— Appears in: Meanjin Online 2013;
About Books Marion Halligan , 1990 single work review
— Appears in: National Library of Australia News , October vol. 1 no. 1 1990; (p. 8-11)
— Review of The Kadaitcha Sung Sam Watson , 1990 single work novel ; Reaching Tin River Thea Astley , 1990 single work novel ; Sheep and the Diva : Stories David Brooks , 1990 selected work short story ; The Mighty World of Eye : Stories, Anti-Stories David Parker , 1990 selected work short story criticism ; Isobars Janette Turner Hospital , 1990 selected work short story ; Charades Janette Turner Hospital , 1988 single work novel ; The Great World David Malouf , 1990 single work novel ; Flying Lessons Susan Johnson , 1990 single work novel ; Invisible Histories Geoff Page , 1989 selected work short story poetry biography ; Marriages Amy Witting , 1990 selected work short story ; Ingelba and the Five Black Matriarchs 1990 single work life story ; The Story of the Year of 1912 in the Village of Elza Darzins : A Novel Thea Welsh , 1990 single work novel ; A Body of Water : A Year's Notebook Beverley Farmer , 1990 selected work autobiography short story poetry diary ; Smyrna : A Novel Tony Maniaty , 1989 single work novel
Provocative Tale of Love, Femininity from Weldon Louise Kennedy , 1991 single work review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 24 February 1991; (p. 21)
— Review of Taking Shelter Jessica Anderson , 1989 single work novel ; The Great World David Malouf , 1990 single work novel
Paperbacks Penelope Nelson , 1991 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 30-31 March 1991; (p. rev 6)
— Review of The Search for Harry Allway Alex Buzo , 1985 single work novel ; The Great World David Malouf , 1990 single work novel ; Lilian's Story Kate Grenville , 1985 single work novel
A Great World Brought Home from the War John Forbes , 1990 single work review
— Appears in: The Sunday Herald , 25 February 1990; (p. 37)
— Review of The Great World David Malouf , 1990 single work novel
A Voyage Around our Fathers Murray Bramwell , 1990 single work review
— Appears in: The Adelaide Review , Festival no. 73 1990; (p. 24)
— Review of The Great World David Malouf , 1990 single work novel
On Translating David Malouf Robert Pepin , 2003 single work criticism
— Appears in: Southerly , vol. 63 no. 1 2003; (p. 67-72)
y separately published work icon The Transformation of Political Identity from Commonwealth through Postcolonial Literature : The Cases of Nadine Gordimer, David Malouf and Michael Ondaatje Lamia Tayeb , Lewiston : Edwin Mellen Press , 2006 Z1411707 2006 single work criticism
The Mind of David Malouf Peter Craven (interviewer), 1990 single work criticism biography interview
— Appears in: The Sunday Herald , 18 February 1990; (p. 37)
Eventing : Wandering Through the Physiology of Australian Narrative Stuart Cooke , 2007 single work criticism
— Appears in: Antipodes , December vol. 21 no. 2 2007; (p. 117-122)
Homoeroticism in David Malouf's Fiction Xavier Pons , 2009 single work criticism
— Appears in: Messengers of Eros : Representations of Sex in Australian Writing 2009; (p. 271-292)

'David Malouf is hardly a gay icon. Although he has never kept his homosexuality a secret, neither has he flaunted it, either in his life or in his writings. Where the latter are concerned, there is no doubt that Malouf doesn't want to be pigeonholed, that he rejects restrictive levels that would do an injustice to his wide-ranging preoccupations and his considerable appeal to all manner of readers.' (p. 271)
VIEW ALL WORKS ABOUT (83)

Awards

1992 winner Festival Awards for Literature (SA) Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature South Australian Literary Awards — Award for Fiction
1991 winner Commonwealth Writers Prize — South-East Asia and South Pacific Region — Best Book from the Region Award
1991 winner Commonwealth Writers Prize — Overall Best Book Award
1991 winner Miles Franklin Literary Award
1991 winner Prix Femina (France) — Best Foreign Novel
VIEW ALL AWARDS (6)
Last amended 23 Jan 2025 14:23:57
Subjects:
Settings:
  • c
    Singapore,
    c
    Southeast Asia, South and East Asia, Asia,
  • Kings Cross area, Inner Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales,
  • Hawkesbury area, Northwest Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales,
  • c
    Burma,
    c
    Southeast Asia, South and East Asia, Asia,
  • Changi,
    c
    Singapore,
    c
    Southeast Asia, South and East Asia, Asia,
  • Malaya, Southeast Asia, South and East Asia, Asia,
  • c
    Thailand,
    c
    Southeast Asia, South and East Asia, Asia,
  • Burma-Thailand Railway,
    c
    Burma,
    c
    Southeast Asia, South and East Asia, Asia,
  • ca. 1910-1980
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