AustLit logo
image of person or book cover 5991891741345317535.jpg
This image has been sourced from online.
y separately published work icon The Big Fellow single work   novel  
Is part of The Golconda Trilogy 1948 series - author novel (number 3 in series)
Issue Details: First known date: 1959... 1959 The Big Fellow
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

Latest Issues

AbstractHistoryArchive Description

"The Big Fellow, Macy Donovan, who in Seedtime, the second novel of Vance Palmer's Golconda trilogy, was still in the early stages of his political career, is at the opening of this third novel of the trilogy at the peak of his powers and achievement. 

'The novel takes up his story after a gap of twenty years. Now fifty, a shrewd and experienced politician, Macy is about to step into the shoes of Wardle, the Premier, who has departed to a cosy niche in the agent-generalship in London. Apparently Macy's ambitions have been achieved and his desires fulfilled - the premiership, a comfortable marriage, two children - yet there are inner stirrings of discontent and vague wishes for a fulfilment he has never found, and in the background rumblings of a political storm over an old mining venture. 

'Macy's sense of frustration is soon awakened fully by the return into his life of Neda, the sculptress, who first touched his emotions in his early days on the Golconda mining field. He feels that with her he can find a fulness of life that he has never known with his wife, Kitty. 

'Meanwhile the raking over the ashes of his involvement in the Mount Clutha mine through his connecton by marriage with Vern and Brian Hegarty, two shysters who have hitherto managed to stay within the law by a narrow margin, threatens his political career. Macy calls a Royal Commission. 

'A dramatic climax is reached, and the final scene is played out in the Golconda to which Macy's thoughts have often turned as a symbol of his youth. 

'This last novel of the Golconda trilogy represents, says John Barnes, 'a final, deeply considered statement of a man who saw life steadily and saw it whole.'" (Publication summary)
 

Exhibitions

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

Works about this Work

Queensland Novels : An Earlier Fitzgerald Inquiry Reba Gostand , 1989 single work criticism
— Appears in: Imago , September vol. 1 no. 2 1989; (p. 15-19)
From Federation into the 1930s Joseph Jones , Johanna Jones , 1983 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Fiction 1983; (p. 25-43)
Vance Palmer and the Unguarded Awareness D. R. Burns , 1974 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Literary Studies , May vol. 6 no. 3 1974; (p. 259-268) The Directions of Australian Fiction, 1920-1974 1975; (p. 32-42)
The Chronicle of a Big Fellow William Charles Dick , 1973 single work review
— Appears in: Nation Review , 14-20 December 1973; (p. 294)

— Review of The Big Fellow Vance Palmer , 1959 single work novel
[Review] The Big Fellow 1960 single work review
— Appears in: The Times Literary Supplement , 5 February 1960; (p. 86)

— Review of The Big Fellow Vance Palmer , 1959 single work novel
New Vance Palmer Novel : Rise of Queensland Labor Leader Roger Covell , 1959 single work review
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 17 October 1959; (p. 2)

— Review of The Big Fellow Vance Palmer , 1959 single work novel
[Review] The Big Fellow 1959 single work review
— Appears in: The Cairns Post , 3 October 1959; (p. 4)

— Review of The Big Fellow Vance Palmer , 1959 single work novel
Vance Palmer's Last Novel : Third of a Trilogy Ian Mair , 1959 single work review
— Appears in: The Age , 10 October 1959; (p. 18)

— Review of The Big Fellow Vance Palmer , 1959 single work novel
The Chronicle of a Big Fellow William Charles Dick , 1973 single work review
— Appears in: Nation Review , 14-20 December 1973; (p. 294)

— Review of The Big Fellow Vance Palmer , 1959 single work novel
Palmer and Mann Judah Waten , 1959-1960 single work review
— Appears in: Overland , Summer no. 16 1959-1960; (p. 38-39)

— Review of The Big Fellow Vance Palmer , 1959 single work novel ; Andrea Caslin Leonard Mann , 1959 single work novel
From Federation into the 1930s Joseph Jones , Johanna Jones , 1983 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Fiction 1983; (p. 25-43)
The Novels Jack Lindsay , 1959 single work criticism
— Appears in: Meanjin , July vol. 18 no. 2 1959; (p. 146-172)
Vance Palmer and the Unguarded Awareness D. R. Burns , 1974 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Literary Studies , May vol. 6 no. 3 1974; (p. 259-268) The Directions of Australian Fiction, 1920-1974 1975; (p. 32-42)
Queensland Novels : An Earlier Fitzgerald Inquiry Reba Gostand , 1989 single work criticism
— Appears in: Imago , September vol. 1 no. 2 1989; (p. 15-19)
Last amended 6 Dec 2021 16:49:53
X