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Notes
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Note on the text (p.198) indicates that the texts of the stories are the versions published in the Home Entertainment Library edition of The Prose Works of Henry Lawson (1935).
Contents
- Introduction, Henry Lawson: Selected Stories, single work criticism (p. i-xii)
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Hungerford,
single work
short story
humour
Lawson writes about the remote town of Hungerford, which straddles the N.S.W. and Queensland border. Lawson's story is derived from his visit to Hungerford in January 1893, when he and James Gordon (and possibly Ernest de Guinney) walked there from Torale shearing shed, near Bourke.
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In a Dry Season,
single work
short story
Lawson describes the scenes observed as a train traveller to western N.S.W.
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In a Wet Season,
single work
short story
Lawson describes a dismal train journey through the flooded outback.
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Enter Mitchell,
single work
short story
A swagman and his dog get off the train at Redfern station and are accosted by a taxi driver.
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Another of Mitchell's Plans for the Future,
single work
short story
Mitchell reveals his plan for obtaining a wife and a farm.
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Mitchell Doesn't Believe in the Sack,
single work
short story
humour
Mitchell explains to his mate how to refuse to be sacked.
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Shooting the Moon,
single work
short story
humour
Mitchell reveals his loyalty to a publican who caught him trying to leave the pub without paying.
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Irgendwann
Some Day,
single work
short story
Mitchell tells of a girl he once loved.
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Our Pipes,
single work
short story
humour
Mitchell relates how he began to smoke a pipe and his mother's efforts to stop him.
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On the Edge of a Plain,
single work
short story
A swagman arrives home to discover the family in mourning for him, after having been told he is dead.
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Mitchell : A Character Sketch,
single work
short story
humour
Mitchell does some clever talking to replenish his supplies.
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The Geological Spieler,
single work
short story
humour
Steelman poses as a geologist, with Smith as his offsider. They are offered accommodation in a railway camp and stay for several days, but decide to move on when they discover they are not the only tricksters in the camp.
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The Iron-Bark Chip,
single work
short story
humour
Dave Regan and his gang of workers try to pass off a girder as ironbark, as specified in their contract, but the government inspector seems suspicious.
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The Drover's Wife,
single work
short story
First appearing in The Bulletin in 1892, Henry Lawson's short story 'The Drovers Wife' is today regarded as a seminal work in the Australian literary tradition. Noted for it's depiction of the bush as harsh, potentially threatening and both isolated and isolating, the story opens with a simple enough premise: an aggressive--and presumably deadly--snake disrupts the working life of a bushwoman and her young children. Brave but cautious, the woman resolves to protect her children since her husband is, characteristically, away from home and of no help.
As time passes within the story, tension builds, and the snake's symbolic threat takes on layers of meaning as the sleepless heroine recalls previous challenges she faced while her husband was away. A series of flashbacks and recollections propel the story through the single night over which it takes place, and by the time the climax arrives--the confrontation with the snake--readers have learned much about the heroine's strengths and fears, most of the latter involving the loss of children and dark figures who encroach upon her small, vulnerable homestead. To be sure, this "darkness" is highly symbolic, and Lawson's use of imagery invokes Western notions of good and evil as well as gendered and racial stereotypes.
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The Union Buries Its Dead,
single work
short story
humour
Describes a bush funeral.
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The Bush Undertaker,
single work
short story
An old shepherd discovers his mate, Brummy, dead and mummified in the bush. Saddened, he feels compelled to bury him.
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Telling Mrs Baker,
single work
short story
Two drovers, Andy and Jack, watch their boss drink himself to death. They lie to his wife about the cause of his death to spare her unnecessary pain.
- Joe Wilson's Courtship, single work short story (p. 97-126)
- Brighten's Sister-in-Law, single work short story (p. 127-148)