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image of person or book cover 1068339032302436878.jpg
Image courtesy of publisher's website.
y separately published work icon Man of Letters : Dog Rock 3 single work   novel  
Is part of Dog Rock Trilogy David Foster , 1985 series - author (number 3 in series)
Issue Details: First known date: 2012... 2012 Man of Letters : Dog Rock 3
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'Man of Letters is the third and final volume in the Dog Rock trilogy, completing David Foster's comic vision of a small rural town in New South Wales as over fifty years it gradually succumbs to economic imperatives, as witnessed from the perspective of the postman D'Arcy D'Oliveres. In his final appearance, the intrepid D'Arcy has a mystery to solve that involves a local musician, a stamp of the realm, a dodgy personalised numberplate and a retired sergeant of police now turned student of semiotics. Man of Letters is a very funny book from the writer the Manchester Guardian described as the worthy successor to Flann O'Brien.' (Publisher's blurb)

Notes

  • Dedication: For my Daughter Natalie

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Glebe, Glebe - Leichhardt - Balmain area, Sydney Inner West, Sydney, New South Wales,: Puncher and Wattmann , 2012 .
      image of person or book cover 1068339032302436878.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 142p.
      ISBN: 9781921450549

Works about this Work

The Life and Opinions of D’Arcy D’Oliveres, Letter’d Gentleman James Ley , 2013 single work biography
— Appears in: Island , Spring no. 134 2013; (p. 65-70)
'Providing a detailed account of the early, and indeed the late, life of D'Arcy D'Oliveres - author, apiarist, amateur sleuth, alleged amputee, larrikin aristocrat, renaissance postman - presents the prospective biographer with a number of problems. For it is not only the case that the readily available details of D'Oliveres's life are incomplete, sketchy and, at times, contradictory: the primary source of information about his background and his exploits is D'Oliveres himself. And he is an idiosyncratic character, to say the least. His opinions are unusual in many respects. His autobiographical writings - such as they are - are by no means comprehensive and contain much that is questionable, if not deeply implausible. A genial sort of bloke, he is always willing to give visitors guided tours of the small town of Dog Rock - 'a trivial town, where nothing ever happens which is not essentially trivial' - where he spent many years in the employ of Australia Post. It must be said, however, that he is not always the most reliable of guides. For a period in the 1980s, he tried (unsuccessfully) to maintain the fiction among his fellow Dog Rockers that one of his arms had been amputated above the elbow. And when, in late-1996, rumours began to circulate that D'Oliveres, who is known to be partial to a smoke, had succumbed to cancer in the small town of Obliqua Creek in Far Eastern Gippsland, the rumours were not only greatly exaggerated; it turned out he started them.' (Publication abstract)
[Untitled] Piri Eddy , 2013 single work review
— Appears in: Transnational Literature , November vol. 6 no. 1 2013;

— Review of Man of Letters : Dog Rock 3 David Foster , 2012 single work novel
Nobodies Susan Lever , 2012 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , December 2012 - January 2013 no. 347 2012; (p. 19)

— Review of Man of Letters : Dog Rock 3 David Foster , 2012 single work novel
Life in the Old Dog A. P. Riemer , 2012 single work review
— Appears in: The Saturday Age , 20 October 2012; (p. 29) The Sydney Morning Herald , 20-21 October 2012; (p. 31)

— Review of Man of Letters : Dog Rock 3 David Foster , 2012 single work novel
Post-Modern Postie Delivers the Goods James Ley , 2012 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 29-30 September 2012; (p. 20)

— Review of Man of Letters : Dog Rock 3 David Foster , 2012 single work novel
Post-Modern Postie Delivers the Goods James Ley , 2012 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 29-30 September 2012; (p. 20)

— Review of Man of Letters : Dog Rock 3 David Foster , 2012 single work novel
Life in the Old Dog A. P. Riemer , 2012 single work review
— Appears in: The Saturday Age , 20 October 2012; (p. 29) The Sydney Morning Herald , 20-21 October 2012; (p. 31)

— Review of Man of Letters : Dog Rock 3 David Foster , 2012 single work novel
Nobodies Susan Lever , 2012 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , December 2012 - January 2013 no. 347 2012; (p. 19)

— Review of Man of Letters : Dog Rock 3 David Foster , 2012 single work novel
[Untitled] Piri Eddy , 2013 single work review
— Appears in: Transnational Literature , November vol. 6 no. 1 2013;

— Review of Man of Letters : Dog Rock 3 David Foster , 2012 single work novel
The Life and Opinions of D’Arcy D’Oliveres, Letter’d Gentleman James Ley , 2013 single work biography
— Appears in: Island , Spring no. 134 2013; (p. 65-70)
'Providing a detailed account of the early, and indeed the late, life of D'Arcy D'Oliveres - author, apiarist, amateur sleuth, alleged amputee, larrikin aristocrat, renaissance postman - presents the prospective biographer with a number of problems. For it is not only the case that the readily available details of D'Oliveres's life are incomplete, sketchy and, at times, contradictory: the primary source of information about his background and his exploits is D'Oliveres himself. And he is an idiosyncratic character, to say the least. His opinions are unusual in many respects. His autobiographical writings - such as they are - are by no means comprehensive and contain much that is questionable, if not deeply implausible. A genial sort of bloke, he is always willing to give visitors guided tours of the small town of Dog Rock - 'a trivial town, where nothing ever happens which is not essentially trivial' - where he spent many years in the employ of Australia Post. It must be said, however, that he is not always the most reliable of guides. For a period in the 1980s, he tried (unsuccessfully) to maintain the fiction among his fellow Dog Rockers that one of his arms had been amputated above the elbow. And when, in late-1996, rumours began to circulate that D'Oliveres, who is known to be partial to a smoke, had succumbed to cancer in the small town of Obliqua Creek in Far Eastern Gippsland, the rumours were not only greatly exaggerated; it turned out he started them.' (Publication abstract)
Last amended 2 Dec 2014 12:39:30
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